“ films,”: and SEC “ filia,” comprised all now known in reality of the
lost speech of the Tyrrheni ; we may well exclaim with the prophet,
“ it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not.”
Whatever he the pedigree of the Etruscans, they were a hardy and
enterprising nation, full of energy and skill, ready to receive improvements
from foreign populations, even if, in their institutions, they
were rather conservative. History shows them as a free, aristocratic,
and manufacturing nation, characterized hy a marked practical tendency,
by little idealism and feeling for beauty, but much ingenuity
in applying art to household purposes and to the comfort of private
life. They were, in fact, the English of antiquity,—but they had not
the good luck of the British islanders to be surrounded hy the sea,
and thus to have enjoyed the possibility of maintaining and developing
their independence without foreign intervention. Few dangers
threatened the Etruscans from the north: they protected themselves
sufficiently against the incursions of savage Hauls, hy fortifying their
towns, the cyclopean walls of which are still the wonder of the traveller.
It was principally towards the south that they had to contend
with powerful foes. The maritime states of Cumae, Corinth, Syracuse,
and Carthage, interfered with the extension of Etruscan naval
enterprise, and prevented its full development oh the Adriatic and
on the Mediterranean. Still, the Etruscans were strong enough to
defend their own coast, and to exclude the establishment of independent
Greek and Punic settlements on the Tuscan territory. A more
important and finally fatal enemy arose in their immediate vicinity,
—Iiome, with her population of hardy agriculturists, and a senate
bent upon conquest and annexation. Accordingly, wars recurred
from time to time, from the foundation of the city until 120 b . c.,
when the Tyrrhenian country was finally annexed to Rome. Nevertheless,
the city on the Tiber had long previously felt the influence
of the Etruscans in her institutions, laws, and religion. Etruria gave
kings and senators to Rome. Her sacerdotal rites, her works of
public utility, the dignified costume of official splendor,: and appar
rently even that universal popular garb, the toga, were all of Etruscan
origin.
There are principally three features in the history of Etruria, which
had a peculiar influence on its art. Being of mixed origin themselves,
the Tuscans displayed a greater receptivity of exotic influences, than
more homogeneous nations, who feel always a kind of repulsion
against foreigners. Being exposed to the attacks of the Gauls, they
had to live in towns; and therefore commerce and manufacturing
industry were of greater importance among them than agriculture.
Lastly, their history presents no epoch of great national triumphs, elevating
the patriotism of the people, and inspiring the poet and artist.
Art being everywhere the mirror of national life, we find these peculiar
features of the Tuscan history expressed in the paintings and
sculptures of Etruria. They lack originality. The artists borrowed
their forms of art from all the nations with whom their country came
into contact. Idealism and a higher sense of beauty remained foreign
to them; in consequence, they never reached the highest eminence
of art. Under their hands, it became principally ornamental and
decorative, mechanical; and, above all, practical and comfortable
among these; ohesos et pingues Etruscos. Whilst temples and their
propylse are the principal objects of Greek architecture, the walls of
the town, the bridge, the canal, the sewer, and the highway, characterize
Tuscan art.
This Etruscan want of originality and peculiar receptivity of foreign
influences extends not only to the tbrms, hut even to the subjects of
their paintings and sculpture. They rarely occupy themselves with
their own .myths and superstitions, but deal principally with Greek
mythology as developed by the great Epics and even Tragic poetiy
of Greece.
All the artistical forms of Etruria were imported from abroad.
Micali, in his Monumenti Antichi, and Monumenti Inediti, has published
so many and such various ancient relics of Etruscan workmanship,
that a three-fold foreign influence on Tuscan art can no longer
be doubted, v iz : Egyptian, Asiatic and Greek. Besides these, we
find that the bulk of the nation must have clung to a peculiar kind
of barbarous and ugly idols, intentionally distorted like the patseci of
the Phoenicians. These deformed caricatures continued to be fabricated
in Etruria to a rather late period:163 they are an evidence of the
fact that there was an unartistical element in the Tuscan nation,
never polished by the Lydian and Greek immigration. The easy
introduction of foreign forms of art shows likewise that there existed
no higher national style in Etruria previous to the Tyrrhenian
influences.
The most peculiar of all the foreign forms of art among the Tuscans
is the Scarabseus, that is to say, the heetle-shape of their sculptured
gems. They must have borrowed it direct from Egypt without
any Greek inter-medium, since the scarab-form of gems is exceedingly
rare in Greece, and not of so early a period as the Etruscan scarabsei.
In Egypt this form was always national, being the most common
symbol of the creative power of godhead. The Egyptian, beholding
163 Gerhard, Sformate immagini in Bronzo, Bullelino dell' Instituio, 1830, p. 11; and Etru-
ri&che Spiegelzeichnurgen, Chap. 1.