The late Mr. James Byres, so generally known to all those who visited the antiquities of Rome during the lat ter half of the last century, has given a detailed descrip tion, accompanied with plates, of these remarkable graves. As indicative of the ideas entertained by the Etrurians on the subject of a future life, many of the friezes described are exceedingly curious. The body of the deceased is re presented as laid on a chariot, drawn by two black genii, with long trailing wings'; in one hand they hold a hammer, and in the other a serpent. In some of the paintings two other genii appear striking with long hammers a naked body lying on the ground, as if fallen from the chariot. What inference we are to draw from this extraordinary proceeding, it were difficult to guess : most probably some obscure notion of purification, of driving out the evil prin ciple adherent to our corporeal existence. The means employed are no doubt far from indicative of refined ideas as to our spiritual nature; but yet it is not worse than the common belief of Mahometans, at this enlightened period of the world. With them, as soon as the body is placed in the grave, with its face to Mecca, and in a sitting pos ture, the Turks betake themselves to flight as speedily as possible; not to interrupt the interview which they pre sume to take place immediately between the corpse and two black genii, who, for that purpose, replace the soul into the body, and fix it down with an iron hook. Moukir and Nekir, the names of these visitors, forthwith proceed to interrogate the deceased as to his conduct in this world; if not satisfied with the answers, (being furnished, like the genii of the ancient Etrurians, with a huge iron mallet,) they are supposed to strike the body deep into the earth ; but if the interrogatories prove satisfactory to these pe remptory gentlemen, they fly off, and are immediately re placed by two white genii, who remain there till the day of judgment. There are others of the ancient Etrurian pictures which portray combats, where the warriors are generally represented naked; and in others they consist of female dancers, which are executed with considerable grace.
The most abundant specimens of their art of design are, however, exhibited on the Etruscan pottery, which is in every body's hands; although we cannot with certainty at tribute many of these vases to the ancient Etrurians, see ing so great a proportion of them arc the produce of dis coveries in Magna Grecia. And as both the country of Naples and the island of Sicily were colonized from Greece at a very early period, no doubt a great many of these vases are of Grecian workmanship, in imitation of the ancient Etrurian ware. But a sufficient number of ex amples which are not exposed to this doubt, have reached us to prove the wonderful attainments of these ancient ar tists in elegance of design, and. dexterous management of outline. Though possessing great superiority over the Egyptian style, it is easy, in the more ancient specimens, to trace sufficient resemblance of idea and manner, to lead to the conclusion of their having acquired from that coun try their first rudiments of the arts. The Egyptian style, transferred to Etruria, underwent very great improve ments, and latterly a total change of manner ; though not to so great an extent as that to which it was subjected by the Greeks, in whose works it is not now so easy to trace the original tinge of family resemblance, though, doubt less, the debt of origin is in the one case as strong as in the other. In the preservation of their dead, there does not appear among the Etrurians any trace of the peculiar practice of the Egyptians, which leads to the inference of their having been. ab origine, a separate people; who had
only borrowed from the Egyptians their knowledge of de sign, which the familiar intercourse between these two na tions, by their extensive trade, would naturally lead to. But the customs of different nations, in matters regarding the interment of their dead, as they are among the earliest contracted, so they are generally the most pertinaciously ob served, in the country itself, as well as among the colonists that have at any time emerged from it. People never take up the practice of foreign nations in these particulars, if they have established customs of their own, which super stition renders sacred and unassailable: It constitutes, therefore, a pretty sure guide, from which to judge of the origin of any people.
Tiraboschi, however, in his Literatura Italiana, sup poses that the Etrurians actually did derive their origin from Egypt, and, landing in Italy, brought with them a knowledge of science and of the fine arts; but the discre pancy in their form of government, superstition, activity in trade, liberality in,their intercourse with foreign nations, and form of countenance as represented in their pictures, seem utterly to forbid the supposition. But whether"or not their taste in the fine arts was derived from Egypt or the Phoenicians, (who generally get the credit ororiginat ing every thing about which we are left in darkness,) this at least is certain, that the ancient Etrurians were a pow erful, superstitious, and luxurious people ; and being for many ages in terms of friendship and commerce with both Egyptians and Phoenicians, a reciprocity of taste, and imi tation of the arts as practised by each, must, to a certain extent, have been the natural consequence. Whatever the Etrurians derived from others, they must be allowed the credit of being the first nation who showed a decided and successful taste for the fine arts : the elegance dis played in the inexhaustible variety of form in the vases we have of this ancient people, evince a highly cultivated talent for design ; the beauty and flowing contour of their running patterns is admirable, the tasteful placing of the handles, the playful ease and felicitous dexterity of execu tion ; in short, every thing we have of their workmanship, has an original character of elegance, which is quite sur prising for the period in which they flourished. Correct and tasteful design is one of the most difficult, as it is one of the most facinating attributes of the art, to produce a happy effect by apparently slender means; for "He best employs his art that best conceals." Yet this perfection is remarkably attained in the graceful and simple lines of the Etrurian figures. Like the clever sketches of a great master, the dexterity with which the style is suited to the material used, the chaste and simple outline, heightened by a few sharp touches, and harmo nized by the correspondence of two well-selected colours, could only result from a highly cultivated taste. The placing of their figures is likewise a pattern for lightness and grace. They are represented generally in motion, displaying a degree of elasticity, and successful balance in their running figures, which could not be surpassed; and they afforded to their followers the Greeks an inexhausti ble fund of ideas in this field of invention, which accord ingly has been copied and re-copied in every succeeding cycle of the art.