Modelling gave the Etruscans special oppor tunity to practise the art of portraiture. Natu ralism, sometimes carried to caricature, may be seen on some of the most ancient, on the cineraria busts, called canopi, such as those of Chiusi. The Tyrrhenian sculptors knew how to trace accurately physiognomical traits; they were the true creators of the art of drawing from nature, which we find later art;, and renewed again in the Renaissance in the works of Donatello, in Etruscan ground. The !us imaginum in the noble families encouraged this characteristic side of Italian art, but the true incentive was in the peculiar disposition of the Etruscan stock.
Next to coroplastic, but more rare, is the sculpture in soft stone, clay, rotten stone, nen fro and peperino; which acquired a more dig nified aspect by means of plaster and colors. In time these materials were also substituted for wood in the construction of more important buildings.
Painting was also extensively used by the Etruscans. The immoderate luxury of their life and the special care devoted to the dwell ings of the dead caused them to place their tablets inside the tombs, concealed from public sight. From this it is argued that painting was also frequently used to decorate public and pri vate buildings, of which no remains have been preserved.
The most ancient examples of mural paint ing are found in the tombs of Veii, depicting animals of Oriental form, and in the slabs of Care in the Louvre, with scenes relating to the religious ceremonials of the dead.
The richest and most varied sepulchral paintings of the beginning of the 6th century are found to-day in the necropolis of Corneto (Tarquinia), and at Orvieto (Volsinii), and Cervetri (Caere). The favorite subjects are those which, while representing material joys of life, as well as the basest and most cruel, seek to enliven the Elysium of the dead, per haps with scenes of funeral ceremonials or his torical events or the terrible scenes of Inferno, peopled with demons, evident prototypes of the Tuscan religious paintings of the Middle Ages. These paintings reveal the influence of Greek art, especially of Ionic art; the imported vessels (cups, bowls, etc.) served as an inspiration to the local artists, but the sentiment expressed in the subjects, full of mystery and ferocity, and the heavy and vulgar style of the faces are sufficient to reveal the different character of the Etruscans.
The Etrusci tried also to imitate the beau tiful ceramics which were brought from the best Greek manufactories; but it is hard to say how far they succeeded. They rather be came specialists in the manufacture of the buc chero, a dark pottery for funeral uses. Cer tain copies of metal house utensils derived from the Italic clay paste, but perfected on Greco Oriental models, soon became an Etruscan specialty, and in later times acquired the deli cacy and lightness which is lacking in the more ancient type.
They were recognized as masters in the fusion of metal, even by the ancient Greeks. They executed a great number of works of industrial art, rising even to great sculptures, as in the Capitoline Wolf at Rome, the Arrin gatore of Florence and other statues and statu ettes scattered about in the different museums.
They were unsurpassed artists in the work ing of gold. It seems as though they had in herited from all the ancient people their special arts: from the lEgeans, filigree work and granulated work and glyptics; from the Egyp tians and the Phoenicians, enameling and glass compositions (pastes) ; from the Syrians other Asiatics, molding and carving; from the Ionians, the ornamental designing of fantastic flora and fauna, already reduced to decorative use; from widely separated sources the arts of blending different woods, of soldering metals and of wood carving.
From the most remote times we find in the Etruscan tombs ornaments of Oriental charac ter, finely worked in gold, electron, silver, etc., mostly fibulas, belt clasps, necklaces, etc., as at Vetulonia, Care, Preneste, Cuma, about which there has been much discussion; some archeologists maintaining that they are of Greco-Ionian or Phoenician manufacture; others, that they are of local art. This Lao opinion seems now to be the most trustworthy. Later we find, especially in southern Etruria, chests decorated with the finest engraving, an art which became localized through the Lanni of Preneste, a technical art which was greatly employed in the manufacture of mirrors and which succeeded in imitating the celebrated Phoenician drinking cups.
In all the industrial arts the Etruscans ex celled. The few remains we have of carved ivory show' a perfect knowledge of intaglio. They were less happy in the manufacture of money, which they learned probably from the Greek colonies of southern Italy.