It has been observed that some Etruscan works are found to differ from these in the style of their execution. This is particularly ob servable in the recumbent figures that have been discovered in the Volterran and other Etruscan tombs and hypogna. Some of these are small, but many are of large size, and usually decorate the lid of the coffin or sarcophagus in which the ashes and sometimes the body of the deceased were deposited ; closely resembling in this respect the style of monumental sculpture in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. In these figures there is a totally different character, both in form and expression, from the true Etruscan monuments. The heads frequently Mess great beauty; there is often a strong character of nature in them, and it seems probable that they were intended to be portraits of those whose tombs they surmount. Many of them show marks of having been painted. The age of these works is undetermined. From the locality in which they have been found, and from the inscriptions which they bear, they would seem to belong to remote times of Etruscan dominion. In other respects, as in the general heaviness of the forms and clumsiness of drapery, they call to mind the style of art of a low Roman period ; to which time, indeed, some antiquaries have at once assigned them. The question is not unattended with diffi culty. There is every reason to believe that the ancient tombs of Etruria had been invaded, and in many instances opened and plundered, long before they were rediscovered by our modern arelareo 14sts and collectors. It is also probable that many of them have been used as depositories of the dead by a people much more modern than their original constructors. Objects have been found in them of various ages, from which it would appear either that many of the tombs and sarcophagi are really of a later date than usually has been supposed, or that the ancient burying-places have been used for the dead of a more modern race.
It is worthy of remark, as it may account in a great measure for the distinctive quality of Etruscan art, that Etruria, like Egypt, was ruled by a powerful hierarchy. Their chiefs, Lucumonea, were priests, as well as temporal rulers, and they may, like their Egyptian brethren, have exercised some influence in directing art, and in preserving from innovation the forms once consecrated by religion. It is at the same time probable that this influence was not so restrictive in Etruria as it was in Egypt ; for the varieties that are found in works of art prove that the artiste here took greater liberty than was permitted to those of Egypt. This appears to be the most reasonable way of accounting for the continuance of a distinctive style and limited progress of design among a people who were eminently clever (itnAorexrat) and ingenious. Considered in this point of view, Etruscan sculpture holds a position of great interest in the history of art. It is impossible not to recognise in it the connecting link between two systems, namely, the practice of art for hieratic or purely sacred purposes, and that more liberal and general development of it which, under the Later and more refined (;reeks, was directed to the illustration of the most poetical and sublime conceptions through the medium of the most beautiful forms. Of the
great extent of their practice in sculpture a sufficient proof is afforded by the fact mentioned by historians that when after having sustained long and expensive wars against the Romans, the Etrurians were finally subdued by them, and became a Roman province (about 2S0 e.c.), two thousand statues were taken by the victors from Volsinii alone. (Plin., ' Hirt. Nat.,' xxxiv. 7-) The Etrurians were famed for their skill in making vases, and different towns became celebrated for peculiarities of manufacture. (Plin.,‘ 1 I ist. Nat.,' xxxv. 45.) There is however reason for believing the greater number of painted terra-cotta usually called Etruscan, from being first discovered in Etruria, to be Greek. Their subjects, their style of painting and design, evidently connect them with that people ; and it has been observed, that though the Etrurians inscribed every other work of art with their own characters, there is scarcely an instance of a painted vase with any other than a Greek inscription : some of these may, however, be imitations of Greek vases. The Arezzo (Arretium) vases are of a fine clay of a red colour, but the figures are in relief : many of these are of a comparatively late period, and bear Latin inscriptions. (lngbirarni.) The arrival in Etruria of Demaratus with artists from Corinth has been assigned as the date of the intro duction of the art of making vases, and of other processes in the plastic art. It is, however, more probable that they only effected some changes in the style of design that already prevailed ; for modern discoveries seem to establish the existence in Etruria of a manufacture of cinerary urns and vases long anterior to the appearance of the refugees from Corinth. (Lanzi, 1. c. ; Winckelman, Storia della Scultura ;' 51ra. IL Gray, ' Tombs of Etruria.) The Gallery of Antiquities at Florence contains several extremely curious specimens of Etruscan sculpture, especially in some figures of large size in bronze. Some of these have inscriptions on them. The bronze ahe-wolf, preserved in the Capitol at Rome, is also a remarkable example of ancient art in the Etruscan manner. The extensive dis coveries that have been made in different parts of Tuscany of late years have likewise added greatly to our knowledge of the Etruscan art and customs, and have enriched the museums of Rome, Naples, Florence, and even England, with most interesting records of this remarkable people. The remains. preserved in these and in private collections are well worthy of attention, but a detailed description of them belongs rather to the general history of the country and its antiquities.