The influences at work among the Etruscans were principally Greek, as we have noticed in the case of their figured pottery. The native ele ments were chiefly their sombre religion, and a marked aptitude for portraiture. We find "real ism combined with poverty of style." The chief Etruscan monuments are funereal, consisting of decorated tombs, sarcophagi, and ash-urns, in. which Greek ornamentation and Etruscan por traiture are not very happily blended.
The same tendency to portraiture appears among the Romans, fostered by the importance attached to ancestral imagines (portraits in wax), which played so marked a part in their funeral ceremonies. Their masters in this were Etruscan artists.
Hand in hand with the art of plastic por traiture, in which Roman artists learned from Etruscan masters, went that of honorary statu ary in bronze, and after the Second Punic War such statues were to be seen at Rome in large numbers, most Romans of any distinction being honored in this way. It was just after this time that their Grecian conquests began to bring the Romans decidedly under the sway of Hellenic art.
In architecture the markedly Roman feature is the great employment of the arch, which. although not unknown to the Greeks, was but rarely used by them. This rendered possible such great works as the aqueducts, to say noth ing of the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the other huge structures of imperial times. In tern ple construction we find Etruscan influence at work in the earlier period, in both form and decoration. Later Greek architecture is com bined with native elements in elaborate and lux uriant structures.
The so-called Attic Renaissance in sculpture about the beginning of the period we are now considering, i.e. when Greece had been brought under Roman dominion, introduced no new ele ments, but carried on with enfeebled ability the old. This revival is best known to us through the "Farnese Hercules," an exaggerated work of which the motive is derived from Lysippus.
The school of the First. Century n.c., founded by Pasiteles, a native of southern ltnly, and con tinued by his pupil Stephaims, and Stephanus's pupil, Menelaus. deserves mention as exercising somewhat of independent influenee. It is char acterized by a return to the types and style of the end of tlw archaic period, but combines them with types and technique belonging to its own time. During this period we also find the growth of the archaistic style, which imitated the stiff drapery. awkward smile, and other peculiarities of the archaic art.
The most active class of sculptors at Rome in the time of the late Republic and early Empire were from Asia Minor. Best known among such is Agasias, the artist of the so-called "Borghese Gladiator." From the time of Augustus on. we meet, side by side with a vast importation of ancient Greek works and reproductions of them in copies, a host of portrait statues and busts. triumphal arches and elaborate public and private buildings of all kinds. A most splendid specimen of Roman portrait-statuary is that of Augustus in general's uniform, now in the Vatican. In it are
admirably combined grand and realistic por traiture and rich decorative effects, particularly in the cuirass. Especially noteworthy also are the reliefs of the Ara Pacis Augusti and of the triumphal arches, such as that of Titus. In these fields of portraiture and historical relief, the art of Roman times offers much that shows originality and strength, but in general it is imitative of the Greek. Consult: Wickoff, Ro man Art, translated by Engimie Sellers Strong (London and New York. 1900).
Of idealistic bronze statuary we have a beau tiful example in the "Victory of Brescia" of the First Century A.D.
The era of Hadrian is the last period of vigor ous impulse in art among the Romans. That Emperor's passion for ancient art, both Egyptian and Greek. and his encouragement of new works, both at home and abroad, is well known. To his reign are to be assigned the various idealized portraits of his famous Bithynian favorite An t int:lug.
In numismatics the last period of continued decline (n.c. 146-27). that of the coinage of the Roman Empire down to Oallienus n.c. 27 to A.D. 268), falls in here. The material is vasf: and here, too, the element of realistic portraiture is prominent.
The luxury of the Romans manifested itself in the multiplication of elaborate mosaics, rich jewelry, wonderful intaglios, both in stone and in paste, costly glassware and the like. But of all this art. which cannot be fully discussed here, suffice it to say that it involves no new principles.
It is merely the bloom of that decay which was fast consuming the ancient world.
Further information concerning single branches of archeological research is presented under the titles of ancient countries. The articles on these countries include the art, 1110111I ments, lan guage, religion, laws, etc., of the early inhabi tants. Among such articles arc: ASSYRIA; BABYLONIA ; EGYPE ; PMEN 'CIA ; CHINA; JAPAN; PERSIA: CEYLON; and INDIA. For information with regard to the arts of ancient countries. the reader is referred to the series of special articles on ASSYRIAN ART; BABYLONIAN ART; EGYPTIAN 'BIBLE ANTIQUITIES; CIIINEsE ART: F.:,4: ART; INDIAN ART; -ANGLO-SAXON Airs, etc. More specific information about discoveries at particular places is included under the titles of those places—as, for example, KARNAK; KOYUN JIK; PERSEPOLIS—and under the names of the excavators, such as llorrA: LEnv.tnn: PETRIE; PETERS; MARIETTE; 11ASPERO, etc. See further the articles On AGRICULTURE; AQUEDUCT; ARCHI TECTURE; ARMIES: NAVIES; BRICK; BUILDING; COSTUME; CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS; CLASS; HIEROGLYPHICS; NUMISMATICS: ROSETTA STONE; AMARNA LETTERS. For biblical arebnology, in addition to the general title. see ATONEMENT, DAT or; BAAL: DAMN; ESSENFS; FEsTIVALS: JUDGES, BOOK. OF; 1.F.VITES; MAGIC; NAZIRITE; PRIESTS; PROSELYTE; PURIM; REMPIIAN; RIM MON SABBATH; SACRIFICES; SADDITEES: SCRIRES: TABERNACLE; TAMMUZ; TEMPLE; TERA PHIAL ; URIM AND THUMMIM ; Vows.