DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0671
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ANCIENT ITALIAN ART.
Early Greek and Phoenician Influence among Italians. — Monuments found near Bologna.—Mystery
hanging over Etruscans. — Their Character as manifested in their Art. — Earliest Bronze Works
Importations. — Crudeness of early Etruscan Work. — Artists. — Tombs. — Terra-cotta Masks and
Figures. — Contents of Tombs. — Cippi. — Cinerary Urns. — Ash-chests. — Sarcophagi. — Genii. —
Lack of Artistic Style.—Greek Myths represented. — Sculptured Tombstones. — Objects of pure
Greek Origin.
Before considering sculpture as patronized by the Romans, we may cast a
glance at its condition among their predecessors and teachers in Italy, — that
favored land in the midst of the seas, and peopled by various nationalities,
among whom the Romans last came to play the most important part. From
very early times, the Greeks had had their flourishing colonies along the shores
of Southern Italy; and about them, to the north, lived Oscians, Latins, Etrus-
cans, and probably a primitive population more or less intermingled with these
different elements. 12'9a An extensive trade with Greece, its colonies, and the
remote Orient, had served as a great motor in the spread, among these early
Italian peoples, of art forms and methods, which were taken on and worked up
according to the national spirit.'220 There are many indications that these early
nations of Italy, prominent among whom were the Etruscans, felt the influence
of Greece prior to that of Phoenicia. Thus the Etruscans adopted, not the
Phoenician, but old Greek Chalkidian, mode of writing; and in the old Italian
art-forms there are very few signs of copying Phoenician works, but countless
tokens of the influence of very early Greek models.122' Genuine Phoenician
wares are indeed found in some of the oldest tombs, mixed with Egyptian
roba; but, as Mommsen has well said, the people of Italy may have bought of
the Phoenicians, but they learned of the Greeks.
The very ancient tombs about Bologna have recently yielded most remarka-
ble testimonies to a very primitive Italic art, sometimes called Umbrian, and
sometimes Euganean, tinged with that early Greek coloring familiar to us from
the so-called Corinthian vases. Among these objects none is more charac-
teristic than a situla, or pail of beaten metal (Fig. 259), the manufacture of
which, by comparison with other remains, maybe traced to an Euganean (Este)
source.'222 On it are rows of relief representing various scenes, for the most
633
ANCIENT ITALIAN ART.
Early Greek and Phoenician Influence among Italians. — Monuments found near Bologna.—Mystery
hanging over Etruscans. — Their Character as manifested in their Art. — Earliest Bronze Works
Importations. — Crudeness of early Etruscan Work. — Artists. — Tombs. — Terra-cotta Masks and
Figures. — Contents of Tombs. — Cippi. — Cinerary Urns. — Ash-chests. — Sarcophagi. — Genii. —
Lack of Artistic Style.—Greek Myths represented. — Sculptured Tombstones. — Objects of pure
Greek Origin.
Before considering sculpture as patronized by the Romans, we may cast a
glance at its condition among their predecessors and teachers in Italy, — that
favored land in the midst of the seas, and peopled by various nationalities,
among whom the Romans last came to play the most important part. From
very early times, the Greeks had had their flourishing colonies along the shores
of Southern Italy; and about them, to the north, lived Oscians, Latins, Etrus-
cans, and probably a primitive population more or less intermingled with these
different elements. 12'9a An extensive trade with Greece, its colonies, and the
remote Orient, had served as a great motor in the spread, among these early
Italian peoples, of art forms and methods, which were taken on and worked up
according to the national spirit.'220 There are many indications that these early
nations of Italy, prominent among whom were the Etruscans, felt the influence
of Greece prior to that of Phoenicia. Thus the Etruscans adopted, not the
Phoenician, but old Greek Chalkidian, mode of writing; and in the old Italian
art-forms there are very few signs of copying Phoenician works, but countless
tokens of the influence of very early Greek models.122' Genuine Phoenician
wares are indeed found in some of the oldest tombs, mixed with Egyptian
roba; but, as Mommsen has well said, the people of Italy may have bought of
the Phoenicians, but they learned of the Greeks.
The very ancient tombs about Bologna have recently yielded most remarka-
ble testimonies to a very primitive Italic art, sometimes called Umbrian, and
sometimes Euganean, tinged with that early Greek coloring familiar to us from
the so-called Corinthian vases. Among these objects none is more charac-
teristic than a situla, or pail of beaten metal (Fig. 259), the manufacture of
which, by comparison with other remains, maybe traced to an Euganean (Este)
source.'222 On it are rows of relief representing various scenes, for the most
633