DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0677
SARCOPHAGUS OF THE LOUVRE.
639
laced red shoes, and the painted tiitulus with a diadem in front. Like most
Etruscans, the man wears simply a mantle wrapped loosely around him, leav-
ing bare his strong chest. The adjuncts were all of separate material, after-
wards attached, and hence their loss ;"but, judging from other sarcophagi, the
lady is dropping ointment from a balsam-bottle into the outstretched hand of
her husband, whose other hand, laid gently on her shoulder, seems to have
held a fan. Owing to the size of this sarcophagus, it was made in several
pieces, separately fired, and then well adjusted. At first sight, the stiff curls
and obliquely set eyes of these figures give the impression of archaic severity,
but we are astonished to find no mean degree of skill and freedom displayed in
the forms. Thus the heads seem modelled almost directly from nature, and the
Fig. 263. Etruscan Sarcophagus from Ccure (Ceruetri'). Lo
same naturalness extends to the shoes and some parts of the drapery. But
there is lacking the accuracy of build of the human form, so characteristic of
archaic Greek works. There is, instead, throughout a slovenly treatment, as
seen in the form of the Etruscan lady, and still more evident in the drapery,
so wanting in decision and sculptural style. In archaic Greek works, the form
is carefully preserved ; or, where folds fall over it, they hide it by severe but
still agreeable lines, which, though taken from nature, are reduced to sculp-
tural form. Here, however, there seems an attempt to copy nature exactly,
and a complete failure to abstract what is truly plastic : hence the result is
confused and unsatisfactory. We miss the prime clement of every art, style,
so pre-eminently characteristic of Greek and Egyptian works. Further, these
lying figures offer no signs of imitation of any thing Greek, but rather the
efforts of a people delighting in gross realism. There is much about the group
639
laced red shoes, and the painted tiitulus with a diadem in front. Like most
Etruscans, the man wears simply a mantle wrapped loosely around him, leav-
ing bare his strong chest. The adjuncts were all of separate material, after-
wards attached, and hence their loss ;"but, judging from other sarcophagi, the
lady is dropping ointment from a balsam-bottle into the outstretched hand of
her husband, whose other hand, laid gently on her shoulder, seems to have
held a fan. Owing to the size of this sarcophagus, it was made in several
pieces, separately fired, and then well adjusted. At first sight, the stiff curls
and obliquely set eyes of these figures give the impression of archaic severity,
but we are astonished to find no mean degree of skill and freedom displayed in
the forms. Thus the heads seem modelled almost directly from nature, and the
Fig. 263. Etruscan Sarcophagus from Ccure (Ceruetri'). Lo
same naturalness extends to the shoes and some parts of the drapery. But
there is lacking the accuracy of build of the human form, so characteristic of
archaic Greek works. There is, instead, throughout a slovenly treatment, as
seen in the form of the Etruscan lady, and still more evident in the drapery,
so wanting in decision and sculptural style. In archaic Greek works, the form
is carefully preserved ; or, where folds fall over it, they hide it by severe but
still agreeable lines, which, though taken from nature, are reduced to sculp-
tural form. Here, however, there seems an attempt to copy nature exactly,
and a complete failure to abstract what is truly plastic : hence the result is
confused and unsatisfactory. We miss the prime clement of every art, style,
so pre-eminently characteristic of Greek and Egyptian works. Further, these
lying figures offer no signs of imitation of any thing Greek, but rather the
efforts of a people delighting in gross realism. There is much about the group