DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18720#0029
23
the dead in early times, as, for example, in the gold masks of Mycenae and other
instances.1 As regards the face of the woman, there is no such direct proof that it also
is a mask, and no inference can be made one way or the other so long as it is
unknown whether she is to be regarded as living or dead.
The body of the woman is strongly naturalistic. In a rough general manner the
forms under the drapery are made to express themselves forcibly. The drapery has to
give up much of its older conventionalisms and has not yet found a proper substitute
for them, whereas the thicker drapery over the legs retains fully the old conventions.
On the other hand, the feet and ankles again make a considerable show of realism.
It is noticeable that she wears sandals, under which are thin stockings. Shoes, or
even high boots, may have been more in accordance with early Etruscan usage; but
the instances of sandals are numerous enough. The point for the moment is, that in
the other archaic examples the feet and the sandals alike adhere to a strictly
conventional type, while on our sarcophagus the feet of the woman seem almost to
feel the rude touch of the rough straps of the sandals. The thin stocking accentuates
that sense of touch. For the rest, we know of no other example of stockings among
the remains of ancient art.
In the reliefs on the sides of the sarcophagus there was no specially new problem
to be solved. The art of working in relief in terra-cotta had already passed through
its apprenticeship, and had established certain fixed types for individual figures, and for
a limited range of compositions. Its method of repeating figures and groups from
one and the same mould gave it an easy advantage for purposes of decoration.
The Museum possesses a number of fragments from a terra-cotta frieze, apparently
from a building of some sort, in which the same chariot group recurs four or five
times. That is a process of artistic economy which we saw largely employed in the
paintings of the sarcophagus from Clazomenae. Even on the archaic limestone
cistae of the Etruscans the reliefs are sculptured in panels, as if under the direct
influence of the terra-cotta method of working from moulds, so far as concerns their
general form.
The question at the present day is, how far this method of working in relief in
terra-cotta had been derived by the Etruscans from Greece or from Asia Minor, how
long and to what extent that Hellenic influence had been exercised. Without entering
on the details of this question, this much seems clear, that the Etruscans did possess a
flourishing art of their own, even in times earlier than our sarcophagus. The proof of
that is to be seen in the numerous wall-paintings on their tombs, the sculptured cistae
above referred to, and many objects of art of a portable kind in bronze or in gold.
On the other hand, we see the archaic Etruscans employing the same alphabet as the
contemporary Greeks, and find that their tombs have yielded vast numbers of painted
vases and other examples of artistic luxury, which had obviously been imported from
Greece, all testifying to a wide community of feeling between the two peoples during
the archaic period. The difficulty is to establish a border line where these two classes
of works of art appear to encroach the one upon the other. To take our sarcophagus
1 Benndorf, Gesicktshelme, p. 70, pi. 11.
the dead in early times, as, for example, in the gold masks of Mycenae and other
instances.1 As regards the face of the woman, there is no such direct proof that it also
is a mask, and no inference can be made one way or the other so long as it is
unknown whether she is to be regarded as living or dead.
The body of the woman is strongly naturalistic. In a rough general manner the
forms under the drapery are made to express themselves forcibly. The drapery has to
give up much of its older conventionalisms and has not yet found a proper substitute
for them, whereas the thicker drapery over the legs retains fully the old conventions.
On the other hand, the feet and ankles again make a considerable show of realism.
It is noticeable that she wears sandals, under which are thin stockings. Shoes, or
even high boots, may have been more in accordance with early Etruscan usage; but
the instances of sandals are numerous enough. The point for the moment is, that in
the other archaic examples the feet and the sandals alike adhere to a strictly
conventional type, while on our sarcophagus the feet of the woman seem almost to
feel the rude touch of the rough straps of the sandals. The thin stocking accentuates
that sense of touch. For the rest, we know of no other example of stockings among
the remains of ancient art.
In the reliefs on the sides of the sarcophagus there was no specially new problem
to be solved. The art of working in relief in terra-cotta had already passed through
its apprenticeship, and had established certain fixed types for individual figures, and for
a limited range of compositions. Its method of repeating figures and groups from
one and the same mould gave it an easy advantage for purposes of decoration.
The Museum possesses a number of fragments from a terra-cotta frieze, apparently
from a building of some sort, in which the same chariot group recurs four or five
times. That is a process of artistic economy which we saw largely employed in the
paintings of the sarcophagus from Clazomenae. Even on the archaic limestone
cistae of the Etruscans the reliefs are sculptured in panels, as if under the direct
influence of the terra-cotta method of working from moulds, so far as concerns their
general form.
The question at the present day is, how far this method of working in relief in
terra-cotta had been derived by the Etruscans from Greece or from Asia Minor, how
long and to what extent that Hellenic influence had been exercised. Without entering
on the details of this question, this much seems clear, that the Etruscans did possess a
flourishing art of their own, even in times earlier than our sarcophagus. The proof of
that is to be seen in the numerous wall-paintings on their tombs, the sculptured cistae
above referred to, and many objects of art of a portable kind in bronze or in gold.
On the other hand, we see the archaic Etruscans employing the same alphabet as the
contemporary Greeks, and find that their tombs have yielded vast numbers of painted
vases and other examples of artistic luxury, which had obviously been imported from
Greece, all testifying to a wide community of feeling between the two peoples during
the archaic period. The difficulty is to establish a border line where these two classes
of works of art appear to encroach the one upon the other. To take our sarcophagus
1 Benndorf, Gesicktshelme, p. 70, pi. 11.