DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0603
567
ceived the greatest of her kings, and many of her religious and politi-
cal institutions.1 The earliest remains of Etruscan as well as Greek
art betray, both in design and style, strong traces of Assyrian and
Egyptian influence. This will be easily accounted for if we may
attach any value to the tradition that when Demaratus, father of King
Tarquin, was expelled from Corinth, he brought Greek artists with
him ' by whom plastic art was introduced into Italy;'2 for, as we
know, Greek art at that period, 01. 31. 2 (is.c 655), had not yet
emancipated itself from Oriental bonds. Most of the Etruscan deities,
for example, had wings, as appears to have been the case with some
of the oldest of the Greek gods, as the Artemis in the Chest of Cyp-
selus in the Heraion at Olympia,3 and in the bronze reliefs lately dis-
covered there.
The first material employed by the Etruscans appears to have
been not wood but clay, in which their country abounded, and of
which even their Gods were made ; marble, on the other hand, was
but little known. In their intercourse with the East, through the
medium of the Phoenicians, they learned the art of working metals,
and carried it to a very high degree of perfection. Etruria was filled
with bronze figures, some colossal, but mostly statuettes, and M.
Fulvius Flaccus is said to have carried off 2,000 statues from Volsinii
alone (489 a.u.c, 265 I5.c.<).
Among the best known of Etruscan bronze works are the Chi-
mcBra of Arretium (Arezzo) at Florence; the She wolf;' on the
Capitol, the antiquity of w hich may be questioned. It is generally
supposed to be the very work mentioned by Dionysius* of Halicar-
uassus and Livy,7 which was consecrated near the Ruminalian fig-
tree8 in 296 K.c. (A.U.C. 458); the Aule Metelli (called Arringatore -
soothsayer), a portrait statue in Florence of the size of life ; a Minerva,
found in Arezzo, in Florence ; an Apollo in the archaic Greek style
' VlfiL Nicbuhr, Rom. Hist. i. pp. 351,
I'lin. N. If. xxxv. 35. 152. Conf. Tac.
Ann. xi.
Pausan. v. 193. Conf. Cic. (ic Xat.
De°rutn,m. 23: ' Pal!antis...cui pinnarum
(Maria affiguOL'
1 I'lin. N. 11. xxxiv. 7. 17.
5 Professor Helbig thinks it probable that
this remarkable work was made during the
ascendency of the great Tribune Kienzi in
Rome in 1354 A,I>.
' i. 79-. ' ' x. 23.
" Kuinina, goddess of sucklings, had a
temple near the figtrec, under which Romu-
lus and Remus were suckled by the wolf.
ceived the greatest of her kings, and many of her religious and politi-
cal institutions.1 The earliest remains of Etruscan as well as Greek
art betray, both in design and style, strong traces of Assyrian and
Egyptian influence. This will be easily accounted for if we may
attach any value to the tradition that when Demaratus, father of King
Tarquin, was expelled from Corinth, he brought Greek artists with
him ' by whom plastic art was introduced into Italy;'2 for, as we
know, Greek art at that period, 01. 31. 2 (is.c 655), had not yet
emancipated itself from Oriental bonds. Most of the Etruscan deities,
for example, had wings, as appears to have been the case with some
of the oldest of the Greek gods, as the Artemis in the Chest of Cyp-
selus in the Heraion at Olympia,3 and in the bronze reliefs lately dis-
covered there.
The first material employed by the Etruscans appears to have
been not wood but clay, in which their country abounded, and of
which even their Gods were made ; marble, on the other hand, was
but little known. In their intercourse with the East, through the
medium of the Phoenicians, they learned the art of working metals,
and carried it to a very high degree of perfection. Etruria was filled
with bronze figures, some colossal, but mostly statuettes, and M.
Fulvius Flaccus is said to have carried off 2,000 statues from Volsinii
alone (489 a.u.c, 265 I5.c.<).
Among the best known of Etruscan bronze works are the Chi-
mcBra of Arretium (Arezzo) at Florence; the She wolf;' on the
Capitol, the antiquity of w hich may be questioned. It is generally
supposed to be the very work mentioned by Dionysius* of Halicar-
uassus and Livy,7 which was consecrated near the Ruminalian fig-
tree8 in 296 K.c. (A.U.C. 458); the Aule Metelli (called Arringatore -
soothsayer), a portrait statue in Florence of the size of life ; a Minerva,
found in Arezzo, in Florence ; an Apollo in the archaic Greek style
' VlfiL Nicbuhr, Rom. Hist. i. pp. 351,
I'lin. N. If. xxxv. 35. 152. Conf. Tac.
Ann. xi.
Pausan. v. 193. Conf. Cic. (ic Xat.
De°rutn,m. 23: ' Pal!antis...cui pinnarum
(Maria affiguOL'
1 I'lin. N. 11. xxxiv. 7. 17.
5 Professor Helbig thinks it probable that
this remarkable work was made during the
ascendency of the great Tribune Kienzi in
Rome in 1354 A,I>.
' i. 79-. ' ' x. 23.
" Kuinina, goddess of sucklings, had a
temple near the figtrec, under which Romu-
lus and Remus were suckled by the wolf.