Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

THE FICORONIAN CISTA.

S7i

on the handle, which, in the form of a group of two satyrs and a youth,
is fastened in a rude way on to the lid, without any regard for the
beautiful design. This handle and the feet are purely Italian in style,
and contrast strangely enough with the fine Greek work on the
casket itself and the lid. Certain details even in the graphite drawings
—the necklace with the bulla—an armlet, and the shape of a shoe—
show that the work was executed in Italy ; but the invention, style,
and drawing are purely Greek.1 The Collegio Romano contains the
works of two other Oscan(?) artists ; viz. a bronze Head of Medusa,
by C. Ovius, probably a contemporary of Novius, and a bronze
Statuette of Medusa by C. Pomponius, called 'Jupiter,' although it has
no attributes to warrant the designation. The inscription on the
latter belongs to the time of the Second Punic War (B.C. 218-201).

Migration of Greek Art to Rome.

In their migration to Rome Greek artists were preceded by the
most precious of the works of art which adorned the cities of Greece
and her colonies. The Greeks were compelled to yield to their con-
querors the monuments of their past glories, which they had neither
the courage to defend nor the genius to replace. During the first five
centur ies of her existence Rome ' neither possessed nor knew of any
curiosities of this kind, being a stranger to the charms of taste and
elegance.'2 And when Marcellus (in 212 B.C.) brought home valuable
pictures and statues from Syracuse, his graver fellow citizens accused
him of demoralising the Roman people, trained solely to agriculture
and war—a people like the Heracles of Euripides—

(j>av\ov "tKOfityov Tit fie'yitTTti Tf ayaBov—

' rough and unadorned, but capable of the greatest deeds'—and tcach-
,ng them to chatter half the day, like citizens, about art and artists.

Mommsen [OtUstie StrnUrn, p. 72)

Proves that Novius Plautius was an Oscan
°.m Capua, where Creek infliienecs pre-
vailed. The handles ate by Italian irork-
"Jlen> -4 Cista similar lo the Ficoronian was
discovered in 1786, and is now in the Bri-
" Museum, The subject represented in

graphite is variously interpreted as ' the

Sacrifice of Polj:rcna,' ' the funeral sacrifices
cf Achilles fir J'atroclus,' &.c Cnnf. K. R(>
chette, pi. 58; Wclcker, A'hein. Mas. iii.
p. 605 ; Gerhard, Etr. Sfiegel, Taf. 15, 16 •
and O. Miiller, //. d. Arch. sec. 17^.
2 Pint Marcellus.