68 



F. B. Tarbell 



difficulty, inasmuch as the covers are hollowed out underneath. Thus C 

 has the cross-section shown in Fig. 9, and A and B are similar.' 



The surfaces of the sarcophagi have been somewhat planed down, but 

 are still anything but smooth. The paintings are executed directly upon 

 the tuff. This need occasion no surprise. To be sure, the paintings upon 

 the walls of Etruscan tombs are generally executed by the fresco process 

 upon a stucco ground. But this is not invariably the case, as witness 

 several tombs at Corneto Tarquinia, where the color is applied directly to 



the tuff walls.^ Even 

 without these analogies 

 the procedure adopted 

 for the sarcophagi 

 would seem to be the 

 natural one. 



The designs, like 

 those of Etruscan art 

 in general, are bor- 

 rowed in the main from 

 Greece. Sphinxes and 

 marine monsters are 

 particularly affected by 

 Etruscan sepulchral 

 decoration, and the 

 snake-legged giant or 

 demon also occurs. It 

 is tempting to believe 

 that some special sig- 

 nificance was attached 

 to these creatures. Per- 

 haps they were regarded 

 as warders of the tomb. The dogs also would easily lend themselves to 

 the same interpretation. The aquatic birds are less easy to account for. 

 Perhaps they are as devoid of special meaning as the vegetable ornaments. 

 The palmettes on the cover of B are of an exceptional, barbarized form. 

 The volutes found at the base of the ornament in Greek examples are here 

 reduced to mere loops; the fan-shaped piece from which the petals regularly 

 spring is lacking, and the petals appear rather as if arranged along a central 



' Compare the cross-section given in the Monumenti antichi, Vol. IV, Allante, Plate 

 V,3. 



» Antike Denkmaler, Vol. II, text to Plates XLI, XLII; Notizie degli scavi, 1905, 

 p. 78. 



Fig. 9. 

 Cross-Section of Sarcophagus. 



