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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHlTECrS JOURNAL. 



[Oct. 



They include four principal divisions, two in the Etruscau Room, and 

 two in llie Bronze Room. The paintings are placed on the walls above the 

 cases, but the figures are of sufficient size to allow of their being well seen. 

 Each' subject contains the paintings on the inner walls of a tomb, and 

 above is shown the ceiling of the tomb. The decorations therefore which 

 once lined four walls, are now spread out flat lengthwise, which is well 

 guited to display the grouping. Ou account of the distribution around the 

 walls, the composition is arranged into a centre group, with one on each 

 side, the remaining space being left for the doorway. 



In the Etruscan Room both subjects are from the ancient city of Tar- 

 quinii. We are obliged to distinguish them as the Right Tomb and the 

 Left Tomb, according to their situation on entering the room. The Left 

 Tomb includes three couples banquetting, attended by ten musicians and 

 dancers, five on each side. The Right Tomb is in two compartments, and 

 includes in the lower compartment three couples banquetting, attended by 

 twelve musicians and dancers. In the upper compartment, or over the 

 heads of the banquetting party, is a long subject with smaller figures, 

 which represents all the varieties of public games, with two stages of 

 spectators looking on. In the Bronze Room are two tombs from Vulci. 

 That on the left has male figures, with Etruscan inscriptions, engaged in 

 various games ; that on the right is very much mutilated, and the subject 

 cannot be ascertained. Two seated figures seem to be Pluto and Proser. 

 ,,ine. This is in a very diflerent style as to countenance and treatment 

 than the others, more nearly approaching the Greek style. 



Besides these four princ.pal subjects are some smaller. In the Etruscan 

 Room are paintings from a tomb at Corneto, including a woman paying the 

 last offices to an old man stretched on a bier, two men drinking and dancing, 

 and men drinking and playing on the double tibia. In the Bronze Room 

 are two paintings of the Etruscan Charon, from the entrances of tombs, 

 with Etruscan inscriptions. Most of our readers are aware that the Etrus- 

 oau character is of a Greek type, and used in the method originally ob- 

 tained from Phoenicia, of writing from right to left, instead of the later 

 Greek way of writing from left to right. 



The Right Tomb from Vulci is so different in style that we must speak 

 of it separately, but the other tombs may be classed together. There is a 

 smoothness and ease in the style which is particularly remarkable, and 

 great care in the drawing of forms, though there is no attempt at minute 

 anatomical delineation. Whether the figure is draped or naked, the same 

 practice is adhered to of drawing in the outlines of the figure, which, when 

 the figure is draped, are shown under the drapery. This has a singular 

 ellect as however closely or loosely the male or female figure may be clad, 

 the naked body is shown through the clothing, not in the mere pressure of 

 the drapery, but in the exact anatomy, however far the drapery may be dis- 

 tant Thus, in the figures on the Left Tomb of TaiMiuinii, where the dancing 

 women are clad in a kind of full-skirted modern petticoat, the whole of the 

 lower limbs are rigidly drawn. 



This practice shows how sensitive the artists and thp public were to a 

 close and accurate delineation of the human figure, and how very different 

 from our modern artists and public. The frequent exhibition of the naked 

 figure in public games made the Etruscans more critical in human anatomy, 

 and as we have no longer the same opportunities, it is only by a close 

 study of the antique and of the living model that we can hope to make up 

 for our deficiencies. The Etruscan paintings well illustrate the soundness 

 of that law, put forward for all classes of art, from high art to the least 

 mechanical performance, that instruction must rest on the study of the 

 human figure. Schools of design may draw from architectural casts as 

 long as they like, and make as much use as they please of the rule and 

 compasses, but we cannot have artists or an artistic public without the 

 figure. This must be at the beginning of teaching, and it must follow it 

 throughout. This fact was proclaimed ten years ago, and our schools of 

 design will never enable us to compete with foreign manufacturers in 

 works of taste, until we carry it out fully and faithfully. 



To make a high artist, all will allow that nature must be studied— but 

 what does this mean ? Are we to draw trees and flowers, and to neglect 

 that noblest organization, the human form ? The Greeks and the Etrus- 

 cans walked among trees and flowers as we do, they enjoyed the beauties 

 of the landscape— but they did not thus become artists, nor could they have 

 become artists. A flower is most admirably organised, so is an animal ; 

 but the perfection of organization, the adaptation of physical means to 

 intellectual ends, is man. It is in his form, in his structure, that we can 

 study the highest applications of godlike skill,— and to neglect this, is to 

 neglect the greatest and noblest school of art. Anything so perversely 

 bliud as Euglish practice ou this head cannot be imagined, and it conveys 



the causes of English failure. In England, the artist is a mechanic in 

 painting, nearly on a fooling with a M^olverhampton lockmaker or nailer, 

 who goes on from year to year copying the same article, without reference 

 to any higher principles. The Commissioners of Fine Arts, in fostering 

 good drawing and correct anatomy, do most wisely for the interests of art ; 

 and it is to be hoped that all will unite in the same purpose, and that in 

 our academies and schools of design we shall follow the only sound course 

 of teaching and learning. The great end and aim of all teaching is to 

 train the mind to the best habits, whatever may be the end of the learner, 

 whether high or low ; and in a right education, the mind of the statesman 

 and the porter, the artist and the workman, will be equally trained in 

 correct thinking, whatever may be the special object of their pursuits. 



The Etruscan figures are of two classes, draped and naked ; but none 

 of the female figures are wholly naked, though some are naked from the 

 waist upward. The drapery is so various in its structure and adaptation, 

 as to afford much practice to the aitist, and he has the whole range from 

 the naked figure to the complex forms of modern female fashion. The 

 garment most used by men and women is an oblong square shawl or 

 mawd, worn in various ways. Sometimes it is a shawl or scarf. Some- 

 times a cloak, with the men a waistcloth. As a scarf, it is sometimes put 

 on in the usual fashion, and the ends then put through the arms, so as to 

 hang down. As all the garments are of various colours, white, blue, and 

 red, and sometimes with braiding, patterns, and ornaments, the effect is 

 much increased. 



Many of the female dresses are very elegant in form and colour, and 

 they are of great variety. We recommend to the ballet masters, who are 

 always searching for something novel, an Etruscan ballet, with some of the 

 picturesque costumes of the Museum. In each subject a ditTerent general 

 fashion is observable. In the Right Tomb of Tarquinii, the women have a 

 long and rather close dress, with a shawl ; a cap worn in the fashion 

 Parisian women wear a coloured kerchief, with short curls. They have 

 likewise sandals. In the Left Tomb of Tarquinii, the costume is almost 

 modern — a boddice with short sleeves, a short and very full petticoat, boots 

 or sandals, long hair worn with a wreath, earrings, bracelets. The third 

 fashion is in the tomb of Corneto : a boddice, petticoat, pelisse, cloak or 

 shawl, long-toed shoes, the hair worn in long tresses. 



As an example of the mode of treatment, we may take the female play- 

 ing the castanets, in the Left Tomb of Tarquinii. She wears a red 

 boddice, edged with bright blue, short sleeves of the pattern of the skirt, 

 trimmed with blue. The petticoat, short and in full breadths or folds, is 

 of a reddish tinge. The pattern is in red, and consists of three spots 

 divided by horizontal stripes or braid of red, sometimes plain, sometimes 

 dentelated. The pattern of the skirt would do credit to Regent-street, 

 and shows more design than most of the products of the Manchester loom. 

 On her shoulders she wears a blue scarf edged with red, the ends being, 

 as before described, brought through the arms. Her hair is worn long, 

 and around her head she has a blue wreath. Her boots are red. She has 

 bracelets, and in her ears rings with a large round drop. 



Besides the practice of showing the outline under the drapery, there is 

 another conventional peculiarity of Etruscan art, which consists in show- 

 ing all the fingers of the hands, which are arranged in perspective, fan- 

 fashion, but close together. 



In the Right Tomb of Tarquinii, in the lower compartment, the chief 

 personages are three men and three women, seated in couples on three 

 couches, which are laid in one row, so that the guests can be fully seen by 

 the spectator. Throughout the subjects we notice that the women, like 

 those of Rome, were treated with great deference and attention, being the 

 companions of their husbands in their feasts and games, and that they held 

 the position of a Germanic rather than of a Greek wife. In the banquets 

 and the games the women are present, seated with the men ; and even of 

 the slaves or attendants, none of the women are naked. Two naked boy 

 attendants stand near the couches, and there are small tables, of very 

 elegant design, bearing refreshments : the men and women are drinking. 

 As if for coolness, the men and women are naked from the waist upward. 

 Under each of the couches is a pair of ducks, painted in blue. Each of 

 the ducks is in a different posture, but each is characteristic, and the 

 artist shows a degree of skill and fancy which a modern rival could not 

 surpass. The six ducks are pictures in themselves. From the introduc- 

 tion of them, it is to be supposed they were pets of the household, though 

 rather strange ones. 



