Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1068 STATIJARIA ARS. STATUARIA ARS.
The Etruscans were on the whole an industrious tatorship of Sulla. (Plin. AI. N. xxxiv. 12.) The
and enterprising people. Different hypotheses have last two statues were undoubtedly of Greek workbeen proposed to account for the cultivation of the manship. The earliest metal statue of a deity
arts, in which this nation excelled all others in was, according to Pliny, a Ceres which was made
central and northern Italy, as well as for the peculiar of the confiscated property of Spurius Cassius, about
style of some of their productions. Some writers 485 B. c. (Plin. If. N. xxxiv. 9.) Two other metal
think that it was owing to colonies from Lydia, statues of gods were the Capitoline Hercules, 306
which were established at Caere and Tarquinii, B. c. (Liv. ix. 44), and the colossal statue of the
others that the Etruscans themselves were a Pe- Capitoline Jupiter, which, according to Livy, was
lasgian tribe. With the works of Grecian art they made about 490 B. c. (Liv. ix. 40, x. 38; Plin.
must have become acquainted at an early time I. N. xxxiv. 18.) The number of statues of men
through their intercourse with the Greeks of in the Forum appears soon to have become very
southern Italy, whose influence upon the art of the great, and many persons seem to have had them
Etruscans is evident in numerous cases. The East erected there without any right: hence in 161
also appears to have exercised some influence upon B. C. the censors P. Cornelius Scipio and M. Pothe Etruscans, as many works of art found in pilius removed from the Forum all the statues of
Etruria contain precisely the same representations magistrates which had not been erected with the
as those which we find in Asia, especially among sanction of the senate or the people. (Plin. H. IV.
the Babylonians. However this may have been xxxiv. 14.) A statue of Cornelia, the mother of
effected, we know for certain that the whole range the Gracchi, stood in the porticus of Metellus.
of the fine arts was cultivated by the Etruscans at The artists by whom these and other statues were
an early period. Statuary in clay (which here executed were undoubtedly Greeks and Etruscans.
supplied the place of wood, SOava, used in Greece)
and in bronze appears to have acquired a high. FX / Period, frons 01. 15 (B. c. 146) to the
degree of perfection. In 267 B. c. no less than fdll of the Ilesteru Eompise.
2000 bronze statues are said to have existed at During this period Rome was the capital of
Volsinii (Plin. I<. N. xxxiv. 16, 18; compare nearly the whole of the ancient world, not through
Vitruv. iii. 2), and numerous works of Etruscan its intellectual superiority, but by its military and
art are still extant, which show great yigour and political power. But it nevertheless became the
life, though they do not possess a very high degree centre of art and literature, as the artists resorted
of beauty. Among them we may mention the thither from all parts of the empire for the purpose
Chimaera of Arretium (at Florence); the Capitoline of seeking employment in the houses of the great.
She.wolf (Dionys. i. 79; Liv. x. 23), which was The mass of the people, however, had as little taste
dedicated in a. c. 296; the Minerva of Arezzo for and were as little concerned about the arts as
(now at Florence); and others. Some of their ever. (Hornat. Art. Pou't. 323; Petron. 88.) In
statues are worked in a Greekl style; others are of addition to this there was still a strong party of
a character peculiar to themselves, and entirely the Romans, who, either from an affected or an
different from works of Grecian art, being stiff and honest contempt for the Greeks, entertained the
ugly; others again are exaggerated and forced in vain hope of being able to restore the olden times.
their movements and attitudes, and resemble the These circumstances account for the fact that a manl
figures which we meet with in the representations like Cicero thought it necessary to conceal and disof Asiatic nations. Etruscan utensils of bronze, guise his love and knowledge of the fine arts. It
such as candelabra, paterae, cups, thrones, &c., was, therefore, only the most distinguished and inembellished with various ornaments and figures, tellectual Romans that really loved and cherished
were very highly valued in antiquity, and even at the arts. This was both a fortunate and an unforAthens at a time when the arts were still flourish- tunate circumstance: had it not been so, art would
ing there. (Atlh. i. p. 28, xv. p. 700.) Their have perished at once; now it continued in some
works in stone, especially the alto anid basso- degree to be cultivated, but it experienced the same
relieveos, which are found in considerable numbers fate which it has met with at all times, when it
on chests containing the ashes of the dead, are has continued its existence without the sympathies
with few exceptions, of very inferior merit. of the people, and merely under the patronage of
The Romans previously to the time of the first the great. Notwithstanding these unfavourable
Tarquin are said to have had no images of the circumstances, there were a number of distinguished
gods; and for a long time afterwards their statues artists at Rome during the latter period of the reof gods in clay or -wood were made by Etruscan public, who had really imbibed the spirit of the anartists. (Plin. HI. N. xxxv. 45, xxxiv. 16.) During cient Greeks and who produced works of great beauty
the early part of the republic the works executed and merit. We need only mention such names
at Rome were altogether of a useful and practical as Pasiteles of southern Italy,: who was a Roman
and not of an ornamental character; and statuary citizen, and who made an ivory statue of Jupiter for
was in consequence little cultivated. But in the the temple of Metellus (PIin. H. N. xxxvi. 5. s. 4.
course of time the senate and the people, as well as ~ 12); Arcesilaus, of whom Pliny mentions several
foreign states which desired to show their gratitude highly valued works, and whose models were prized
to some Roman, began to erect bronze statues to more than the statues of others; Decius, who even
distinguished persons in the Forum and other ventured to rival Chares in the art of founding
places. (Plin. I. Ar. xxxiv. 14.) The earliest metal statues; Diogenes, and others. During the
works of this kind, which we can consider as really empire the arts declined, and, with some noble exhistorical, are the statues of Attus Navius (Plin. ceptions, merely administered to the vanity, luxuII. N. xxxiv. 11; Cic. de Divin. i. 1l), of AMinucius ries, and caprices of the emperors. (Senec. Epist.
outside the Porta Trigemina, and of Pythaagoras 88.) The inertness of the times, says Pliny (H. N.)
and Alcibiades, which stood in the corners of the xxxv. 2), has destroyed the arts; and as there
comitium from the year B. c. 314 down to the dic- were no more minds to be represented, the reproe