History of Ancient Art Part 16

One of the chief features of the Etruscan or primitive Italian dwelling-house, the inner court, has already been mentioned in the consideration of the tombs. As in h.e.l.lenic architecture, so here this formed the central point, the chief s.p.a.ce of the dwelling, around which were grouped the ceiled chambers, subordinate in dimensions and in importance. As the court was intended to be the chief gathering-place, a partial covering could not have sufficed in these northern Apennines, as did the Grecian peristyle; for continued rain, snow, and piercing winter frost were not so rare here as in the lands upon the Kephissos and Meander. The central aperture was diminished, and the effect of storms or cold more completely excluded. The Italian atrium, or cavaedium, acquired thus a form essentially different from the Grecian court. If the aperture open to the sky were reduced to a small orifice for light and air, only large enough to carry off the smoke from the hearth and provide sufficient illumination, columnar supports would not be needed, the rafters being inclined outward, and framed into the square of the opening, as is conspicuously the case in the tomb at Corneto (_Fig._ 255), and as is also described by Vitruvius (vi. 3). Vertical props obstructing the s.p.a.ce would be the less necessary, inasmuch as the dimensions of the court were small, on account of the lower temperature of the region. The Italian court thus differed from that of Greece by an entire absence of columns, as well as by the outward inclination of the roof. The latter peculiarity had the advantage that, notwithstanding the restriction of the central aperture, more light was admitted, the slanting rays of the sun falling high upon the walls; while, on the other hand, the interior of the house was free from the objectionable rain-drip, and, by covering the orifice in bad weather or at night, could be entirely isolated and protected. A remarkable copy of a roof upon an Etruscan clay sarcophagus (_Fig._ 256) shows the outward aspects of the dwellings of Central Italy, as the tomb at Corneto (_Fig._ 255) does the interior. The roof of the atrium, rising like a clere-story, inclined outward, while the covering of the chambers surrounding this s.p.a.ce carried the drip still farther from the central aperture. The practical sense of the Italians was thus expressed, as opposed to the more cheerful and elevated ideals of form among the Greeks. These constructive advantages were attained, however, at the cost of that artistic, or at least tasteful, development of the whole which was characteristic of the Greeks, even when striving mainly after public usefulness or private comfort.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 256.--Etruscan Sarcophagus.]

The remaining monuments of Etruria are almost entirely limited to tombs, among which it is not possible to recognize progressive stages of architectural design. Still it is evident that examples like the Regulini-Gala.s.si tomb of Caere, which shows a most primitive covering of the chambers, and that of Alsium, or the Campana tomb at Veii, must belong to an earlier period than do those sepulchres in which the imitation of a dwelling-house, particularly in regard to the roof-timbering, shows an advanced intelligence and great technical skill. This skill is equally evident in the decorative members: pilasters before the piers, the carvings of the coffin-benches, and utensils upon the walls, with h.e.l.lenic features of a late and advanced period. A further division of Etruscan monuments into chronological periods is not possible; it is only to be concluded that the most primitive are less ancient than has usually been supposed, and are probably to be referred to the seventh century B.C., while the later and more perfected tombs may date from 250 to 150 B.C.

The numerous sculptural productions of Etruria may be better grouped.

They are preserved in the Gregorian Museum of the Vatican, the British Museum, the earlier Campana collection in the Louvre, and special collections in various towns in Tuscany, particularly at Perugia. Others are scattered among the many museums of Europe. As the practical character of the Italians might lead us to expect, the greater part of these works consist of utensils and implements; those which bear the stamp of the greatest antiquity belonging almost exclusively to this cla.s.s. The earliest period may be called the _decorative_, in which art was employed only for the ornamentation of useful articles. The most ancient specimens of this handiwork are those in the British Museum, found in the Grotto dell' Iside of Vulci, and those in the Gregorian Museum of the Vatican, from the Regulini-Gala.s.si tomb at Caere. The material is gold, silver, and bronze--occasionally amber and ivory; the objects are ornaments, such as breastplates, ear-rings, bracelets of gold wire and thinly beaten gold; also golden and amber necklaces, silver bowls, candelabra, kettles, tripods, couches, censers, and shields of bronze. All these are evident imitations of imported wares.

The beaten figures of the breast ornaments remind one of the vessels excavated at Nineveh, Cyprus, and Mykenae; the decorations of the silver bowls are more like the discoveries in Cyprus and Phnicia; the bulb-like candelabra are similar to the Cyprian bronze utensils, and also to the seven-armed candlestick of the Temple of Jerusalem. Having already designated the vessels of Nineveh and those of Mykenae as of Phnician workmanship, and the Egyptianized ivoryware found upon the Tigris as having been brought into Mesopotamia by the Phnicians as an article of trade, there can be no hesitation in referring the objects discovered in Etruria to the same origin. The beaten work in sheet-metal was among the best-executed productions of the Phnicians, and among their most important articles of commerce; and intercourse between the Phnicians and the Etruscans is known to have been active. Through this current of trade must also have come the vials and alabasters with Egyptian hieroglyphics and symbols; the gilded bronze birds with the pshent upon their heads, like those from the Grotto dell' Iside; and the beetle-shaped bodies of clay, like the scarabaeus, found in different places, for the Etruscans had no direct intercourse with Egypt. It is possible, however, that some of the objects which bear the characteristic forms of those countries are to be regarded as Etruscan manufactures, adhering closely to the imported patterns.

The era next following is distinguished as being emanc.i.p.ated from the earlier dependence upon the East, the Asiatic influence being gradually replaced by that of h.e.l.las. Here may be mentioned the half-mythical report that, about 650 B.C., the Corinthian artists Eucheir, Diopos, and Eugrammos--whose names, as personification of handiwork in art, give little confidence--emigrated to Italy and there introduced sculpture.

Though this may be taken to indicate an active artistic impulse, it cannot alone explain the great and decided advance that we find. In Southern Etruria monumental sculpture must early have attained a certain importance, since Tarquinius Priscus ordered from Vulca, or Vulcanius of Veii, a statue of the Capitoline Jupiter, and a quadriga for the gable ridge of his temple. The material for such colossal works was terra-cotta with a painting, perhaps monochromatic; at least, the nude parts of the image of Jupiter were repeatedly tinted with a red color.

The roughness of such conventionalized work can hardly be conceived; the trunk, in a sitting figure, was not detailed; the extremities, on the contrary, had all the ugliness of realism; the head was sharply individualized, verging upon portraiture. As the oldest example of this treatment of the head may be mentioned the bust found in the Grotto dell' Iside at Vulci (_Fig._ 257), which shows, at the same time, that the germ of that specific Etruscan motive--the conception of the individual, to the neglect of the general or ideal--existed even in the period of dependence upon Asiatic influence. This characteristic Etruscan formation of the head, though in a less artistic and more superficial style, is also shown in the so-called _canopi_ of Chiusi--jugs with portrait heads upon the lids. These are distantly related to the Egyptian jars of the kind, but show scarcely a trace of the early conventional influence of ideal Greek sculpture; the heads, of extreme rudeness, are yet sharp and hard in modelling; coa.r.s.e caricatures of the round skull and low, retreating forehead, which yet betray a certain observation of nature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 257.--Bust from the Grotto dell' Iside in Vulci.]

Greek influence is first apparent, though still overbalanced by native individualization and realistic elements, in a somewhat later sarcophagus of terra-cotta, found in Caere, now one of the chief treasures of the Campana collection in the Louvre. (_Fig._ 258.) The sarcophagus itself shows a draped couch with technical and ornamental details similar to those found upon the furniture of a.s.syrian, Xanthian, and ancient Greek reliefs, and particularly upon archaic vase-paintings.

A man and woman of life-size, leaning with their left elbows upon leathern cushions, form the lid. If, at first sight, this group has a somewhat frightful and repellent character, not felt in the most shocking distortions of primitive art, the cause lies in its prosaic realism, strikingly heightened by color. Notwithstanding many failures in point of detail, the effect of life was given by the artist without additions or idealizations. Rather inclined to caricature--that is, to the exaggeration of individual characteristics--the Etruscan artist sensibly failed in the reproduction of the head, because wanting in that training in fundamental correctness, through the canonical formation of a true type, which preceded the Grecian perfection. The representation of the individual, instead of being the first aim, should have been left to the last, and it was on this account that the skulls were deformed by various peculiar defects, while the eyes and mouth were drawn upward in a manner that is natural only to the Mongolian race. The same is true in regard to the terra-cotta reliefs of this period, in which the striving after action and naturalness of appearance caused an excessive restlessness in all the motions of the dislocated arms and hands, particularly evident in the ivory reliefs upon a number of caskets.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 258.--Sarcophagus of Terra-cotta from Caere.

(Louvre.)]

Sculpture in marble at this period, about 550 to 300 B.C., was less developed; single archaic reliefs in this material--of which Southern Etruria offers but few--appear flat, and entirely under the influence of painting. The inadequacy of the artistic ability of this time is shown, for example, in a relief of Chiusi, representing the lamentation for the dead, where expression of sorrow is combined with caricatured individual features, very rude in drawing and form. (_Fig._ 259.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 259.--Etruscan Relief.]

The bronze-work, which is closely connected with the terra-cotta work, was of greater importance, and betrays a more decided and enduring Phnician influence than do the terra-cotta statues. This is shown in the beaten bronzes, thin plates of which were used to overlay wooden forms. The most important example, the remains of a chariot found at Perugia, is preserved in the Glyptothek and Antiquarium at Munich. The representations of a sea-horse, a woman with fins, sphinxes, and a man who holds or strangles two lions, give evidence rather of Oriental than of h.e.l.lenic prototypes. The uncertainty in form and proportions, the ungainliness of the figures, and the awkwardness of the entire composition are in no wise compensated by the careful execution of the finely engraved details to be seen only upon close inspection. A tripod, found at the same time in Perugia, also now in Munich, shows a certain advance. Its three sides have representations of Hercules, and the Italian Juno Sospita, with the so-called Botian shield and pointed shoes, in somewhat higher beaten reliefs, very carefully engraved. This tripod is distinguished from the preceding examples as being the work of a more skilful artist, but differs little, or perhaps not at all, in point of age. The upper part of this vessel, now lacking, was mostly of bronze casting; the borders of the seat and the ends of the shafts upon the Perugian chariot were decorated with statuettes of solid metal; but these, as well as the handles upon utensils, seem to have been mere artisan work, not unlike the ornaments upon the handles, the furniture, chariots, etc., shown by the reliefs of Nineveh.

Works in bronze of considerable size must have been numerous at that period, as, in 260 B.C., Volsinii alone was in possession of two thousand bronze statues; but only a single example remains of well-attested Etruscan origin, the Capitoline Wolf (_Fig._ 260); probably the same which, soon after 300 B.C., was consecrated in Rome under the Ruminal fig-tree. It is a hollow cast, which, with great hardness and carefulness of treatment, gives the well-understood character of this animal excellently, almost to the point of caricature.

It well ill.u.s.trates the peculiarities of Etruscan art above described, inasmuch as it sacrifices to realism all artistic beauty. The chimera of Arezzo in Florence, and a griffin in Leyden, are similar in style; but, notwithstanding their Etruscan inscriptions, it is doubtful whether they are of Tuscan workmanship.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 260.--Capitoline Wolf.]

Here should be mentioned the bronze utensils ornamented by drawings--_sgraffiti_--particularly the mirrors, generally in the form of plates, one side of which had a polished surface, while the other was engraved. The handles upon these either represented figures like caryatides, or, more commonly, ended in a deer's head. Toilet cistas, a further variety of these works, were of cylindrical form, usually with the claws of animals for feet, and a group of human figures upon the cover as a handle; but these, on account of their engravings, should rather be considered in the section upon painting, and are mentioned here merely because of the accompanying castings. Only a small part of them belongs to the archaic period.

About 300 B.C. the art of Etruria appears to have reached its highest point of independence and perfection, which, in sculpture, is ill.u.s.trated by the terra-cotta sarcophagus of Caere in the Louvre, and by the Capitoline Wolf. The old ignorance of proportions had disappeared, and a tolerable correctness was attained; the realistic tendency no longer struggled with unpliant forms, as in the former period, when it might have been likened to the lisping and stammering of children. Yet the Etruscan artists never succeeded in harmonious combinations, or in mastery and surety of form. The stream of Grecian art, long restrained, or, so far as possible, turned aside, at length overcame all obstacles.

Up to this time the taste of the Etruscans for the archaic and the archaistic, aided by the importations of that character, had given to their art an antiquity of aspect in form and in painting far beyond its true age. But when political Etruria ceased to exist, as its walls were destroyed at the opening of the cities by the Romans, Grecian art, of the period of the Diadochi, entered from the coasts of Magna Graecia.

This is first noticeable in the sculptured lids of the sarcophagi of this h.e.l.lenistic period. That of Caere, mentioned above, was executed in almost entire independence of the influence of Greece: a copy was made directly from life, with a prosaic realism which, without restraint or culture, and with no feeling for the beautiful, was still fascinating from its naturalness. In later times this unpoetical sobriety and truthfulness to individual peculiarities still existed; but they were affected by h.e.l.lenic forms and formulas, which, being without organic unity or intrinsic significance, and void of capacity for development, were merely an exterior varnish. This period is most clearly represented by the lids of three sarcophagi carved in alabaster and a soft stone. Of these, one bears a reclining image with five statues in the full round at the head and feet (_Fig._ 261); the two others, from Vulci, represent a man and woman upon the marriage bed, wrought in high-relief. The portraiture of the chief personages is by no means limited to the heads.

Apart from the accessories, chosen from the purely human sphere of daily existence, the position and modelling of the nude portions of the body were evidently taken from living models. The secondary figures and the drapery show a decided Grecian influence, in visible contrast to the inherent realism. Organic connection and unity of style are wanting, and this want leaves it to be regretted that Greek forms should ever have found admission into Etruria, for by them the native tendency towards the realistic was checked, while the originality sacrificed was not compensated by a merely external Greek formalism, never essentially understood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 261.--Etruscan Stone Sarcophagus.]

This condition of things is most strikingly exemplified by the reliefs upon the two sarcophagi of Vulci, the lids of which have been referred to above. Upon the front of one is shown a wedding procession, and upon the end a funeral chariot drawn by mules, with the married pair seated under a canopy. In the arrangement and drapery they somewhat resemble Grecian sculptures, but the heads, especially of the important figures, are portraits, with traits of realistic coa.r.s.eness in all the nude parts. Even in subject, as Brunn remarks, this naturalism is apparent.

While the Greeks would have chosen to represent a mythological wedding like that of Heracles, Peleus, or Cadmus, and the Romans would have ill.u.s.trated the bridal pair--in a conception more theological than mythological--by Victory, Juno, and Venus, with the Graces in their train, the Etruscans show the marriage in a literal manner, the united pair being followed by servants, with couch, sun-shade, wash-basin, crook, horn, flutes, and harp. In the reliefs upon the other sarcophagus the subjects selected offered no opportunity for purely Etruscan motives; battles of the Amazons, and heroic encounters of naked youths, on foot and upon horse, gave no scope to realistic treatment. They consequently appear almost entirely Greek, but clumsy and superficial, justifying, by the slavishness of their imitation and the weakness of their composition, the suggestion of Brunn, that the Etruscan artists not only made use of h.e.l.lenic designs as a kind of pattern-book, but, when they would ill.u.s.trate some scene for which they had no complete guide, combined separate groups from different examples. In the steer seized by lions, and the horse lacerated by griffins, upon the small sides of the same sarcophagus, may be recognized not only Oriental conceptions, but an Asiatic treatment.

The terra-cotta sculptures of this period show the same h.e.l.lenic tendency, with, the same superficiality and relation to the late Greek degeneracy. Examples of this are to be found in the antefixes of a sarcophagus from Vulci, and some fine urns belonging particularly to Northern Etruria--Volterra, Clusium, and Perugia--which appear in tufa and travertine, and represent the latest period--150 to 100 B.C. Grecian legendary scenes have been observed upon earlier works, and afterwards they became more general; but a certain preference for particular and better known fables is evident, and native additions are easily recognized.

Not to speak of later examples in bronze, and the engraved drawings upon cistas and mirrors, which will be treated of below, the most important statue is the so-called Mars from Todi, now in the Vatican museum.

According to its inscription, it is Umbrian, but it is properly to be considered here, because for the too limited term Etruscan art might well be subst.i.tuted Italian, or at least Central Italian. Vigorous in all its details, and betraying throughout the later h.e.l.lenic style, the Mars is yet stiff, heavy, and without organic understanding. Similar to it are other figures of warriors; but the Boy with the Duck, in the museum at Leyden, in spite of the stiff and hard features, would, perhaps, not be recognized as Etruscan at all, were it not for the inscription upon his right leg, and the bulla upon his neck-band. The life-like statue of an orator in Florence might, in like manner, pa.s.s for Roman, were there not something in the head, and in the lame position of the legs, particularly hard and commonplace, a quality which, in the Roman works of this kind, is always tempered by some degree of heroic conception. The difference is less evident because the primitive art of the Romans and Etruscans was much the same, and the Greek influence the same in both, though this was earlier and more active in Rome.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 262.--Painting from Caere.]

The painting of Etruria naturally followed a process of development similar to that of the sculpture. In the earliest times it appears that painting was rare in comparison with the decorative works of beaten metal plate, and that the little there was followed Phnician and Egyptian models, in so far, at least, as may be judged from the few utensils which have been found in the so-called Grotto dell' Iside in Vulci. These are ornamented partly with painting, partly with colored enamel. This decorative and dependent period lasted at least until the beginning of the sixth century; and the Oriental tendency towards decoration was by no means lost with its transition into the independent monumental and realistic style, as is proved by the pictures of the Campana tomb at Veii, with their attenuated animal figures. But the obtrusive archaistic ornament upon the human figures began already to show the native realistic tendency, which obtained complete mastery in the two tombs of Corneto, called the Tomba del Morto, and Tomba delle Inscrizioni, of about the same date. A painting upon slabs of terra-cotta from Caere (_Fig._ 262) is perhaps still older. In the former examples, though known to be antique, the treatment was more archaistic than archaic, and the monstrous decorative style of Asia was apparent, like that upon ancient vase-paintings. But in the Caere slabs the fundamental principle was realistic imitation of the life. The influence of h.e.l.lenic art, increasing because of the importation of Greek vases, is first evident upon a number of clay figures from Caere. There is little unity in the subjects: they appear to be devotional and ceremonial rather than mythological, the demoniacal and funereal elements predominating. The colors are sombre, with no decided blue, red, or green; only brown, yellow, reddish brown, gray, and black were employed upon a white ground. No trace of shading is perceptible, and the drawing, with exception of the outline, is limited to the indication of the almond-shaped eyes, and to slight suggestions of the knees, elbows, and nails. The forms are heavy and without dignity, the motions stiff, and the step as though climbing, with the arms thrown violently upward, as if running in the greatest haste. Still, they give evidence of great observation of nature, with the avoidance of a systematic uniformity in drawing, motion, and gesture; but the imitation is hardly successful, though in the reclining figures, for which a living model was most easily obtained, there is a certain degree of truthfulness. In the picture from Caere the many-colored altar, with its peculiar top reminding one of the profiles of Castel d'a.s.so, is very characteristic.

The wall-paintings in the older tombs of Corneto, already mentioned, are somewhat more advanced in regard to understanding of form and truthfulness in the expression of the heads; also in the soles of the feet being no longer so flatly set. At the same time, Grecian influence is very distinctly visible. One of these, the Tomba del Morto, represents a death-bed and its surroundings, with a group of dancers and drinkers; the other, the Tomba delle Inscrizioni, shows racing, boxing, wrestling, and preparations for a feast. A third sepulchre at Corneto, the so-called Tomba del Barone, is, perhaps, still further developed, with the strictness of the archaic h.e.l.lenic vase-painting. Youthful riders, men and women with bowls, and finely modelled garments are separated by small trees.

This archaic hardness was again modified in the next later group of four tombs: the Grotto delle Bighe, the Grotto del Citharedo, the Grotto Marzi, or del Triclinio, and the Grotto Querciola, mostly named from some chief motive of the representation within. The garments allow the outlines of the figure to be seen: the forms have become more slender, the position of the limbs, step, and action more correct; while the color, from the use of red and green, is brighter. Although the archaic tendency still prevails, as may be seen from the more marked h.e.l.lenic influence, a decided effort to develop the native realism is evident in the contemporary paintings from Chiusi, of the Tomba Ciaja, the Tomba di 1833, and the Tomba Francois. These certainly do not show the fine modulation and clearness of the Corneto paintings, but, instead, a greater variety, originality, and truth. In the Tomba di 1833, for example, the eye appears drawn in profile. These works are the perfection of the second period, the time of independent realistic development, dating from the fifth to the fourth century B.C.

The last phase of Etruscan painting, when the h.e.l.lenic influence predominated as largely as in the sculptural works of the third and second centuries B.C., commenced with the extensive adoption of the Greek myths, previously but seldom employed. This epoch is ill.u.s.trated by coins, occasionally found in tombs, which still show the native naturalistic traits, and a certain quaint sobriety not overcome by the exaggeration of gesture. The effect is far more picturesque than that of the older works, from a very moderate but still appreciative use of light and shade. The close of the period is marked by a novelty of subject, the introduction of Italian legends, such as the half-historical personifications of Mastarna (or Servius Tullius) and Caelius Vibenna. The art, which, more or less substantially, outlived the independence of its narrow home, thus acquired a Roman character.

Numerous and varied products testify to the Etruscan industry in artistic manufactures; the bronze utensils in the tombs, with _sgraffiti_, or engraved drawings, bore the same historical relation to ancient paintings that copper-plate engraving does to the modern. Of the thousand hand-mirrors known, only a few belong to the earlier period; but in the subjects of the more developed archaic examples, Greek character predominates. The frequently recurring representations of Bacchus and Eros and of the Judgment of Paris remind one of the festival and morning toilets; Ariadne and the female deities suggest womanly customs. A great portion of the Greek mythology is ill.u.s.trated upon the mirrors of the third period, which show extreme h.e.l.lenic influence. Most of these productions are naturally mere handiwork, and artistically valueless; but single specimens, from their extraordinary beauty, might pa.s.s for Grecian work did not the inscriptions and accessories, specifically Etruscan, like the bullae, prevent this a.s.sumption. For example, the unequalled mirror, in which Semele embraces the youthful Dionysos in so charming a manner, represents the heroine in such n.o.ble proportions that it may, without hesitation, be reckoned among the most beautiful results of artistic industry. Similar in character are the engraved cistas, cylindrical toilet-cases, which ill.u.s.trated Grecian myths, like those of Perseus and Prometheus, the Judgment of Paris, and the rites over the body of Patroclos, in a careful manner and with vigorous drawing, but not without the hardness peculiar to Etruscan composition. Italian myths also appear, like that of aeneas; and Latin inscriptions, as those upon the magnificent cista of Ficoroni, ornamented with ill.u.s.trations of the legend of the Argonauts, show that this process of engraving was also employed with success by the early Romans.

A consideration of Etruscan art is important, because, without it, an understanding of Roman art is not possible, at least in the fields of architecture and sculpture. Up to a certain point of time, Roman art was entirely developed from Etruscan art, or, perhaps, went hand in hand with it, as will be more particularly shown in the following section.

The subject should be more closely investigated, especially in the province of painting, with the hope that, from a.n.a.logous ill.u.s.trations, much which still remains dark in primitive h.e.l.lenic art may also be made clear.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 263.--Ja.n.u.s Quadrifrons in the Forum Boarium.]

ROME.

It has been remarked in the preceding section that the term "Etruscan art" admits, in many respects, of no definite restriction. The southern boundaries of the country between the Po and the Gulf of Tarention had early been colonized by the Greeks, but its artistic industry was, in the primitive historical ages, chiefly in the hands of the Etruscans, and their name alone has on this account been applied to the architecture, sculpture, and painting of all Central Italy. But neighboring races, notably the Umbrians, Latins, and Sabines, also took part in the development of this artistic civilization--advancing, in great measure, from common starting-points, and with like results. The migrations and commerce of the nations inhabiting the Italian peninsula were not less extended and active than were those of the people occupying the Peloponnesos and the islands of the aegean Sea: the relations to the Orient, through the medium of Phnician traders, were much the same in both cases, and it is not strange that similar phases of advance are noticeable, though restricted in rapidity and degree, among tribes dwelling in the regions more remote from the sea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 264.--Gate of the Walls of Norba.]

Between the Tiber and Garigliano, as well as between the Arno and Tiber, there exist extensive remains of Cyclopean masonry, as well as walls of hewn and squared stones. The former were predominant in the mountainous interior, as at Alatrium, Arpinum, Aurunca, Cora, Cures, Ecetrae, Ferentinum, Medullia, Norba, Praeneste, Signia, Sora, Tibur, Verulae, etc.; the latter in the low rolling land between the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian Sea, as at aesernia, Antium, Ardea, Aricia, Aufidena, Lavinium, Politorium or Apiolae, Satric.u.m, Scaptia, Tellenae, Tusculum, and Rome. They frequently occur in contemporary works, as, for example, in the well-preserved polygonal ruins of Norba and Signia (the present Norma and Segni) and the horizontal courses of the Servian fortification, both of which constructions date from the period of the later kings. The age of these works can usually be roughly estimated: the Cyclopean walls of Olevano, of enormous unhewn boulders, like the fortifications of Tiryns, are evidently of greater antiquity than the carefully fitted polygonal masonry of Norba and Signia (_Fig._ 264), where the separate stones are tooled to plane faces and sides; while the irregular horizontal courses of unequal thickness, which form the older Latin ramparts, precede, in point of time, the exactly jointed blocks of the Servian walls of Rome. A more exact cla.s.sification or chronological determination is not possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 265.--Remains of the Servian Wall upon the Aventine.]

Among all the remains of primitive walls in Italy, those of Rome are naturally the most interesting. It unfortunately cannot be definitely proved that a part of a rampart upon the western corner of the Palatine, excavated thirty years ago from the rubbish and brick revetment of the imperial period, appertained to the fortifications which surrounded the city of Romulus. But this masonry, though not perhaps attributable to the eighth century, is certainly of an early age of Roman history. It is formed of oblong stones, exactly hewn, and laid in courses of stretchers and headers, without the use of mortar, the careful jointing showing a high degree of technical perfection. The better-authenticated remains of the circuit wall of Servius Tullius are similar in character. They have been best preserved upon the southern slope of the Aventine, east of the Via di S. Prisca, where they attain a height of 10 m., with a length of 30 m. (_Fig._ 265.) The arrangement of the jointing, however, is not so well considered as that in the former example, the vertical interstices of adjoining courses being frequently continuous.

The pa.s.sage formed a small vestibule or chamber in the thickness of the wall, which required inner and outer portals, like those of the Temple of Ja.n.u.s upon the Velabrum, which, long after the ruin of the Servian fortifications, and even down to the time of the empire, were sacredly preserved as relics. A similar arrangement existed in Etruria even more frequently than in the Latin cities.

The Roman gates were so doubled as to form two pa.s.sages side by side--one for entrance, the other for exit; a comparatively narrow opening could thus provide ample s.p.a.ce for those moving only in the same direction. It is not certainly known how these Roman gates were covered.

The oldest vestiges of masonry in Latium show no traces of vaulting, while other means of accomplishing the connection have been preserved almost intact, such as the heavy lintels upon vertical or inclined jambs, as at Segni, Circello, Alatri, and Olevano; or the gradual projection of the horizontal courses beyond those beneath them, as at Arpino. The primitive houses for springs, and the so-called Mamertine Prison, show that vaulting was not practised in Rome or the neighboring Latin cities during the early ages; the Prison, probably built in the time of Servius Tullius, appears to have been somewhat similar in construction to the Greek tholos. A further example of this kind is the chamber for a fountain in Tusculum, where the stone slabs of the ceiling lean so as to form a sort of continuous gable.

Rome owed more to the last fifty years of its hated kings than to the two following centuries. From the royal period dates one of the most important monuments of vaulted construction, the Cloaca Maxima of Rome, built in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, and probably under the direction of engineers from his native Etruria. To this gigantic work, admired even in the time of the magnificent Roman empire, is undoubtedly owing the preservation of the Eternal City, which it has secured from the swamping that has befallen its neighboring plains. Its quarried stones are still visible beneath the later brick arches in the vicinity of S. Giorgio in Velabro. (_Fig._ 266.) The building of drains naturally led to extensive works upon the banks of the river, which protected the thickly populated city; it was forgotten that, in earlier ages, it had often been necessary to traverse the Velabrum in boats, and that the spring freshets had extended a sheet of water between the Palatine and Capitoline hills.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 266.--Cloaca Maxima.]

All these structures were emphatically works of engineering; the building of walls, gateways, drains, and vaulted roofs presented nothing to elevate them into independent and artistic monuments of architecture.