Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    177/664
    1. There is JEs grave of Volaterrae, Camars, Telamon, Tuder, Vetto- na and Iguvium, Pisaurum and Hadria (in Picenum), Rome (since Ser- vius) and many unknown places. The as, originally equal to the libra {'Kk^a), is denoted by I or L, the decussis by X, the semissis by C, the uncia by 0 (globulus). Continual reductions on account of the rising price of copper (originally the libra = obolus, 268 : 1), hence the age of asses can be nearly determined by the weight. From 200 (Servius) to 487 a. u. c. the as sinks from 12 to 2 uncise. The four-cornered pieces with an ox are votive coins according to Passeri.—Passeri, ParaUpomena in Dempst. p. 147. Eckhel, D. N. i, i. p. 89 sq. Lanzi, Saggio T. ii. Niebuhr, R. H. i. p. 458 sqq. Etrusker i. s. 304—342. Copies especially ia Dempster, Guarnacci, Arigoni, Zelada; brimstone impressions by Mion- net. [Jos. Marchi and P. Tessieri L'ses grave del M. Kircheriano owero le monete primitive de' popoli dell' Italia media. Rom. 1839. 4to. PI. obi. fol. MiUingen opposed with soundest criticism Consider, sur la numism. de I'ancienne Italie. Florence 1841. Supplement Flor. 1844. Gennarelli La moneta primitiva e i mon. dell' Italia ant. R. 1845. 4to. Lepsiua ueber die Tyrrhen. Pelasger in Etrurien u. ueber die Verbreitung des Ita- lischen Miinzsystems von Etrurien aus. Leipz. 1842.] 2. Many of Tuder for example, with wolf and cithara, are in a good Greek style. The Janus of Volaterrae and Rome is for the most part rudely designed, without a Greek model. 3: Silver coins of Populonia (Pupluna x. xx.) similar to those of Ca- mars, perhaps chiefly from the fifth century of R,ome. Gold of Populo- nia and Volsinii (Felsune). At Rome the Denarii (l-84th of a pound) begin a, u. 483. 177. Etruscan painting, in like manner, is only a branch 1 of the Greek; mural painting, however, seems to have been practised here sooner than we hear of it in Greece. Numer- 2 ous sepulchral chambers, especially at Tarquinii, are painted with figures in variegated colours which, without much striv- ing at truth to nature, rather having a harmonic effect for their aim, are laid almost pure and unmixed on the stucco with which the Avails of these grottoes are coated over. The 3 style of drawing passes from a severity and care which show an affinity to early Greek works, into the hasty and caricature-like manners which prevailed in the later art of the Etruscans. According to Pliny, wall-paintings of distinguished beauty were also executed in Italy (C^re, Lanuvium, Ardea), but of course not until after the times of Zeuxis and Apelles. Greek vase- 4 pamtmg became earlier known to the Etruscans (§. 7o); how- ever that people must have found it more advantageous in general to make use of Greek manufactures, whether these were introduced by commerce through Tarquinii, Adria, and other towns where art was cultivated, or whether they were made by Greek artists in the country (comp. §. 99, 2. 257). Only the comparatively few vases, inferior in artistic value, 5