The Story of Perugia 9

The Story of Perugia 9

ROOM V. _Sala dell' Angelico._ Before passing on to the work of Perugino and his school, which one must confess, with the exception of Sala XI., is but a disappointing show of canvasses and panels, one passes through the little room of Fra Angelico. In Taine's slight but exquisite sketch of Perugia and its pictures we read the following words about the work of Fra Angelico at Perugia: "He was happier here than in his pagan Florence, and it is he who first attracts us (in the gallery). Looking at his work there, one seems to be reading in the 'Imitatio Christi,' for on the golden background the pure sweet faces breathe a quiet stillness, like the immaculate roses in the gardens of Paradise." Taine is right; everyone is at once attracted to the work of the Florentine monk when they come to the gallery of Perugia. We have searched for some record of the friar's visit to Perugia, but have not been successful. It is certain that the Florentine painter came to stay in Umbria, leaving behind him as a legacy to later painters the influence of his pious gentle art. He became a monk in 1408 at Fiesole, but his convent got mixed up in painful religious disputes, and the monks had to fly and wander into other lands, hoping to return when times should be more peaceful. Fra Angelico came to Cortona, and there did some of his very earliest work. Thence, very probably, he travelled to Foligno, staying on his way to rest at Perugia, and leaving there, in the church of S. Domenico, that wonderful picture, all the parts of which now hang together in the Pinacoteca. They are jewels, these small panels--jewels fresh as dewdrops on the first May wreaths of girls. Angelico never lost this bloom of utter purity, and here we find it at its very dawn. The Madonna and Child are in the centre; round them stand four angels, their baskets full of roses. "Two angels in long dresses," says Taine, "bring their roses to the feet of the small Christ with the dreaming eyes. They are so young, and yet so earnest." Again, of the Annunciation, he says: "The Virgin is candour and sweetness itself; her character is almost German, and her two hands are clasped with deep religious fervour. The angel with the curly hair who kneels before her seems almost like some young and happy girl--a little raw perhaps--and coming straight from the house of her mother.... These indeed, are the delicate touches that painters of a later date will never find again. A sentiment is an infinite and incommunicable thing; no learning and no effort will ever reproduce it absolutely. In real piety there is a certain reserve; a certain modesty is shown in the arrangement of the draperies and in the choice of little details, such as even the best masters, only a century later, will not understand at all." It is difficult to choose any particular point for description in the twelve narrow panels of saints. Angelico carefully studied to show the individual character of each. He gave to his Magdalen a new and lovely attitude--a sort of ascetic repose. Of her physical beauty he only left the yellow hair; it falls to her ankles gold as the maize in autumn, but her body is wasted beneath it. St Catherine of Siena is said to be a really authentic portrait of the Saint. The Bishop of Toulouse is unlike that of Bonfigli, younger and gentler in expression. The whole set make an ineffably sweet impression on our mind, and it is difficult to turn to the other pictures in the room. Of these the best and the most interesting is by Piero della Francesca. Piero was one of Perugino's first masters. He was born early in the fifteenth century at Borgo San Sepolcro. He had a passion for perspective, and was one of the first men who made a real study of this branch of art. We hear that he wrote books on geometry, and grappled with Euclid and the laws of measurement. He also studied the proportion of light and shade, and all these points are admirably proved by his picture at Perugia (No. 21). Vasari gives a full account of it in his life of Piero. He describes the lower part, then adds: "Above them is a most beautiful Annunciation with an angel, which seems, in truth, to have descended from heaven; and what is more, a range of columns in perspective, which is indeed most beautiful." St Elizabeth of Hungary is a fine point in the lower composition. She wears a green gown, and in its skirt she carries the loaves which, by grace of heaven, and to defend her from the anger of her husband, were turned, as we know, to roses. ROOM X. _Sala del Perugino._ An irresistible sense of sadness creeps over us as we pass through the room which bears the name of Pietro Perugino. Looking at the collection one feels much in the same frame of mind as one does in searching the wearisome domestic letters of a genius. Only one or two of the pictures attributed to Vannucci in the Pinacoteca of Perugia have the touch of the spirit in them. No. 25, which is double-sided like most of the altar-pieces of convents, where the one side faced the congregation and the other the monks or nuns, is a beautiful bit of Perugino's work, fine both in colour and in sentiment. No. 10, too, is a small gem from one of Pietro's really beautiful altar-pieces.[100] Nos. 20 and 4 are fragments of one enormous altar-piece (see p. 190), which used to hang in the church of S. Agostino and which like many others of Pietro's finest works was torn to pieces, and carried across the Alps to swell the galleries of Napoleon. One hurries shuddering past pictures like Nos. 1, 5, and 26. It seems so impossible that what the Germans call a "Schone Seele" should have allowed such things to be. ROOM XI. _Sala di Bernardino di Betto detto il Pinturicchio._ In the little room which leads out of Room X. we make an interesting study of Perugino's pictures, for it contains some of his earliest and also some of his most decadent work. Had the municipality of Perugia just a touch of humour or malice when they hung No. 25 side by side with No. 16? Whatever they had in their heads they have given to us a curious study. Here are two works by the same man, the latter probably a pot-boiler of his school but still burdened with his name. Both represent precisely the same subject, the same set of saints is in each of them; but the early work is full of thought, of reverence and feeling; the early Sebastian, calm and grave, has the arrow in his very flesh, and the later Sebastian, simpering and affected, toys with his arrow and turns with painful affectation to the Saviour. There is a lovely little set of sketches on the predella under No. 6; the Nativity, a mere hurried impression, seems full of the breeze of early spring in Umbria.        *       *       *       *       * We have a splendid bit of Pinturicchio's work in this room which bears his name, and also one of the rare paintings of Lo Spagna; one or two pictures which bear at least the name of Raphael, and the much disputed "Adoration" which has been ascribed to more than one distinguished person.        *       *       *       *       * Bernardino di Betto, usually known as Pinturicchio and sometimes as il Sordicchio because he was deaf, and small and of a mean appearance, studied in the school of Perugia, and indeed was one of its most distinguished painters; but having left that earliest studio he carried his talents to other parts, and painted as we know for popes and princes, painted above all things those two wonderful series of frescoes in the Duomo at Siena and in the Borgia rooms at the Vatican. He has been called sometimes the Umbrian Gozzoli; certainly he was the historical painter of the great school which grew in the times of Perugino. Vasari with a certain prejudice and ill nature insists that Pinturicchio's success was one rather of opportunity than of talent; but it is much more probable that the painter was beloved because he was faithful to his promises and carried out his orders with care and with precision. We know, too, that after all the sums he got, and all his heavy labours, he died of hunger and neglect on a winter's night at Siena, his wife having deserted him and eloped with a new lover. Pinturicchio had a grant of land given to him in the neighbourhood of Perugia in 1495, by Alexander VI., and he determined to return to his native city and live there; but some years later, when in money difficulties, he was forced to sell it to a gentleman of Perugia. The splendid altar-piece (No. 10), which alone remains to Perugia of this distinguished pupil of Perugino, is ill lighted and rather difficult to judge from top to bottom, but is interesting as well as beautiful; for the picture remains just as the painter painted it with all its panels in their proper order, unlike the panels of so many of Perugino's finest altar-pieces. The Pieta, the angel of the Annunciation, both the figures of the Virgin and the detail of their dresses, fruit and books, are exquisitely finished.        *       *       *       *       * There is in the same room an excellent specimen of the work of another of Perugino's scholars--Lo Spagna (No. 7). Giovanni di Pietro was one of the most distinguished of Vannucci's school, and Kugler indeed pronounces him to be _the_ most distinguished after Raphael. It is probable that he studied with Fiorenzo di Lorenzo before going to Vannucci's studio, but it is difficult to discover any details about his private life. His whole career is shrouded in some mystery. His name would make one think he was Spanish by birth. We know that he left Perugia and went to live at Spoleto. Vasari declares that this was because the painters of Perugia were jealous of him and made life in their midst impossible; this fact is however severely denied by our gossip Mariotti, who declares that Lo Spagna was excessively well off in Spoleto, where he not only received the rights of citizenship but also secured a charming wife. Be all this as it may, of this really good artist, who combined in his work the influence of Raphael and of Perugino, only one piece is left in the place where he learned his art. The Madonna and Saints (No. 7) is a fine specimen of his work. The mother and the child are fresh and beautiful in colour and expression, and all the details of the dresses and the landscape infinitely careful. Note St Jerome, his gloves, his book, his hat and splendid gown. One other picture is ascribed to Giovanni in the same room, but it is greatly inferior in treatment.        *       *       *       *       * We now come to the Adoration of the Magi, which after much dispute was some time ago ascribed to Perugino's scholar Eusebio di San Giorgio, but which is still the subject of endless local discussions, as, owing to further and more minute investigations it is at length declared by excellent judges to be the work of Raphael. One reason given for this is that the young man to the right of the Virgin has on his trousers a strange design, the arms of Raphael. Poor Eusebio must turn in his grave. His former biographers, anxious to seize on any gem of painting which should save the artist from a rather mediocre position in the history of art, always stayed to shout exultant praises when they came to this picture, and now the critic would tear even this glory from his brows and crown another man whose head is already heavy with their laurels.[101] No. 20--a Madonna and Child--is ascribed to Raphael. The picture certainly has something of the master in it and it may be the work of the mere boy, when first he came from Urbino to paint with Perugino, and in the Umbrian city dreamed his great Madonna of the future. Raphael Sanzio passes like a dream through Perugia, leaving no certain relic of his mighty fame save one faint faded fresco on the church wall of S. Severo, and these poor relics in the gallery.[102] ROOM XII. _Sala di Giannicola e di Berto di Giovanni._ From this point forwards the interest of the gallery begins to wane. We have tracked the dawn and seen the sunrise; now we feel the dull warmth of midday, and passing through the weary hours of the afternoon, most fully and amply represented in the work of the two Alfanis, we pass to night through the fevered rooms of the Decadence. Sala XII. is devoted to the work of Perugino's scholars, but most of it is weak. Still there is a touch of the old sweetness here and there among the figures. Note No. 15 by Giannicola Manni. It has a charm though it is very imitative. The rest of Giannicola's work in this room is rather dreary. But there is charm, too, in the purely imitative, nay copied work of Berto di Giovanni. Berto was another of Perugino's scholars. He lived probably towards the end of the fifteenth century and it is evident that he felt a passionate admiration for his fellow student, Raphael. All we can gather of facts about Berto comes to us through his connection with Raphael. In 1516 he contracted to paint, in combination with his hero, a picture for the nuns of Monteluce. Bits of the predella are now in the Pinacoteca. In the flat and almost womanish sketches of Berto one traces his persistent admiration for the greater artist. It is as though an intelligent child had torn the leaves from its mother's sketch-book and filled in the lines with faithful and laborious colouring. (See Nos. 19 to 26.) But Berto's charm, such as it is, went all wrong when he tried to paint big subjects. Nos. 16 and 14 are little more than failures.        *       *       *       *       * To anyone who admires the work of the two Alfani, Domenico and Orazio, a happy hunting-ground exists in the last big rooms of the Pinacoteca. How it came about that one of Perugino's really lovely frescoes got hung in this part, we cannot tell, but it is certain that the Nativity (No. 31, Room XIII.) is one of the loveliest things that remain of Pietro in the town of Perugia. It is very like our own Nativity in the National Gallery, faint and fair in colour, calm and true in composition, with a peculiar lilac colour of crushed grapes throughout the dresses and the landscape. It would be impossible to close any account of the school of Perugino without a slight sketch of the two Alfanis whose intense admiration for the genius of painting became a fault, and who, through their very earnestness preserved the corpse from which the life long since had fled. The Alfanis, Domenico the father, and Orazio the son, had money and long life. These two happy gifts they employed in the paths of art; with these two gifts they at length degraded what they really attempted to exalt. Domenico was such a passionate admirer of Raphael that one of his historians declared him to have died in the same year as Sanzio. Mariotti denies this. "However passionate a friend and inseparable a companion," he urges, "Domenico had not for certain such a crazy folly as to accompany him to the other world." Domenico far outlived Raphael. In his long life he absorbed the teaching of many schools, and utterly obliterated his own personality in the work of other people. His son Orazio did the same. They went into partnership, started a large school or studio, and there created the innumerable, rather middle-class pictures, which cover the walls of the Pinacoteca. Grazio survived his father about thirty years, and was the first president of the Academy of Perugia founded in 1573.        *       *       *       *       * One word to close these notes about the painters of the Umbrian school. Seek out the painters in the places where they painted. Go to Spoleto for the works of Lo Spagna, to Gubbio for the masterpiece of Nelli, to Spello for Pinturicchio, to Foligno for the early men who have not even names. Go in May to Montefalco, when all the green of Umbrian angels' wings is in the lanes which lead to these. Learn by heart the Umbrian landscape if you wish to really love and understand the spirit of Umbrian art. The Pinacoteca of Perugia serves only as a backbone for the genuine study.[103] CHAPTER XI _The Museum,[104] and Tomb of the Volumnii_ Having traced the first Etruscan walls and seen the tomb of the Volumnii, a note of sombre and half melancholy interest will inevitably have been struck upon our mind whilst trying to realise the lives of those mysterious people who created these things and left these dumb indications--dumb, because the language is so dead--upon the country where they lived and died. This note is of course by no means confined to the mind of the passing traveller. It is the people of the place itself who feel it most, and in Perugia, thanks to their efforts, we have, in the museum at the University, a very complete, if only a small collection of the relics of Etruscan civilization as found in the immediate neighbourhood. In a small book written by Signor Lupatelli upon the growth of the museum, we read that the noble families of the place have always loved to trace their earliest ancestors by carefully collecting any sarcophagi or other relics which they found upon their lands. In this way the Museum has been formed, and a crowd of tombs, laid open by the plough or winter rains, have been preserved with all their treasures in them.[105] The study of the Etruscans is, after all, the study of the dead, and an Etruscan Museum has about it all the mysterious atmosphere of the tomb. What barrier greater, what ocean more profound, than that between ourselves and this dead people! Their tombs, their busts, their playthings and inscriptions seem to chill the very air around them. Ordinary people, not students of archæology, must face this fact quite boldly and come prepared to plunge head foremost into a very chilly atmosphere if they wish to learn about the ancient Etruscans. The present writers are bound to confess, that, on glad spring mornings, they have turned from the sarcophagi and the bronzes and terra-cotta vases in the cases to look with undisguised delight through the windows of the museum and up beyond to the brown roofs of the wicked old mediæval city opposite. The Duomo with all the blood upon its steps, the Piazza with all its passionate and burning history, seemed to them more real, more sympathetic, than the uneventful countenances, the harmless funereal urns, of this quiet race of men, who lived and died over one thousand years before our era.      "Les Tyrenes," says M. Andre Lefevre, "durant leur longue      domination _sont restes des etrangers, c'est ce qui explique      pourquoi leur langue et leurs dieux ont disparu avec leur      puissance_, et pourquoi nous sommes reduits a fouiller leurs      tombeaux pour connaitre leur vie. C'est de leurs demeures      funeraires que nous exhumons aujourd'hui leurs industries, leurs      arts, leurs festins, leurs danses, leurs jeux, leurs pompeuses      ceremonies triomphales, et leurs nuptiales, et aussi leur courte      philosophie faite de fatalisme et d'insouciance." [Illustration: VIA DELLA PERA UNDER THE AQUEDUCT ON THE WAY TO THE UNIVERSITY] It is probable that when the Rasenae first arrived in central Italy, they were still an almost barbarous nation, and that their arts and civilization were developed later in their northern settlements, in Tuscany and Umbria. They seem to have adopted little from the races who preceded them in Italy, though some say that they learned the art of statuary from these still more mysterious people; but, being, as we know, themselves a sea-faring nation they may have taken their first conceptions of art from the Carthaginians and Phoenicians, and in this way they might easily have come in contact with the art of Egypt and of Carthage. But by far the strongest influence was that of Greece. This they perhaps felt first in Greece itself, and later through their contact with Greek settlers in Italy.        *       *       *       *       * The Etruscans were a receptive people; they easily grasped a new idea, and carried it out with careful precision, though with rounded edges, so to speak. The spirit of the inspiration of pure art is lacking in their work. They were excellent craftsmen, and Rome is said to have learned certain points in the uses of casting metal and in masonry from Etruscan artisans. They were also an agricultural people, who did much towards improving the soil wherever they settled. The Etruscans were a very religious, or at least a superstitious race, full of faith in augury, constantly consulting natural oracles, such as the flight of birds and variations of the atmosphere, and, like the Greeks, they had their household gods or _lares_. The Medusa's head is for ever recurring in their monuments and on their house-doors. Having some strong belief in the immortality of the human soul, they crowded their dead with gifts, putting their most elaborate work upon the tombs, and giving to the corpse all the necessaries for a long journey to a distant land, or for a possible reawakening. They had different modes of burial. Usually the body was burned, but sometimes--and we have admirable instances of this in the Perugian Museum--it was simply buried in a stone sarcophagus. Women were respected and held a high position in society. This fact is clearly shown by their prominence upon the tombs, where they sit side by side with their husbands, as they were probably in the habit of doing at their feasts. The toilet was also respected, and the dead took as many pots of balsam to the grave as they took tear-bottles. The richer bodies have a wonderful array of dressing-table nicknacks at their head and feet, and the loveliest and most careful work in the whole museum is that upon the hand-mirrors (see Case 12, Room vi.), which were also probably laid in the tomb of the beloved dead.        *       *       *       *       * The chief interest in this museum of Perugia is the wealth of its inscriptions. The passages are lined with them, and a catalogue or dictionary has been made of them. The Etruscans lived side by side with the Romans and the Greeks, and often we find inscriptions written in both languages upon one tomb; yet, though the two latter peoples were the greatest scholars of the world, the Etruscan language is dead to us for all practical purposes; and the longest Etruscan inscription which is known--the pride of the Perugian Museum--is little better than a blank wall to all who look to it for purposes of study.[106] The Etruscans lived luxurious lives, but their race ran long upon the soil of Italy. As far as it can be traced, their rule, or at least their occupation, lasted for about twelve centuries. By the beginning of the Christian era they were already dying out. M. Andre Lefevre gives the following final summing up of the influence of the Etruscans upon the greater nation which gradually took their place:--      "Bien que, meme aux temps de leur plus grande puissance ils n'aient      pu imposer ni leur langue ni leurs dieux a des peuples etablis      depuis mille ans sur le sol Italien, leur part n'en a pas moins ete      considerable dans la civilisation Latine. Leur influence a ete      moindre sur les hommes que sur les choses, sur l'esprit que sur les      formes exterieures, ceremonielles et rituelles,--qui, a leur tour,      affectent les institutions et les moeurs. Ils ont appris aux      Romains a batir des maisons et des temples, a ordonner les festins,      les processions, les pompes triomphales et les jeux sanglants du      cirque. Les meubles, les sieges, les statues, les licteurs, le      costume, la bulle d'or des enfants patriciens, sont aussi d'origine      Etrusque. Enfin, ils ont ajoute aux superstitions deja si      nombreuses des Latins et des Sabins la science, si ce n'est pas      profaner un tel mot, la science augurale, elevee au rang      d'institution politique, perpetuant ainsi, au sein d'une      civilisation avancee, les plus niaises pratiques de la sauvagerie      la plus infinie." As it would have been impossible in the slight scope of this small book to give any detailed account of the different objects in the Perugian museum, we have thought it wiser to offer the above sketch of the Etruscans themselves, adding only some promiscuous notes about the collections for those who care to read them as they pass through the different rooms. The new Catalogue by Signor Donati, the profound works of Count Conestabile and Signor Vermiglioli, and the delightful chapter in Dennis' _Etruria_ contain all the information that a genuine student will desire. ROOM II. CASE A.      No. 5. A Medusa's head in terra-cotta; exquisite and of unusually      careful workmanship. This head was probably one of those plaques or      tablets which were put up by the Etruscans over the lintel of their      house-doors to keep away the evil spirits. The Medusa is commonly      used in this way, and we find her constantly in tombs and other      places. Her face is usually calm, and often lovely, though in this      instance it is calculated to strike terror, as well as admiration,      into the mind of any witch or evil spirit. Beside it are two      tablets of the same sort, but much coarser in treatment and design,      and apparently worked under Egyptian influences.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 12. Some charming pieces of Etruscan glass; small tear and      balsam bottles; also some larger bottles, square in form. These      latter were probably used for medicines. Their chief interest lies      in the fact that they bear the stamp of their Etruscan makers.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 6. A row of terra-cotta _pateræ_, such as the dead hold in      their hands on tombs.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 9. A plateful of little glass balls, which shine like handfuls      of the most lustrous emeralds and opals in the dim light of the      Museum. These were used as counters by the Etruscans in their games      of dice, and it is thought that they were put into the graves of      habitual gamblers, so that the soul of the dead man, during its      passage to eternity, should not be denied the consolation of its      favourite diversion.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 27. Some beautiful fragments of feet, heads, and arms. It has      been supposed that the Etruscans often made whole statues of wood      or of some such cheap material, only giving to the extremities the      careful work required by terra-cotta. Hence these apparently      disconnected relics. CASES B. AND C.      Most of the objects in this case came from Chiusi and are made of      the black ware called _bucchero_. Some are Etruscan, some of an      even earlier origin. All along the top of the case are some quite      simple cinerary urns of a different form to the vases inside the      cases, which latter were designed more for decoration in rich men's      houses.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 5. Two beautiful trays or toilet tables belonging to the      Etruscan ladies. Looking at these one seems to understand the      elaborate wigs on the heads of those ladies who smile upon the tops      of their sarcophagi. Several objects in Case D. explain them      further.      No. 4. A lovely line of graceful vases, good illustrations of the      imitative power of the Etruscans. Not only the forms, but even the      shining texture of the Grecian bronze, is here copied in      _bucchero_.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 8. These vases are the work of those people who preceded the      Etruscans in Umbria. The forms are simple, the patterns purely      geometrical. CASE D      Nos. 2, 3. Some quite common earthenware urns for the ashes of the      poor who could neither afford tombs nor inscriptions. On one or two      of these a name is scratched in rough black paint, probably with      the finger, and as a last token to the dead from someone who had      loved him.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 7. Some earthenware bottles corresponding to the beautiful      glass ones in Case A: those in earthenware were used for the tombs      of the poor. ROOM III. SARCOPHAGI.      This room has a selection of the most interesting Sarcophagi in the      museum. The corridors outside, and the staircase also, are filled      with other specimens of more or less interest.      There is always a certain monotony in a collection of Etruscan      tombs or sarcophagi, and the ordinary person wearies easily of the      recumbent figures which lie so stolidly in effigy upon the lids of      their own burial urns, with an expression of comfortable      contentment on their somewhat unexciting and uneventful      countenances. They seem, one and all of them, like persons who have      fallen asleep on peaceful days with easy consciences,--persons      whose hope of heaven is as slight as their fear of hell. They are,      most of them, middle-aged, the pathos of old age, the hope and the      passion of youth, is lacking in their faces. Their charm is to be      sought in their extreme repose.      There are several forms of tombs in the Perugian collection, that      with the recumbent figures on the lid being probably the one used      by the richer and more prosperous families. With few exceptions the      work on the sarcophagi is rather coarse--a singular and persistent      monotony of subject is displayed. The simpler forms have either a      rose or a Medusa on their front panels, the more elaborate are      ornamented with subjects from the Greek mythology, which seem to      clash at times with the conventional figures on their lids. The      story of Iphigenia is a favourite theme for the sarcophagi of      women.      On those of men, battles and boar-hunts figure largely, the labours      of Hercules too, and fights with the Amazons. It is probable that      these cases were kept in stock, and that when one was needed, the      order was simply given to add a face, a portrait face of man or      woman, to the figure, and sometimes an inscription. Most of the      figures hold the familiar _pateræ_ in their hand, others clasp      their long and heavy necklaces, some of them carry a flower--a      lotus, maybe, or a rose.      There was one quite different form of burial, when the whole body      was preserved in a stone sarcophagus. Sometimes the corpse must      have first undergone some kind of disintegration in the earth, as,      in one or two cases, we find the bones gathered together in a small      urn, into which the whole body could never have been pushed. At      other times it was stretched full length in its long stone case.      Infinitely pathetic is the figure of an Etruscan lady in the      corridor. There she lies just as they found her, exposed to the      most casual observer, with all the requisites for an exquisite      toilet upon the resurrection morning: her hot-water can, her      _strigil_, her looking-glass, her pins, the money to pay her      passage across the river to Eternity--nay, even the little metal      weights she wore to keep her long straight skirts in order--all      laid out carefully beside her, and nothing of the beauty left      beyond her white and shining teeth.             *       *       *       *       *      Faint traces of colour linger on some of these sarcophagi. Note No.      8. The hair of the Medusa is painted a delicate lilac hue, and the      acanthus leaves which encircle it are blue like the sky in spring      time.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 23. An exception to the usual design of Greek mythology. The      defence of a city--dare we say of Perugia--is here depicted. The      men are fighting beneath the walls; and in the towers above, a row      of valiant ladies are preparing to crush them with large and heavy      stones.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 30. These much smaller sarcophagi are made of terra cotta and      come from Chiusi. In many of them the dead are represented in a new      way; they have fallen asleep wrapped in long thin veils which cover      the entire figure. ROOM IV. CASE A.      No. 9. Some good specimens of Etruscan helmets, one of them with      flaps of iron to protect the ears of the warriors. We learn clearly      in this room that the Etruscans wore elaborate armour--helmets,      belts, greaves, and bronze and iron spear-heads being plentifully      represented. CASE B.      No. 31. _Pempobolo_ or _graffio_--an instrument used for stirring      the bodies of the dead as they burned, and for raking in the ashes      afterwards.             *       *       *       *       *      No. 35. _Cottabu._ This strange looking implement was probably used      for a kind of game practised at Etruscan feasts. It is supposed      that at the end of a feast, when the guests grew merry, a toast was      proposed, and that a glass was put on the tray at the top of the      pole just under the little deity, and then carried round the room.      The broader plate below was put to catch the wine as it fell with      the swinging of this most ungainly instrument. CASE D.      Nos. 10 to 33, 40 to 60. A collection of small metal images, Lari,      or household gods, most of them very Greek in treatment, some of      them archaic.      Nos. 34 to 40. A collection of lead missiles for slings. These are      inscribed with words of the most marked abuse designed for the      enemy. On one of them is written: (in Latin characters) "For thy      right eye"--the sort of naive thing a schoolboy might design. ROOM V.      "As beautiful pottery like that of Vulci and Tarquinii is very      rarely found at Perugia, it seems probable that it was not      manufactured on the spot," writes Dennis. And if one has seen the      various other local Etruscan Museums in Italy, one will feel      decidedly disappointed in the vase-room at Perugia. One or two      interesting points may however be noted. It is strange to mark the      difference between the two separate classes of vases, between the      genuine Greek work, which the Etruscans had the good taste to      prize, and that of their own imitations of it. Note Nos. 3, 5, 14,      all of which are probably Etruscan copies from real Greek vases.      They are like the imitative sketches of children, lacking in      understanding and in feeling, and pathetic in their clumsy failure.      Nos. 7, 8, 10, and 12, are all specimens probably of real Greek      work.      No. 22. A fine terra-cotta vase--probably genuine Etruscan      work--with four heads of Bacchus at the base. ROOM VI.      The gems of the museum may be said to have been gathered together      in this room, and the object which at once attracts one on entering      is the large sarcophagus of an Etruscan gentleman and his evil      genius, or Fate, which stands by the east window. Dennis has an      admirable description of it: "An Etruscan of middle age," he says,      "is reclining in the usual costume and attitude of the banquet,      with a bossed phiala in his left hand, and his right resting on his      knee. At his feet squats a hideous old woman, stunted and deformed,      whose wings show her to be a demon. She seizes one of his toes with      her right hand and grasps his right wrist with her left. (Some      authorities say she is feeling the pulse of the dying man.) She      turns her head to look at him, yet he appears quite unconscious of      her presence. She doubtless represents the Moira or Fate, whose      touch deprives him of life. The monument is from Chiusi, and of the      fetid limestone of that district. Both heads are moveable, and the      bodies hollow, proving that this, which looks like the lid of a      sarcophagus, is itself a cinerary urn."      No. 18. An Etruscan helmet of the finest work.      No. 14. Two exquisite sarcophagi differing in every way from the      one described above. So flowery is the work upon them that one      scarcely realises to what dark ages they belong. The terra-cotta      seems just baked, the paint is sticking to it. The griffins and sea      horses, the portraits on the lids, all are most exquisitely      treated.      No. 12. The wonderful mirrors in this case have been admirably      described by Dennis (see page 428). The one with the story of Helen      engraved on it (No. 11) is quite one of the loveliest pieces of      work ever discovered in the soil of Etruria.      No. 3. A sarcophagus with the most delightful procession depicted      upon its panels. There has been a good deal of discussion about the      subject represented. Some say it is a migration, or a colony going      forth to fulfil the vow of sacred spring; others that it is a      procession going to a sacrifice. Dennis suggests another      interpretation. "It seems to me," he says, "much more satisfactory      to suppose that it is a return from a successful foray. There are      captives bound, and made to carry their own property for the      benefit of their victors; their women behind, not bound, but      accompanying their lords, their faithful dog following them into      captivity, their beasts of burden laden with their gods; their      weapons and agricultural implements carried by one of the guards      and their cattle driven on by the rest." The sacrifice is the most      probable interpretation, for there is something solemn and sinister      about the composition. Not only criminals but also human victims      are being taken along by the fascinating but inexorable guards. The      treatment of the figures is very archaic, and yet it is realistic.      The long-eared goats, the horses and the mules step forward with an      engaging regularity. Their shepherds or their leaders turn, as such      people invariably do turn, to gesticulate and to explain among      themselves upon the way. The two side panels represent      banquet-scenes, banquets, we may imagine, which were given to      commemorate whatever event the procession itself was leading to.      The work on this Sarcophagus has been ascribed to the fifth century      before Christ.      No. 8. Under a glass shade, a strange little figure in bronze about      14 inches high, representing Hygiea, the Goddess of Health      (daughter of Æsculapius) or, as some say, the Genius of Long Life.      Smaller figure under same glass represents Telesphorus, the genius      of convalescence, seated, entirely enveloped in a cloak. ROOM VII.      has a rather miscellaneous collection of later Roman and Etruscan      work, also some objects from Cyprus.      No. 36. A little tomb where the door is left half open, the key      hung up upon a peg, perhaps to show that the spirit is free to      wander in and out. ROOMS VIII. AND IX.      contain the private collection of Count Guadabassi collected by him      throughout a life-time and from very different places, and left to      the town at his death with the request that their original      arrangement should be preserved. Thus the impression of the whole      is somewhat distracting to a student. One of the greatest treasures      of the Museum is in ROOM VIII. CASE H.      A very beautiful Etruscan mirror with Bacchus, or a Bacchante,      riding on a panther upon the cover. Two good mirrors in the same      case, and a fine Etruscan gold ornament, with figures delicately      traced upon it. [Illustration: ETRUSCAN MIRROR IN GUADABASSI COLLECTION]      To the right of the door, a white marble _oscillum_ or slab, with      the figure of Archimenes on one side, and on the other the portrait      of a juggler taming snakes. This was probably put up outside the      house or booth of a juggler, and served as his sign. CASE L.      Some good bits of Etruscan jewellery. One necklace with a large bit      of glass like an opal, set in gold and precious stones; also some      very delicate Etruscan earrings, with golden nets of filagree on a      gold ground. CASE H.      Some specimens of Etruscan money. The pieces were valued according      to their weight, and form seemed quite a secondary consideration. CASE P.      A collection of _strigils_, or brass scrapers, to be used after the      bath. Some of these were evidently used as ornaments (hung from an      elegant bracelet or ring), which leads one to imagine that the bath      was a rarity with the Etruscans, and the _strigil_ an object of      luxury and decoration rather than of frequent use. ROOM IX. CASE G.      A fine collection of gems. A little tomb, with pent-roof and tiles      in the shape of violet leaves (unnumbered).