Art: Etruria Revisited

It is useless to look in Etruscan things for "uplift." If yon want uplift, go to the Greek and the Gothic. If you want mass, go to the Roman. But if you love the odd spontaneous forms . . . go to the Etruscans.

—D. H. Lawrence For centuries the Etruscans have been the shadowy forerunners of the Romans.

Only burial tombs and a few walls remain of their once-sumptuous cities, their ancient Greek script is largely undeciphered, most of their art has been dispersed and lost. But in their heyday, from 700 to 400 B.C., these ancient, vigorous people controlled most of...

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