It represents a boy taking a thorn from his foot. His attitude is natural and graceful, and the purity and simplicity of its style places it on an equality with works of the best period of sculpture. The expression of the face is that of perfect absorption in what he is doing, and is given with great skill and truthfulness. The treatment of the hair is like that of the archaic period, and there will always be some critics who cannot think that such perfection could exist in the sculpture of what we call the Alexandrian age. CHAPTER III. ANCIENT ITALIAN SCULPTURE. Ancient Italian sculpture was essentially Greek in its spirit, and originated with the Etruscans, a very ancient people in Italy. There are traces of an Oriental influence in the art of Etruria--a suggestion of the sculpture of Egypt and Assyria, just as there is in Greek archaic art; but the real feeling and spirit of it is Greek, and must have been borrowed from Greece in some way. The different theories and opinions about the Etruscans and their origin do not concern us here; we have to do only with their sculpture as it is seen in the remnants of it now in existence. In the beginning the Etruscans made their statues of clay; marble was very rarely used. Later on they learned the art of working in bronze, and carried it to great perfection. Their bronze works were so numerous that in B.C. 295 Fulvius Flaccus is said to have carried away two thousand statues from Volsinii alone. Some of their figures were colossal, but the greater number were statuettes. There are some Etruscan bronzes remaining in the museums of Europe. The Etruscans always were copyists rather than original artists; but they copied such excellent things, and did it so well, that their productions are by no means to be despised, and the skill which they acquired caused their bronze and metal work to be highly valued, even in Athens itself. The Etruscans were physically a more luxurious people than the Greeks, as may be seen in the pictures of them which still remain in the tombs of Corneto and other places. They gave much attention to luxury of living, and the richly decorated goblets and other articles of table furniture which they made may be seen in the Vatican and British Museum, while the delicate and artistic gold work of their personal ornaments is still much admired and copied diligently.