Earrings of the finest period bear a striking similarity to Greek
ornaments of the same date. The first type is penannular in shape, one
end terminating in the head of a bull or lion, and the other in a point
which pierces the ear. To this ring is next attached a pendant. In the
third type the hook which pierces the ear is hidden by a rosette or disc
from which hang tassel-shaped appendages, and in the middle between them
small animals enamelled white, such as the geese, swans, and cocks in
the British Museum, and the peacocks and doves in the Campana Collection
in the Louvre. Earrings of another class are saddle-shaped, formed like
an imperfect cylinder, one end of which is closed by an open-work rose
cap, which completely enclosed the lobe of the wearer's ear. The latest
Etruscan earrings, of pendant form, are mostly of great size and in the
shape of convex bosses.
In examining the very primitive necklaces and other ornaments that have
been discovered in various tombs in Italy, especially in Etruria and
Latium, the extraordinary abundance of amber at once attracts attention.
The amber of this ancient jewellery of Italy has accessories, sometimes
of gold, and more frequently of silver, or else of an alloy of gold and
silver termed _electrum_. A noteworthy early necklace of these materials
found at Præneste, and now in the British Museum, is composed of amber
cylinders, and pendent vases alternately of amber and electrum (Pl. VI,
2).
Though the majority of Etruscan necklaces aim at largeness of display,
some are as delicate and refined as the best Greek ornaments. From a
round plaited chain in the British Museum hangs a single ornament--the
mask of a faun whose hair, eyebrows, and wavy beard are worked with fine
granulation; another pendant is a negro's head on which the granules are
disposed with exquisite skill to represent the short woolly hair (Pl.
VI, 5). Finer even than either of these--and a remarkable example of the
combination of the two processes of filigree and granulation--is a neck
pendant in the form of a mask of Dionysos (Bacchus) in the Campana
Collection in the Louvre. On this the curls of hair over the forehead
are represented by filigree spirals, while the beard is worked entirely
in the granulated method.
A large number of necklaces have evidently been produced simply for
sepulchral purposes, for they are composed, like the majority of crowns,
of the thinnest bracteate gold in the shape of rosettes and studs strung
together.
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