des, king of Lycia, expended almost
all the wealth of his people owing to his passion for a Venus by the
hand of Praxiteles? Did not Attalus do the same? who without an
afterthought expended more than 6000 sesterces to have a picture of
Bacchus painted by Aristides. This picture was placed by Lucius
Mummius, with great pomp to adorn Rome, in the temple of Ceres. But
although the nobility of this art was so highly valued, it is
uncertain to whom it owes its origin. As I have already said, it is
found in very ancient times among the Chaldeans, some attribute the
honour to the Ethiopians, while the Greeks claim it for themselves.
Besides this there is good reason for supposing that the Tuscans may
have had it earlier, as our own Leon Batista Alberti asserts, and
weighty evidence in favour of this view is supplied by the marvellous
tomb of Porsena at Chiusi, where not long ago some tiles of
terracotta were found under the ground, between the walls of the
Labyrinth, containing some figures in half-relief, so excellent and
so delicately fashioned that it is easy to see that art was not in
its infancy at that time, for to judge by the perfection of these
specimens it was nearer its zenith than its origin. Evidence to the
same purport is supplied every day by the quantity of pieces of red
and black Aretine vases, made about the same time, to judge by the
style, with light carvings and small figures and scenes in
bas-relief, and a quantity of small round masks, cleverly made by the
masters of that age, and which prove the men of the time to have been
most skilful and accomplished in that art. Further evidence is
afforded by the statues found at Viterbo at the beginning of the
pontificate of Alexander VI., showing that sculpture was valued and
had advanced to no small state of perfection in Tuscany. Although the
time when they were made is not exactly known, yet from the style of
the figures and from the manner of the tombs and of the buildings, no
less than by the inscriptions in Tuscan letters, it may be
conjectured with great reason that they are of great antiquity, and
that they were made at a time when such things were highly valued.
But what clearer evidence can be desired than the discovery made in
our own day in the year 1554 of a bronze figure representing the
Chimaera of Bellerophon, during the excavation of the fortifications
and walls of Arezzo. This figure exhibits the perfection of the art
attained by the Tuscans.