. Etruscan tomb paintings, Their subjects and significance. whose head is muffled in a sack, is vainly tryingto disentangle himself from the leash and to hit the dog witha club. The explanation of this exciting and brutal contest,to which no parallel can be found in Greek art, is evidentlythat Phersu tries to make his dog bite his antagonist to deathbefore the latter can get his head out of the sack and hit manand dog with his club. If the club-bearer succeeds in freeinghimself from the sack and the dog, Phersu has only onechance : to run away. As runner, he has his legs stiffenedwith thongs,
. Etruscan tomb paintings, Their subjects and significance. whose head is muffled in a sack, is vainly tryingto disentangle himself from the leash and to hit the dog witha club. The explanation of this exciting and brutal contest,to which no parallel can be found in Greek art, is evidentlythat Phersu tries to make his dog bite his antagonist to deathbefore the latter can get his head out of the sack and hit manand dog with his club. If the club-bearer succeeds in freeinghimself from the sack and the dog, Phersu has only onechance : to run away. As runner, he has his legs stiffenedwith thongs, and in the much damaged fresco on the leftmain wall of the tomb we see the flight of Phersu (fig. 5) and(not reproduced) the club-bearer pursuing him. They areseparated by a pair of pugilists who are boxing to the accom-paniment of flutes, again an evidence of Etruscan indifferenceto incongruities in the composition. The escaping Phersuis painted alone in another tomb at Corneto, the Tomba delPulcinella, the name of which is derived from this figure, but. a o < I—I O
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjecttombs, bookyear1922
