Still more even than the rigid adherence to the style traditionally transmitted in the older branches of art, the sadly inferior handling of those branches that came into vogue afterwards, particularly of sculpture in stone and of copper-casting as applied to coins, shows how quickly the spirit of Etruscan art evaporated.

Equally instructive are the painted vases, which are found in so enormous numbers in the later Etruscan tombs.

Had these come into current use among the Etruscans as early as the metal plates decorated with contouring or the painted terra-cottas, beyond doubt they would have learned to manufacture them at home in considerable quantity, and of a quality at least relatively good; but at the period at which this luxury arose, the power of independent reproduction wholly failed--as the isolated vases provided with Etruscan inscriptions show--and they contented themselves with buying instead of making them.
North Etruscan and South Etruscan Art But even within Etruria there appears a further remarkable distinction in artistic development between the southern and northern districts.
It is South Etruria, particularly in the districts of Caere, Tarquinii, and Volci, that has preserved the great treasures of art which the nation boasted, especially in frescoes, temple decorations, gold ornaments, and painted vases.

Northern Etruria is far inferior; no painted tomb, for example, has been found to the north of Chiusi.
The most southern Etruscan cities, Veii, Caere, and Tarquinii, were accounted in Roman tradition the primitive and chief seats of Etruscan art; the most northerly town, Volaterrae, with the largest territory of all the Etruscan communities, stood most of all aloof from art While a Greek semi-culture prevailed in South Etruria, Northern Etruria was much more marked by an absence of all culture.

The causes of this remarkable contrast may be sought partly in differences of nationality--South Etruria being largely peopled in all probability by non-Etruscan elements( 42)--partly in the varying intensity of Hellenic influence, which must have made itself very decidedly felt at Caere in particular.