Various circumstances prove, that the art of making statues was commonly practised in Italy at an early period. The statue in the Cattle Market[1] is said to have been consecrated to Hercules by Evander; it is called the triumphal Hercules, and, on the occasion of triumphal processions, is arrayed in triumphal vestments. And then besides, King Numa dedicated the statue of the two-faced Janus;[2] a deity who is worshipped as presiding over both peace and war. The fingers, too, are so formed as to indicate three hundred and sixty-five days,[3] or in other words, the year; thus denoting that he is the god of time and duration.

There are also Etruscan statues dispersed in various parts of the world, which beyond a doubt were originally made in Etruria. I should have supposed that these had been the statues only of divinities, had not Metrodorus[4] of Scepsis, who had his surname from his hatred to the Roman name,[5] reproached us with having pillaged the city of Volsinii for the sake of the two thousand statues which it contained. It appears to me a singular fact. that although the origin of statues was of such great antiquity in Italy, the images of the gods, which were consecrated to them in their temples, should have been formed either of wood or of earthenware,[6] until the conquest of Asia, which introduced luxury among us. It will be the best plan to enlarge upon the origin of the art of expressing likenesses, when we come to speak of what the Greeks call "plastice;"[7] for the art of modelling was prior to that of statuary. This last, however, has flourished to such an extraordinary degree, that an account of it would fill many volumes, if we were desirous of making an extensive acquaintance with the subject: but as to learning everything connected with it, who could do it?