FIG. 82. ETRUSCAN MIRROR
FIG. 83. GREEK MIRROR AND COVER
The bronze boxes known as cistae are Etruscan. Some of those which have been found in tombs are very large and are elegantly decorated with engraved scenes. They seem to have been a kind of dressing-case, for holding all of a lady’s toilet equipment. A small one was included in the tomb furniture of an Etruscan woman which is shown in Case F in the Sixth Room.
Bronze spatulae were useful in a variety of ways for mixing and applying the cosmetics which were employed so constantly by Greek and Roman ladies ([fig. 79]). An instrument corresponding to our medicine droppers are the dipping-rods of bronze or glass. They could be inserted into bottles or jars to take out a small quantity of liquid. A disk about half way up the rod kept it from slipping into the bottle ([fig. 80]). Examples of both utensils will be found in Case 5.
Ancient mirrors were as inferior to the modern in power to reflect as they are superior in beauty. Disks of highly polished metal, usually bronze, were employed for this purpose, for the process of making a mirror by backing a sheet of glass is not older than the fourteenth century. Sometimes the mirror consists of a simple disk, plain or ornamented on one side with an engraving or a design in relief, or again it is made in one piece with a long handle or with a short tang to be inserted into a bone or ivory handle, or it is provided with a ring. The disk is often protected with a cover which bears the principal decoration. Etruscan mirrors most frequently have handles but no covers, and are decorated with engraved scenes, usually taken from Greek mythology ([fig. 82]). Greek mirrors are of two types: either a simple disk without a handle, fitting into a cover, usually ornamented with a relief ([fig. 83]), or a disk supported on a stand, often in the form of a human figure ([fig. 81]). In Case A in the Fourth Room are two fine examples of the latter, two stands from which the mirrors have been lost, and a mirror with a cover decorated with a woman’s head in relief. Another charming stand of Etruscan workmanship is in Case H in the Third Room. In Case A in the Fifth Room are four very beautiful Greek mirrors of the fourth century, and in Case C in the Sixth Room are examples of both Greek and Etruscan types. A pretty terracotta statuette of a lady using a mirror is in Case G in the same room; she is arranging her hair while balancing her mirror on her knee.
