Some Greeks held that the Etruscans were a branch of the Pelasgians, aboriginal inhabitants of the Aegean region, others such as Virgil thought they came from Lydia, a kingdom of western Anatolia. The Greek master historian Herodotus also ascribes the origin of the Etruscans to Lydiastylistic influences from the Greeks on Etruscan Archaic sculpture include the Archaic smile and the stylized patterning of hair and clothing. However, Etruscan sculpture was distinct. The figures had egg-shaped heads and almond eyes, were clothed, and their bodies had a higher degree of plasticity.
Etruscan art styles are relatively unfamiliar to modern readers, compared to Greek and Roman art, for a number of reasons. Etruscan art forms are classed in general as belonging to the Archaic period in the Mediterranean, their earliest forms roughly similar in period to the Geometric period in Greece (900–700 BCE).
