THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/ofstatuarysculptOOdall OF TATUA1Y AND CUJLPTURE AMONG THE ANTIENTS. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF SPECIMENS PRESERVED IN ENGLAND. By JAMES DALLAWAY, M.B. F. A. S. LONDON : PRINTED BY T. BENSLEY AND SON, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, FOR J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1816. THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY TO THE READER. THE objections which may be alleged against the painter of his own portrait, or the writer of his own life, cannot be urged with equal justice against an author who, with a view to explanation, describes his own book. Without any practical knowledge of the art of which I may be the humble historian, my parti- cular taste j'or it zoas first excited by a perusal of many authors on the subject ; and afterwards considerably increased by an examination of many of the originals, which a short residence at Florence and Rome enabled me to enjoy. I am not unwilling to acknowledge with Cicero " ta- metsi, non tarn mult um in istis rebus intelligo, quam mult a vidi." From a persuasion, that there are some, par- ticularly the younger amateurs, who would wil- lingly be spared the trouble of research, or who may require an account of curious and expensive volumes, beyond their reach, I offer to them my memoranda, as mere scantlings, by the help of which a more complete structure might be raised. iv Inaccuracies will unavoidably occur in similar compilations, and some errors may be detected which have escaped my revisal, but for these let me offer that apology which my learned readers will admit, when they consider the variety of the materials, but which, I trust, will not deter the younger amateur from the enjoyment of similar studies. The very important additions lately made to the Townley collection in the British Museum, will, it may be hoped, encourage a taste for sculpture in this country ; and these remarks, elementary and historical, may not be unseasonably offered to the public. As to the graphic outlines which accompany this work, it will be candidly allowed, that, simple as they are, they may communicate an idea of form which no verbal description can reach ; and in this instance they are the only medium between engravings of incompatible expense, and a total omission of necessary elucidation. They are added merely to serve the purpose of diagrams. In the hope of disarming severe criticism, I mention that the etchings are not the work of a professional artist,- but are contributed by friend-? ship and genius. J. D. May, 1816. GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORK. SECTION I. History of the Invention and Practice of Sculpture and Statuary in Greece, Egypt, and Etruria, &c. p. 1-18. 30. Definition of Beauty and Principles of Taste, p. 31 — 52, including the Arts of Design in Greece. Bas- reliefs, 52 — 55. Terra cotta, 56 — 58. Hermaean Sta- tues and Busts, 59, 60. Education of Artists, 62, 63. Description and Size of Statues, p. 64 — 68. Value and Number of Statues, 69, 70. SECTION II. Sculptors and Statuaries of Greece, p. 70—74, to the destruction of Athens. Schools of Sculpture, 74 — 134. Daedalus, 74. Smilis, 75. Rhcecus, 75. Telecles and Theodorus, 76. Malas, 77. Dipoenus and Scillis, 78. Bupalus, 79- Dameas, 81. Pythagoras, 83. Phidias, 86—95. Polycletus, 95—99. Alcamenes, 99. Agora- critus, 100. Naucydes, 101. Scopas, 102. Ctesilaus, 107. Praxiteles, 111. Lysippus, 118— 122. Chares, 122. Polydorus and Athenodorus, 125. Apollonius and Tau- riscus, 127. Decline of the Art, 133—138. SECTION III. Sculptors established at Rome, 140. Roman Sculp- ture in the Consular Age, and from the Augustan to the Decline of the Art, 140 — 154. Sculpture at Rome by Greek Artists, 154 — 158. Roman Sculpture, 159. Por- traits and Domestic Statues, 161. Penates and Lares, 1 63. Genii, 167. Sculpture under the Emperors, 183. Sarcophagi, 184. Triumphal Arches, 183. Historical Columns, large Bacchanalian Vases, and Candelabra, 184. Decline of Sculpture, 189. State of Sculpture, after the removal of the Empire to Constantinople, 189—196. SECTION IV. Of the Discovery of Antique Statues in Italy. M. Aurelius, 205. Torso of Hercules, 206. Laocoon, 208. Antinous, 213. Venus, 214. Hercules and Telephus, 218. Hercules Farnese, 219. Niobe, 221. Apollo Belvidere, 223. Gladiator Borghese, 227. Dying Gla- diator, 228. Venus of the Capitol, 229. Meleager, 230. Discoboli, 231 — 234. Collections of Sculpture and Statuary at Rome, 235 — 241. Materials of Sculp- ture, 242—249. Of Statuary Bronze, 249—257. Resto- ration of Statues, 257—268. Vll SECTION V . Medici Gallery at Florence, 269. Collections of Sta- tues made by the different Princes of Europe, 271. In France, 271. In England, 272. In Spain, 272. In Germany, 272. In Russia, 274. In Sweden, 275. Arun- delian Collection, 275. Dispersion of it, 282. Pembroke Collection, 288 — 29 1. Lord Leicester's Collection at Holkham, and others made at Rome, 292. Restoration of Statues, 294. Gems, 295. Cameos and Intaglios, 296—298. Collections of Gems in England, 299- Bar- barini, or Portland Vase, 300 — 304, Brunswick Vase, 305. SECTION VI. Napoleon Collection restored to Rome, 308. Charles the First, 310. Arundel, 311. Pembroke, 314. Holk- ham, 315. Egremont, 319- Orford, 322. Townley, 324. Strickland, 340. Lansdowne, 341. Weddell, 344. Smith Barry, 347. Duncoinbe, 348. Stowe, 349- Bessborough, 350. Worsley, 351. Blundel, 352. Knole, 384. Mr. Knight's Bronzes, 356. Mr. Hawkins's, 357. Cambridge, 358. Elgin, 359- iEgina, 364. Bassce in Arcadia, 365. SECTION I. Designs raised upon, or indented into, plain Origin of surfaces, were primarily suggested by sha- ^^p^ dow. Modelling in clay succeeded in the progress of art; and gave rise to Sculpture first in wood or ivory, then in bronze, and, lastly, in marble. 3 Bronze was at first rivetted and hammered into a mass, then filed or a Pausan. 1. i. c. 40, and I. i. c. 43, he mentions that the stone statue of Corccbus near Megara was the most ancient he knew of. " Crevitque res in tantum, ut nulla signa statuaeve sine ar- gilla fierent. Quo apparet antiquiorem hanc fuisse scientiam quam fundendi aeris." Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxv. p. 710. Hard. Consult Callistratus Statuar. Descript. fol. edit. Olearii, for the ele- gant and various praise he bestows on the antiant bronzes. T 2 Originof sculptured into shape. Afterwards, by means ^1^1^, of moulds, filled with metal in a state of fusion, statues and bas-reliefs were made, and the ultimate effort of art was that of carving out of a solid block of marble a perfect represen- tation of human and animal forms. Solid gold was, in very rare instances, used as a material of sculpture; 0 it was laminated or plated only upon ivory, marble, or wood. Statues were made of silver and iron/ and even marble was combined with wood, plated with gold. Sculpture, abstractedly speaking, is a simple imitation of form, and has no co- lour. The lights and shadows which are produced by it are regular, feeble or harsh; they are too much or too little broken to suit painting; and therefore not merely in themselves pleasing to the eye. e It is capa- ble of presenting only a single object, in a single action. All that constitutes the ground- work and perfection of Sculpture is con- nected with details of observation either tech- nical or theoretical, which it is very difficult to define clearly, because, on the one hand. c Pausan. 1. iv. c. 31. 1. ix. c. 35. - Id. I. ix. c. 4. & 1. x. c. 1 6. Glaucus the first artist in iron. e Knight on Taste, p. 10p. 3 the language which expresses those ideas is Origin of known and understood only by a few, and, vIl^^Lj on the other, the presence of the objects them- selves is required. It would not have been satisfactory to superstitious men to have cer- tain places dedicated to divinities, excepting there had been a visible form offered to the senses. Statues were therefore made and placed in their temples. In the original re- ligious worship, which passed from the Egyp- tians to the Greeks, the sacred groves and temples did not contain statues. Lucian confirms this fact concerningtheSyrian f deity, and Varro of the ancient Romans. Cecrops, king of Athens, first fabricated a statue among the Greeks, as an object of worship. It was of Minerva. He likewise erected an altar to Jupiter, and gave him the name of ZETD. No monument of Sculpture among the ancient Jews has been preserved, from which any just opinion can be formed of their ta- lents for the arts. The calf erected by them in the Wilderness as an object of adoration, and the ornaments of the arc, are proofs that f " To ■rra./.MiV xxi txo Ar/rfTi'mn a^'ajsi vr^l r^av." T. ii. p. 657. 4 Origin of they were known to them in the days of ^1^!^ Moses. It is probable, that the idols they worshipped, which were the deities of neigh- bouring nations, were exactly similar in point of form and materials. The prophet g Isaiah minutely describes the process of making these images, by carving in wood or stone, or by casting in molten brass. ■ Of the Sculpture of the first inhabitants of Phoenicia there are no remains ; there are some in Abyssinia and Babylon. The Sidonians are praised by Homer. h Diodorus Siculus men- tions, that there were statues of animals painted, so as the more to resemble life; and those of Psolus, Ninus, and Semiramis were of bronze. In examining the ruins of Per- sepolis, sufficient evidence has occurred, that Sculpture was known and practised in Per- e Isaiah xliv. 10. et seq. Exodus xxxii. xxxv. 30. et seq. Moses has recorded the name of Bezaleel, " the most ancient sculptor, who practised his art in the wilderness, which he had probably acquired under an Egyptian master. The calf was Apis, not a real representation of the animal, which was plated with the gold contributed to Aaron. In the common version it is said, that " Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf." Exod. xxxii. 4. h Iliad. ¥ v. 743. " sifst %8ovts iroKvScaSxKoi eu g. As painting, in its origin, made use of one colour only, so sculpture in its first efforts was applied only to clay and wood ; to clay because it was necessary only to mould it in order that it may take any form, and wood as being more easily wrought than stone or marble, and thus were made those rude performances so highly praised by their contemporaries. Even in the days of Pausanias, who travelled in the reign of M. Antoninus, wooden statues of the gods were seen in the most celebrated temples in Greece. Such was the Delphic Apollo given to the Cretans. The statues made of clay were painted of a red colour, to imitate biood, and those of wood (Sycamorus, or the 7 mens Alexandrinus. These monuments of Sculpture rude antiquity were preserved, long after the vL-^L civilization of the same nations, from a super- stitious respect.'" Herodotus says," that the Persians disap- proved of statues, because they did not be- lieve that the gods had the human form, as the Greeks did in those days. In a short time artists arose who ventured to engraft a head upon these blocks, and to distinguish bv features the one from the other. Of this practice, the first instances are of Jupiter, Priapus, and Terminus; and when these types of divinities were multi- plied, and the heads of philosophers and heroes were so placed, that description of statue was called " terminal," or " Hermaean." As these rude statuaries became more skil- ful, the heads acquired an air and character from bolder design and higher finishing; other parts of the body, particularly the arms and feet, were marked out, whilst the trunk re- Egyptian figtree,) were made after the use of marble was known. An absurd mixture of materials was that of joining heads, hands and feet of marble to statues of wood, which prevailed even to the days of Phidias ; — and his Minerva at Plataea was so com- posed. Such were called " Acrolithoi." m Guasco de l'dsage des Statues chez les anciens, p. 70. I. i. " 131. p. 50. 8 Sculpture mained square and unsculptured, or covered lnE^pt^ ^ ^ hard drapery of strait and stiff plaits. The feet were close and united, and the other parts, described as they were, could not sug- gest any idea of action. It is reported by Apollodorus, who had probably seen it, that the Palladium of Troy had the feet closely joined to each other; it was a sitting figure, which Homer says was worshipped by the Trojan women, (Iliad, Z. v. 88,) who placed an offering upon her knees. There are Egyp- tian statues, the character of which is varied according to the age that produced' them." The first approaches nearly in form to the Chinese; the figures of this kind have small eyes and diminutive features. The second " Winkelmann assigns three epoehas to the history cf the arts in Egypt. I. The ancient, to the reign of Cambyses, when Egypt became subject to the Persians. JI. The middle age, when the native Egyptians studied and practised sculpture under the Per- sians and Greeks. Hi. The modern, under Hadrian and his suc- cessors, when the style of imitation was introduced. Carlo Fea has established five periods. I. Before the reign of Sesostris, who (he asserts) introduced a new style. II. Under Sesostris for the space of twenty-four years. The fixing of these two aeras appears to be conjectural. III. From Sesostris to Psammeticus, who ad- mitted the Greeks into Egypt, by whom the manners and taste of the nation were influenced. IV. The style of imitation practised ?t Rome. V. To the time of Theodosius the great, who took away the reliques. Car. Fea is of opinion that the greater part of the marbles, called of the second style, are in fact of this last sera. 9 resembles the Moors in their large full eye, Sculpture thick lip, and flat nose. The third after the sl^^ Alexandrian conquest, partakes of the Gre- cian. That the rudiments of sculpture among the Greeks and Egyptians had a positive re- semblance in the first formation of bodies in their statues, proves no more, than that the original designs were the same in all nations. But, if, at the same period that the Egyptians could effect a certain degree of resemblance to the human form, the Greeks could only make their blocks of marble smooth and square, such inability evinces, that they were not of the Egyptian school of sculpture. Homer's poetical description of the shield of Achilles, 0 the bowl of Helen, and the belt of Hercules p allcw a conjecture, that the art of casting metals had reached a certain de- gree of perfection when the Iliad was com- posed. But no artist of thai day could have completed his ideas. To their contemporary introduction two obstacles occurred; the usage of public wor- ship, and the greater difficulty of one than of the other. As the art of sculptural design was inspired by the desire of representing II. 2. v. 4;s. p Gdyss. r. 10 Sculpture their divinities, the ancients, if the artists ciemthan were unknown, persuaded themselves, that these effigies had fallen down from heaven. To no effort of the painter, even when the walls of temples were adorned with pictures, did they attribute so great a degree of sanc- tity. Considering painting as the more dif- ficult task, because the objects approach nearer to the real appearance of things, they require to be enlivened and made sensible, by the management and easy gradation of light and shade, that, though they are de- picted upon an opake surface, they may pre- sent the reflection of a mirrour. In the re- presentation of nature, the grand requisites are invention, design, and colouring. Sculp- ture is exempt from the last mentioned, the difficulty of which is such as to exceed the talents of the majority of painters. If the Greeks had no knowledge of light and shade before the time of Apollotlorus, 9 the master of Zeuxis, the priority of the invention of sculpture is a plain fact. Painting therefore may be considered as more difficult than sculpture, in the same degree as mere inven- i Plutarch, p.6l6. 11 tion is more easy than execution, after truth Sculpture and nature. One of the chief advantages vlS^ll claimed by sculpture is, that it brings nature embodied to our view, as the object is visible and of a palpable form on all sides, which also includes a difficulty of reaching perfec- tion, from the power given of inspecting it in every point. The painter can correct and efface his faults, whilst those of the statuary are irreparable, and his most promising work may be spoiled by the slightest deviation from his model. The art of sculptural design made a slow progress in Egypt, from the circumstances of their artists never departing from the likeness of the Ethiopic features of the na- tives r to represent ideal beauty, and their having been restricted by their government, which was consolidated with their religion, to one unvarying resemblance of their gods, sacred animals, priests, and monarchs, and lastly from their having been employed in sculpture merely as a trade that they had learned from their fathers, and which they were obliged to follow.' r Eustath. ad Odyss. A. p. N84. Hesych. s Diod. Sic. 1. c. p. 4 1. « Diod. Sic. 1. c. p 68. V2 Sculpture As to the first mentioned, it was insuper- y~0^~^/ able, and therefore they could not regard the art as an imitation of the most perfect forms. How could they, like the Greeks, elevate their minds to ideal beauty, when they possessed none in nature? Nothing is more fatal to true genius than the slavery of imitation, as applied to imperfect models. This torpid state of sculpture must be refer- red to the influence of hierarchy, as the ori- ginal cause." Yet there were two epochs, or rather two manners, to be distinguished in Egyptian sculpture: the first retained its primitive dis- crimination till the annihilation of their an- cient government, which proscribed innova- tion or variety ; nor does it appear that, prior to the conquest of the Egyptians by the Greeks, any memorable alteration had taken place. Perhaps the second manner is not purely Egyptian, but a conceit in some u Plato fie Legibus, 1. ii. " Cette sculpture architectural si je puis m'exprimer ainsi, ne produisit que des figures roides et incapables de sc mouvoir. On decouvre dans ses ouvrages un des principes du beau — le beau n'y est point. On y voit a peine la premiere etincelle du feu qui devroit les aniraer." Recherches sur 1' art Statuaire par Eineric David., p. \1J , Svo. 1S05. Their reverence for the bodies of the dead, precluded them from any ac- quaintance with anatomy. 13 of the Roman emperours, particularly Ha- Sculpture the Egyptian characteristics." In their genuine statues we shall seek in vain for dispositon of parts or attitude, for muscles, veins, or contractions. Their deities are all of them uniform and alike. Whether erect, sitting or kneeling, their backs are con- stantly propped up by a pilaster. The male deities have their hands and arms stretched and closely stuck to their sides, and their feet are not parallel, but in the same line, one advanced before the other.* In the fe- male figures we may observe, in those at least which are upright, that one hand is laid upon the breasts. They are draped, but not a single fold can be discovered ; the clothing is so exactly adapted to the body, that it can be known only by examining the neck and legs. Those of the other sex are naked, ex- cepting a kind of square apron. x It has been said, that in Egypt such was the perfection of the rules for sculpture, that statues were composed of two parts, without any communication between the artists during the work; which parts, when brought together, were found to fit with the greatest exactness. An Antinous, in two pieces, was discovered at Tivoli. The Egyptian bronzes were covered with green ena- mel. Ebony was a common material, from the resemblance of its colour to black basaltes. drian, to have statues in Egypt. 14 Sculpture The Egyptians were ignorant of the art of in Egypt. tsJf & v — v — ' casting statues in metal. That of hardening metal was certainly known to them. Mr. P. Knight has a figure of Jupiter Amnion, sitting, and with the head of a ram. It consists of three pieces of copper beaten to- gether till the tangent surfaces fitted each other, and then hammered and hewn into human or animal shape. They somelimes plated metal upon wood, and wrought in green or black basalt, so hard and brittle a material, that no modern tool will touch it. y Notwithstanding this total failure of at- tempt to imitate the human figure, animals of exquisite workmanship were formed by these sculptors, in which correctness in de- signing the bones and muscles, and even an elegant contour and gradation in every part, will be allowed to exist. No prohibition, which applied to human forms, was extended to those of animals, which circumstance will account for a greater degree of perfection. Their deities likewise consisted of human y D. Select. PL I. The British Museum can now boast a rich and curious col- lection of Egyptian sculpture. The Jupiter Amnion and Osiris in bronze, now in Mr. R. P. Knight's collection, are singular and excellent. 15 parts adapted to animal forms. The Lions Sculpture at the foot or the Capitol, those at the ^-y-^ fountain of the Aqua Felice, and the great Sphynx in the Borghese gardens at Rome, are excellent specimens. In designing their double animals, the Egyptians were more consistent than other nations, and showed more skill in putting them together. For the Sphynx, which is simply a human head attached to the body of a brute, is an in- vention more consonant to the oeconomy of nature, than those of the Greeks or Romans; — a Centaur can scarcely be supposed to have existed with such a repetition of parts, all the licence of fable being allowed. De- viations from the first manner had not fully prevailed during the Persian dynasty, but belong to the age of Alexander and the Ptolemies, who introduced the sciences, to- gether with the arts of Greece. A very striking difference will be observed, not only in the mode of placing the arms, but in the distinguishing of the outer from the inner vestment in the drapery, as well as the very high finishing of the heads. Two perfections of opposite qualities are remarked, by the erudite Editor of the Speci- 16 mens published by the Dilettanti of London, to occur in the Egyptian style of sculpture, " breadth and sharpness/' which coincidence ranks their sculpture far above that of the Hindoos and Chinese. Of the modern Egyptian manner, or that adopted by the Romans about the reign of Hadrian, I will notice only the leading pecu- liarities. These artists were so ambitious of making statues in the true laste of Egypt, that they procured even their materials, ba- saltes and red granite, from that country; and, considering the most antique specimens as their models, were particularly careful to affix the Egyptian attributes. But the An- tinous, although in the disguise of an Egyp- tian, will be found by an attentive observer to be a Grecian, in the whole form of the head, its oval contour, the correctness of the profile, the fulness of the chin, and the sua- vity of the mouth. Such is the resemblance in every known statue of him by the Greek masters, the far greater number of which have been discovered in the ruins of the pa- laces and villa of Hadrian, who commanded that his favourite should be deified in Egypt, where he died. At Mantinea were statues 17 and portraits of him with the attributes of Etruscan After the Egyptian works of art, the most ancient are those of the Estruscans. The first emigration to Elruria, was that of the Pe- lasgi, 3 a people of Arcadia, who brought with them the style of art at that time prevalent in Greece, which is evident from the Pelasgo- Greek character, observable upon Etrusco- Pelasgick gems and monuments, from which original manner, there is no instance of their entire deviation. 6 About six centuries after that event, a principal settlement was made by a colony of the Lydians, 300 years before the ti me of Herodotus, (1043, A. C.) who fixes the date in the days of Lycurgus. These later colonists introduced the art of writing;, and in process of time taught the Etruscans * Pa usan. 1. viii. c.Q. In the collection at Paris is a statue of him deified in white marble, contrary to the custom of the Egyp- tians, who represented their divinities in coloured marble, ex- cepting statues of Osiris the god of light. a Herodotus, 1. i. p. 28. b Scarab -i of the same Pelasgo-greek workmanship are found all over Greece and Egvpt. At Ardea were vases, paint ings and characters in the same style, but by Greek artists. For an ac- count of the Egypti.ui Scarabsei, see Millin Diet, des Beaux-Arts. " Scarabee." Bacchus. 2 c » 18 Etruscan their sculpture and design, together with their Vases. ' , . . <^v-w national history and that ot their denies, in which they eventually attained to great ex- cellence. Figures now seen on the most ancient specimens of Etruscan art corre- spond, generally speaking, with the old my- thology of Greece, taken from the Greek poets and heroic fables, or are illustrative of the mystical shows at Eleusis. Sir W. Hamilton c considers what has been so long called Etruscan workmanship, to be in fact Grecian; and, in his later very ele- gant publications, has demonstrated the con- trary opinion as a common errour; and the learned Lanzi has satisfactorily proved that the Etruscans were merely imitators of the Greek ZKtaypoapot, or rather their copyists. Their more elegant specimens were certainly composed after their subjugation to the Ro- man consular power. A league made by the Argivi, against the Thebans, and the expe- dition of " the Seven against Thebes," prior to the Trojan war, are the most remote and c Hamilton and D'Hancarville, " Etruscan Vases, &c. 4 vols. l/6j. Hamilton and Tischbein, Ditto, 3 vols. Lanzi Saggio della Lingua Etrusca, 3 vols. 8vo. Bottigcr Giieschische Vasen-ge- mahlden." Explanation of Tischbein's plates. 19 renowned events recorded in their d annals. Etruscan Vases. No memorial of this war is preserved upon any monument of Grecian art* however an- cient; but the names of five of the seven heroes are inscribed on a gem in the Etrus- can character." This circumstance may be admitted to prove, that the colonists in Etrn- ria practised arts unknown or disused in the mother country, during that eventful period, when the contentions of its chief states were carried on with unremitted violence/ Nola and Capua, the principal cities of the Etruscans, were founded in the 801st, and Rome in the 754th year before the Chris* tian aera, and it has been near the ancient sites of those first mentioned, that the most d The subjects relating to the Heroic age of Troy, though styled Homeric, as having been recited in the Iliad, were never- theless merely traditionary and mythological. Christie, p. 83. D Hancarville observes " that the extreme rarity of Etruscan vases in the time of Julius Caesar is proved by the great price given for them, and concludes that the art of painting them was lost, prior to the aera of the Roman empire." There are now pr.'b.ibly preserved more specimens at Rome, Paris, and in Engl ind, than were ever known to the ancient Romans. " Vasa Necro-Co- rinthia" found at Corinth, were those first brought to Rome, " Vasa Thericlea," Sueton. Aug. c. /O. Tiber, c. 34. e This gem, which is one of the most ancient known, was in the collection of Baron Stosch, sold to the king of Prussia for his cabinet at Dresden; probably now at Paris. — Winkelmann. f Thucydid. 1. i. p. 5. 20 Vases found at Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabias, in a perfect state, have been finished Those which were of most exquisite form, tex- ture, and embellishment, were reposited in the sepulchres, or placed in the chief apart- ments of their houses, with particular venera- tion, religiously considered, and admired as most curious specimens of the art. The pri- mary dedication of all such as were peculiarly excellent, was in proof of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries, or appended to the pub- lick religion of the country, in the numerous s D'Hancarville, v. ii. p. log. I subjoin the conclusive opinion of the editor of the Dilettanti Selection : " The more rude and early specimens are exactly in the same style as those of the very ancient Greeks, from whom they appear to have learned all they knew, and whose primitive style they continued to copy after a more elegant and dignified man- ner, founded on more enlarged principles, had beer, adopted by the Greeks themselves. Hence their works may be considered as Greek, or at least a close imitation of the Greeks. The proximity of the Italian colonies, where the arts were cultivated with the most brilliant success at a very early period, afforded them the most favourable opportunities of obtaining instruction; and as they availed themselves of it, at all, it is rather wonderful, that their progress should have been so slow, and comparatively im- perfect." Introd. p. x. with a black not painted. 21 ceremonies of which they were exhibited. 11 The Etruscan ^ _ V ases. minute examination of these specimens will ( w-v^ immediately present to the mind, that uni- form principle of grace and elegance of form, which distinguish the works of Greece and all her colonies, whatever may have been the individual discrimination of one province from another, in climate, laws, manners or government. These Etruscan funereal vases abound in the most beautiful yet perpetually varied forms, always allusive to the initiation of the individual so commemorated ; and the same systematic elegance was applied to the .shape, even of their common domestic vessels. Some of these Greek vases are inscribed, h " A disquisition upon Etruscan Vases displaying their pro- bable connection with the Shows at Eleusis, and the Chinese Feast of Lanterns, with explanations of a few of the principal allegories depicted on them," 4to. Lond. 1806. This treatise, which is re- plete with ingenuity and learning, was privately printed by the author, Mr. Christie, of Pail-Mall, and given to his friends. " Le Costume ou Essai sur les Habillements et les Usages de plusieurs peuples de l'antiquite prouve par les monuments par An- dre Lens, Peintre, 4to. 1/76." Another edition by Martini, 4to. 1785.— " The Costume of theAncients, by Thomas Hope, 8vo. I8O9." This elegant work consists of etchings from 200 subjects, chiefly taken from his own collection of Etruscan Vases. 22 Etmscan not with the name of the artist, but often v— with that of the person who has offered them in sacrifice. As to the subjects themselves, they are usually sacrifices, processions and representations which have an immediate re- ference to the initiatory ceremonies belong- ing to the mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus, more generally known as " the Eleusinian." The figures are designed with freedom and grace, and the composition is simple, con- sisting, indeed, of individuals placed beside each other, yet the outline of the group is generally capable of producing an agreeable pffept. It is the opinion ofTischbein, that these paintings were executed in the same manner as now applied to porcelain ; and that a peculiar facility of hand was required, as the artist was under the necessity of finish- ing his design at a single stroke, on account of his tracing lines with a liquid pigment, upon an absorbent earth. The marks of an engraving or cutting instrument have been seen in some vases. It is supposed likewise, that this process took place when the clay was moist, and that, previously to its becom- ing dry, the varnish and colours were applied. These conjectures rest on the examination of niany vases or fragments, made with a vie\y 23 to ascertain their composition and method of Et Vases painting. 1 I am induced to extract from Mr. Christie's Essay, (in which novelty and just opinion on this very intricate subject are combined with sound erudition,)several leading ideas respect- ing the purport and destination of Etruscan vases. " Paintings upon vases are the only volumes in which the Eleusinian mysteries respecting a future state are correctly de- tailed. Passeri is mistaken in considering; them as containing the annals of a lost nation. " We may hence (he observes,' 1 ) collect the real nature of these shows: they probably consisted of transparencies, of which the sub- jects are faithfully preserved upon Etruscan vases to the present day. The tradition given by Pliny I am inclined to treat as fabulous, and to conclude that the shadow was trans- ferred to the vase, not from the lamp of the daughter of Dibutades, but from the scenes of the Theatre at Eleusis. These, it might ' Museum Etruscum cum Observ. Gorii. fol. 3 torn. 1737- T. Dempsterus de Etruria regali cura, T. Coke, 4to. 2 v. 1723. Guarnacci Origini Italiche. Sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, par le Baron, de Ste. Croix. k P. 24. 24 Etruscan readily be supposed, consisted of a dark superficies, in which transparent figures were placed; — hence the Elruscan vases with red figures upon a black ground, or — of opake figures moved behind a transparent canvas ; and — hence those earlier vases with black figures upon a red ground. A narrow light border frequently encompasses the outline of the figures, but this interval only occurs be- tween some part of the body (as the hair, &c.) expressed in shadow, and the ground of the vase thus serving as a luminous interval to mark the contour/' The certificate of initiation was probably expressed on these memorials in the words " ^;AAuC KAAX1C," inscribed in transparent characters upon the vases of Nola. 6 The mystic doctrine of the immortality of the soul being allegorically expressed by an ele- gant group on the side of the vase, the paint- ing itself was put for the religious opinion of the person, and the person was consequent'y represented by the vase." The Hierophant, who personated the Aripuspyog," or Creator, was the exhibitor of the Eleusinian shews, 8 P. 26. Many of the more curious were found at Aretium, or Arezzo, in Tuscany. 25 and theMysta was the person to be initialed." Etruscan Vases. Broad leaves of the aquatic Lotus were a « — „ — symbol of creation; thus the perfect flower of the plant was a model for the bell-shaped vase, and the full or overblown flower is re- presented by the tazza or dish. It may be generally remarked, that the paintings upon the vases of Nola, whereon the ground is opake, exhibit allegorical scenes " in h Inferis." The middle sized and small Sicilian vases on the contrary exhibit such as refer to Cos- mogony, and tnese are frequently covered with very whimsical designs. The collector who may prefer entertainment and informa- tion to mere elegance of shape and ornament, might do well to confine his purchases to the latter class. Nature is subjected to the vicissitude of decay, inertion, and resuscita- tion. The most frequent allusion of these scenes is to the suspension of the powers of nature, and the restoration of the same by the interference of some vivifying agent. By far the most numerous class of paint- ings on Etruscan vases have been so de- signed as to elucidate this subject in one composition." h P. 48, note. The «' Geo; riopraio;," whose office it was to conduct the dead " ad Inferos." 26 Etmscan " Figures are draped and naked, Uie former y— » are generally considered in the inert, the latter in the resuscitated state, and many in- stances may be adduced where figures have been thus purposely contrasted.' Let me add likewise, from the same authority, an ex- planation of some of the symbols, often seen detached upon vases, and which are specified by Clemens of Alexandria. The poppy was dedicated to Ceres on account of the infinite number of seeds contained in a single pod, and the pomegranate for the same reason represented the seeds of existence. The heart-shaped leaf is a substitute for a flame and a vivifying symbol. Ivy always denotes the shades, and is peculiar to Bacchus " in Inferis." By the mirrour might be presented the " simulachrum animae ;" winged Genii denote the animating principle. Certain lu- minous spots, whether disposed in a circle, or expressed upon a leaf or chaplet, a girdle or scarf, were signs of the causes of vivifica- tion. Passed explains the square windows in vases, to be the receptacles in the walls for the images of the domestic Lares, which were only opened on festival days. The 1 P. 61. DTIancarville, T. 3. pi. 94. 27 ladder is a symbol of the Metempsychosis, of which the different stages are represented by its steps. The window denotes perfection, or the highest degree of it." k Fictile vases are connected with the his- tory of sculpture, in regard to design and modelling. Little doubt can be entertained, but that they suggested to the Greeks of a later aera, the formation of vases from a mi- nute, to a much larger size than could be effected in pottery, and that the exquisite embellishment in basso-relievo was thus trans- ferred, from a plain to a cylindrical surface. In that point of view they are connected with, or in fact are, the prototypes of sculp- ture. The most celebrated collections of vases were those in the Mediccan Cabinet at Flo- rence, in the royal palace at Naples,' and those placed in the Vatican library by Cle- ment XII, the greater part of which had been discovered in Tuscany. In the course of the last century, vaults and sepulchres were sought after with the greatest diligence and consequent success, and many vases of >' P. S9, 95, g6.— Picturs Hetruscorum in vasculis. Passeri, fol. 4 torn. 1767-/0. 28 Etruscan, equal merit and curiosity were sent into other vJl^fL, countries, and sold by the collectors. Mengs, the painter, supplied the Museum at St. II- defonso. But the most assiduous 1 investigator of these specimens of ancient art, was our own countryman, Sir William Hamilton, dur- ing his long residence as ambassador at the court of Naples." The imperial Museum at Paris was replete with the spoils of the whole 1 Antiquites Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines tirees du cabi- net de M. Hamilton, fol. 4 torn. 1768, par D'Hankerville. Recueilde Graveurs d'apres les vases antiques, &c. trouvees pen- dant les annees 1789 et 179°, tirees du cabinet de M. le Cheva- lier Hamilton, publiees par M. G. Tischbein, fol. 4 torn. 1/9 2- 1795. m Sir \V. Hamilton's first collection was purchased in 17/2, for the British Museum, for SOOO/. In 1796, eight large cases out of twenty-four, were consigned to the Colossus man of war, which was wrecked on the coast of Scilly. About 400 vases were lost, but fortunately those of the least value. Those which were brought safely to England were illustrated by Italinski, and subse- quently purchased by Mr. T. Hope for -1000/. in 1801, of which ISO were sold in 1805. Nearly 200, collected by Messrs Graves and Guy Head, and more than 70 by Lord Cawdor, were dis- persed by auction about the same time. Mr. Tresham's collection is now at Castle Howard, having been purchased of him by Lord Carlisle tor a liberal annuity. The most curious of these, exhibit- ing a Poetess and a winged Genius sitting on a lotus plant, was thus described : " Representations on a Greek vase in the posses- sion of C. H. Tatham (now at C astle Howard), -Ito. 1811. In 1815, several brought to England by James Edwards, Esq. were exposed to sale 5 and among them, that known in Italy as "II 2Q continent, among which a large and admi- rable selection of Etruscan and Grecian vases continues to attract notice. Paterae are of Etruscan invention, but sub- sequently of Roman usage. Those of the Etruscans were sacrificial, and intended to contain libations, or to receive the blood of victims. They were of a circular form, shal- low, and with handles, composed usually of fictile ware, but sometimes of bronze or the precious metals. Considerable information is given by them, both with respect to the arts and the written character. Many inte- resting parts of mythology and heroic his- tory are delineated on them, with names superscribed in the most ancient characters. Fictile Paterae have been abundantly found among the ruins of Herculaneum." gran vaso del Capo di monte," having been brought to that palace with other treasures of the Famese family found in 1 786. It is three feet six inches high, in a state of perfect preservation, and was bought in at 700 guineas. Another collection brought from Athens by Sandford Graham, Esq. was sold in the same year. The interesting antiquities described in the Catalogue (com- piled byDr Clarke of Cambridge), relate to a custom in the fu- neral rites of the Greeks, concerning which our knowledge is very imperfect; as they contain a series of original pictures repre- senting the arts, the mythology, the religious ceremonies, and the habits of the Athenians, in the earliest periods of their history. n The following chemical analysis of the Graecian terra cotta may be relied on ; it is taken from Millin : 30 Etruscan ^ remarkable distinction between the first sculpture. v — y— ' and second Etruscan manner, both of design and sculpture, is, that the hair was disposed in minute rows of curls, as that of Hercules, in a bas relief on a square altar in the mu- seum of the Capitol, and the skin of the she- wolf in the same collection, cast in bronze when the Etruscans exercised the arts at Rome. 0 Their drapery falls universally into striated or serpentine folds, which hard manner some even of the Greek sculptors adopted in their figures of the deities, out of reverence to high and venerable antiquity, as well as to distin- guish them from mortals. Several connois- seurs have asserted that some of the vases so called were not Etruscan ; many, however, which are genuine, exhibit small figures and groups, such as are seen in intaglios, re- lievos, &c. In Rome, there is not a single Etruscan statue extant; but in the Florence Gallery is one of Minerva, in bronze, of singu- Silex 53 Oxide of iron 24 Alumine 15 Lime 8 100 When exposed even to a white heat, the Graecian terra cotta does not part with any of its colours. ° Dionys. Halic. 1. i. p. 64. Cic. Divinat. 1. ii. c. 20. Orat. 3. in Catilinam. 31 lar curiosity, and another of an Haruspex, Arts of de- having an inscription on the hem of his Greece, robe, which was found in the lake of Thra- * v ' symene. p Still more remarkable is a Chi- mera, a bronze idol, inscribed on the right leg, dug up at Arezzo in 1553. It is sup- posed to have formed part of a group of Bellerophon. By statues only can the judg- ment be directed to a certain point of de- cision, by which a complete system might be formed of the designs of these artists. So much has been premised respecting other nations before we treat of the Greeks, among whom the origin, progress, and de- cline of the arts may be more satisfactorily traced, by inquiring into their religious sys- tem, and history. 4 In order to consider the arts of design p Mus. Flor. T. l.pl.Sl. Guasco De l'usage des Statues, p. 141. q Memoires de l'Acad. Jnscript. " Caylus dissert, sur la Sculpt." T. 25. " Sur l'art de sculpture des anciens selon Pline & Pausane," Id. T. 32. N" 36. Baudelot D'airval. " Epoque de la nudite des Athletes dans les Jeux de la Grece," Id. T. 1. " The prodigious superiority of the Greeks over every other nation, in all works of real taste and genius, is one of the most curious moral phaenomena in the history of man. Private manners co-operated with esta- blished religion to encourage the arts, and public institutions were equally calculated to form such artists as deserved encourage- ment," D. Select. 32 Arts of de- among the Greeks, and to account for their sign in ... -li Greece. excellence in pourtraying the human figure, v ^~ v ^' we must compare them with our idea of " the beautiful/' as it is dispersed throughout universal nature. When we have attentively examined that species of beauty in parts which is peculiar to the human form, we may deter- mine with precision what are the outlines and lineaments which, in a whole, compose " the beautiful." Unity and simplicity are the true principles of reasoning upon the existence of " the beautiful" in any object; and when these are connected by proportion and harmony, the effect is " the sublime." We frequently mistake the perfect for the simply beautiful, which may be reduced to certain principles in practice, but can scarcely be defined. q i Cicero (De Finibus, 1. ii. c. 4.) makes Cotta observe that it is more easy to say " what the divinity is not, than what he is" — an observation which may be applied to " the beautiful" in the arts, as being more easily felt, than defined. The most cele- brated among the Greek sculptors observed and selected the beau- ties of nature without endeavouring to embellish them, an attempt which would have led them astray from truth. Their sole study was directed to a " good choice j" a name more just than the chi- merical term " ideal," so frequently employed by critics. " Ly- sippus, the greatest scu'ptor in Greece, boldly claimed the privi- lege of making men as they seemed to him to be, not as they really were." D. Select. 33 The Greek sculptors, who excelled in beauty Definition of contour, chose the season of youth for the ° V |_ B ^2, best models of their deities, in opposition to some of the great modern masters, who have represented the muscles and veins in statues of every period of life. In youth, the aerial and the solid form seem to exist in the same body. Hence arose an abstract and meta- physical notion of an ethereal being substan- tiated and clothed in a bodily shape, but without partaking of the gross materiality or debility of human nature/ Emeric David gives the following concise definition of the beautiful in idea; " Le nom de beau ideal considere en lui meme ne peut done designer que le beau visible, le beau reel-le beau de la nature." 5 Beauty, therefore, is of two species, ideal or abstract, and individual or personal. But nature fails in her end, from the accidents to which humanity is liable; so that we rarely see a form perfect in all its parts. There are heads and expression of countenance to be daily seen, which may rival the Florentine Niobe or the Vatican Apollo, but it is only r Cic. Nat. Deor. 1. i c. \"J . s Recherches, p. 285. D 34 Definition parlia] beauty. To remedy this defect, the of Beauty. > . ■ * — J Greek statuaries, proposing to themselves ob- jects of worship superior to nature, always represented them in the springtide of life and eternal youth. As the individual model could not be found, they applied themselves to the study of select parts in various bodies, and composed from ihcm a more perfect form. The gymnastic exercises, especially those in Sparta, in which women publickly engaged, exhibited the most symmetrical human figures unencumbered by drapery, from whence the best examples might be selected. These spectacles offered a large field to be fertilised by the imagination.' The gymnastic games afforded opportuni- ties to these artists of observing the human form in every variety of attitude and action. But it was long before they learned to catch these transitory graces, of which they could s Aristophan. Psc. v. /6l. Consult Milli'n. Diction, des Beaux Arts, article " Ideal," for a correct and ingenious definition; and the Prelim. Disc, to the Dilettanti Selection, p. xi. " Homer's description of the Shield of Achilles certainly surpasses any thing then produced, and is, therefore, apparently intuitive. It must have excited the emulation, directed the industry, and stimulated the invention of succeeding artists to aim at ideal excellence, by constantly presenting to their minds this imaginary model of ideal perfection." 35 have no models, and which therefore could Definition - , ofBeauty. only be mutated by memory, and science directing a hand, perfected by long practice, so as to be able to convey at once form and dimensions to the conceptions of the mind, without obliging the eye to recur to its archetypes. 1 Proportions which approach nearest to perfection constitute the beautiful, and are found only in the assemblage of what is re- markable in many different objects. Man cannot imagine any thing beyond the beauty of nature, and her defects are discoverable by him only from an attentive comparison of individuals with each other. For such examinations the customs of the Greeks al- lowed them frequent opportunity. Not only the public games above mentioned, but their dances, both comic and serious, presented to them a true picture of the passions, which their artists have so happily studied, and ex- pressed with so much ardour and truth. They were by these means enabled to discover and compare the specific beauty exclusively appropriate to either sex. Notwithstanding the infinite variety of individual character « D. Select. 36 Definition from which they borrowed single ideas, there * — J— > resulted a whole, the parts of which had an exact correspondence, and all the symmetry of perfected nature. The ancients represented absolute beauty as independent of charac- ter, for when expression predominates over beauty, it is expression that is beautiful, rather than form or feature. No country called so much for ihe talents of sculptors as Greece, or rewarded them more liberally. Their statesmen, warriours, and victors in the Olympic games, were usually honoured by a statue. There they had models of athletic grace, exhibited in numerous individuals, and each of a distinct kind, which produced the happiest variety in their studies. In a nation where abstract beauty was so much admired, the artists had a single point of ex- cellence only proposed to them, which was to adopt it, in its highest degree. They, of course, surpassed, and became models to all other nations. As most of those to whom statues were voted at the Olympic games were possessed of individual beauty, adapted ™ Corpus hominis pulchrum est in quo non eminent venae, nec ossa nuraerantur. Dial, de corrupt. Eloquent. Pliny, 1.36. T. 2. p. 651. " Pythagoras Rheginus ex Italia, primus nervos et venas expressit, capillumque diligentius." 37 to the several exercises in which they were Definition J of Beauty. victorious, they presented to the sculptors a * — J great variety of athletic forms, which might be combined, so as to compose a perfect masculine beauty. There are two principal epochs remarkable in the history of the Gre- cian mythology, the fabulous and the heroic times, both which contributed to the perfec- tion of the fine arts. The muse of Homer illustrated sculpture, and from that period, ideas of the grandeur and majesty of a my- thology which linked gods to men, assumed a character of interest, sensibilit}', and dig- nity, which exalted and ennobled the genius of the artist. The aera of the republicks and the peace enjoyed, after the expulsion of the Persians, were equally auspicious to the pro- gress of the arts. One statue only, in certain instances, oc- cupied the whole life-time of the artist, or rather it was never submitted to the public as a perfect performance. A magnanimous endurance of bodily pain has been considered among the moderns, especially M. Angel o, as the noblest subject for a sculptor; but among the ancients an heroic calm and a consciousness of an invincible, though sus- pended, force. 38 Definition The first statues of the Greeks express of Beauty. r only repose. The Laocoon and Niobe may indicate extreme suffering, but it is the ven- geance of heaven that they represent, rather than the innate passions of the human breast. Traces of melancholy are seldom seen in their statues. Beauty was connected with religious opinions, and if artists were required to depict base or savage passions, they spared human nature the disgrace of them, by add- ing something of the brute, as in the case of satyrs and centaurs. In order to give to beauty the most sublime character, they al- ternately united, in the statues of men and women, the charms of both sexes; as in the warlike Minerva, or Apollo leading theMuses, in which strength and softness are blended together. It is a happy mixture of those opposite qualities, without which neither of them would have been so perfect. After this slight sketch of the abstract or ideal forms, I shall add some observations, more in detail, of certain parts of the human body and their requisites to constitute beauty, in the opinion of the ancients. In minutely examining those members of the human figure, by which alone expression or action could be communicated to the mind of the specta- 39 tor, an opinion will be hazarded, as well of ^ e |^ what determines the beautiful and the defi- v^-y-. cient in beauty, as of what distinguishes the antique from the modern. In the representation of " Hermaphrodi- tus" the Grecian artist combined every beauly peculiar to either sex. It was a being in which were supposed to be re-united all the perfections attached to human nature, origi- nating solely in the imagination. Two of these statues remain, that in the Villa Bor- ghese, which is a copy, according to Vis- conli's opinion of a bronze by Polycles, cited by Pliny. The other, now at Paris, was re- moved from the Florentine Gallery. An ingenious fiction of the union of soul and body was seen in the group of Cupid and Psyche. The finest of these (for there were many repetitions or copies) is brought from the Capitol to Paris. The ancient sculp- tor has mastered the great difficulty of placing two faces almost in contact with each other. The primary parts in design are the head, the hands, and the feet." In the head, essen- x It is asserted by some authors, that ten times the length of the head is the just proportion of the human figure. Others say 40 tial beauty depends on the profile, particu- larly on the line which describes the forehead and the nose, in which the least concavity or posite. The forehead to be handsome should be low, an axiom so decidedly followed by the Grecian sculptors, that it now infallibly dis- tinguishes the antique from the modern head. This axiom is founded on the tripartite divi- sion of the human countenance, as well as of the whole figure by the ancients; so that the nine, or even eight times. The Apollo Belvidere and the Venus De' Medici have each more than the proportion of ten faces. It would be a most desirable and useful work if an artist, as a man of science, would examine scrupulously the measures, general and particular, of the more celebrated statues, and engrave them upon a large scale of comparison, and in a manner more clear and methodical than has been hitherto done. Albert Durer and Leo- nardo di Vinci are unsafe guides, and a greater accuracy might be acquired than even that of Audran and De Piles. " Les proportions du corps humain mesurees sur Jes plus belles figures de l'antique par Gerard Audran, fol. 1683. Both these last mentioned authors were probably indebted to a treatise entitled, " Representation des diverses figures humaines avec leurs mesures prises sur des an- tiques par Bosse, 1656." 41 nose should occupy exactly one third part of OfDesi the face. When ihe forehead is high the want of proportion is easily discovered by concealing it about a finger's breadth, at the roots of the hair. That deficiency in sym- metry was remedied by the Greek women, who wore a diadema or fillet, and we have the authority of Horace (no mean judge) that a low forehead was a principal constituent of female beauty/ But, to its completion, ringlets of hair forming an arch round the temples, and co- inciding to perfect the oval of the face, were indispensable. A forehead so rounded was peculiar to the Greek female, and art readily adopted the luxuriance of nature. This shape of the forehead was considered as so generally requisite to beauty, that in no ideal head shall we discover the locks falling in angles on the temples; a singularity which > " Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida." Od. 1. i. 33. In the bust of Ariadne in the Capitol, the true idea of Grecian beauty was displayed, which consisted of the expressive parts of the face, and a suppression of those which added little character to the countenance. The forehead is very low, and the cheeks are kept down. Ideal female heads have been, not unfrequently, styled " Ariadne." 42 o/Design. assists in the detection of modern heads en- grafted upon antique statues. By the artists of the later ages this observation was either not made, or not adhered to. The eyes vary in largeness as well in nature as in art, which is observable in the represen- tation of their deities and heroes when they are set deeper in the head, than in nature, particularly in the colossal, or those statues intended for a distant view. Jupiter, Apollo, and Juno, have the eyelids acutely arched in the centre, and narrow at their extremities. In the heads of Minerva the eyes are as large as those of the forementioned deities, but the arch is less elevated, as demonstrative of mo- desty, whilst in those of Venus the shape of the eye is not so full, and the lower eyelid a little raised, which produces an air very characteristic of that goddess. Some of the Roman artists, as if ambitious of improving on the antique, have represented the eyes so orbicular, that they seem to start from their sockets, which may be observed in the Isis, at Florence. The pupil is rarely marked in genuine antiques, though many Greek as well as Roman heads, in imitation of the Egyptian, have eyes made of jewels or glass 43 to resemble the natural iris. z By examining ofDesign. many heads, it will be found that the an- v- *^ r ^ _/ cients did not describe the eyes uniformly ; and it may be concluded, that the sculptors in marble did not mark the pupils before the age of Hadrian, when it was generally done. The marking the pupils in Sculpture has but imperfect success, as it produces only an indeterminate erlcct, from an injudicious at- tempt to combine form and colour in one and the same object. In the heads of statues, especially the ideal, the eyes appear to be more deeply set than in nature, which gives them an air of auste- rity rather than of sweetness. But these larger statues were usually placed distantly from the sight; and if the eyes had projected as in nature, all effect of light and shade would have been lost. The ancients appear z This circumstance could not have been known to Shakspeare, but the co-incidence is striking. " in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems." Rich. II. Act IV. sc.iv. The statue of Venus caelestis, in the Mus. Capitolin. had a dia- dem of gold, having holes for gems to represent stars, as she is described, Odyss. 1. viii. v. 360. /En. 1. i. v. 415. 44 OfDesign. to have developed all the causes of natural or ideal beauty, even to the play of the eye- lashes. They preferred eyes that had an un- dulating motion, and those sweet inflexions, which are observable in the ideal heads of the first rank, such as of Apollo and Niobe, but particularly of Venus. Winkelmann re- marks, that in the genuine Grecian heads, the eyes were usually flattened and drawn up obliquely, so as to be nearly on a level with the eyebrows. " The ideal head, dis- tinguished from portrait, is proved by the indenture of the forehead, depth and curva- ture of the brows, and shortness of the upper lip." z Pindar 1 describes beauty as residing in the eyebrows. It is formed by the regu- larly thin arch made by the hair, such as is still universal amongst the women of Scio, the Chios of antiquity, and others of the Greek islands. This strong contour of the eyebrows is expressed with great force, being merely a projection of the bone, par- ticularly in Niobe and her daughters, at Florence. When the " sublime" in statuary z De Select. Pref. * Nem. 8. v. 8. 45 yielded to " the graceful," which rounded and Of J ° _ Design. softened the parts, originally marked out with W-^ severe precision. Even the eyebrows were sculptured with more delicacy, in order to give greater softness to the whole air, which circumstance is remarkable in the Mercury of the Vatican, so long mistaken for Anti- nous. A statue in the Pio-Clementine Mu- seum, once called Narcissus, now Adonis, exhibits a style between the " beautiful" in nature and the ideal ; the precise middle point between celestial and human beauty, such as was suitable to Adonis. Theocritus b appears to have had a taste for eyebrows joining over the nose, as is common in Turkey, where the women en- courage them to meet by various arts. In nature, they must be considered as a defor- mity, which late travellers have noticed at Constantinople ; and the sculptors of Rome were of the same opinion, for though the eyebrows of Augustus were naturally joined, they corrected that defect in his statues : an air of disdain is expressed by the swelling of the nostrils, as in the Belvidcre Apollo, whilst b Idyll. 8. v. /2. 46 Of the general character of serenity is given in , the forehead. The chin acquires beauty from its solid round form, and as it contributes to the apparent convexity of the cheeks, which in many heads, not merely ideal, but taken from models in real life, seem to be dispro- portionately large. Yet the chin of the far- famed Venus of Medicis c is positively squat and depressed. Nor is the dimple, feigned by the poets to have been made by the little finger of Cupid, to be considered, according to the practice of the antique, as adding to beauty. The mouth of Venus in the best statues is always indicative of her character. Pe- tronius Arbiter, in praising a handsome woman, attributes to her " et osculum quale Dianam Praxiteles habere credidit." In adjusting and describing the hair, in- finite care was taken by the best Grecian masters, as being not only in itself essen- c The exact height of the Venus de Medicis is four feet eleven inches, and five lines English measure. Pelli says, " L'altezza e appunto braccia 2 et soldi J 1, Foren- tine, di quelle che si dicono a panno. — Pet. Arb. Not. Var. 4to. p. 602, gives an exquisite descriti on of the features of a beautiful woman. 47 tially beautiful, but as heightening and re- OfDcsign. Having the effect and character in the first degree. As they exerted all their talents in the workmanship of the hair, there are many specimens of variety in the different epochas of Greek sculpture. In figures of the most antique style it is minutely curled; loose and easy when the arts were at their zenith, and curiously plaited or coiled round a single bodkin at their decline/ The Deities were distinguished by a peculiar form and manner in which the hair was disposed, particularly that of Jupiter, which was never varied, as having no distant resemblance to the mane of a lion, seen in front. Phidias formed his Jupiter upon the model of Homer, 8 and f It is evident from Pausanias and others, that the original Greek statuaries followed the description of Homer in designing the portraits of their deities. Lucian remarks, that they have strictly adopted his ideas of their features. Jupiter is always bearded, Apollo a youth, Mercury a stripling, Neptune with green hair, and Minerva with blue eyes ; but this confirmed opinion applies rather to painting. Lucian de sacrificiis, T. i. p. 367. s Plutarch mentions, that when Paulus Emilius visited the temple of Olympia, he exclaimed, " The Jupiter of Phidias is the true Jupiter of Homer, Afijrov rwv ygxpswY Qpe^ov." — Lucian. — 48 OfDesign. neglected no circumstance of the hair. Three distinct manners of describing the hair arc noticeable in the statues of Apollo. It is tied in a knot above the crown of the head ; it is raised above the ears to the summit of the forehead, or it is loosely curled all over. The hair of Bacchus is as lony;, more soft in its appearance, and less curled than that of the Delphic god. h By close short hair over the brow, a full neck, and small head, the statues of Hercules are uniformly recognised, as communicating the idea of animal strength peculiar to the bull. That of Satyrs and Fauns, young or old, is rough, with the ends a little bent, in imitation of the skin of goats, Macrobius, Sat. l.v. c. 15. — Vallerius Max. Mem. 1. iii, c. 7- — ■ Quinctil. 1. 12. c. 10. " in gracilis atqne annuos totum eomptum." Virgil, in his imitation of the Jupiter of Homer, does not descend to the particulars of his beard, hair, and eyebrows, for which omission he has the censure of Macrobius, but the praise of Sca- liger. h Ovid Met. l.iii. p.42l 3 Tibull. 1. i. Eleg. iv. v. 33 ; and Martial, 1. i. Epig. 125. CaUistrati Statuar Desc. 2. Baccha. " By sculpture, curly elastic hair is more accurately divided into masses, than it ever is by the unassisted hand of nature. Even the most regular arrangement of it into locks and ringlets has been employed by the great sculptors of antiquity with the happiest ttfect, which it never could be in painting." Knight on Taste, p. 1Q2. 4£> of whose nature they were supposed to have ofDesign. partaken. The hair of Mercury is not long, but thickly crisped and curled down the neck. When it was collected in a double knot and tied in the middle, on the crown of the head, it denoted virginity. Mr. Townley had a fine head of Diana so distinguished, now in the British Museum. The form of the cres- cent might have suggested the primary idea of attiring the head in a manner to resemble it — or it may be imitative of flames, and ap- plicable to the vestal fire. Minerva has thick curls, which flow beneath the casque. The hair of young females is lightly col- lected in a knot behind the head, and conse- quently without curls. h The ancient artists, therefore, placed their hair in waves with deep cavities, which by throwing the masses into shadow, produced a beautiful variety. The moderns, to avoid the difficulty, make the hair like that of Fauns and Satyrs, and in female heads have few indentations, in consequence of which a great sameness prevails. By the ancient masters the ear was sculptured with scrupulous exactness. Winkelmann says, that a positive judgement concerning its beauty in h Crinis erat simplex, nodum collectus in unum. Ovid. Met. L. 8. v. 320. Hor. Od. L. 2. Od. 2. v. 23. £ 50 of Design, an in tire state, may be drawn from any v- ^ v ^' fragment which has an ear. In most of the ge- nuine antique statues the ears are singularly handsome, but in those which have been restored, an inferiority of workmanship is in- stantly visible. An attention equal to that with which they formed the head, the Greek sculptors shewed in the extremities of the human figure. Both in the hands and feet they employed con- summate skill. Very few statues have been discovered of which the hands are preserved. Those of the Medicean Venus are, with the arms, restored as far as the elbow, but among antiques the best specimens are a hand of one of the sons of Niobe, at Florence, and of each of the figures composing a group of Mercury and a Nymph in the garden of the Farnese palace at Rome. In male figures an essential quality of beauty was the full and elevated chest; in the other sex uniformity and compactness. The anterior trunk of the figure was never distended by corpu- lence or repletion, but made to represent that of a man awaking from a placid and sound sleep. The feet of the Laocoon (for expression of pain), the naked leg and foot of (he Venus De' Medici, and that with sandals of the 51 Belvidere Apollo, are all exquisite in their OfDesign. several modes of appropriate beauty. 1 Hands of just formation and delicacy were greatly admired by the ancients, and Polycles and Praxiteles excelled in carving them. As we now speak of the hands by Vandyck, they by way of excellence spoke of those by the above-named artists, who were equally eminent in designing the extremities of the human body. k Absolute nudity was represented in statues, either from a pure love of what is essentially beautiful in human nature, or from the desire of retracing symbolical ideas, as connected with the mysteries of the pagan religion. It was certainly not the ordinary custom of the people, even in those countries where the arts were most cultivated. The warriors of heroic limes are sculptured either totally nude, or very lightly draped. Of the first description, are the Argonauts and the chiefs who fought before the walls of Thebes, and at the siege of Troy. In the statues of the ' Emeric David, p. 350. k Ariosto appears to have taken his description from the antique " E la Candida man spesso si vede " Lunghetta alquanto, e di larghetta angusta " Dove ne nodo appar, nc vena eccede." Orlando Fur. C. vii. 52 Bas-relief. Deities, nudity of forms produced beauty, '^ >r ^ but only as subordinate to an expression of dignity. The female divinities, excepting Venus and the Graces, are usually clothed, and Jupiter and Apollo are at least half- draped in the most admired statues of them. Every nation of antiquity possessed Bas- reliefs in common with other sculpture: in point of priority it is the earliest mode, and presumed to have been antecedent to the age of Daedalus.* Sculpture in relief is properly speaking that which is not insulated, but at- tached to, and forming a part of a ground or slab. This art received great improvement from the talents of Phidias' and M\s, who appear to have worked together; and its final perfection from the hands of Polycle- tus. It was applied to every material of sculpture, more particularly to bronze and marble, and to ivory by Phidias, in those ex- quisite bas-reliefs attached to the base of the Statue of Minerva. m Frequently those on a larger scale, which ornamented the frizes and pediments of temples, were executed in k Em. David Bech p. 5/. 1 In the /2 Olymp. -iQO. A. C. after the battle of Marathon. "' " In ebore vero longe citra aemulum." Quinct. 1. 12. c. x. 53 (terra-cotta) baked clay, tempered with gyp- Bas reiiet. sum, for that purpose. There are three dis- V *~~ > tinct kinds:" 1. The high or full relief, in which the figures are nearly intire and seem to project from the ground. 2. The half or middle relief, in which exactly half of the solid figure is made prominent. 3. The low relief, in which the figures lose their projec- tion, and are flattened to an equal surface above the ground. The ancients applied the first-mentioned kind of relief to architecture, and the last to interior decoration. In Egypt, Persia, and Greece, all the temples were so decorated. By the Romans this description B Tabula; marmoreae scalptae. Ernesti Archaelo. Alto relievo — Ronde Bosse — Anaglypha, used adjectively by Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, 1. 1. cp. iv. — 2. Mezzo-relievo — 3. Basso-relievo — Bas- relief — Applati. — Toreuma & Toreutice, as adopted by Pliny, (1. 34. c. viii.) are always synonimom with the Latin, caelare-caelatura, and signify relief-work in silver, or other metals, and therefore usually ap- plied to the embossing of vases and cups. Martini Excursus in Ernesti Arch. 8vo. p. 258. Heyne, Dissert, sur la Toreutique, attached by Janson to his edition of Winkelmann's l'Histoire de l'Art. Pausanias appears to have considered this kind of sculpture as of great excellence, and omits no opportunity of giving a mi- nute description of the most celebrated works then remaining in Greece, such as the chest of Cypselus, the pediment and frizes, &c. at Athens and Elis. He has no specific term for bas-relief, unless " eypxtys" be used for designing them. 54 Bas-rdief. of sculpture was chosen for sarcophagi and vases in a more elaborate and delicate style; and in a bolder manner, it was calculated to be placed at a greater distance or elevation for triumphal arches and columns. The relief which has a small projection is much more difficult to execute than that which is very prominent, because an air of nature and truth is required to be given to figures of just dimensions, but when of so little thickness, the grouping them so as to produce a picturesque effect greatly increases the difficulty. The Egyptians, and the ancient Greeks, in their earliest efforts made the bas-reliefs of incon- siderable depth, and frequently, instead of having a ground for their figures, contented themselves with merely engraving the out- lines. The obelisks give us many examples. As in process of time this rude manner was improved in Greece, by disengaging the figures from the ground, the artists did not Figrelius de Stat. 1.1." Quod sculpitur, figuras relinquit ex- tantes et ectypas (relief) unde sculptilia pro idolis et simulachris in SS. Uteris prohibita. Scalptura vero figuras deprimit, et sulcos lacunasve cavatas (intaglia) in matrice relinquit ; ad contra nunc sensum vocabulorum hodiemus usus invalu.it, qui sculptum dici vult, qnicquid cavatur." IT. 55 depart from their first principle of keeping Bas-relief, the projections low, and as much as possible V— without under-cutting. The figures were all disposed in such a manner as that one should not be obscured by another, and that no part of any figure should be concealed. This practice, however, had no reference to the science of linear perspective,\vhich was known to the ancients, but yet never applied by them to sculpture, as by the moderns, with imperfect success. A bas-relief should be viewed from a given point, seen from whence no part of it should be hidden by another. If it be too projecting it is probable that the figures of the foremost range will not accord with those which lie more flat upon the ground or entablature. The purity of the Greek forms may be expressed with very small projection. To enumerate the most celebrated works in this branch of the art, either described in the writings of the ancients or preserved in museums, would by no means come within the scope of this inquiry. The greater part of the far-famed reliefs which were attached to the Parthenon at Athens are now in this kingdom, and will be particularised in their place. The Panathenaeum, a fragment of 56 Terra- the exterior frize, has been removed to Pa- Colta. It is well known, that in the most flou- rishing aera of the art, the first thoughts of man}' celebrated sculptors were executed in argilla, or pipe-clay, hardened by fire." As these have been found with a perforation, it is probable that they were frequently hung up in the working-rooms, to be used as mo- dels. This was a favourite material, in which the greatest masters exhibited the most beau- tiful conceptions of subjects, afterwards com- mitted to bronze or marble. It is recorded by Strabo, 0 that, in searching among the ruins of Corinth, specimens of terra-cotta were as often discovered as those of bronze. So per- fectly designed and finished were these works in terra-cotta, that Winkelmann, after all his experience, asserts that he never found one positively inferior, which can be by no means said of bas-reliefs in marble. The largest 1 A general reference is made to the very numerous and ex- cellent engravings published in Italy, and to those of the national Museum at Parts. Zoega has lately published some of great cu- riosity engraved by Piroli. n Pausanias calls them " ayaA^ara sk •nnjAa," many of which were of high antiquity, 1.1. c. ii. and the artists " UyXov pyoi." The word " Kepapjj" has been translated " terra cotta." Millin Diet. ° L. 8. p. 381. 57 and best collection of them was in the Villa Bas-reliefs. Albani at Rome, to which the Townleian, now in the British Museum, are equal in excellence though not in number. As most of the bas-reliefs preserved to this day are wrought on marble, it may be necessary to observe, that the most exquisite workman- ship was employed on the bases of statues and on altars, while the larger kind was peculiar to architecture. The compositions on the Roman sarcophagi, certainly inferior in point of execution, are many of them copied from originals of the first Grecian schools. From these may be collected much information concerning the arts from their earliest period, and many mythological inventions which single or insulated figures could not describe. The more known or interesting of these were selected and formed into groups, so as to represent the circumstances of heroic story; and consequently from an accurate compa- rison with bas-reliefs, many newly discovered statues have been appropriated and ascer- tained. A similar elucidation has been given by Cameos and Intaglias, and no collection of sculpture has been deemed complete in which they did not abound. 58 Terminal or Hermaean Statues/ as before Statues and . , r , ■ , Busts. noticed, were formed by oblong or square "- - ^ v ~ w stones with the head only affixed, and trun- cated at the shoulders. They were so de- nominated, because in the infancy of the art, the first head so placed was that of Hermes or Mercury, which was of wood. When carved afterwards in marble, the usage of them originating at Athens, the ancient rude shape of the trunk was retained, but the heads were elaborately finished. They be- came frequent in consequence of the Olym- pic victors, but under the auspices of Pericles were made almost peculiar to heroes, philo- sophers, and eminent men. Double heads with the occiput conjoined are of early Greek origin, and anterior to the Roman idea of p D'Hankarville. Coll. Hamilton. V. I. p. 128. 1/66. The most ancient Hermes mentioned by Pausanias was that styled * Kioacpiz; rvposwircv," 1. 8. cxv. ; and in the 32d chapter of the same book he gives a more minute description, " AyaX^a, AjJ.jj.wvo; tot; rsrpxyovoi; Epij.cu; Bixa.a-fj.evov," 1. Q. c. 40. Double Hermann are Herodotus and Thucydides in Mus. Cap. T. 556. pi. 12. Epicurus and Metrodorus, Homer and Archilochus. Mus. Pio-Clem. The art of portrait, by taking off the features of any face, was the original invention of Lysistratus, the brother of Ly- sippus : " Hominis autem imaginem primus omnium expressit, ceraque in earn formam gypsi infusa emendare instituit Lysistratus Lysippi frater," Plin. 1. 35. Andrea Verocchio, who died in 1488, restored and practised it first among modern sculptors. 59 Janus. Such are common both on Greek coins and Roman medals. Busts, q which exhibit the head, shoulders, and breast, were more generally applied to portraits of men and women, and are not of remote antiquity. They were probably in- vented as a certain improvement on the Her- mann shape. No term, neither Greek nor Latin, exactly defines, without circumlocu- tion, what the moderns call " a bust." This description of sculpture appears to have been little known in Greece before the reign of Alexander, when it was in use. It became a Roman fashion about the end of the consular a3ra, but prevailed to a great extent under all the emperours. Many busts in the villa Albani, and other collections, have the breast of alabaster with the head of bronze, or are i The term " Tlqors^y]" has been applied to busts, but al- though found in the Lexicons of Suidas or Hesychius, would be sought for in vain among the more ancient authors. Pausanias uses the same circumlocution respecting bas-reliefs. One of Ceres he remarks as " nyaXjia. otrov e; dioya,," l. Q. c. 16; and ano- ther of Homer at Delphos " eixcva. O/xijpa ^aAxy ; v sot .x" belonging to gods. Watelet's Diet. v. 5. p. 5Sp. 77 the art of fusing or rather forging bronze was Schools of invented by Rhaecus, it gained considerable s £^^ improvement in the school of his 'descendants.^ Pausanias, who records them, observes that their bronze statues were composed of the members distinctly, which were afterward rivetted together. The celebrated emerald in a ring of Policies, and the large patera of silver presented by Croesus to the temple at Delphos, were engraven likewise by the ear- lier Theodoras. If Glaucus of Chios be accurately placed about 700 years before Christianity, he must have been contemporary with them, and the author of a more ingenious invention, that of soldering with tin or iron, so that the junc- tures should not be discerned, for Pausanias expressly says, that neither clasp nor rivet was made use of. s Malas of Chios was the ancestor of four re- generations of able sculptors established in 01 ^* 38 A.C. 649.' r The more celebrated of his pupils was Learchus of Rhegium, to ■whom the invention of soldering is equally attributed. But the art of laying one metal upon another appears to have been known in the days of Homer. Such was the cup of Helen brought from Egypt, Odyss. A. v. 132. A bowl mentioned, v. 615. and the bed of Ulysses v. v. 200. s L. 15. c. 16. " ov irspovoci; y xsvf-ptic, /Aortj Ss tj %o>Xcc EIAI- Heyne has made a diligent inquiry re- specting the true sera of Phidias, the result aI'c.'K! of which is not favourable to Pliny in point of accuracy, who has placed him in the 83d Olympiad. 1 As he was constituted master of the magnificent works in architecture and sculpture which rendered Athens the most splendid of the Grecian cilies, under the au- spices of Pericles, twenty years of his life at least were dedicated to the arts. The death of Pericles which followed that of tins very celebrated artist, happened in the 87th Olympiad; the true date is therefore earlier than that ascribed to him.™ The sculptors who preceded Phidias re- tained some degree of the dry and hard manner of their predecessors. He was the first who, according to the ancient pane- gyrists, knew how to impart to his works 1 Des epoques de 1'art cliez les anciens, &c. ut sup. p. 2/, for a refutation of Winkelmann, who attributes the successful pro- gress of Sculpture to a peace, proved by Heyne to have been of very short duration, p. 17— 30; where he is charged with a total want of historical exactness. "' Plutarch in vit. Periclis, pp. 15S, 159, &x. 87 grandeur, breadth, and majesty. The Greek schools of authors were scarcely able to discover epi- ^1^!^ thets sufficiently lofty to express their ad- miration of his great talents, in their com- parison of him with Thucydides and De- mosthenes." Equally ingenious and sublime, he imitated great objects with energy, and small with fidelity. 0 The masculine beauty which was represented by Phidias, was even exceeded by its sweetness and grace. His style was truly admirable, as in it were con- centrated the three characters of truth, breadth, and finishing. 1 * Phidias was by birth an Athenian and of the school of As;e- ladas, in which he was probably associated with Myron and Polyclelus, and he lived in an age peculiarly favourable to his genius and talents. His contemporaries were the phi- losophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the orator Isocrates, and thewarriours Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, and Cimon. He worked with equal facility and success in bronze, ivory, and marble, iconic statues, or resemblance to real persons, did not ap- n Demet. Phaler. de elocut. c. 14 and -!0. Dion. Halicarn. de Antiq. Orat. in Isocratem. Quinctil. de Orat. 1. 12 c. 10. 0 Pausan. 1.5. c. 2. Martial Epig. 35. Julian Imp. Epist. 8. p Dem. Pbal. ut sup. c. 14. " ^x HrT7 ' ri KXl p&y&teixv kxi ouoitss ojj.x." Em. David ut sup. p. 273. 88 Schooisof pear sufficiently important for his genius; l)u t lie exerted his whole mind in search of ideal beauty and of the most elevated sub- jects, and was therefore most happy in the representation of the several deities, to which he gave an air of celestial dignity.' 1 As far as a judgement can be formed concerning an artist whose works are lost to us, and the memory of many of which is vaguely pre- served by authors who were not artists, the characteristic of Phidias was grandeur of de- sign. His works were probably not nume- rous, because upon so large a scale, and among them the most celebrated were the Jupiter at Elis, r and the Minerva in the i Quinct. 1. 12. edit. Harles, 8vo. p. 425. Phidias tamen diis, quam hominibus efficiendis melior artifex traditur." Pausanias, 1. 6. c. 4. strongly characterises this artist, " rrj ta aya.XiLcx.rx rs istiis crofms" Plin. 1. 36. c. 5. " Artifice nunquam satis laudato." r Hind A. v. 528. Two sitting figures of Jupiter, probably copies from this, are extant and nearly intire, one from the Verospi palace at Rome, and the other at Marbrook-hall, Cheshire. Heyne Dissert, in Jansen Ree. des pieces interessantes, v. 0. p. 2Q3. Cicero, ff Phidias cum faceret Jovis aut Minervae formam, non contemplabatur aliquam e quo similitudinem duceret; sed ipsius in mente insidebat species pulchritudinis eximiae qnasdam, quam intuens in eaque defixus, ad illius similitudinem artem et manum dirigebat." Livy, 1. 45. c. 28. describes Paulus iEmilius who brought away a statue of Minerva by Phidias, and placed it in the temple of Fortune at Rome. Surveying this statue " Jovem ve- 89 Parthenon al Athens. The first mentioned s cliools of of these was a sitting figure, taken from the s ^^> Homeric idea, and was forty-six feet high ; and though ill-suited to the tern pie which con- tained it, ihe want of proportion was forgot- ten in the extreme magnificence of the whole effect. Jupiter was seated on a throne and crowned with olive branches. In his right hand stood a figure of Victory, composed of gold and ivory; her head was bound with a fillet, surmounted by a crown. His left rested upon a brilliant sceptre bearing an eagle. The robe or mantle of the deity, which reached from the cincture only, was em- bossed with lilies and different animals of beaten gold, and the hair was of that metal. Ivory was the principal material, a circum- stance which induced Strabo to assert, that it was intirely made of it. Around the throne, which was of ivory, ebony, and gold, were bas-reliefs of exquisite workmanship. Of the same materials the Minerva was likewise wrought, and was little inferior to the Jupi- ter, either in point of size or height; the un- lut presentem intuens, motus animo est." — Few who know the effect to be produced in marble or bronze, consider the difficulty of executing a grand work with minute materials. 90 Schools of covered parts were of ivorj r , and the hair Sculpture. -ii i r> i . , * — ^ — ' with the casque, the crest or which was a sphynx, was of gold. A gryphon Avas placed on either side. The goddess stood upright, draped and holding a spear, and her shield profusely sculptured both withinside and without, lay at her feet.' This mixture of gold with ivory, in composing even collossal statues, was unworthy the good taste after- wards displayed by the Grecian artists, but has not been without its advocates anions modern critics." Pauw conjectures, that the 1 Plin. 1. 36. Pausan. 1. v. c. 10. At the base of the statue was inscribed : " OEIAIAS XAPMIAOY YIOZ M'E- nOIHZE." In the next chapter the whole is very fully de- scribed. Eusebius, says that it was finished in the both Olympiad. u " Yet, when these splendid materials were combined, it does not appear that greater exactitude of imitation or optical de- ception was their object, but as the beings represented were super- natural, in ideal and allegorical images such an extraordinary effect of magnificence was allowable. And this effect tended merely to keep alive the energy and vivacity of expression, which in other features could be characterised by forms, but in the eyes by brightness or colour. This is still seen in small bronzes with silver eyes, but must have had a tremendous influence in colossal statues placed in the darkened cells of the larger Grecian tem- ples." Knight on Taste, p. 103. Callistiati Stat. De^c. p. 900. Fol. Olearii " o/xjxa h ijv zsvpi Siavyss jxavixoy toztv." Plin. 1. 34. c. 8. " Ante omnes tamen Phidias Atheniensis, Jove Olympiae facto, ex chore quidem et auro. Jovem Olympium quern, nems emulator." 91 statue of the Olympic Jove above described, Schools ot J 1 Sculpture,' could not have required less than the teeth ^^r^ of three hundred elephants, all of which were the spoil taken from the Persians, or pur- chased of foreign merchants. These im- mense statues needed frequent repair, oc- casioned by the starting of the joints of the ivory, when veneered. Not many years after the death of Phidias, Damophon was em- ployed in the restoration of this superb sta- tue." In the time of Julius Caesar, it was partially damaged by lightning. Caligula ordered his General Memmius Regulus to transport it, with a selection of many other statues, to Rome. That contemptible prince imagining that the long venerated figure would command a greater respect for the divinity of the Coesars, intended to have re- placed the head by a carving from his own. The Athenian artists remonstrated in vain, by observing that it would not bear removal * Heyne asserts that the statue of Jupiter Olympus, which had employed Phidias eight years, was completed in the S3d Olympiad ; and in the 85th, the Minerva of the Parthenon, upon which he was occupied ten years. Mr. T. Hope has a statue of Minerva in marble, heroic size, found at Ostia in 1797 ', one of the many copies from that famous statue. Dilett. Select. PI. 25. It exactly resembles another formerly in the Albani gallery. 92 Schools ».f until a voice was heard from the statue, de- <^-y^j clar'mg that it would sink an} T ship on board which it should be placed, and the supersti- tion of Memmius was alarmed/ At length it was removed to Constantinople, where it was consumed by lire. The stalue of Ne- mesis, made by Phidias in celebration of the victory at Marathon, was at Rhamnus near Athens. A vast block of marble had been brought there from Paros by the Persians, to be set up as a monument of their anticipated success, but it served only to mark their signal defeat. Of his other distinguished performances it may suffice to enumerate only, a Minerva of bronze, the proportions of which were so enormous, that the casque upon the head could be discerned by those who entered the port of Sunium; the Venus Urania of Parian marble, the Minerva at Lemnos, and another of ivory and gold at Elis. To each of these, various attitudes were given and attributes assigned/ Notwith- y Winkelmann, V. 2. p. 339- Dio Cass. l.Q. edit. Leunclav. p. 062, says that the ship which was prepared to transport it, was struck by lightning. 1 Lumisden conjectures from the following passage in Pliny, that the Venus of Phidias may possibly be the Venus de Medici., 93 standing the high reputation which Phidias Schools enjoyed, he was obliged to submit his designs v^-i^, to the censure of the whole Athenian people before they were finally adopted ; he like- wise exhibited his Jupiter at Elis, listened to the opinions of every spectator, and cor- rected his statue accordingly. The age and school of Phidias have been designated as the second grand aera in the history of the arl. a But his superior talents awakened the jealousy of contending sculptors, increased by the constant patronage of Pericles, to the persecution of whose enemies he became exposed. They accused him of having pur- loined some of the gold, given out of the Persian spoils, to compose statues, the weight " et ipsum Phidiam tradunt sculpsisse marmora, Veneremque ejus esse Romse, in Octaviae operibus eximbe pulchritudinis," I. 36. c. 5. Antiq. of Rome, p. 302. It was found near those ruins. a " Et cum Parhassii tabulis, signisque Myronis. Phidiacum vivebat ebflr. necnon Polycleti Multus ubique labor.' Juven. Sat. viii. v. 102. " There were a crowd of disciples from the schools of the great artists, who were chiefly imitators of Phidias . The stern vigour of the preceding style was now dissolved into the most voluptuous grace and elegance. Of this period, or at least ancient copies from works of this period, are the celebrated statues of Apollo Belvi- dere, Venus de Medici, and the Antinous and Mercury." D. Sc-lect. Prel. Diss. Winkclmann, Mon. Ined. trat. prelim, c. 4. p. 69. 94 of which mentioned by Thucydides, allotted to the Minerva of the Parthenon only, being calculated by present value, amounted to 91201. sterling. Pericles, foreseeing that such a treasure might be useful to the exi- gences of the state, directed Phidias to make it removeable at pleasure, who employed it principally in the fringes of the drapery; and the quantity required for a draped statue nearly forty feet high, confirms the proba- bility as to the largeness of the sum. The fate of a man of talents so sublime cannot but be commiserated, which, instead of ac- cumulating for him honours and rewards, lead him to imprisonment and death. Ac- cording to Plutarch, Phidias had been pre- viously accused and acquitted, because the gold was so attached to the statue that it might be taken off and wciohed. b Historians differ extremely as to the precise fact; but it evidently appears that he died, deprived of liberty, if not by violent means, about 430 years before Christ./ b Thucyd. 1. ii. c. 13. The gold reckoned at four pounds sterling an ounce, will make the whole to amount to ]()0 pounds, Troves weight. c Heyne Epoques. p. 36. Diodor. Siculus, 1. xii. c. 3Q. Plu- tarch, v. Pencils* pp. 158. idg. 95 In this age appeared first with a great Schools ot degree of excellence, as having been wrought v—-' from living models, statues of animals in bronze, particularly of those which were usually sacrificed, and of horses, sometimes with their riders, who had gained the Olym- pic prize. Several artists are noticed by Pau- sanias; and Strongylion, one of the last, occurs as the most eminent. d Horses had from the earliest times been noAY- introduced into the composition of bas- ^-q^" reliefs; they were then individually repre- G i m 87 sented as led by an athleta in triumph, or the ^£^3 Dioscuri; but equestrian statues were rarely seen before the Roman age of e sculpture. d Strongylion. " avipov St?; y.xi ntrfovg asicra eipyacrafteviv." Pausan. 1. 9. e. 30. ^Elian Varr._Hist. 1. ix. c. 32. Strongylion has the praise of Pausanias likewise, for an Amazon which Nero transported to Rome. c Heyne, in his account of the embellishments given in his edition of Virgil, observes that the statues of Castor and Pollux with horses, now standing on the Quirinal hill, or Monte Cavallo at Rome, are falselv attributed to Phidias and Praxiteles, having been given to Tiridates King of Armenia, and by him presented to Nero. They are greatly repaired, and by Visconti referred to that time, as the work of Hegias, or Hegesias, whose statues of the Dioscuri, according to Pliny, 1. xxxiv. were placed before the temple of Jupiter Tonans at Rome. The same subject very frequently occurs upon the imperial medals. 96 Schools of Polycletus of Sicyon has been considered as Sculpture. . > . , a contemporary, at least, in early lire, with Phidias, by certain authors who have dis- covered, that in being otherwise chronolo- gically placed, some confusion must arise respecting other sculptors of his name. Pliny is lost in uncertainty between him and Poly- cletus of Argos; f and, according to Falconet, has attributed the works of one to the other. He was Myron's favourite fellow-scholar under Ageladas, and attained to an exquisite degree of grace, and most correct finishing ; the latter quality was the effect of his singu- lar diligence. 2 To the human figure he gave f Falconet traduction de Pline. Polycletus of Argos, flourished about the 70th Olympiad. There is, without doubt, great reason to consider the " Canon" as the invention of this artist, with all due respect to the testimony of Pliny, who extracted his notes from preceding authors unknown at this day. s Cicero De Orat. c. 18. " pulchriora etiam Polycleti signa et jam plane perfecta ut mihi quidem videi i solent," PJin, 1. xxxiv. c. 8. Polycletus, with Phidias and two other statuaries, offered each a figure of an Amazon to be dedicated in the temple of Diana, at Ephesus, when the first place was adjudged to his performance, Quinctil, 1. xii. p. 425. edit. Harles, " diligeatia ac decor in Polycletp super caeteros," cui quanquam a pleibque tii- buitur p alma tamcn ne nihil detrahatur, cleesse pondus putant, Nam ut humanas form.t decorem addiderit supra verum, ita ripu explevisse deorum auctoritatem videtur. Quin aetatem auoque graviorem dicitur refugisse, nihil ausus ulna loves genas." 97 more than human beauty, but failed in ex* Schools of , pressing the majestic character of the gods. y™^^, He collected his models only from the youth of either sex, and was unequal in his ex- pression of old age. Of his celebrated works the chief were the " Apoxyomenos," or Ath- leta,in the act of scraping his leg with a strigil ; a delicate young man styled " Diadume- nos," h from the fillet bound round his head; two naked boys, Astragalizontes," and the Juno of Argos, or rather of Mycenae, which, according to the local description of her tem- ple given by Strabo, was a sitting figure larger than life, wrought in ivory and gold, and adorned with a crown, on which the Graces and Hours were represented. This last was composed in imitation, rather than emulation, of the Jupiter of Phidias. He taught the Toreutice, or art of basso-lievo in metals, and extended and improved the prac- tice of it. Among these inventions attributed to him individually, were figures resting on one leg only, which were probably of bronze, but afterward practised, with the greatest " Toy SmSoviuvoy xs^aAijv rxtvtz." Lucian. De Imag. II 98 Schools of success, in marble/ In order to transmit to bcujpl are. v — v— -> posterity infallible principles of design, a single statue was made in which they were all included, and upon that account called the rule or canon. k We might perhaps ob- tain an insight into what constituted the real science of the antients, if a discovery were practicable, of what these canons rcall}- taught. Yet, as we contemplate the admira- ble variety which occurs in the proportions of antique figures, the graceful appearance of motion, and the life with which they seem ' Winkelmann supposes the " Apoxyomenos" to represent a person drawing a dart from his leg, Storia delle Art.T.i. p. l6l. Mon. Ined. pi. 106. p. 141. Visconti Mus. Pio. Clem. pi. 23. conjectures more happily, that it was Tideus after having 'killed his brother Menalippus in the chace, as Pliny describes him, " distringentem." Millin, in his Diet, des Beaux Arts, prefers " destringentem." Lanzi. Ling. Etrusc. T. ii. p. 150. A copy of the " Diadumenos," noticed by Winkelmann, as in the Farnese Palace, is now at Naples a bas-relief representing the same sub- ject in the Mus. Pio. Clem, and a fragmented repetition of the Astragalizontes in the Townley Gallery, which differs from the original, as being draped. ■ " Proprium ejusdem ut uno crure insisterent signa, excogi- tasse," Plin. 1. xxxiv. c. 8.D. Select. Prel. Disc. p. 30. k Polycletus Sicyonius fecit et quern canona artifices vocant, lineamenta artis ex eo petentes, velut a lege quadam, Plin. 1. xxxiv. c. 8. Galen deHippocrat. & Plat, placit. 1. v. c. 3. Em. David, p. 177, where this subject is ably discussed. This statue is said not to have been merely imaginary, but to have represented a Doi iphorus, one of the guards of the King of Persia. Millin. Diction. 99 to be animated we must suspend our judg- schools of ment, that limbs so pliant and proportionate S £lil^Il/ could have been coldly composed from mere mathematical rules. If the Greek artists had worked only by rule, or if they had trusted only to the eye and rejected measures, would there have been seen in their works so great a variety and so much truth? Alcamenes of Athens, and Agoracritus of AAKA- ME- the island of Paros, occur next, both in point nh^. of celebrity and time. Pausanias places the oiymp.87. former in an equal rank with Phidias, and A " Azg ' notices his " Venus of the gardens" among those most admired for the extreme delicacy of the limbs, when he visited Athens. The great bas-reliefs, representing the battle be- tween the Centaurs and Lapithae on the out- side of the temple at Olympia, were sculp- tured by Agoracritus; the same subject was on the metopes of the front of the Parthenon by Phidias, or at least by his scholars; and the Panathenaean procession round the ex- terior frieze of the same temple engraved in Stuart's Antiquities. 1 A Venus at Athens, 1 Twelve of these Metopes have been brought into England by the Earl of Elgin, in 1 808. Of a successive age and school arc the bas-reliefs of the frieze of the Choragic monument of Lysicratea 100 Schools of and a Cupid at Thespis confirmed the high Sculpture. p retens j ons 0 £ Alcamenes, with other equally celebrated Avorks. ATO- Agoracritus acquired his art in the school PAKPI- TO£ " °^ -Phidias, who is said to have offered several oiymp.87. of his statues to the public under the name a.c. 429. Q f f avour j te p U pi| ? by whom his master was held in an equal degree of honour. It was not unusual, at this period, for the scho- lars to express this respect by inscribing their maibles with the master's name, under the endearing title of father. 1 " Pliny relates that the rival skill of Alcamenes and Agoracritus was exerted in finishing each a statue of Ve- nus, and the palm is said to have been par- tially adjudged by the Athenians. But the unsuccessful statue was altered into a Ne- mesis by Agoracritus, and obtained for him, under that denomination, undiminished fame. There is reason to suppose that it was in fact the work of Phidias himself, so that the Athe- nians pronounced against their fellow-citizen, without knowing it." So sudden a change at Athens, representing the history of Bacchus and theTyrhenian pirates, accurate representations of which we owe to the learned and ingenious Stuart. «n Em. David Recherches, p. 1/2. n Plin. 1. xxxvi. c. 5. Dict.de Watelet. "Sculpture," v. 5. p. 621. 101 from the goddess of beauty to that of ven- Schools ot ° J Sculpture. ■ geance, or vindictive justice, proves that the ^-r-Y-w/ antients represented even their most terrible divinities with an enchanting form. Some of his works, after the death of Phidias, are said to have indicated no extraordinary ta- lents. 0 Beside the exhibitions of their skill made by sculptors in places of public resort, there were assemblies consisting of artists only, which had two objects, one to fix on subjects worthy of becoming the property of the state, and the other, to encourage emu- lation, and to decide on superiority in their progress in the arts. Many such are recorded by historians, and among the more remark- able, that concerning four rival statues of an Amazon, to be placed in the temple of Diana at Ephesus. The spirit of emulation was ever one of the prominent characteristics of the ancient Greeks/ Naucydes of Argos was distinguished for NAY- an iconic statue of an Athleta holding a discus, »T,V and appearing to meditate to what distance oiymp.88. he should throw it. Three beautiful figures of A- c - 425 - nearly equal merit have been discovered near ° Watelet. v. v. p. 321. P Em. David Rech. p. 163. 100 Schools of and a Cupid at Thespis confirmed the high Rupture. p rclens j ons Q f Alcamenes, with other equally celebrated works. Al~0- Agoracritus acquired his art in the school PAKPI- TO£ ~ °^ Phidias, who is said to have offered several oiymp.87. of his statues to the public under the name a. c. 429. f aV Q Ut j te p U pil, by whom his master was held in an equal degree of honour. It was not unusual, at this period, for the scho- lars to express this respect by inscribing their marbles with the master's name, under the endearing title of father." 1 Pliny relates that the rival skill of Alcamenes and Agoracritus was exerted in finishing each a statue of Ve- nus, and the palm is said to have been par- tially adjudged by the Athenians. But the unsuccessful statue was altered into a Ne- mesis by Agoracritus, and obtained for him, under that denomination, undiminished fame. There is reason to suppose that it was in fact the work of Phidias himself, so that the Athe- nians pronounced against their fellow-citizen, without knowing it." So sudden a change o 0 at Athens, representing the history of Bacchus and theTyrhenian pirates, accurate representations of which we owe to the learned and ingenious Stuart. m Em. David Rccherches, p. 1/2. n Plin. 1. xxxvi. c.5. Dict.de Watelet. "Sculpture," v. 5. p. 021. 101 from the goddess of beauty to that of ven- Schools ot ° . Sculpture. geance, or vindictive justice, proves that the ^v^»-/ , antients represented even their most terrible divinities with an enchanting form. Some of his works, after the death of Phidias, are said to have indicated no extraordinary ta- lents. 0 Beside the exhibitions of their skill made by sculptors in places of public resort, there were assemblies consisting of artists only, which had two objects, one to fix on subjects worthy of becoming the property of the state, and the other, to encourage emu- lation, and to decide on superiority in their progress in the arts. Many such are recorded by historians, and among the more remark- able, that concerning four rival statues of an Amazon, to be placed in the temple of Diana at Ephesus. The spirit of emulation was ever one of the prominent characteristics of the ancient Greeks. 1 ' Naucydes of Argos was distinguished for NAY- an iconic statue of an Athleta holding a discus, £h~Z and appearing to meditate to what distance oiymp.ss. he should throw it. Three beautiful figures of A ' C - 42S - nearly equal merit have been discovered near ° Watelet. v. v. p. 321. v Em. David Rech. p. 163. 103 Schools of the villa of Hadrian, and restored, of which Sculpture. t j ie most p Cl fect is in this country. No doubt can be entertained of their being copies of that celebrated original.* 1 About this period schools of sculpture were established not only at Alliens, but in the iEgaean islands, in Si- cily, and Magna Graecia. Single works of the numerous artists by whom these acada- mies were constituted, were honoured by his- torians, and many names recorded which would swell this catalogue to an unnecessary length. Not less than fifty-nine famous sta- tuaries had flourished in Greece before the date above recited. 2KO- Whilst Phidias in gold and ivory, and Polycletus in bronze, engrossed to them- 100^107. selves every excellence, Scopas had acquired 377^_34 9 . a scarcely inferior celebrity for his statues in marble. The group of Niobe and her chil- dren, once placed in the Medici gardens at Rome, and which were removed to Florence in 1770, was attributed by Pliny to Scopas 1 Pausan. I. vi. c. 6 and 7. Plin. 1. xxxiv. c. 8. Statius The- baic!. 1. vi. 693. " spatium jam immane parabat." — Plates of this statue, Mns. Pio-Clem. v. 3. pi. 20. Cavaceppi, v. 1 . pi. 42. Villa Borghese, N° 9. Mus.Napol.n.109. It was brought to Eng- land by the late Mr. Lock, and by him sold to Mr. Duncombe, of Duncombe Park, Yorkshire, where it now remains. 103 or Praxiteles, for lie does not decide/ The Schools ot first mentioned was of the island of Paros. CL^ — ' His true aera is rather uncertain, but proba- bly not prior to the 104th olympiad. 5 So consummate was his skill, that he finished a Venus equal to that of Praxiteles, and his Bacchante divided with it the admi- ration of the best judges in Greece. Callis- tratus calls him the artist of truth. The finest fragment of Greek sculpture now preserved in England, is a head of Niobe similar to that above named, but of very superior workman- ship, and is among the specimens selected by the Dilettanti,' who observe " that justly, as the ancient copies are admired of that which was once in the temple of Apollo Sosi- anus at Rome; their inferiority to this ex- quisite specimen is such, as to put them below comparison. It represents Niobe em- bracing and entreating for her last remain- ing child, as described by Ovid, and the mixture of maternal tenderness, regal pride, and earnest supplication, is expressed with r L. 36. c. 5. " Ofiev sv^xoira.; or^AOvpyo; aAij9e Of the two figures of Venus which were made by Praxiteles for the states of Gnidus and Cos; the naked, according to general opinion, is the prototype of the Medicean, as the Coan or draped has been copied by all others. No better proof of the tran- scendant beauty of the first mentioned need be adduced, than that, as Cicero and Pliny observe, it was the only motive with intel- ligent or curious persons to visit Gnidus, in preference to a multitude of similar objects, in which every Grecian city abounded, even to excess. It was visible from all sides, be- ing placed in an open temple. 1 The Sau- which were of the best style ; and that of bronze at Athens, by Lysippus, are most remarkable. The Faun of the Capitol, found in Hadrian's villa, which is the prototype of those holding a flute in their hand, is described by Strabo, as resting against a support. The sleeping and intoxicated Faun in the Pal. Barba- rini (Tetii iEd. Barbar. pi. 215). The Silenus of Praxiteles, pro- bably the dancing Faun, Anthol. 1. 4. cp. 6. Stephani. Vasari, in his life of M. Angelo, p. 336, edit. Bottari, asserts, that the Satyr of Praxiteles was preserved in the gardens of Paul the Fourth. Scopas and Praxiteles first softened the rudeness and severity of the early artists, and gave their statues of these being?* temarkable for their strength and rusticity, forms by no means ungraceful. . 1 Plin. 1. 34. c. 8. I 114 schools of roctonos is admired by Pliny, and was not Sculpture. ' — v—' improbably copied by the most able artists, after it had been brought to Rome, two of the best of which are still preserved.'" An anecdote of Praxiteles, and the courtesan Phryne, of whom he was enamoured, is among the few concerning ancient statuaries which have reached our days, and the dry de- tail of Pausanias has been greatly improved by Bartelemy, in his voyage of the younger Anacharsis. n Phryne had extorted a pro- mise from Praxiteles of his most valuable statue, but the choice was to be made by herself. By her contrivance a servant was directed to run suddenly into the room where they were sitting, and to exclaim that the workshop was on fire, and that his finest per- formances were already destroyed. Praxiteles, m " In detached figures all projections either of limb, hair, or drapery, would be liable to be broken off by the slightest vio- lence, and as the artist could not produce an artificial balance by throwing a greater proportion of the material into one part than another, it became necessary either to leave a prop, sufficiently large to destroy the lightness and beauty of the general effect, or to poise the figure so nicely and accurately on its base, that its whole weight might rest on its proper centre of gravity. Hence,, probably, arose the prevalence of the elegant attitude, in which one leg serves as the central column to the figure, while the other regulates the balance, D. Select. Prel Diss. p. xxx. n Athcnaeus, I. 13. c. 6. Pausan. 1. 1. c. 6. 115 in the utmost agitation, deplored the fancied Schools loss of his Cupid and Faun.° Upon which, * — Phrvne smiling, assured him that both of them were safe, and that now she knew where to fix her choice. p Having obtained the Cupid, she made a public donation of it to Thespia, her native city. It is said that the exquisitely beautiful features of Phryne suggested the idea of Venus, and that the imaginary deity and the real portrait differed little from each other. 9 A marble statue of Phryne was placed at Thespia, and another gilt, or at least inlaid with gold, was dedi- cated by herself at Delphi. The superiority of sculpture among the Greeks may be attributed to certain causes of which theirmythology or historical religion was the chief. Theirclimate,theirpersonal beauty, and their manners, had likewise a decided in- ° A small statue of Cupid bending his bow, the skin of a Lion being thrown over the trunk of a tree, of which there are very numerous copies and repetitions, but not with exact resemblance to each other. Mus. Pio-Clem. T. i. pi. 9. D'Hancarv ille, Ti. i. p. 345. Mus. Napol. Townley Coll. Worslean. &c. &c. Pau- sanias, L. xi. c. 27, Temarks that the Thespians told him, that it had been taken from them by Caligula, but that Claudius restored it to them, and that Nero afterwards laid claim to it, removing it to Rome, where it was destroyed by fire. p Paus. 1. P. c. 20. "i Em. David, p. 388. Athenaeus. 1. 13. c. (5. Clem. Alex. Protrep. 1.4. Arnobius adv. Gentcs. 1. 6. 116 Schooisof fluence. But more was owing to their political Sculpture. ... i i • r t v-^v^/ institutions, and their practice or rewarding merit by erecting statues, and of employing an indispensable portion of their spoils, taken in battle, for the decoration of their temples. What might be commanded by individual magnificence, even in profound peace, has been rarely found to be adequate to the establishment and maintenance of a school of art. But in Greece, (although Winkel- mann builds a favourite hypothesis on peace, which history proves never to have exceeded the duration of a very few years without in- terruption,) war itself, with all its vicissi- tudes, supplied the means of multiplying tem- ples, and of filling them with new imagery. Visconti observes, that the custom among the Greeks of employing statuaries to copy the best works of the best masters, instead of encouraging artists of mediocrity to in- vent, promoted and confirmed the public taste, by multiplying imitations of the most perfect originals. But the most elaborate male statue still remains unappropriated to any individual artist as a copy, even if it be denied to be an original work, and the sculptor of the Belvidere Apollo (now at Paris) has eluded )hc closest investigation of the Roman anti- 117 quaries. The name of Cleomenes, the son Schools of of Apollodorus of Athens, inscribed on the ^—v—- ; plinth of the Medicean Venus, admits of many doubts; but Visconti allows his existence, and considers him as the same who made the Muses called Thespiades, which were transported to Home by Mummius/ The author of so celebrated a performance as the sleeping Hermaphroditus must not be overlooked in this summary catalogue. Po- lycles, the son of Tiinarchides, was eminent even among these artists, and lived in the same rera.' 1 Visconti " note critique sur les sculpteurs Grecs, qui ont porte le nom de Cleomenes imprime dans le journal de la Decade literaire 1802." Pliny notices (1. 36. c. 8.) three sets of the sta- tues of the Muses : " Thespiades," in the collection of Poliio Asi- nius ; another, " ad aedem Felicitatis ;" and Musoe novem, with " Apollo citharam tenens :" and Pausanias others, at Helicon, (1. Q. c.30.) by three different artists, Cephisodotus, Strongylion, and Olympiosthenes, which were probably never brought to Come. Three complete collections of Apollo and the Muses have been made, the individual attitudes of which differ considerably. The first by Christina Queen of Sweden, which are now in the palace of St. Ildefonso. 2. In the Mus. Pio-Clem. from whe nce they have been taken to Paris, and which were discovered at Tivoli in l/7-J» in the ruins of the country house of Cassius. 3. More recently found, and purchased by Gustavus III. King of Sweden, when at Rome, engraved and described by Guattani, v. 1. 1/84. s Of the bronze original there are four copies in marble; 1 in (ho Mus Napol. 2 and 3 in the Villa Borghese. and 4 at Florence. 118 Schools of Sculpture. AYZITL noz. Olymp. 110. A.C.337. Ljsippus of Sicyon was contemporary with Alexander the Great, and the statuary whom he is said to have preferred before all others of his age. That prince began his reign 335 years before the Christian aera; and it is remarkable that Pliny assigns him to the 114th Olympiad, the precise period of Alexander's death, who employed him in casting his portrait, which was effected by a series of models taken from his earliest youth. L} r sippus excelled in seizing the resemblance, and giving the features an extraordinary ani- mation. 1 He probably designed all the coins " A la beaute des proportions determinees par Polyclete et par Pythagore de Rhege, a la fermete a' l'ampleur, a la majeste de Phidias (Demet Pbaler. de eloquentia. c. If). 40. Dion. Halicarn. de antiq. orator, in Isocrate) Lysippe & Praxitele joignerent dans lcs details une chaleur, une delicatesse, un fini, qui manquoient encore aux ouvrages les plus admires." Em. David. Essai sur les classement chronologique des sculpteurs Grecs les plus crlcbres. 1 Guattani 1"84. Bust of Alexander, three palms high, found in l/79> at 3 place called " Le Pisoni," with iG others of Greek poets and philosophers. It was presented by Count D'Azara to Buonaparte, and is now at Paris. Lysippus was his contemporary, according to Valerius Maxim us, Horace, Cicero, and Plutarch. The famous statue in the Rondonini palace, the bus's, one in the Capitol, and the other in the Medici gallery, are all characteristic of that hero, and accord with the epigram of Archilaus, Anthol. 1. 4. ep. 8. Plutarch speaks of the inclination of his head upon the left shoulder, which was affected by Caracalla. 119 of Alexander which bear a deified character, Schools of 11 -ii i • i • Sculpture. and the particular bust, which is engraven v^^-v^, on wood and inserted at the end of this sec- tion, was supposed by Mengs, the painter, upon its first discovery at Rome, to be an undoubted portrait. If we take a survey of the progress of Grecian art, from the coarse workmanship of Daedalus, and the extreme minuteness which succeeded, or of the perfection to which the art was brought by Phidias and Praxiteles, and the style of animation and elegance which was introduced by their example and prac- tised by their scholars, we shall find much to admire. Lysippus established a new school, having returned in a certain degree to the severer manner of the ancients. By a greater facility of execution, he laboured the hair, drapery, and those parts which demand ex- treme lightness, with a more scrupulous attention than any of his predecessors, who had deviated from truth in search of ideal beauty, and he gave grace to symmetry by means unknown to them. He was studious to imitate in his works those noble or ele- gant proportions which nature occasionally puts on, rather than servilely copy after her 120 Schools of usual forms." If, as Pliny states, his works Sculpture. v — v — ' were so numerous as to amount to six hun- dred and ten, we have the more to regret that they were all of bronze, and are irre- trievably lost. Falconet, in his translation, extends this number to fifteen hundred; but the most accurate editions retain the former as consonant with probability, to sup- port which, Caylus offers some satisfactory reasons.* As Lysippus wrought principally in moulds of clay or wax, " faecundissimae ar- tis," and without doubt presided over a very large academy of sculpture, it may be well supposed that he finished many of these in every year of his life, which were capable cf affording many repetitions. Had he formed his statues out of metal, no length of days could have sufficed for so great a number. He cast a colossal Jupiter atTarentum, of the amaz- ing height of sixty feet. He made portraits of Alexander of every description and propor- tion of statuary, and likewise twenty-one u " Ab illis factos, quales essent, homines ; a se quales vide- rentur esse." Perhaps the original Greek, which is lost, would have expressed this idea more happily, even than the concise Latin of Pliny, 1. 34. T. ii. p. 646. Hardouini. D. Select. v Diet, de Watelet, T. v. 121 equestrian figures of his guards who perished Schools o at the river Granicus, where they saved his Uyj life. Metel his transported these to Rome, where was likewise an Apoxyomenos, differ- ing probably in attitude or character from that by Polycletus, which was so greatly admired, that Tiberius removed it from be- fore the baths of Agrippa to his own palace, but was forced by the remonstrances of the people to restore it to its former w station. Nero possessed one of the finest of the bronze statues of Alexander, which he covered with beaten gold. The four bronze horses, first brought from Chios to Constantinople by the younger Theodosius, from thence to Venice, and recently to Paris, are attributed to Ly- sippus with no better proof than tradition, for their workmanship would derogate greatly from his fame." Art flourished with increas- w " Plin. 1. 34. c. S." " distringcntem se, quem M. Agrippa ante thermas suas dicavit, mire gratum Tiberio pr'mcipi, qui non qnivit temporare sibieo, quanquam imperiosus sui inter initia prin- cipals, transtulitque in cubiculum, alio ibi signo substitute, cum quidem tanta populi Romani contumacia fttit, ut magnis theatri clamoribus reponi Apoxyomenon flagitaverit, princepsque quan- quam adamatum reposuerit." x It is well known that these horses were taken from Con- stantinople by the Venetians in 1204. G. Codinus " Delect, ex 122 Schools of ing splendour from the Persian invasion to Sculpture. v--^v^ the Macedonian conquest, during an hun- dred and fifty years of civil war which scarcely admitted of any cessation. The age of Alex- ander is said to have produced the most cele- brated statues; many copies of which are now preserved at Paris and Rome, or in the Eng- lish collections. That great genius M. Angelo was incompetent to the imitation of these figures; and, if a conjecture be allowable, that they are rather to be referred to the Augustan age, or even to the time of the Antonines; it will serve to raise our ideas of the age of Alexander, to find that the best sculptor among the moderns was not to be compared with those, who, by the general consent of antiquity, were themselves below the merits of a Phidias or Praxiteles. Winkelmann observes that not a single specimen of the works of Lysippus remains, though D'Hancarville believes a bust of Bacchus preserved at Portici, to be genuine. We learn from an epistle of the poet Stalius, originibus Const. 8vo. 150,6," mentions several bronze horses placed by different emperours in the Hippodrome ; but his de- scription does not apply to them. Bandurus Imp. Oriental. T. i Strabo, 1. o. p. 2()S. 123 that a Hercules by him belonged to Vindex, s c ch " ols ° J O 7 Sculpture the celebrated Roman connoisseur/ We 1 — must look to Pliny merely as the historian of the art, for he was certainly ignorant of technical terms. Chares is known to have been a favourite XA- scholar of Lysippus from a passage in Ci- cero. 1 To him is attributed a statue of Apollo, the Colossus of Rhodes, which tra- dition, in order to increase its pretensions to be considered as the seventh wonder of the ancient world, states to have strode over the Rhodian harbour. This circumstance is fabulous, yet Millin inclines to a belief of it. Meursius supposes that it was begun by Chares, and completed by Laches, both y Lysippus made a " Hercules Epitrapezius" for Alexander, in small bronze, of which Statius remarks, Sylv. 4. 6. ■ parvusque videri Sentirique ingens. — Vindex was contemporary with Statius and Martial, who is said to have been so well acquainted with the style of the different Greek sculptors, that he could decide without the assistance of the name inscribed. His taste and sagacity are praised by Statius, (1. iv. Sylv. 6.) and by Martial, (1. ix. c. 45.)^who concludes a dia- logue concerning which Lipsius and the Variorum editor hold dif- ferent opinions as to the interlocutors, by making him exclaim, " Graece num quid ait Poeta nescis ? Inscripta est basis indicatque nomen " ATSirUIOT" lego, Phidias putavi. z Rhet. ad Herennium. 1. 4. Milliu Diet. " Colosse." Gnasco. p. 4/0. 124 IcSjlure nat ' ves of Lindus, a city of Rhodes. Of its ' — ^ enormous dimensions 2 Pliny gives a clear idea when he says, that it was nearly a hundred feet in height; that the thumb was larger than most men could embrace, and that it was thrown down by an earthquake fifty-six years after its erection, when it appeared, through the fissures, occasioned by its fall, to have been filled with fragments of rock to preserve the balance. It was completed in twelve years, and at the expense of three a hundred talents, produced by the sale of the warlike engines left by Demetrius when he raised the siege. These fragments remained till the reign of Constans, the grandson of b Heraclius. They were purchased by a Jew, and are said, when broken into pieces, to have laden nine hundred camels. So partial were the Rho- dians to this description of sculpture, and to such excellence had their artists attained in it, that not less than one hundred colossal statues were to be seen in their island. Af"H- No authentic documents remain by which APOZ. tne a § e °f Agesander, Polydorus, and Athe- z Plin. 1. 34. c. 7- AsiaMinor. Fulv. Nobihor. marble J Ditto. Ditto. 134 Ditto Lucius Scipio. 250 Carri or wasrffons filled with 7 AT , . ... . 55 > Macedonia. /Emihus Paulus. statues, &c j Minerva Cliduchos placed in the 7 j); (to Ditto temple of Dea Fortuna . . . ) 25 Statues of Macedonian heroes, 7 by Lysippus, placed before the>Ditto. MetellusMaced. portico of Metellus . . . ) Statues and busts of Alexander and ? r,.., n . . tt , .. > Ditto. Ditto. Hephestion j Minerva, bronze, by Praxiteles, be- 7 r..,, r .x K? i V V „ > DlttO. DlttO. fore the /Ldes rencitatis . j Apollo Carthage. L.Scipio. Africa- nus. 12 Labours of Hercules by Lysip- 7 j^. Minerva in ivory, &c. in the Circus 1 Maximus J Hercules, Bronze, by Myron from 7 c . the household gods of C. Heius. j Syracuse. Messina. J 45 part of these were given to the Roman peo- Roman pie, and exhibited in temples, porticoes, and s £^3 places of public resort, yet several of the proconsuls and generals upon their return to Rome established galleries and private col- lections, to which the lovers of the art might occasionally resort. h Asinius Pollio, Verres, From. 2 Canephorae by Poiycletus . . Syracuse. Diana by Cephissodotus . . . Segesta. Apollo by Myron, in the temple of } . iEsculapius ... . jAgngentum. Cupid by Praxiteles . . . Mamertinum Sappho, bronze by Silanion . . Syracuse. Jupiter Colossal Apollo by Calamis, in the 7 Capitol J Hercules Mithridates, in gold, six feet high Pontus. Pharnax in silver Ditto. Janus Pater Alexandria. Apollo by Scopas, in the Palatine ") rjj tto temple J Latona by Cephessodotus, in Ditto Ditto. Victory .... in Ditto Tarentum. Four statues which supported the } tent of Alexander, in the Pala- > Macedonia, tine temple of Mars . . . j Dioscuri in the temple of Jupiter "> ~, , , . Tonans . . . . . . } De ¥». Colossal Jupiter, by Myron, in"l c itiw J 11 Guasco. Chap. 20. T, By. Verres. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. L. Lucullus. Ditto. Pompey. Ditto. Aug. Caesar. Ditto. Ditto Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. 146 Roman and Vindex, were distinguished collectors. Sculpture^ an( j p Urcnasec i ma rbles, at an extreme price. The Roman architecture had, prior to this aera, been remarkable for its solidity and simple grandeur, jet now by adding statues as a chief ornament, so great a number were requisite, that all the pillage of Greece could scarcely supply them. In private mansions and villas, those of superior or transcendant excellence were deposited, and Cicero ap- pears, from two of his epistles to Atticus, to have been particularly desirous of furnishing his library with some choice specimens. Such were likewise preserved in the vestibules and eating rooms. This fashion once established, grew into excess, and eventually declined ; but from the increased opportunities of selec- tion, a taste for the art displayed itself in the choice of good subjects, and the most cele- brated Grecian bronzes were studiously co- pied in marble by artists, transplanted from Greece. Pompey is said to have been the first encourager of these migrations, for that purpose, and, with such success, that the Hercules Farnese, and the Torso, are attri- buted to them. Julius Caesar was his rival in these acqui- 147 sitions, and in the temple which he dedicated Roman to Venus Genetrix, (so called, as being the fabulous ancestor of the Julian family,) were deposited not only exquisite Greek statues, but cabinets of cameos and intaglios. M. Antony embellished the Praetorian palace with statues which he had borrowed from Caesar. But in the temple of Apollo, and the library built by Augustus upon the Pala- tine hill, the magnificence of the collections already named was eclipsed, both in point of number and value. Several of the statues were composed of solid silver. The luxury of casting them in the precious metals fol- lowed the fortune which favoured and cor- rupted the Romans. It was imported into Rome with the spoils of Carthage, and of Mithridates, king of Pontus, and it was soon imitated by the chiefs of either party and the emperours, and multiplied by the abject flattery of their degenerate subjects. 11 Previously to a more detailed account of the progress and decline of the art of sculpture at Rome, under the succeeding h Sueton. in vit. Augusti, p. 23Q, &: in vit. Caligulce, p. 445. Edmundi Figrelii dc Statuis iilustrium Romnnorum, 1656, 8vo. p. 114. 148 Roman eraperours, it may not be irrelevant to offer Sculpture. . v— v-^ a general view of the subject. There were purposes, unknown to the Greeks, to which the Romans applied the art, and after the first Greek masters were no more, it was professed only by freed men or slaves. When the Roman empire was obedient to a single Dictator, the best artists of Greece, having little encouragement in their own country, resolved to transport themselves to Rome, where the growing fashion of orna- menting the villas with statuary, called for all their talents. As that capital contained the finest pieces of sculpture, collected from every part of Greece, it became from that circumstance the point of re-union for the Grecian artists. 1 Among the more celebrated of them were Arcesilaus, the freedman of Lucius Lucullus, so highly praised by Varro, ' " As Rome was the centre of wealth, as well as of empire, the best artists from all the colonies, of course, sought employment there and as the custom of erecting statues to Emperours, pro- consuls, &c. was very general, there was employment sufficient lor a great number. It was, however, but a minute and paltry kind of work, the Romans seeking for accuracy of likeness rather than excellence of art in their portraits, and requiring them either to be cased in armour, or loaded with heavy drapery, according to the character and office of the person represented." D. Select. Piel. Disc. p. 76. Guasco ; p. 459. 149 and Pasiteles, k (a name which has been con- Roman v . Sculpture. ' founded with Praxiteles,) who was a native v«*-v-^ of Magna Grecia, and was likewise an au- thor, who composed, in five volumes, now lost, an account of statues existing in his day, in different countries. After this melan- choly view of fallen Greece, we may find some satisfaction in directing our minds to the introduction of the arts at Rome, and to the liberal encouragement which men of talents experienced, even from their haughty and rapacious conquerors, to whom they were individually attached, and lived in their pa- laces. Notwithstanding a degree of hard- ness, remarked by Mengs, we may observe in the works executed under the first em- perours, a continuance of the Greek style, which manifests itself in a certain squareness of forms, and a firm, but not a delicate, touch. There is not much precision in finish- ing the hair, but great spirit and boldness, in the masses. The physiognomy has a cha- racter which presents to us the celebrated individual, such, as he is verbally pourtrayed by the historian. In Augustus, we are struck k Pasiteles was retained by Metellus, for whom he made a Jupiter in ivory, and other statues. Plin.l. 36. c. 5. 4. Edit. Brotier. 150 Roman with the semblance of that cruelty which Sculpture. , . . v — v~ ' marked his triumvirate; in Agnppa the cha- racteristics given to him by Pliny, 1 of rage in the countenance of Livia, of meretriciousness in Julia, of an affected threatening air in Cali- gula, and of stupidity in Claudius. This superior accuracy of portrait began to decline about the time of Tiberius and Claudius, who restrained the privilege of erecting statues in publick, and this failure was occasioned by the suspicious spirit of those emperours, who would not allow similar honours to others, when the Roman people had fallen into a state of abject servility. Notwithstanding these discouragements, under the later em- perours, a style of great excellence prevailed. In the reign of Hadrian statuary was more refined, pure, and delicate, than under the earlier emperours; the hair was more highly finished, more laboured, whether in locks or detached, the eye-brows more relieved, and the pupils of the eyes marked by a deep hole, drilled in the centre, a custom uncommon before, but frequent about the reign of this empcrour, as may be seen in the busts and statues of Antinous. The countenances are very boldly chiselled, but deficient in truth 1 " Ilia torvitas." 151 and character. In fact, sculpture had lost Roman l-l T • ScillptU the air or sublimity which was peculiar to it, v — ^ in the works of the ancient Greeks. 1 During the reigns of the Antonines, it re- tained a degree of excellence, which has still its admirers, but fell into a memorable in- feriority alter the time of Septimius Severus. There are, however, several very fine heads of Caracalla, his successor, extant, particularly those in the Villa Borghese at Rome, and one in the Townley gallery. Of the sarcophagi still preserved, and the bas-reliefs which had been detached from them, the major part were decidedly executed in the lower age of sculpture. So great was the number of ancient sta- tues already collected at this period of the decline of the art, that the sculptors at Rome were principally employed in making busts and heads only ; among the more remarkable 1 " The statues of deities, heroes, &c. which adorned the temples, theatres, baths, palaces, and villas of the Romans were either from the plunder of the Grecian cities, or copies made from the master-pieces which still continued or had once enriched them ; but that kind of employment which calls forth inventive genius, and by joining the efforts of the hand to those of the mind produces works of taste and feeling, as well as of technical skill and dexterity, seems to have ceased with the Greek republics and the Macedonian kings." D. Select. Frel. Disc. p. 72. 152 Roman of which are those of Macrinus, m Septimius Sculpture. » — \r-' Severus, and Caracalla, for the scrupulous labour with which they are finished. Lysip- pus himself could scarcely have excelled one of the last mentioned prince in the Farnese collection; yet it is more than probable, that none of these artists could have formed a whole figure worthy of any comparison with those of Lysippus. Pasiteles and Archesilaus were the orna- ments of the Augustan age of sculpture. The former cast in silver, Roscius, the celebrated actor, as an infant lying in a cradle, and en- twined by a serpent, a situation of danger from which he was rescued by his n nurse. Archesilaus excelled in modelling in pipe- clay, from the most esteemed antiques; and is said by Pliny, never to have begun a sta- tue without having previously modelled it, having attained to the greatest perfection in the plastick art.° m Guattani (T. 1. 1784,) describes a bust of Philippus Senior, an emperour who reigned long after Septimius Severus, as of such excellence, that the bust of the last mentioned, which was styled " l'ultimo sospiro dell' antica scultura," was no longer exclusively worthy of that epithet. n Cicero de Divin. 1. 1. c. 36. ° Plin. 1. xxxv. c 45. Although few of his works are sped- 153 Aulanius Evander restored the head of a R 0m an statue of Diana by Scopas, (which had been mutilated in being brought to Rome by order of Augustus,) with singular success. p His chief merit consisted in sculpturing bas-re- liefs, modelling them in terra-cotta, and pro- bably making Bacchic vases in marble upon a smaller scale than that introduced under Hadrian.* 1 Horace alludes to the superior style of Evander in the " Toreutice," or bas-relief in metals, for paterae, cups, and vases. It has been argued that a chief cause of the superi- ority in sculpture to which the Greeks attained, was their enjoyment of liberty. This is Win- fied either by Pliny or Varro, they were of such eminence as to have procured for him the honour of being made a Roman citizen. Varro mentions Archesilaus (as having been attached to the household of Lucullus,) having carved a Lioness with Cupids, who were forcing her to drink, out of a single block. This latter circumstance is always a matter of great surprise to Pliny, and he particularises the s3tne both in the Laocoon, and the Toro Far- nese. 1.36. c. 5. Guasco. p. 41 6. His was the Venus Genetrix with which Julius Caesar was so well pleased, that he wished to dedicate it before it was finished to the satisfaction of the master. p Plin. 1. 36. q " mensave catillum Evandri manibus tritum dejecit." Hor. Serm. 1. i. s. 3. v. 91. 154 Roman Sculpture. Sculpture at Rome by Greek Artists. kelmann's opinion. But let us reflect, that the aera of their greatest fame was when Pericles was demagogue, or in fact monarch, and the reign of Alexander, which did not leave to Greece even the semblance of li- berty. This remark is no less applicable to after ages; for at Rome the most admirable sculpture was produced in the time of Au- gustus, who had left to the Romans scarcely the consolation of imagining themselves free; in modern Italy, under the auspices of the De Medici at Florence, or the Pontiffs at Rome; and in France, under the absolute government of Louis XIV. What favours the arts more particularly is a taste for real beauty, leisure, and opulence, a powerful man who encourages them, and to gratify whom, an emulation, and a great number of competitors are necessarily created/ Among the monuments of sculpture made at Rome, in these last days of her republic, and certainly by Grecian artists, are the two statues of the Thracian kings, as prisoners at 1 Duravit artificibus generosus verne laudis amor quamdiu po- pulis regibtisque artium reveientia mansit : at postquam pecuniae amor earn ex animis homitmm ejecit. defecerunt et ipsi artifices." Petron. Arb. 155 a triumph, in grey marble. These were Scgpharc kings of the Scordisci, a rude people, who by Greek t ii Artists. were defeated by M. Licinius Lucullus, the * — „ — ' brother of the magnificent senator. Exaspe- rated by their repeated perfidy, he com- manded their hands to be cut off, a circum- stance of cruelty represented in the marble, which now remains in the museum of the capitol/ The statue of Pompey, 1 now in the hall of the Spada palace, but originally standing in the Curia or basilica of Pompey, in which Caesar assembled the senate, and at the base of which he fell, affords a singular proof of a deviation from the known custom of the Romans, who represented their living heroes in armour." But the great triumvir is sculp- « "These statues exhibit a striking instance of Roman cruelty, and it appears plainly from these testimonies, that the custom was to maim the principal captives in a great triumph, in order to in- crease their humiliation, by rendering them totally helpless. It is manifest from inspection that these could not be fragments, but that the one never had but one arm, and the other one hand. No Roman historian mentions this wanton barbarity, ashamed probably to transmit it to posterity. Viaggiana, p. 53. 1 Diodorus Siculus, 1. i. p. 45. u " Graeca res est nihil velare : at contra Romana ac militaris thoracas addere " Plin. 1. xxxiv. c. 10. The young men in the gymnastic games, first wore a zone, then, after the Lacedae- monian fashion, were totally naked. 156 Julius Cae- tured as a deified hero, naked and of colossal proportions. We must now consider the arts as trans- planted into Rome, although professed, al- most exclusively, by Greeks, for the very oppressors and depredators of Greece became their most liberal patrons. Caesar, when in a private station, had made an extensive col- lection of pictures, intaglios and small figures in ivory and bronze, 35 which he dedicated by a public benefaction, when, as dictator, he built a temple to Venus Genetrix. His mag- nificent Forum is an instance of his desire to promote the grandeur of the imperial city; and he may be said to have left the love of the arts, as a kind of heritage, to the Romans. Augustus. Augustus merited the eulogium of Livy, who A. D. 14—37. x " Gemmas, toreumata, signa, tabulas opens antiqui semper animosissime comparasse." Sueton. p. 75. A pearl valued at £ 40,000 was cut in two to make ear-rings for the statue of Venus in the Pantheon. Lumisden's Rome, p. 284. So great was the profusion of the Romans after the ex- tinction of the consular government, that a statue of Victory of massive gold was erected, which weighed 120 pounds, calculated by Troy-woight. It has been satisfactorily proved that the co- lumn and statue now at Wilton, which were sold to Evelyn, when collecting for Lord Arundel at Rome, are not those originally placed by Julius Caesar before the Temple of Venus Genetrix. The statue is known to be modern. 157 honours him as the restorer of the temples of Sculpture * at Rome the Gods. He assembled from every part of b y Greek . ^ r artists. Greece the statues of the deities of the most ^-v^ genuine workmanship, with which he em- bellished Rome, whilst he encouraged a pre- vailing mode of figuring eminent persons of either sex in statuary, as portraits, which were placed in the public edifices/ or religiously preserved in their own. It is worthy of remark, that of this Emperor two statues only are allowed to be real portraits; one in the Museum of the Capitol holding the prow of a ship 2 in reference to the victory at Actium, and the other was formerly in the Rondonini collection at Rome. Cleopatra, so unfortunately famous for her Cleopatra, beauty and profuse magnificence, cherished the arts in Egypt. 3 She gave a statue of y Sucton. Calig. c. 34. where he asserts that Caligula threw down the statues of eminent men erected by Augustus in the Forum. * Maffei Raccolt. di Stat. Tav. 1(5. * There is no genuine statue of Cleopatra now remaining. Her true portrait is' only to be seen on her medals, and upon some coins of M. Antony. The reclining figure in the Vatican collec- tion, so long designated by her name, is now discovered to be Ariadne, or a river nymph. Gems have been attributed to her with more certainty than the statue in the Capitol, N" .57, or that 158 Sculpture Venus to Julius Caesar to furnish the temple by^reeL he was then building at Rome ; with Marc ^l!^^, Antony she shared the spoils of Greece and of Pergamus; and to the Attalian Library, which she procured from him, were added some of the finest works, both in sculpture and painting, which existed at that time. The conduct of Augustus towards the Greeks, after he assumed the imperial govern- ment, was moderate and discreet, and such was continued by his immediate successors Caii g uh. till the reign of Caligula. By the last men- A. D. , . . 37—41. tioned, as it has been previously noticed, was dispatched Memmius Regulus, with a com- mand to collect from every city the statues which had been considered as its peculiar boast. With so much exactness were these orders obeyed, that the finest pieces of art were brought to Rome, in a profusion by which his palaces were crowded, and many were distributed in his numerous villas. He ordered his own statue to be erected in every in the Medici Collection. In Mus. Flor. T. 1. Gemm. pi 25. is a head of her, engraved on a sardonix. 77, 78. Stosch Gemni. li. 3g. Maffei Gemm. T. 1. n. 76. Plutarch in Vit. M. Anton, p. 927, does not allow her exquisite beauty, but insinuates that she was irresistible from other causes. 159 city in Greece and Asia Minor, and endea- Roman , ~ , T ... School of voured to force the Jews to receive it into sculpture, their Temple at Jerusalem. 15 V ~ v "" ' Agrippa retained Diogenes of Athens to finish the statues which he placed in the Pantheon; Batrachus was employed in the porticos of Octavia; and Pliny c attests the skill and fame of Py thodorus, Philiscus, Her- molaus, Lysias, Criton, Nicolaus, Stephanus, and Menelas, Arthimon, Aphrodisius, Tralli- nus, and Sauros, all Greek artists, to whose la- bours the imperial residences owed much of their splendour. By these sculptors, about the closeof the republic, the Roman freedmen and slaves 4 were instructed in the elements of the b Phil. Judseus. Josephus. Antiq. 1. 17. c. 6. 1. 18. 3. and De. Belle Judaico. 1. 1. 33. and 1. 2. Q. Edit. Havercamp. Con- cerning his statue of solid gold — his placing his own head on other statues, &c. Vide Suetou. pp. 445. 4(5. 465. c L. 36. c. 5. — Philiscus is conjectured to have made four of the Muses, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene and Terpsichore. Mus. Pio-CIem. V. I. T. 17, 18. 20, 21. d The establishment of a school of slaves was the true cause of the decline of the art, after its removal to Rome: " a liberal art practised by a slave is at once degraded into a manufacture, a mere passive tool in the hands of his employer." " The primary attempts of a people emerging from barbarism, have always a cha- racter of original meaning and intelligence, however imperfectly expressed, and will always excite sentiments similar to those from 160 Roman art. This new school had acquired some de- School of r . Sculpture, gree or reputation under the patronage of Augustus, yet we see few names inscribed on the plinths of statues under his immediate successors, a circumstance which does not favour a supposition of their excellence. It is presumed likewise, that when a celebrated ■bronze was copied, in marble, by any of these artists, the name of the original master, if of any, was inscribed on the base, which fact will account for the difficulty of appro- priating works to names, which Pliny has rescued from total oblivion. In some in- stances, the form of the letters is more mo- dern than the date of the artist, whose name is written. 6 The productions of Roman art were not marked by genius or originality. As most of the statues at Rome were either brought from Greece, or produced by the masters in whose school they studied, they were little more than imitators, who rendered their subjects with the greatest truth and pre- which it sprang, but the operose productions of a people sinking into darkness are either servile copies, or vapid efforts of inven- tion. D. Select. Prel. Diss. p. 80. e Phaedri Fab. 1. 5. Prolog. " Ut artifices nostro faciunt saeculo. novo qui marmori adscripserunt Praxitelem, suo detrito." 161 cision, with exquisite finishing, but void of J^gjJ* invention. They were unequal to the irni- mtsticSta- ^ 1 tues. tation of the naked figure in which the Greeks v — v— ' excelled. The Romans considered drapery as essential to the character of the statues* The laws respecting the change of gowns, the attention paid to folding them with elegance, the phrase which characterised the Romans, " gens togata," were literally followed by their artists. The great passion of the Romans for dress is a sufficient reason for their draped statues. When the statues were not clolhed, a spear was placed in the right hand, and the armour was as scrupulously represented as the drapery. All their efforts were bent to ac- quire the utmost delicacy and perfection in finishing draperies and portraits, the value of which was greatly enhanced by the most accurate resemblance. The custom of the public baths afforded them many opportu- nities of studying the effect of wet draper}', adhering to the limbs, especially in female subjects, and they were thus enabled to ex- hibit the grace and elegance of the naked and draped figure, combined under the same form. The personal vanity of the Romans, and their sacred attachment to the memory M 162 Portraits of their ancestors, proved a fertile source of mesticSta- employment to their numerous artists. Por- l v!lX^— j trails and domestic statues were not limited by any particular law; and it was an ostenta- tious luxury in which the richer citizens spared no expense/ The vestibules of their houses were crowded with the statues of their relatives or patrons, in marble, bronze, or coloured wax, which on particular festivals were apparelled in the most sumptuous robes, and ornamented with jewels. Sepulchral statues, or those which were deposited in the tombs or mausolea of eminent men and the patrician families, were held in the highest de- gree of veneration, 8 and were likewise of the most perfect workmanship. In the sepulchres of the last mentioned, were placed not only the busts of those who had signalised themselves, but of those with whom they had been most intimately allied during life. That of the Scipios discovered in the Appian way, near the Porta Capena, contained, together with f " Imagines in atrio exponunt, — in parte prima aedium collo- cant, noti magis quam nobiles sunt, illas per solemnitates publicas cum studio ornant togis & pnetextis, aut triumphalibus vestibus, juxta personas. Columel. xii. 3 Y. Guasco, p. 321. s Defunctorum imagines, domi positse, dolorem nostrum le- vant." Plin. Epist. 1. 2. 163 their own busts, that of the poet Ennius, Portraits . with whom P. Scipio had lived in the strictest mesticSta- friendship. h Virtues personified, or the tute- 'vUl^^w* lary divinities of the deceased were frequently added. Penates and Lares appear to have drawn Penates . . r \ • m, and Lares. their origin from the remotest antiquity.' 1 hey were known to all nations; but in universal usage among the Romans, and to them was attributed the peculiar and constant guardian- ship of every person, and of every k place. The Penates were chosen by the individual from the gods, as Jupiter or Apollo, and the Lares were favourites among them or deified persons. Few subjects have exhausted more erudition respecting the derivation of their name, and the form of statuary, by which they were expressed; indeed their whole his- h Plin. 1. 7. c. 30. T. Liv. Hist. 1. 38. c. 5(5. Labruzzi Via Appia Illust. ab urbe Roma ad Capu.rm. 2 vol. fol. 1JQ2. The waxen busts or portraits which were carried in funeral processions, or exposed in the halls and vestibules of houses, are mentioned iu Polyb. 1. 6. c. 58. Plin. 1. 35. c. 1. Juv. Sat 8. 1 Guasco. Ch. ix. p. 97. Virgil JEn. 1.2. v. 7 1 7. k Arnobius styles them " Deos consentes seu complices." Lares were public or domestic. The latter were believed to be the souls of the deceased. Redi sopra gli Dei aderenti. Diss. Acad, de Cortona. v. 2. & v. 6. p. 94. 1()'4 Portraits tory is us ambiguous and recondite as any mestic°su- part of the Heathen Mythology. 1 With different denominations the Penates and Lares were regarded as the tutelary dei- ties, under whose immediate protection the person, the house, family, and possessions, of every individual were placed. These divinities were represented by small statues, seldom exceeding a very few inches in height, exquisitely proportioned and wrought, and cast in gold, silver, or bronze; but the intrinsic value of the first mentioned materials has occasioned their almost total disappearance. Bronzes have been abund- antly found, much corroded, and of very un- equal workmanship." In these were gene- 1 Guattani. T. 1. 1/8-4, gives an altar inscribed " Larilus Augustis," upon which were carved two youths standing, suc- cinctly clothed, crowned with laurel, and holding a " ryton," or drinking horn, with their hands elevated : " Animas hominum esse DcTemones et ex hominibus fieri, Lares, si meriti boni sunt, Lemures seu larvas si male, manes autem Deos dici, cum incer- tum est, bonorum eos seu malorum esse meritorum" St. Augustini De Civ. Dei. 1. 9. c. 2. " DIIS MANIBVS " is inscribed on most of the Roman cinerary urns. " Figrelii. p. 86. Dairval, De l'uti- lite de voyages " — m The collection of R. P. Knight, Esq. is the most celebrated for small bronzes in England. One of the first, in point of date, and excellence, was that made before 1/20, by John Kemp, FRS. 165 rally comprehended the twelve greater divi- Portraits • • 1 aild d °" mties," beside Genu, but those most common mesticSta. are of Mercury and Hercules. It was cus- v^-v^> tomary with the Romans, when travelling, to carry the Penates with them, 0 that they might not omit the usual sacrifice, should any festi- val happen during their journey. When they returned home these images p were .deposited in the Lararium q or wardrobe which stood in some secret apartment, the sleeping room or library. In process of time the Romans were not content with a r single Lararium, but had when a very learned catalogue raisonnee was compiled and pub- lished by Rob. Ainsworth, and it was dispensed by public sale. The original collector was Monsieur Gailhard of Angier, who sold them to Lord Carteret. Sir W. Hamilton's collection is now in the British Museum. " " Feror exul in alto " Cum Sociis natoque Penatibus & mag- nis Diis." JEn. I. 3. v. 2. 0 " Lares succinctos." Juv. p They were styled " Familiares — domestici — cubilares, and inscribed " Jovi Domestico — Apollini Domestico," &c. Cicero pro Domo 143, 144. " Gioi xoltciixiSioi " Tlaur^ouoi." 1 " Grande armarium in porticus angulo vidi, in cujus aedicula erant Lares argentei, positi." Petron. Arb. " Nepotis effigiem in cubiculo positum, quotiescunque introiret, exosculabatur.'' Suet, vit. Calig. c. 7. Pliny (Epist. 1. 3. ch. 7.) reports of Silius Italicus " Multum utique librornm, multum statuarum, multum imagi- num, quas non habebat modo, verum venerabatur, Virgilii ante omnes." ' Virgilii imaginem cum Ciceronis simulachro in secundo La- 166 Portraits another containing statues of heroes, poets, mesticSta- and eminent men, and even of their patrons, C^^, as an instance of refined and delicate flat- tery. 5 The superstition attached to these small statues was so great, that men of the first rank and celebrity, and even the philosophers, did not neglect the usage of them. We have in- stances in the lives of Antiochus, Xenophon, and Cicero,' and Tacitus relates, that the Lares of the Roman people were preserved in the temple of Vesta. u Guasco" conjectures that the " SignaTus- canica" did not exceed one foot in height, and it is the opinion of Caylus, founded on great probability, that the statues brought from Corinth by Mummius to Rome, were of, or under, that size. He asserts it to be impossible to have placed three thousand bronze statues in a small theatre of wood, as' rario habuit, ubi et Achillis & magnorum virorum. Alexandrum vero mignum inter Divos & optimos, in Larario majore, conse- cravit. Lampridii in vita Alex. Severi. " Denique hodieque in multis domibus, M Antonini statute consistunt inter Deos Pe- nates." Jul. Capitol, in vit. Ant. Pii. Hist. Aug. p. 292. 5 Icunculs, imagunculae, statunculae, used by Petronius, Pliny, and Suetonius. x Xenophon. 1. v. Plutarch in vit. Ciceronis. Guasco, p. 105. u Annal. 1. 15. c. 13. * P. 46/. 167 was that of Scaurus, unless they had been of Portraits -r»i > • • an( ^ c '°" inferior dimensions. Yet Pliny s description mestkSta- tues. renders it more probable that they were of v^v-^ the usual size/ Genii were of the highest antiquity in the Genius b . PopuliRo- system of pagan worship, and, in order to ac- mani commodate the idea of the divinity to the rude perception of vulgar minds, they were sub- divided into many portions, to whom were assigned offices and power, which emanate only from the great first cause. Antiquaries were uncertain in what manner the Genius of the Roman people was sculptured, and by what attribute he was distinguished from the statues of other deities. A temple was erected to him by Vespasian. 2 The ingenious Adamo Fabbroni has examined four statues, formerly called Apollo, and drawn a parallel between them in an elaborate treatise. Of these, the best known, though all resemble each other, was in the Capitol. It stands naked and y L. 36. c. 15. Pliny's words are " Theatra duo fecit amplis- slma e ligno; — but what immediately applies are these, c. 24. (ex Ed Facii). Theatrum hoc fuit Scena ei triplex in ahitndinem 360 columnarum, &c. Cavea ipsa cepit hominum 80 miliia ; - it was partly made of marble and glass, inaudito et jam postea genere lux- urine, and the top only was wood, Summa e tabulis inauratis" — ib. 2 Considerazioni e conjecture sopra una dubbia Statua del Museo Capitolino di Ad. Fabbroni. 8vo. 1709- 168 toes. Urbs Ro- ma. Roman Terra-Co^ - ta. upright, leaning: much forwards without a support, the arms extended, with drapery- thrown over one of them, and a goose at the feet, by whose vigilance the Capitol was saved.'- The projecting posture was an alle- gory of the republic " ponderibus librata suis." There were likewise provincial deities, usually represented by female figures, many of which, with their proper attributes, may be seen in the series of the Roman coins from the republic to the close of the empire/' They likewise afforded subjects for statues and bas- reliefs. The Urbs Roma, several statutes of which are preserved in the great ' collections, was a figure of an athletic young female, ha- bited nearlv as Minerva, and holding a vie- tory in her hand, but sitting. Genii of either sex have been usually represented with wings. Cupid and Hymen are winged, and male figures, which are now known to signify Sleep and Death.' As the art of making Terra- Cottas had been brought from Greece, toge- * Romulidarum arcis servator candidus anser. Lucret. b Guasco. p. 102. c Colossal, of red porphyry, found at Cora, now in the palace of the Senator of R ome, in the Capitol, and another dug up in the Monte Ca\allo, in the villa Mattei. d Fabbroni. cap. 2, " Di alcuHe figure virili alate." 169 ther with casts from the finest bas-reliefs, the Portraits in Sta- llage of them became very general at Rome, tuary. and they were most skilfully executed. In the mausolea or sepulchres which were near the great roads without the city, they were inserted as friezes, and profusely applied in domestic architecture to interior decoration. They were fastened by rivets of lead, the holes for which are visible in most of those which have been discovered. 6 It is supposed that the more beautiful have been perfected by the graving tool, after they had been hard- ened in the kiln. Historians assure us, that the Romans Portraits, were not less careful than the Greeks in the scrupulous expression of the likeness of their portraits in their statues and busts/ It is remarked by Tacitus, g that Brutus and Cas- sius, though long since dead, were still pre- sent with us in their statues and biography. Possidonius, in Plutarch, attests that the de- scendants of Brutus, who were his contem- poraries, were to be recognised by their e f* The T>rra-cottas in the Brit. Mus." Q'°. 181 1. f On this account they are called by Cicero in Verrem, " for- mae monumenta," and by Horace " corporum simulacrum." « Ann. 1. 4. 170 Portraits decided resemblance to the statue of their tuary. a ancestor.* 1 We have a philosophical reason v ^ v ^-' given by Sallust for the prevalence of this fashion, and the beneficial effects which might result from the frequent contemplation of the representation of eminent men.' Age of The reign of Nero was an epoch pecu- a d. "liarly favourable to the Roman school of ' 4 ~ 68 ' sculpture, in which it appears to have at- tained to a degree of perfection, which soon afterward verged towards decline till its re- vival under Hadrian. Of the two busts of Nero in the Florentine gallery, that of him when a child expresses the greatest mfantine beauty. If a persuasion, as sug- gested by Mengs, could be for once enter- tained, that the Apollo Belvidere, and the Borghese Gladiator, are of Roman workman- ship, the claim of superiority will be readily conceded to this aera in particular.* 1 The enormous luxury in which Nero indulged h Plut. in vit. Rruti. ' " Nam Saepe audivi Q. Maxumum, P. Scipionem, praeterea civitatis nostrae praeclaros viros solitos ita dicere, cum majorum imagines intuerentur vehementissime sibi animum ad virtutem accendi." Sallust. Bell. Jugurthin. c. 4. k Watelet. Diet. T. v. p. 5/0. Paradoxe de Mengs sur les ouv- rages qui nous restent de l'Antiquite. in himself, extended to architecture and its most Portraits in bta- costly embellishments; and in his taste in the tr- ails he was no less depraved than in his morals. He despoiled Greece to enrich his palaces of many statues, from which the policy of his predecessors had refrained. 1 Few genuine statues or busts of this disgrace of human nature remain to this day, the greater part having been, by command of the Senate, de- stroyed with him. m His vanity incited him to procure a Colossal statue to be made by Zenodorus, (who had completed a statue of Hercules at Auvergne,) which was five feet higher than the Colossus of Rhodes, and was erected in the vestibule of his " golden house/' n 1 Claudius had brought the Thespian Cupid to Rome, and Nero, fr >m his pillage of the temple, collected live hundred bronze statues of gods and men. Pausan. 1. 10. 1. 8. Strabo. 1. 10. Sick- ler ut sup. From Pergainus, the last mentioned removed, the bronze statue of Alexander by Lysippus, an Amazon by Strongy- lion, the Ap. Of his favourite Anlinous, id various enarac- V- ' V ^ ters, there are infinite repetitions. That most valued, was found on the Esquiline hill, and was placed by Leo X. in the Vatican ; but it has lately been described as Mercury, by a critic of singular erudition. Another was ' found about 1770, in the Thermae Maritimae of Hadrian, near Oslia, by Mr. Gavin Hamil- ton, late of Rome. J t represents Antinous, in the mythological character of Abundance, and is now in the collection of the late Hon. J. Smith, Barry, at Marburyhall, in Cheshire. If Apollonius and Glycon are, upon all the evidence that remains to us, to be referred to the age of Pompey, (who is said to have brought them to Rome;) it will be difficult to fix the few Roman artists who are recorded, to a period much antecedent to the reign of Hadrian. Cleomenes of Athens, the son of that Cleomenes, whose name appears on the plinth of the statue of Venus de Medici, made the Tiburtinam villain mire exacdificavit, ita ut in ea tt provinci- arum et locorum cekbcrrinia nomina inscriberet, velut Lyceum, Academiam, Prytaneum, Canopum, Poecilem, Tempe vocaret et ut nihil praetermiueret, ctiam Inferos finxit. 179 statue called Germanicus, now in the Napo- Portraits in Sta- leon Museum. Visconti thinks that it simply tuary. represents a Roman orator, to whom the artist has given the attributes of Mercury $ the god of Eloquence. He is represented as naked, or deified: to be enrolled among the gods, even during life, was a mode of flat- tery which the Greek artists taught their Ro- man masters. The two Centaurs 3 of black marble found in Hadrian's villa, bear each of them the names of Aristaeus and Papias. These Sculp- tors were natives of Aphrodisia, a city of Caria. Upon the plinth of some fragments the name of Zeno was likewise seen. Some curiosity will be excited, to ascer- tain those artists who were so constantly employed, and so amply patronised by Ha= drian. His favourite architects, Apollodorus and Detrianus, are recorded by b Spartian. There is no contemporary treatise or history, from which the artists who embellished his more than sumptuous palaces can be au- a Mus. Capitol. T. iv. p. 1 65. Pal. Borghese. St. Q. N° l. and a copy in the gardens of the Thuilleries b In vit. Hadrian! Hist. Aug. p. 86. " transtulit Colossum (Neronis) stantem & suspensum per Detrianum architect urn de co loco in quo nunc trmplum urbis est, ingenti molimine, ita ut operi etiam elephantes 24 exhiberet. Aliud, Apollodoro archi- tecto autore, facere Lunae molitus est. 180 thenticated, although volumes would not have sufficed to convey an adequate idea of their works/ We are now advancing rapidly to the decline. This last epoch includes the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonincs, and terminates within that of Comniodus." Of the two Anlonines, M. Aurelius appears to have been the greater fiiend of the arts, c Almost all the works of the ancients on the arts of design, which were familiar to them, are lost to us. It may be remarked, as a leading cause of this disappointment, that the Greek and Italian monks of the gth, ]0th, and 11th centuries, (to whom we owe the preservation of theclassicks,) being incompetent to the imi- tation of the several embellishments with which they found MSS. on the subject of the arts frequently elucidated, they laid them aside as useless and unintelligible ; and, by this neglect, they have perished. Vitruvius is preserved to us at the expense of the figures The written works of Apelles, Parhasius, and even of Varro, are either irrecoverably buried in oblivion, or are partially quoted or alluded to by more modern authors, a circumstance which excites a curiosity never to be gratified. d In the collection of the late Mr. J< nkins of Rome, (a cata- logue of which was published by Visconti,) was a statue of Mer- cury larger than life, and ot Greek marble. The name of the artist was engraven on the plinth " Ingenui." This Ingenuus might have been a Roman freedman, and from the style of sculp- ture and character does not appear to have flourished prior to the age of the Antonines. Of a later date is the Huntsman in the Ca- pitol} on the left side of the plinth of which is written " Polythi- mus, lib." Bottari doubts if this be intended as the name of a Roman sculptor. V, Guattani Men. Inediti, where is an engrav- ing of it. Portraits in Statu- ary. The An- tonines. AD. 98—192. 181 which he practised in imitation of Hadrian. Portraits . in Statu-. His equestrian statue in bronze in the area ary. of the Capitol, is the first now existing in the world, and defies the competition of the modern artists, according to the earlier opi- nions, but it h is been minutely and severely criticised by Falconet. This age was most remarkable for the character and high finish- ing of heads intended as portraits, particu- larly of the imperial busts, as of M. Aurehus, Commodus when young, and of Lucius Ve- rus. The minute labour shewn in the hair is strongly contrasted by the bold effect of the antique. When at Rome, I examined two busts of Mithridales and of Caracalla, which were placed near each other. They were distinguishing proofs of the difference between the Greeks and Romans in the pro- ductions of art; the one was great and noble, the other fine and minute. d The invention of Triumphal Arches, pro- fusely decorated with historical sculpture, belongs to the Romans of the Augustan age; and though on the reverses of the coins of the first emperours several delineations are c The arts were encouraged by the Antonines, as they con- tributed to the happiness of the people. Gibbon, v. i. p. 71. 8vo. d Guasco. p. 485. 182 Triumphal given of some long since destroyed; it is Wy-i*' from those of Titus, e and his successors now remaining, that we can form a just idea of their former grandeur. Two of very elegant proportions were erected in honour of ihe emperour Trajan. The first is at Benevento, built on his return to Rome after the German and Dacian war; and the other at Ancona, perhaps after the second defeat of Decebalus. On the first mentioned are two orders of bas-reliefs in the frize, repre- senting a rich candelabrum with two genii, having under their knees victims prepared for sacrifice. In the grand cornice is a sculp- tured frize, representing the march of a tri- umph, by an almost innumerable train of figures. At Rome are still seen the arches of Titus, Seplimius f Severus, and Constan- tine. The bas-reliefs upon the first refer to the taking of Jerusalem, and describe many e Vcteres Arcus Augustorum triumphis, insignes Bollorii. Fol. Arcus Trajano dedicatus Beneventi "Porta Anrea" dictus, ticulptuiis et mole omnium facile princeps. Ficoroai Roma Fol. 1 73'^ — 1/70, Montfaucon, bcc. Voyage Pittoresque de la Sicile. T. iv. pi. 2. f Suares sur l'Arc de Septime Severe & celui de Titus. Paris 1770. NblH del l'Arco Trajano in Benevento. Fol. 1 770. The arch at Ancona is remarkable for the immense size of one stone, which alone forms the basement. Jt is 26 lloman palms long, 17 broad, and 13 high. of the sacred utensils of the temple. And- imperial Columns. - quaries have decided, that those now orna- ^-v-*^ meriting the arch of Constat! tine belong to the triumphs of Trajan, and have been trans- ferred from the arch once standing in his Forum. But these sculptures in relief are greatly exceeded in point of interest and curiosity by others, which are wrought spirally round the lofty columns of Tra jan and Antonine at Rome, and which display a whole system of military antiquities. Trajan's column 8 con- sists of thirty blocks of while Carrara marble, and each forms the diameter of the column, perforated by a stair-case of 184 steps, and lighted by forty-three narrow slits or win- dows. The total height of this monument is 115 feet 10 inches, and the reliefs are drawn round it three-and-luenty times. Delinea- tions of this singular specimen of sculpture have engaged the ablest artists, as they con- tain the whole history of the Dacian war. Moulds were taken from these by order of 6 Ciacionii Hiitcria utriusque belli Dacici a Trajano Caesare gesta ex simulachris que in column a ejusdem Romae visuntur col- lecta. Romne. Folio \ 5j6. Fabretti syntagma de Columna. Tra- jani. Fol. IO'oO. Colonna Trajana intagliata da P. Santo Bartoli e spiegata da G. P. Bellori. Fol. ]"04. Guasco. p. 480. Figrclius de Stat. p. 221. 184 Sarco- Louis XIV, who intended to have bronze vllX-^ casts made from them to be erected in his gardens of Versailles. It is conjectured, that the Antonine column* 1 was erected by M. Au- relius, whose wars with the Marcomanni are the subjects of the reliefs; and although the general plan is similar to that of Trajan's column, it is in every respect greatly inferior in design and execution, and curious only for the exhibition of military antiquities. The column of Arcadius at Constanti- nople, was erected in emulation of the others at Rome. It is now totally destroyed. It was raised in honour of the victory of Theodosius over the Scythae, which was the history re- presented in relief. 1 In the zenith of the Roman luxury, sculp- ture was applied to other purposes than merely to statues, busts, or bas-reliefs ; for the sarcophagi and cinerary urns were not unfrequently embellished in the highest de- h Vignolii Dissertatio de columna Imp. Antonini Pii. Romae, 4to. 1705. Columna Cochlis, M. A. Antonino Aug. dicata notis, J. P. Bellori. et a P. S. Bartoli aere incisa — 1704. Lumisden on the Antiq. of Rome. 1 Banduri Imperium Orientale, T. ii. where explications are given of these sculptures in eighteen folio plates, taken from the drawings of Gentili Bellini, a Venetian artist. 185 gree of execution and taste, and the Greek Bacchic sculptors were allowed to introduce their own Candeia. mythology and heroic fables into subjects \*ry*+J entirely foreign to the character and memory of the deceased. Luxury in feasts, and do- mestic habits, required that the Bacchic Vases and Candelabra should be most elabo- rately wrought both in marble and bronze. Those known to have been once placed in the villa of Hadrian, have never been ex- celled. 1 " Although many fine specimens of Sar- cophagi, or parts of them, are found in the English collections, none of them equal those k Of Sarcophagi and bas-reliefs the most valued are that in the Capitol, representing the nine Muses, in the Apotheosis ot Homer; the Endymion, the Bacchants of Callimachus in the Capitol, the Horae, the Zethus and Amphion, and the exquisite fragment of Bacchus, &c. in the Farnese palace. Piranesi made a large collection qf ornamental fragments of marble from the ruins of Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, out of which he composed Can- delabri, &c. with great ingenuity. Two so manufactured were purchased of him by the late Sir Roger Newdigate, and presented to the University of Oxford, having been placed in the Radcliff library in 17/6. Many others of these fragments, after having passed through the hands of the modern Roman ristoratori, were deposited in the Pio-Clementine Museum. Piranesi " Vasi e Can- delabri." Fol. 3 Tonoi. The most admired marble vases are the Medici at Florence, that in the Villa Borghese, the Townley vase, &c. Large fune= jreal vases have been found in sepulchres, 186 Portraits preserved on the continent; but two of the ary. most celebrated, and certainly the largest vases v "*' v ""*"' ever discovered, excepting in fragments, are now in England. They are, indeed, of too great value and curiosity not to merit a particular notice. The first is formed out of a block of Alabaster, and is so capacious as to contain 103 gallons. The handles are interwoven, and the upper margin has a bordure com- posed of vine branches and grapes, under which, upon a leopard's skin, are placed bacchic masques, with the lituus, thyrsus, and pedum. This magnificent specimen was found among the ruins of Hadrian's \illa at Tivoli in 177 1> and was purchased by Sir William Hamilton for the Earl of Warwick, w T here it is now preserved. 1 The other is 1 Inscription on the Base. Hoc priitinae artis Romimaeque magnificentiae monnmen'um Ruderibus Villa: Tiburtinae Hadriano. Aug. in deliciis habitae, eflosuui restitui curavit Equrs Gulielmus Hamilton a Grorgio iij. M. B. R. ad Sicil reg. Fcrdinandum iv. Legatus, ct in patriam transmissum patrio Bonarum artium Genio Dicavit. Ann. A. C. N. M.DCCLXXIV. This vase has been moulded in silver by Rundle, for Ear) Grosvenor. 187 of similar dimensions, but less ornamented. Portraits /-i i • i c i • i in Statu " Greater elegance is seen in the torm, which ary. resembles the calyx of the Lotus -flower. Many years before, this vase was likewise discovered in the same excavation. It was then placed in the Lanti villa near Rome, whence it was brought to England by Lord Cawdor, of whom it was purchased by the lale Francis Duke of Bedford. For exqui- site workmanship on a smaller scale, the most celebrated in England is the Townleian vase, now in the British Museum. A statue said to be of that degenerate monster Commodus, in the character of a young Hercules, once in the Belvidere, is now at Paris. The superior finishing of the hair is a decisive proof, according to Winckel- mann, that it is a genuine Hercules of much higher antiquity." 1 Three engravings are given in Piranesi's Vasie Candelabri, and the only restoration is one of the masks. Purchased in 1 800, for 700 guineas, and now placed in the conservatory at Woburn Abbey. The diameter of the mole is six feet three inches, and the height, with the present plinth, six feet nine inches. m " Accepit statuas in Herculis habitu, eique immolatum est, ut Deo." Lamprid. Hist. Aug. 277. Mon Ined. T. i. p. 99. 188 Decline of From the reign of Augustus to the An- vI^C-^ tonines inclusively, a period of about 220 years, the predominant Roman style was rather minute than grand, and frequently tame or delicate, with reference to outline and finishing. Although they could no longer imitate the excellence of better ages, they valued and preserved the productions of Gieek artists with increased veneraticn. But the total debasement of sculpture, from which none of its pristine elegance could be traced, is most apparent in the bas-reliefs of a triumphal arch erected at Septimius Rome in the reign of Septimius Severus. In Se% AAy comparison with the state of the arts under 193—21 . Antonines, the most unpractised eye will instantly discover a lamentable inferiority ; not that the arts declined so suddenly, from a scarcity of those who professed them, for many portraits in marble, both of this em- perourand his favourite minister "Plaulianus, afford a convincing proof, that though the sculptors were many, yet that the art was in decay. In that reign a new manner origi- n Gibbon's Roman Hist. v. i. p. 201, 8vo. Herodian. 1. iii, p. 122, 129. 189 nated, which soon degenerated into absolute Decline oi coarseness. It is distinguished by the deep ^^Z/ furrows in front, the hair and beard indi- cated by strait lines, the pupils of the eyes more deeply drilled, and the counienances less characterised, so that it is difficult to distinguish aTrebonianus from a Philip. The frequent revolutions, and princes who en- joyed sovereignty but for a day, filled the world with busts. The head of the man in power was easily substituted for that of his predecessors. Caligula caused the heads of the statues of Jupiter to be taken away, and supplied with his own resemblance, particularly in Greece. 0 A statue of the emperour Pupienus, standing in a deified character, later than the age of Septimius Severus, discovered a few years since, has been selected and taken to Paris as a speci- men of the art, at the commencement of its decline, scarcely inferior to other statues of that description in particular.? By an edict of the emperour Maximin, 0 Sueton. in Calig. cap. 22. and Dion. Chrisost. Rhet. p Ann. du Musee, v. 14. Guattani. v. 1788. — It was once in the Verospi palace. 190 Decline of all the bronze statues in the colonial cities ! v!lll^!l!/ were melted down and coined into money. Alexander Severus admired Colossal sta- tues, and among those he caused to be erected, was one of himself, composed of variegated marbles; a sufficient proof of the deterioration of the art.' 1 ' The several authors who have pursued this inquiry with the most ample and critical investigation are undecided in fixing the ex- act period of the extinction of the arts at Rome. Some allow no proofs of their existence later than the Gordians, and by others they are extended to the reign of Licinius Gallienus, in the 268th year of Christianity. Why the profession of the arts should, in a great measure, cease, several causes may be given. Veneration for an- cestors had filled most of the Roman houses with statuary, which disgraced the efforts of later times by an evident superiority. Their number, as well as their excellence, pre* 9 " Alexandrinnm opus marmqris dc duotus marmonbus, line est porphyretico & Lacedaemonio, primus instiiuit in paiatio exor- natis. Hoc genere marmoraudi statuas colossas in urbe multas locavit artificibus undique conqu'bitis. " Lan;prid. in Alex. Sever. Aug. Hist. 191 eluded any encouragement of artists, who Deciineof were deficient both in science and execution, ^^^j It is asserted by Cassiodorus,"" that the num- ber of statues in Rome nearJy equalled that of its inhabilants, at a period of the most extensive population. When the emperour Constantine was con^ verted to Christianity, he protected temples and their statues from destruction, till his own subsequent example in amassing the treasures deposited in them, led the way to a general spoliation. The gold and silver sta- tues were melted down, and the bronze and other works of art, to which his age was un- equal, were destined to be transported once more to another country. Having determined to establish at Byzan- tium, another capital of the Roman world, he pillaged the old metropolis of its most valuable statuary, to embellish a rival city. Those cities of Greece whieh were contigu- ous, supplied, of course, an easy prey. Im- plicit credit perhaps is not to be given to r " Statuas primnm Thusii in Italia invenisse referuntur, quas amplexa posteritas, paene parem populum urbi dedit, quam na- tura procreavi.t." L. 7- variarum. 192 Decline of an author of such questionable veracity ag iiCil/ Cedrenus. By him we are told, that Con- stantine had collected the Olympic Jupiter of Phidias, the Gnidian Venus, and a colos- sal Juno in bronze, from her temple at Samos, not to detail more of his Catalogue. These, according to the amplifying Nicaetas, were broken in pieces or melted down, at the surrender of the eastern empire and its metropolis, in 1204, to the French and Vene- tians, and converted into coin for the pay of the army. He reproaches the fanatic plun- derers in the most vituperative terms. From the reigns of the first Greek emperours to the immediate successors of Theodosius, we may perceive a faint ray of their former genius still animating the Greek artists. The historical column of Arcadius rose in no very unequal emulation of those of Trajan and Antonine at Rome. But from many epi- grams of the Anthologia it is evident, that able artists were in existence; and it may be candid to suppose, that such praise was not, in every instance, extravagant or un- merited/ s Gibbon's Rom. Emp. v.u. p. 2-40. 8vo. Constantinople, An- cient and Med. p. 112.— Cedreni Hist. p. 322. — P. GylliiTopog 193 The baths of Zeuxippus were begun by Decline of Severus, and finished with porticos by Con- — ' stan tine, who made them the repository of many fine statues, which were unfortunately destroyed by fire, in a popular sedition in 532. Of the bronze statues placed there an enumeration in verse is given by Christodo- rus the Coptite, in the Anthologia. In this catalogue, we discover little information re- specting the art of sculpture, for, his manner of recounting them is immethodical. It ap- pears, that each statue was marked with its name at the base. If, as the poem recites, these were statues of gods, heroes, poets, orators, philosophers, and illustrious men, as well as of celebrated women, it is to be re- gretted, that the originality of so many por- traits is now irretrievably lost, for those might have been ascertained as genuine, which have since been supplied by conjecture. When Constantinople was founded, archi- Constant. pp. 115. I89. 12mo. 1632: " Priscae artis opera quae Constantinopoli extitisse memorantur. Heyne. Comment. Scient. 2. Sect. T. ii. 4to. 17gi, 1792. Goetingen. De interitu operuni cum antiquae turn serioris artis, quae Constantinopoli fuisse memo- rantur, ejusque causis ac temporibus." Id. T. xii. p. 273. O Deciineof lecture and sculpture had declined nearly in C^C-^ an e q"*d degree. If the public buildings of that city were greatly inferior to those of Rome, they as much excelled them as ihe repositories of sculpture. " The buildings Mere executed by such artificers as the reign of Constant ine could afford; but they were decorated by the hands of the most cele- brated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Praxiteles surpassed, indeed, the power of a Roman cmperour; but the immortal productions they had bequeathed to poste- rity, were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his com- mand the cities of Greece and Asia were de- spoiled of their most valuable ornaments." x There is reason to suppose, that the new capital contained within its public edifices not only the works of antient Greek art, but but those of a school of sculpture and sta- tuary established there, as it had been at Rome. A silver statue of Theodosius, placed upon the historical column by his son Arca- x Gibbon. R. Emp v.iii. p. 18. 8vo ; and in the 28th chapter, he describes the destruction of" the Grecian temples. " Constan- tinopoiis dedicatur paene omnium urbium nuditatc." Hierbn. Chron. p. 181. 195 dius, was equally celebrated on account of Decline of Sculpture. its intrinsic value and workmanship. 7 v-~v-^ The art of statuary maintained itself, with no great variation, for nearly six centuries from the age of Polycletus and Phidias to the time of the Antonines, and as confined to works in bronze, continued with a certain degree of success at Constantinople, to a late period of the lower Greek empire. At the time that Rome was laid waste by the Goths, these artists were held in considerable esti- mation. One specimen remains in the great doors of the church of S. Paolo fuori delle mura at Rome, as late as the eleventh cen- tury. It is well known from the testimony of Pausanias and Strabo, that in the earlier pe- riods of the Roman empire many excellent statues remained in the Grecian cities, some of which, it may be reasonably supposed, were afterwards concealed from the Christian Iconoclasts, in a perfect state. Without doubt, many which on account of the religious vene- ration of those who possessed them, were, in certain instances, spared by the first em- y Zonaras Ann. T. 3. " Steterat columna M. Theodosii sta- tuam argenteam sustinens, a filio ejus Arcadio facta, pondere 7400 librarian." It was removed by Justinian. 196 Decline perors, were afterwards with less scruple of Sculp- 1 1 brought to Constantinople. The destruction of these marbles has been accounted for, and it is more than probable, that in the Grecian provinces those statues which were distin- guished either superslitiously, or on account of the excellence of art, were the first to be sacrificed to the zeal of the Iconoclasts, wherever they were exposed to it. Notwith- standing, if the same zeal, diligence, and li- berty of research, which have been employed in Italy, could be exerted in examining the ruins of those cities in Ionia which are distant from the sea, might not the success be pro- portionate ? The unexplored vaults of Ephe- sus and Miletus, if the Turkish government, and the jealousy of the Greek inhabitants of Asia Minor would ever permit an uninter- rupted investigation of them, might be found to contain many specimens, of such superior excellence as greatly to exceed our admiration of those we already know. SECTION IV. Gibbon, in the conclusion of his History of Decline of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, v2j^ has given a succinct account of the four se- veral causes to which the ruins of Rome may be ascribed/ During the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies, Petrarch and Poggio, b the celebrated civilian of Florence, very eloquently deplore a V. xii. p. 400. 8vo. " Statuae intereunt tempestate, vi, ve- tustate." Cic. Phil. 9. b De varietate fortunae, p. 20. 4to. 175g, Paris ; and an essay which he published on the Ruins of Rome. Dec line of this destruction, and particularise the causes ^^yH^j and effects of this dilapidation. They were surrounded by these ruins in their view of the imperial city, after many centuries of in- jury sustained from the Goths, the zeal of the primitive Iconoclasts, the civil wars of her. own nobility, and the waste of materials, or the gradual decay of time. Poggio asserts that six perfect statues only remained, of all the former splendour of the mistress of the world. Four of them were extant in the baths of Constantine; the others were the group on Monte Cavallo, and the equestrian statue of M. A melius. Of these five were marble, and the sixth of bronze. 0 It has been a received opinion, that the works of art have been destroyed by the Goths and Lombards, by whom one part of Europe was devastated; but this circum- stance continues to be repeated, merely be- cause it has been once said, and is received without due examination/ At the precise c Epist. Familiares — Poggius died in 1459. But, Mazochius, whose " Illustrium imagines" were published in 151/, remarks: " In urbe fuerunt equi aenei deaurati numero 24; eburnei vero 49." P. Victor de xiv regionibus urbis Romae, 4to. 1500. Figreiius de Stat. p. lGO. 12mo. confirm this circumstance. d Gibbon, v. vii. p. 29 — 33. Guasco. p 4b6. Em. David, p. 398. Gne\ii Thesaur. v. iv. p. 1870. Petri Bargaei de edific, urb. Romae eversoribus, Dissertatio. 199 period at which the Goths became masters Decline of of Italy, the ails had considerably dete- ^J^j rioraled, a satisfactory proof of which is afforded by the remaining monuments of the fourth century, and the medals of the last Roman emperours. The civil contentions which had previously taken place, were no less fatal to the works of art, than to the art of sculpture itself. 6 Tacitus relates, that Sa- binus, the brother of Vespasian, seized the statues of the capitol, and piled them on each other as a barrier in the gates, which were then in flames, to oppose the Vitellians who had revolted/ Procopius tells us, s that the Romans besieged in the Moles Adriana by the Goths, in the reign of Justinian, threw down upon the heads of their enemies the statues, Avith which that enormous pile was profusely surrounded. The deportations by Aurelian and Constantine must have dimi- c Hist. L. 3. f L. 3. Hist. c. fl. s L. 1. c. 25. "That venerable structure which contained the ashes of the Antonines, was a circular turret rising from a quadrangular basis ; it was covered with the white marble of Pa- ros, and decorated by the statues of gods and heroes, and the lover of the arts must read, with a sigh, that the works of Praxiteles or Lysippus were torn from their lofty pedestals and hurled into the ditch, on the heads of the besiegers." Gibbon, v. vii. p. 230. 200 Ueciineof nislied their number in a great degree. A v^i^L, much more extensive devastation therefore, than that really committed by the Goths and Vandals, has been attributed to them, if, in- deed, Ave except during the praedatory wars of Atlila and Genseric. So far indeed from having been industrious destroyers, at all times, proofs are not wanting that they se- dulously preserved the more celebrated re- liques of antiquity which still remained at Rome. 2 Before the irruption of the Goths, Theodosius the Great, and his sons Arcadius and Honorius, destroyed every statue that could be called an idol. The triumph of the Christian religion over the Pagan worship, was an efficient cause of the destruction of statues. Those which had attracted crowds of worshippers for many ages, were among the first to be broken into pieces by the zealous Iconoclasts, or thrown in a mutilated state into rivers and pools, particularly into the Tyber, and the lakes in the vicinity of Rome. St. Gregory, when Pope, at the end of the sixth century, b Cassiodori Var. L. 7. formul. Theodorici. 13. Epist. L. 1. 21. 25. 34. Histoire Liter, de la France par les Benedictines, T. ii. 39, '10. T. iii. 21 & 43 1 . 201 instituted a search into private houses after Decline of concealed statues, and, where found, devoted s^J^^j them to instant destruction. 11 During the violent contests between the Roman nobility of the middle ages, we know that architec- ture received more detriment than from the invasion of barbarians; and there is equal reason to believe, that the sculpture which remained to that day, partook of the general demolition. But to understand and appreciate even the few works of sculpture which they had daily opportunities of contemplating, ap- pears to have been a qualification of which the natives of Rome of the middle centuries were in no respect ambitious. 1 To Poggio we are indebted for the cultivation of taste, originating in a love of the arts, and the suc- cessful researches made soon after this dark period." Many books of topography, rela- h Volater. Anthropol. L. 22. D. Select. PI. g. " Head of Her- cules found with many cart loads of marble fragments in a muddy pool nearTivoli, purposely broken and thrown in ; a proof that the destruction was not by the sudden impulse of barbarian fury." ' " Qui enim hodie magis ignari rerum Romanarum sunt, quam Romani cives ? Invitus dico, nusquam minus cognoscitur Roma quam Romae." Petrarchi Epist. Fam. L. 6. ep. 2. k Roscoe's Lorenzo de Med. v. ii. p. 26l. 8vo. Poggii Epist. 202 Deciineof tivc to investigations of the site of antient Rome made their appearance soon after his decease.' He was the first who attempted to collect statues in his own country; and what the circumscribed fortune of an individual could not effect, the liberality and magnifi- cence of his prince most amply supplied. Incited by his earnest recommendation, the great Cosmo de Medici acquired a love of the arts, and was the first who formed a cabi- net. The successors of Cosmo, as if with hereditary emulation, exerted every power of wealth or influence to render it the envy of Europe.™ An investigation of the remains of Ro- man grandeur, so long and sedulously pur- sued, was rewarded by frequent discoveries of the finest antique sculpture; and the artists of the modern school established at Florence, gave the first proofs of their ability, by re- ad Nic. Nicoli, in which he speaks of the collection of antique busts and heads which he had made; and mentions that he had sent a monk to the island of Chios, to procure marbles for him, of whom he complains as having disingenuously purloined them. 1 Marliani Urbis Romae Topograph. 1534. 8vo. Ulyssis Al- drovandi, Stat, di Roma, 12mo. 1558. Porro, Stat. Antiche poste in diversi loughi de Roma, 4to. 1576. Cavallarij Antiq. Stat. Urb. Romae, 2 T. 1585. m Poggii Opera, p. 276. 203 storing and adapting these precious frag- Discovery of Statues. ments. Of the age of the magnificent Lorenzo de Medici, his son Leo the tenth, and others of the enlightened individuals of that family, an authentic and elegant history is now before the publick." Many curious particulars relative to the first discovery of those antiques in the six- teenth century, which have retained a supe- rior degree of excellence, are given by the Roman antiquaries. 0 It will be necessary to take a general view of the progress made in amassing these treasures of antiquity, before the princes of other nations in Europe had acquired a simi- lar taste for the arts, and were ambitious of transferring to their own cabinets, the monu- ments of Greek and Roman splendour. As the city of Rome, and its immediate vicinity, n Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, 2 vols. 4to. 1797- — 3 vols. 8vo. 1800. Life of Leo X. 5 vols. 4to. 1802. ° P. Ligorio delle antichita di Roma, 8vo. 1553. Le Anti- chita de la citta di Roma per Mauro. 1556. Ant. Labaco Anti- chita di Roma. 1552. Scamozzi discersi sopra l'antichita di Roma. 1582. These are very rare, but most interesting works. Dominico Becucci published not many years ago, at Flo- rence, the Treatise of Bernardo Ruccellai de Urbe Roma, opera veramente grande, piena de erudizione e di critica. v. Tiraboschi, nturia della Litt. Ital. v. 6. p. 658. 204 Discovery contained the far greater number ot these of Statues. ... . . .. curiosities, and those most easily obtained, the ecclesiastical authority was exerted in a prohibition of alienating any single piece of sculpture; whilst the liberal price paid by the Cardinals co-operated with the fearof censure, and was the effectual cause, that almost all the statues of great value were retained in Italy, in the earlier periods of their discovery. Ac- counts of many of great excellence (though, perhaps, rivalled by a few since brought to light) are given by the Roman antiquaries. A concise detail of some of the more remark- able may not be uninteresting in a series of inquiries; the object of which is to confirm opinions by facts, as they relate to the his- tory of sculpture. Of those remains of art, which through the revolutions of time and opinion have still maintained their supe- riority, it may be useful to collect and com- pare the different conjectures of virtuosi, as they have been applied to the more cele- brated monuments of antiquity. The pride of the Vatican is now transferred to the Mu- seum at Paris. To argue that such a depor- tation has been made by the French nation only, would be against all historical evidence; the question should rather be put, have not 205 certain of these statues been blemished by Discovery of Statues. the subsequent repair of the injury sustained <^v-^ in their removal from Rome? and are they now placed in a point of view equally favour- able to their transcendant excellence? I. Marcus A u re lius. — This bronze M.Aure- equestrian statue was tound in the pontificate of Sixtus IV. on the Caelian hill near the present church of St. John Lateran, and the Scala Santa. It was much neglected after its first discovery ; but in 1470, it was placed on a pedestal in the front of the Lateran church. Paul III. in 1538, by the advice of M. Angelo, ordered it to be removed into the square of the capitol, where it now stands on a pedestal of one single block of marble of his workmanship. Through successive centuries it has commanded universal ad- miration ; yet its pretensions to excellence have been severely scrutinised by Falconet, who has confirmed his opinions by a com- parison with nature. p Visconti vindicates the i' The most useful part of Falconet's criticism is the parallel between this statue and the natural figure of a beautiful horse, which may serve as a guide to future sculptors. He was at that time engaged in casting the equestrian statue of Peter the Great at Petersburgh. A mould was taken from it by order of Francis I., and a cast in plaster which Louis XIV. placed in the court of the Palais Royal, was suffered to fall to decay. Objections may be 206 attitude and proportions from this censure. It should seem, that the French adopted the prejudices of their countryman, and left it in its original station."' II. The Torso or Hercules was found near Poinpey's Theatre, now the Campo de made to the justness of Falconet's comparison, as his scale is taken from a small horse, and from the head, in relation to other parts of the body. The horse of M. Aurelius was found without the rider; and, according to some writers, the emperor was at the bottotn of the Tyber in the fourteenth century. Totila, who took Rome in the sixth century, admired the horse greatly. Falconet says, " Que le cheval va au grand pas des jambes de derriere, et que de celles de devant il ne fait que piaffer, il le defie d'avan- cer," — V. CEuvres, v. i. i An account of this statue is given, as collected from the Roman antiquaries. Archaeologia, v. i. p. 122. Emcric David passes over this statue in contemptuous silence. Yet such were not the sentiments of an earlier French critic, equally followed in his day. Dandre Bardon (T. ii p. 18.) ex- claims " montons au Capitole considcrons-y avec Eernin le cheval de IVlarc Aurelc ! peutetre serous nons tentes de demander a ce coursier s'il a oublie quil etoit en vie." Consult for very accurate information, Figrelius, cap. xviii. p. 14(J. 8vo. draws a comparison between this statue and the Apollo Belvidere concerning proportion. Vide Goethe Propylaa. 1/98. 1 " The statue that enchants the world." Thomson. a Des differerites manieres de rcpresenter Venus dans les ouv- rages de l'art. Jansen. T. i. p. 1 . Mem. Acad, des Inscript. 1 776. Cleomer.es is recognised as a sculptor, as his name appears writ- ten on the shell of a tortoise, placed at the feet of a statue, removed from Versailles to the Museum, formerly called a Ger- manicus, now simply a Roman orator : " KAEOMENHS KAE0- MEN0T2 A0ENAIOS EIlOiHZSEN." Gori attributes it to 215 Pelli,* after owning that he has never found Discovery , , . ii- <• i of Statues. any document relating to the discovery ot the -y— ' Venus, is inclined to adhere to the conjecture Venus dc J Medicis. of Lanzi, who supposes that the Venus men- tioned by Boissard, 3 as existing in the mu- Phidias, Praxiteles or Seopas. Mus. Flor. Le Noir thinks it pos- sible, that the present inscription might have been placed when the former one was removed in the restoration. He argues, that to a statue so well known to be antique, nothing could be added in point of value, by attributing it to a sculptor of uncertain fame. Annal. v. xi. p.tjO. In the essay abovementioned, Heyne remarks, that most of the statues of Venus have been merely torsos of women, without any particular discrimination ; others simply beautiful females, some of Venus, certainly, but without any attribute, excepting that given by the restorer, as for Venus, Urania, &c. From these we can collect nothing respecting the antique mode of representing that goddess. The Venus de Medicis is probably a repetition of a lost original, and the application of the character to Venus Avao'jo^svr,, or Marina, is utterly false : — how can it represent Venus rising from the sea, with her hair plaited and disposed with so much grace ? The dolphin and Cupids are her general attributes, and the artist has availed himself of them for the support of the statue. See Winkelmann's Hist, de l'Art. 1.4. c. 2. Pierres de Due d'Orleans, T. i. p. 138. n. 5. Ovid Art. Am. 1.2. There is no proof that this attitude in particular belonged to any of the statues by the most celebrated artists, nor any certainly of what they were, yet they have probably reached us in copies, though they can not be identified. The figure of Venus de Medici is seen on a medal of Julia Domna, and the Town of Appcllonia in Epirus. Em. David is particularly eloquent on this subject, pp. 232. 234. 268. z Saggio Istorico della real Galleria di Fiorenzi, p. 1 50. ■ l Topograph. Urbis. Romae, p. ]0g. 216 Discovery sciim of cardinal Carpehse, and purchased pf Statues. tit-. * — v — ' by cardinal Fcrdinando de Medici, is llie Medicis 6 V (,nus ni question. Leo X. died 1521, and the Statue was not known to exist in 1530, when Correggio is said to have copied his head of Danae from it, which proves that Correggio had never seen it. Different parts of this celebrated statue have been restored; among others, the point of the chin to the left of the dimple, the tip of the nose, the right arm, and the left below the elbow. Winkelmann derides those hy- percrities, who have found fault with the hands, concluding them to be of antique workmanship. 3 It appears to have been allowed by the antiquaries of the l6'lh century, that this statue is tiie genuine Venus made by Praxi- teles for the Gnidians, and described by Lu- cian. b The ears are perforated, and it is thought by Gori were once adorned with pearls, — if this statue be the same which be- a The statue was entire when at Rome, but was broken, par- ticularly in the legs, when it was removed to Florence in the pon- tificate of Innocent XI. v. Maffei remarques dans le recueil de Rossi, p. 28. Pelli allows the left arm only below the elbow td be modern. b Dial. Epwrty. lit longed to Sept. Severus. Luthisden COnjeC- Discover^ originally deposited." In the opinion of Mi- lizia, d the Venus of the Capitol is still more excellent than this statue, as being the ge- nuine resemblance of living beauty, to which grace gives the whole attraction; and by Visconli it is considered as a true copy of that by Praxiteles. Both are now at Paris. In the year 1800, when Tuscany was in- vaded by the French, it was thought neces- sary to remove the principal statues, &c. and fitly cases were made up by a committee of artists, containing a selection of the most valuable, including the group of Niobe, and those in the Tribune of the Florentine gal- lery. These, with three hundred pictures, gems, medals, and books of drawings, were embarked on board the Santa Dorothea, Capt. Downman, bound for Palermo, where they were deposited, and by which means the c Antiq. Rom. p. 302. The falsity of the name of the sculptor has been detected by Gori, Mus. Fiorent. T. iii. p. 35. Marietta Pietre intagliate, p. 102, in not. Bianchi, p. 101. MafFei Crit. iapidaria, 1.3. p. 70. d Arte di vederc le Belle Art i . tures it to have been the Venus of Phidias, from a passage in Pliny, and having been found near the spot, where he says it was 218 Discovery \ enus do Medicis eventually fell into the ^-^.-^ hands of ihc French. Had the advice of the then British resident charge d'affaires (my va- luable friend, to w hom 1 have been infinitely obliged in the course of this essay,' 1 ) been for- tunately followed, and they had been de- posited in the King's storehouse 1 at Gibraltar; the English nation might have had the ho- nour of restoring them to their legitimate owner. Hercules VI. Hercules and Teleph us, formerly phus. ele " known as " Hercules Connnodus," which de- nomination had no other foundation than a fancied resemblance to the head of that em- perour, as it appears on his coins. Hercules is represented as clothed in the spoils of the Nemaean lion; his right hand rests upon his club, and with his left he holds up his son Teleph us, and rests upon a pedestal. This group was dug up near the same spot as the Torso, and about the same time. Julius II. placed it in the Belvidere of the Vatican, and it is now at Paris/ a Thomas Penrose, LL. B. Fellow of New College, Oxford. c Heyne (Antiquarische Aufsoetzc, p. ]/'2,) asserts that this celebrated group is no longer the same which was found in the baths of Caracalla ; several accessary figures having been added. VII. The Hekcules Farnese, with the group of Dirce, Zethus and Amphion/ usually v_ ^- J called the " Toro," were excavated among Hercules the ruins of the baths of Caracalln, which they had once adorned, and were placed in the Farnese palace at Rome by Paul II I., about the middle of the 1 6th century. The Hercules is inscribed " rAYKON • AOHNAIOZ • EnoiEl;" 6 and the legs were restored by Giacomd Delia Porta; but those originally belonging to this statue have been lately discovered and ex* The fragments then discovered, were first restored as Hercules subduing the Marathonian bull j and lastly, as the group above- mentioned. f Cicero mentions a bronze Hercules brought to Rome by Verres; Hercules egregie factus est ex sere ; is dicebatur esse My- ronis ut opinor, et certe. In Verrem, T. i. 3fc)0. Fol. s For an able discrimination between sirotst & sifjirpti, see Lessing, Du Laoeoon, p. 2AQ. In the Townley Gallery, Brit. Mus. is a colossal head of Hercules, dug out of the lava at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, which has been supposed to be the ge- nuine head of the statue called Hercules Farnese. It was pro- cured and given to the Museum by Sir W. Hamilton. D'Hancar- ville speaks likewise of another head of Hercules in the Townley collection, found in Hadrian's villa, which is marked by a cha- racter quite different from that which was afterwards given to him, when they represented him as the son of Jupiter. In this parti- cular head " on ne reconnait pas le descendant de ce Dieu, mais on a voulu y exprimer le courage qui lui fit donner par Homere et les autres poetes le titre de " AeovTiQvu,os" ou coeur de Lion," v. i. pp. 236, 23/. Hogarth's Analys. of Ecauly, p. 52. Svo. 220 b iscovery changed for them.' 1 They are more accordant of Statues. • l i i lii • v^-v^, with the style, and prove that the praise oi Hercules their substitutes was exaggerated : tliis praise, however, was bestowed on them by M. Angelo. Here is exhibited the greatest degree of mus- cular power which a man is capable of exert- ing in the hardest labour, without cessation, and by which he is rendered, at the same time, robust and agile. We contemplate in this statue the vigorous Hercules, the hero equal to the performance of all the exploits which the poets have attributed to him. We can not easily decide (says Lumis- den)' whether the sculptor could have repre- sented strength better in action, than he has done at rest. It is allowed, that this statue was not originally intended to be placed on the ground, and consequently level with the eye; but, perhaps, in an open gallery, thirty or forty feet high, to be seen from a court or street. This is evident from the extraordinary inflation of the abdominal mus- cles, which would appear to be in just pro- portion were they thus viewed. The muscles h They were presented to the king of Naples by the prince Borghese. ' Antiquities of Rome, p. 178. 221 of the back part of the statue, which were Discovery to be seen near by those who passed along the gallery, are in their natural state, and not exaggerated like those in front. The position of the head inclining forward, assists this conjecture. Anatomical objections are not strictly applicable to a deified hero. By the Romans this statue was first re- moved from Tarentum, and not many years since from Rome to Naples. It is a very singular circumstance that the memory of such sculptors as Apollonius, Agasias, Clcomenes, andGlycon, should have been lost in all the accounts of ancient artists which have been transmitted to us, a circum- stance by which Mcngs is confirmed in many of his doubls. We have yel no safe criterion by which we may decide, that those works of ancient art which have reached us, and which are now most celebrated, are all of them of a dale anterior to the subjugation of Greece by the Roman power. V11L Group of Niobe, which with Group of "the Wrestlers," k was found without the k Gori, Mus. Flor. considers the Pancratiastae, or Wrestlers, not those of Cephissodotusj but of Myron, enumerated by Pliny. If of the latter, it was probably a copy of a bronze, as they are of Parian m.irble. 222 Discover} Porta St. Giovanni at Rome, before the year of Statues. J \ — v — ' 1583, and purchased by cardinal Ferdinando Gmupof de Medici. There are fifteen figures as large Ntobe. _ o o as life, fourteen with the mother and children, and one, the pedagogus or tutor. 1 "W'inkel- rnann " supposes it to l)e the work of Sco- pas, and the same mentioned by Pliny, as having been in the temple of Apollo Sosianus at Rome." If, as some pretend, the marble came out of the quarries of Luni or Carrara, it could not have been brought from Greece. But as the naturalists well know, it must be very difficult to decide upon what quarry in particular any marble was primarily ex- tracted, after the statue in question had been buried in the earth for many ages, and re- ceived stains and colour according to the metallic nature of the soil, which happened to be in contact with it. Niobe is represented at a period of life when beauty and dignity are at their zenith. The daughters form a family of individuals of different ages; the third is exquisite, and the fourth scarcely inferior. A bas-relief 1 Pelli ut sup. v. i. p. 167, and v.ii. p. 110. m Mon. Inediti. T. i. p. /I. " L. xxx vi. c. 5. 223 in the Mus. Pio-Clem. has been compared Discover with this group to their mutual elucidation. The fame of these statues has varied in dif- ferent aeras. When first discovered, they were purchased at a small price, and placed in a garden; and the noble simplicity, grace, and expression which characterize them, were not admired by the artists of that day, if Guido alone be 0 excepted. Winkelmann first attracted the notice of connoisseurs to this group by his poetical and animated de- scription, and the remarkable and exact co- incidence he discovered between it and the Niobe of Homer and Ovid. p IX. Apollo di Belvioere, and the Apollo Gladiator (as that statue has been denomi- nated) of the Villa liorghese, were both taken from under the ruins of the palace and gar- dens of Nero at Antium, (Nettuno) forty miles from Rome, when a casino was made (Is? Belvidere, 0 Storia dclle Arti, T. ii. p. 777 > Monsignor Angelo Fabbroni published a particular account of this group at Florence. p Iliad 24. v. $25. Ovid Metam. ). 6. fab. 4. Visconti Mus. Pio-Clem. 8c Goethe, who has a new and singular exposition of the subject. " Ey.Zxr t ; Sreoi •tevfca.v Xjflev. iv. Ss AiSoio Zonjy ITpa^rtXijf sf/vtB&Xiv Eipyourafo." Anthol. 1. 3. cp. 299, 224 Discovery there by Card. liorghese, during the reign of of Statues. ,7. , Paul V. (l6(X3 — 1621).'' \poiio de According to the received opinion,* 1 Apollo Pelvidere. . ° 1 ' 1 is represented as the vanquisher of the ser- pent Python, an ingenious fiction, which signifies the power of the sun in exhaling and purifying the vapours of the earth. r Visconti dissents from the common idea, and inquires " why dors not this attitude equally suit Apollo in the act of exterminating the pro- geny of Niobe? or the faithless Coronis, or the imperious giants? all which subjects are more worthy of the vengeance of a deity, than the destruction of a reptile, and the i' Mercati who lived in the pontificates of Pius V. Gregory XIII. and Sextis V. asserts in his Metallotheca, (p. 363) that it was found there, but that it belonged to Julius II, when he was a cardinal, and stood in his garden near the church of the SS. Apostoli. Visconti quotes his authority, M. P. Clem. v. i. p. 25. *i Winkelmann supposes this to have been one of the 500 sta- stues taken by Nero from the Temple of Apollo at Delphos, and brought to his villa at Antium. " In this statue, the left shoulder, which is raised, is farther from the neck than the right, which is fallen. An inaccuracy so gross, in a work of such masterly exr cellence, must have been intended, and I believe, the wonderful expression of lightness, movement, and agility, which distin- guishes this figure, is considerably augmented by it." Knight on Landscape, note, p. f). Em. David, pp.313. 348. T Fabbroni Descrizione configure. 225 elevated look cannot be directed to an Discovery animal on the ground/' D'Azzara, in his v^y^-J edition of the works of Mengs, inclines to this opinion, which is, in fact, that of Ho- race." Milizia ' says, that an Egyptian idol should be placed near this statue, in order to form a contrast, and render its extreme beauty more perceptible. It must be seen to be sufficiently understood and .admired. The legs are rather long, and one of the knees drawn rather too far behind; a fault not of the original, but in the restoration." The lower half of the body is said not to be in due proportion, nor so well finished as the head, v and the objection of the neck not be- ing in the middle is equally frivolous, accord- ing to more judicious critics. The artist is unknown. Various opinions are held con^ cerning the kind of marble of which the statue * Carm. 1. 4- Od. 6. " Dive quem proles Niobaea magnae Vindicem linguae, Tityosque raptim Sensit." — 1 Arte di videre, 8vo. " Visconti Mus. P. C. T. i. t. 24. He says, that the legs are formed of the original pieces, well united, p. 25. * Reynold's X Discourse, where the objection is ably refuted. Q 2*26 DecBneof is formed. By the modern Roman statuaries, ^l^j, it is declared to be of " Greco duro," or com- mon Greek marble. Mengs offers three ob- jections against its being so ; 1st. that it is of Carrara marble; 2. that it was not first placed at Antium ; 3. that it is evident, from a few apparent defects, it must have been a copy of a more famous original. These objections are answered by Vis- con ti, v with his usual accuracy and candour, and in confirmation of his own opinion, he adduces a certificate of the sculptors and proprietors of the Carrara quarries, that such marble was never discovered in them." Dolomieu/ the late eminent chemist, in- clines to the opinion of Mengs, and pretends to have found fragments of the same kind in the quarries of Luna, now exhausted, but originally opened in the reign of Augustus. This fact may be doubted, if the conclusion is to justify the assertion that the statue is not anterior to the age of Ca j sar: for we learn that many quarries in Asia Minor, and Syria, * Mus. Pio-Clem. T. i. p. 26. x Vol. i. p. 92. y xMillin Diet, des Beaux Arts, T. iii. p. 261. • .227 were worked, ihe sites of which are not dis- Discovery of Stajues. tinctly specified. Still it may be urged, that v — ✓ — ' the statue of Antihous, and other contempo- rary works of sculpture demonstrate, that as low as the a<>;e of Hadrian, the Greek school furnished artists worthy of being compared with many of earlier times. Pliny certainly entertained that favourable opinion of some sculptors of his own age. The fore part of the right arm, and the left hand, which were deficient, have been restored by John Angelo de Montorsoli, who was a pupil of M. Angelo. X. Gladiator Borghese. Of the sta- tue called the Gladiator of the Villa Bor- ghese, 2 the courage marked in the counte- 7 Baron Stosch, in his letter to Winkelmann, thought it a Discobolus, to which opinion Winkelmann does not accede. Hist. dl'Art. T. ii. p. 3f)4. This statue, with a selection of the best from the Villa Borghese, was removed to Paris in 1808. " It was found in the ruins of Antium, in the time of Paul V. not far from the place where, a hundred years before, the Apollo Belvi- dere was discovered. A similar head was formerly in the Villa Aldobrandini. All the epidermis of this statue is pertectly pre- served, but it is stained by numerous spots. All the limbs are perfect, and the very base on which it stands. The right ear and hand, with a portion of the arm, and a trifling part of the extremities, are the only modern additions made to this exquisite statue." Visconti. If a square be drawn from the farthest points 228 Discovery nance, and ihe sudden action of the muscles, of Statues. * — v — ' are of such excellence, as to make us indif- ferent as to the dispute whether it was the work of Agasias, the son of Dosotheus of Ephesus, a name inscribed on its plinth:. The Greeks had no Gladiators, — when then could tins have been executed in Greece? By some it has been rather thought to have been intended as a warriour, in the act of be- sieging a town, which favours ils pretensions to Grecian "antiquity. Napoleon has lately procured it from prince Borghese. Le Noir h positively decides it to be a statue ofChabrias the Athenian general, in the attitude of sus- taining the shock of the Lacedaemonian army. He has the authority of Leasing. XI. The Dying Gladiator, or " Mir- millo expirans, ' is now considered as a wounded soldier, probably a Gaul or Ger- man; the " torques," or rope-chain round the neck having been a common ornament with them: yet Heyne considers it as a mo- of the arms and legs, it will be found that this single statue was made of the laigest block of marble known, and this circumstance must give a very satisfactory opinion of the merit of the sculptor. Sculture del palazzo della Villa Borghese. T. ii. p. 58. * Visconti. b Du Laocoon, p. 2CO. 229 dern addition to conceal the juncture of the Discovery i i « 11 . ... t . of Statues. head. Allowino; this circumstance, there is ^^^o little conformity between this and any figures of gladiators as yet extant. 0 It was disco- vered in the gardens of Sallust, on the Qui- rinal hill; first placed in the Villa Lodovisi by Card. Corsini, afterward Clement XII. brought to the capitol when that Museum was established by Benedict XIV. and is now at Paris. XII. The Venus of the Capitol was found near St. Vilale, between the Viminal and Quirinal hills, anciently the valley of Quirinus, in the last century. Benedict XIV. purchased it of the Stati family, and placed c Heyne supposes this statue to represent a soldier combatting with another on horseback ; and Visconti determines, that it is a hero attacking an amazon in that attitude. Millin Mon. Antiq. inedits. p. 351. pi. xxxvi. Mus. des. Mon. Franc. T. i. p. 34. — > Corn. Nepos in vita Chabriae. c Milizia concludes, that this statue represents a young Ath- leta mortally wounded, and dying with peculiar grace. Arte di vedere. The name of Ctesilaus has been sculptured on the Plinth ; but Millin thinks it must have been a copy of a bronze on the same subject by that artist. — " Souvent on adopte sans examen les noms une fois re^us, et Ton est si persuade de leur exactitude que, par example on regar- dera plutot les choses les plus ineptes comme demonstrees, que de se permettre de douter si les pretendus Gladiateurs sont reelle- ment des Gladiateurs." Heyne. 230 Discovery it in the capitol, from whence il has been re- of Statues. , t\ ' ' A j moved lo raris. This statue, as the Mediccan Venus, does net express strong emotion. Perhaps the re- pose of the passions is most conformable to the powers of sculpture, where the attention is suffered to dwell upon the representation without being hurried through it by the vio- lence of the action, or prejudiced against it by the horror of the object. The grand dif- ficulty has been to prevent statues, which are not intended to represent any particu- lar passion, from bordering at least on in- sipidity. X1JI. Meleager. This bcatiful statue was discovered, according to Aldrovandi, d Em. David, p. 3/4. Heyne thinks that the legs and arms of the Venus of the Capitol are superior to those of the Medicean, in which the latter are defective restorations. The head being large in proportion, and the figure rather masculine, he inclines to an opinion, that it is a portrait. Jansen, T. i. p. 10. After the Venus de Medicis, an infinite number of torsos and female statues have been restored ; that name having been given, even though the attitude differed from the original. Many were por- traits where the heads were preserved of beautiful women in the st mbla:ice of Venus. It does not seem probable, that all the statues of Venus only, should have reached our days, and that all those of the other goddesses, of which doubtless there were many, should have been destroyed. 231 near to the Porta Porlese. It consists of Discovery greyish marble, such as the Athenians pro- ^S-^-^j cured from Mount I Jy melius. Jt became Discoboli, the property, when first found, of Fusconi, physician Ed Paul III., and was preserved in the Pighini palace. Clement XIV. removed it to the Vatican, and it is now at Paris. XIV. Di scoboli, or Athleta^, in diffe- rent attitudes, with quoits. In action, and in repose. Pound in the ruins of the Villa Hadriana at Tivoli, and at a place called the Columbaro, on the Appian way. They were both purchased by Pius VI. for his mu- seum, and are now at Paris. The first men- tioned of these, stoops very much forward, having the face declined, but not turned to- ward tiie discus, which he holds in his right hand on the point of throwing it, answering the de scription given by Lucian of the bronze by Myron. e The other stands upright, with a retiring step and his eye fixed, as if intent on marking the distance. " Spatium jam immane parabat/" His left hand holds the e Figrelius, p. 168. PKn. 1. 34. c. 19. Quintil. Inst. 1.2. c. 13. Lucian Philopseud. Bourdelotii. p. 834. f Statii Thebaic!, 1. 0". v.t>()3. Reynolds, Disc. x. for a com- parison of character between Apollo Belvidere, and the Town- ley Discobolos, 232 Discovery discus. His lieacl is bound with the fillet of Statues. ... s-^v-^/ worn by victorious alhletae. Discoboli. About the year 1776", among the same ruins, a repetition of each of these fine sta- tues was discovered, and fortunately purchas- ed by English gentlemen/ The first by the late 1 Mr. Lock, of Norbury in Surrey, who re-sold it to Mr. Duncoinbe, of Duncombe Park, Yorkshire. Mr. Townlcy had the other, which having been purchased, with his col- lection, at the national expense, is now in the British Museum. Both these statues have fewer restorations than their duplicates in France. The French commanders have com- pletely subjugated Italy, and imitated the precedent, of the Roman Victors in transport- ing the most celebrated statues in triumph to Paris, where they form a stupendous collec- tion in the Musce Central, now called in f Visconti Mus. Pio-Clem. T. 3. T. 26. Em. David, p. 353. That by Naucydes of Argos, Pausan. 1. 6. c. g. was upright and frequently copied. There is a " gnocatore di ruzzola," in the Villa Borghese, T. 2. p. 57. Landon Ann. de Musce, T. 5. p. 83, and T. 6. p. 4". after which these have been restored in several parts. The first was merely the torso and thighs when disco- vered. 233 the true spirit of adulation, " Musee Na- Discovery of Statues. poleon. v— -vr^ The marbles were chosen by a committee Discoboli, of artists, at that time students at Rome, from the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Va- tican, and from that of the Capitol; and they spared, with few exceptions, the villas and palaces of the Roman princes. The Borghese was at that time excepted, though since contributed, by that Prince, to the Na- poleon collection, but the Villa Albani was completely spoiled of all that was worthy to be removed. Rome, notwithstanding, still retains many excellent specimens of antique sculpture, the merit of which is become more conspicuous by the absence of others, which formerly en- grossed all the attention of superficial, and even of scientific observers. These notices might be continued to a great extent; but to make a mere catalogue interesting is no easy task. Whilst the ardour of collecting and newly discovering antique marbles was in its full ze- nith, a great rivalship was carried on between the reigning pontiff, and those cardinals or princes who had enjoyed the favour of their predecessors, either from motives of favorite- 234 Coiiec- isiti or consanguinity. 5 It would be indujg- Rome. ing a latitude of description, far beyond the '^~ v ^' limits of these pages to offer a bare enumc- Discoboli. . . i*i ration or the marbles winch even now exist at Rome. When I saw them in 1790", at the time when their dispersion was not generally anticipated, though so soon to be accom- plished, so vast was the assemblage, so infinite the variety, and so near the approach to excellence in many, that to admire all, ■was much more easy than to select. Let me here remember with pleasure, the liberal admittance which every visitant has found in Italy to these once superb reposi- tories of the arts, uninterrupted by petty ob- jections, or exorbitant demands of money. The permission which was given to strangers, and particularly to artists, who are suffered to copy or make designs from them by the g The first accounts of the discovery of antique marbles at Rome may be seen in " Ficoroni Gimme letterate," and in F. Vacca " memorir di varie antichita trovate in diversi longhi di Roma Antica." 22 pages 4to. 15§1 ; printed likewise at the end of Nardini's Roma Antica, lyQ4j and in Montfaucon's Diarhmi Italicum, V Opervazioni di Francisco di Ficorini sopraL'antichita di Roma descritta ml dir.rio [talico, l/Oy, in which some errors of Vacca are corrected, and many more modern discoveries de-* scribed. 235 modern possessors is truly commendable, Coiiec- , . , • 1 T ti0nS 3t and emulates the greatness or mind, dis- Rome,, played by those who dedicated baths, the- atres, and gardens, as public academies to the Rohian people. Candour cannot but approve this arrangement of the ?v3useum at Paris; and our own nation will gain credit for having adopted it at the British Museum, where the Townley Marbles form an auspi- cious commencement of an assemblage of statuary and sculpture ; the future centre, it is " devoutly to be wished," of others now dispersed in the remote provinces and hid from intelligent eyes. A slight view of the great collections at Rome and Florence, with others subsequently acquired by princes on the Continent, may contribute to a general acquaintance with statuary, which it is the attempt of this little essay to communicate and recommend. The Belvidere, or summer palace in the Vatican, was the first repository of sculpture, and was originally built by Julius II., the immediate predecessor of Leo X., in whose pontificate it could boast, if not the Apollo, the Laocoon, the Torso of Hercules, and the Antinous or Mercury. 236 Coiiec- Medici l* 1 By cardinal Ferdinand de tions at ■»»!•• i ■ » r „ , Rome. JMediei were procured l lie " Venus, the v— ' ' " dancing Faun," the " group of Niobe," the " Wrestlers," and a figure called the " Arro- tino, or Whelter,'' (the design of which is unknown,) which were first transferred from his villa at Rome to the tribune at Florence by Cosmo III., and since ceded to the French by the king of Naples, to whom they were intrusted, " in an evil hour." Faknese 2. h Cardinal Alexander Farncse, the heir of Paul II L, preserved the Hercules and the Toro, or grand group of Dirce, both of which were removed to Naples. Borghese 3.' Paul V. began this collec- tion, once among the finest and most select in Rome, continued by his nephew cardinal Scipio Borghese, and preserved in the Villa s Ulyssis Aldrovandi Statue di Roma, 12mo. 1558. Caval- larius Antiquae Statute Urbis Romrc, -4to. 1585. Figrelius de Statuis illust. Itomanorum, 8vo. 1050. Borboni delle Statue, 4to. lOOl. Domenicode Rossi raccolta di statue antiche con le sposi- tioni de P. A. Maftei, fol. 1/04. Sandrart Sculptural veteris ad- miranda, fol. l6SO. Monumenta Medices, 159O. Lanzi La real Galleria di Fiorenze, Museum Florentinum. 1 l.T. fol. . Bian- chini Pallazzo dei Cesari, 1738. h P. Pedrusi Museo Farnesiano, fol. » Moutelatici Villa Borghese. Lamberti Sculture del palazzo della Villa Borghese della Pinciana, 2. T. 8vo. 179§- 237 on the Pincian Hill. The late prince Bore;- Coiicc- . tions at hese erected a building in the gardens for Rome, the reception of twenty-six statues and twelve busts, found in the ruins of the city of Gabii. w A selection from all these is in the Musee Napoleon at Paris, removed in 1810. Barbarini 4. 1 These marbles were ori- ginally purchased by Urban VIII., of which the most celebrated are " the Sleeping Faun/* and the " busts of Marius and Sylla." Many have been dispersed, and brought to Eng- land, even before the spoliation by the French, who made a selection from them. The Sleeping Faun has been considered as a genuine Greek marble, and not as a copy " from a bronze. Mattei 5. m Which was remarkable for the number and excellence of the bas-reliefs, and the bronze eagle, which Giulio Romano delighted to copy in red chalk. No collec- tion has been more reduced since its oriainal formation, by private sale, principally to Eng- k Visconti Moniimenti Gabini della villa Piuciana, 8vo. 1797- 1 ^Edes Barbarinae, ad Quirinalem a Com. Hieron. Tetio de- scriptae, 1742. fol. m Vetera Monumenta Mathaeorum, &c. a R. Venuti & a I C. Amadutio illustrata. 3 T. fol. 1779- 238 c a " t lish collectors, through the agency of Jen- e - kins, their banker, at Rome. Albani 6." Cardinal Alexander Albani, the nephew of Clement XL, completed a gallery at his villa, in which were exhibited many pieces of sculpture equally perfect and curious. Among them was seen the Sauroc- tonos, acknowledged to be the finest bronze statue in Rome, of which there is a repeti- tion at Paris, in the marble called " Gre- chetto." This gallery was one of the richest in the world, and peculiar from having been formed and completed by one person. The cardinal had much leisure, and every oppor- tunity of purchasing, almost at his own price, otherwise it would have been impossible for an individual to have paid for so great a treasure. Campidoglio,°oi' Capitolixe 7- Dur- ing the reign of Benedict XIV. various dis- n Supplem. to Winkelmann's Mon. Inedite, 2 vol. fol. 1/4/ . Venuti Marmora Albani, -Jto. l/5fj. Notizie ddle Statue della villa Albani. 8vo. Salmon's Rome, v. ii. App. Cat- of the marbles in the Villa Albani. Iscrizioni Albane, doll Abate Gaetano Marini, 4to. 1/85. 9 P. Lucatelli Museum Capitolinum, 4 to. Bottari Museo Capitoiino,, T. 4. fol . 239 coveries were pursued with spirit and success, Coiiec particularly on the site of the stupendous Home villa of Hadrian at Tivoli. That muniticent pontiff determined to appropriate one wing of the palace of the Campidoglio to their re- ception. The " Mirmillo/' or dying gladia- tor, the " Venus," " the Cupid and Psyche," and the " Agrippina," attracted immediate admiration. The greater part of the Mattei marbles were purchased by Ganganelli, (Clement XIV.) and formed the basis of the Pio-Cle- mentine p Museum ; to which were added the best of those discovered during his short pos- session of St. Peter's chair. His intentions were very amply fulfilled by Braschi, (Pius Dr. Darwin has never been more happy than in the following lines, in which he has compressed the characteristics of the finest statues in the world. " Hence, wearied Hercules in marble rears His languid limbs, and rests a thousand years; Still as he leans, shall young Antinous please, With careless grace and unaffected ease ; Onward with loftier step Apollo spring, And launch the unerring arrow from the string; In beauty's bashful form the veil unfurl'd, Ideal Venus win the gazing world." Bot. Gard. C. 2. 1. 101. b II Museo Pio-Clementino da Ennio Quirino Visconti, T. fj. fol. imp. 240 Coiiec- VI.) a prince of liberal views, good taste, Rome 31 and a high public spirit ; and the repository V—v- ^' of the additions to the Belvidere has been distinguished by their joint names. When the finest of these statues were demanded by the victorious French, the Pope obtained permission that time should be given, before their final removal, for casts in plaster to be taken from each by the Roman artists, who performed that service of regret, with patriotic enthusiasm. Tivoli has likewise proved a very rich mine, and has contri- buted greatly to this Museum. The statue of Tiberius, Pausidippus, the comic poet, " and a group of iEsculapius and Hygeia," are most remarkable. One of the rooms is filled with sculptured animals q only, that may vie with those which have so long en- grossed the admiration of the connoisseurs. Other collections must not be totally passed over in silence, such as the Odeschal- i The five celebrated animals of antiquity, previously to the discovery of these, are the Karbar'mi goat, the boar at Florence, the Mattei eagle, that at Strawberry Hill found near the baths of Caracalla in 1742, and Mr. Jennings', now Mr. Duncombe's dog. Mr. Townley had a group of dogs scarcely inferior, now in the British Museum. 241 chi, the Giustiniani, the Lodovisi, and the Coitec- "T» • • 1-11 tUmS at Pamfih, &c. which are now dispersed, and Rome- only remembered by the names of their ori- ginal proprietors/ Several in gardens and villas have been sold piece-meal, as those of the Ne groni, the Mattel, the D'Este, &c. The study of the antique has been facili- tated in Italy by every possible mode. It has been promoted, not only by the easy access to the statues, and the ready information of men who have investigated the subject with erudition and classical taste; but it is brought nearer to us by numerous engravings of spi- rit and accuracy, relative to each collect on, which are frequently elucidated by critical essays on the subject. These works consist either of general historical catalogues, or of partial disquisitions upon the peculiarities of a single group or statue. r The Giustiniani Collection was the first, a part of which was publicly sold at Rome. Galleria Giustiniana del Marchese, Giustiniani, 2 T. fol l63l. Museum Odeschalcum, di Galeoti, 2 vol. 1751. Villa Pamhlia pju^que palatium, &c. J. De Kubeis, fol. The Odeschalchi marbles, were purchased by Christina queen of Sweden. Jenkins of Rome bought those of the villas Negroni and D'Estc, and resold them chiefly to Mr. BkindelL R Materials A s a subject probably not uninteresting of Sculp- . ture. to many, I am induced to offer ihe best tic- count, I can collect, of the different kinds of marble, from blocks of which statues and bas-reliefs were carved. As to the materials applied by the Greek artists of the remotest aera, such as gold, silver, ivory, sycamore, ebony, &c. the early disuse of them renders more than the incidental mention I have made unnecessary. Allowing the Egyptians to take the lead in sculpture, the first to be considered is " Basalt," a name given to a marble found in the mountains of Egypt, called " Basanitcs." Many of their statues are formed of rt, and a stone of the same nature is found likewise in Auvero-ne and Scotland. Mineralogists hold different opinions as to its original for- mation. Dolomieu considers the materials called " Basalte," and used in Egyptian sta- tues as the substance, intitled by the Ger- mans, " trap." r Although it be harder, 1 Outlines of Mineralogy, by J Kidd, M. D. Prof, of Chemis- try. 2 v. 8vo. 180(). Trap is the name given to a number of rocks distinguished by the great quantity of Hornblende which they contain. Basalt is connected with some of these rocks, and therefore may, in a 243 more brittle, and less obedient to the chisel, Materials i • i i 11 ofSculp- and its colour not so pleasing as marble, yet ture. ' the ancients, who had experienced its greater indestructibility, executed many fine works in it. Pliny has described several famous pieces of sculpture said to have been done in this stone, 5 and the statue of Minerva, still to be seen at Thebes, is by travellers deter- mined to be " Basalt." Jameson asserts, that many of the antique basalts, which are preserved in collections, are evidently " sy- enite, or green stone.' Winkelmann is uncertain whether Egypt produced porphyry, as there are, in fact, few statues of porphyry of truly Egyptian work- manship, or of genuine antiquity. In the best times of the art, it was rarely applied to statues, but to obelisks and columns. The most celebrated quarries from which it was loose acceptation of the word, be called a variety of trap, hut trap rocks are mostly compounds, and basalt is a simple mineral. There is a set of rocks distinguished in Werner by the name of Floetz-trap, and basalt is one of these rocks. Qrily. Rev. No. 3, p. 74. 8 Invenit eadem iEgyptus in ./Ethiopia quern vocant Basalten " ferrei coloris atque duritiae. Unde et nomen ei dedit." Phn. 1.36. c. 7. * On Minerals, v. i. p. 374. 244 Materials extracted, were situate in that part of Arabia ture." p " which borders on Egypt. There are varie- ^ v ^' ties of green, brown, red, and black," which with the serpentine, or verd antique, were used in sculpture by the Egyptians. White marble is the most common in Greece and Asia Minor, and it is men- tioned by Homer where Iris finds Helen employed in making a veil, and a compari- son in point of whiteness occurs/ A degree of hardness which would bear the highest polish and purity of colour, proved the superiority of the Greek over the Italian marbles/ Marble was originally employed in the construction of Temples. The Athenians used that from the adjacent mountains, Penlelicus and Hymettus ; the Ephesians from Mount Prion. Phrygia produced white marble veined with different colours ; near Megara " " Serpentino nero antico." Caylus, T. v. p. 11. Figrelius, cap. xvi. Ferber, Lcttres sur 1' Italic. v II. iii. v. 125. w Works upon marbles composed by Sotaces and Thrasyllus, and cited by Pliny, as giving much information, are lost. There is great difficulty in classing. Daubenton arranges them accord- ing to their colour. Caryophilus de marmoribus antiquis — De Launay mmeralogie des anciens. — Ernesti et Winkelmann. 245 was found that of a shelly kind ; at Phigalia Materials in Arcadia, was grey marble, veined with P light red; and at Nisa, in Asia Minor, white with blue veins ; but of these the greater part Avas better suited to columns than to statuary. The most excellent of the Attic marbles was the Pentelic* The Parthenon was built with it, and Byzas, of Nixis, was the inventor of cutting it out into tiles or laminae, to cover the roofs and walls of temples. It was selected for carving by Scopas, Praxiteles, and other famous sculp- tors. When broken it shows large particles, which sparkle like grains of rock salt, is very solid/ and infinitely harder than that of Paros. This discovery belongs to Dolo- mieu. Visconti calls that which Dolomieu* decides preremplorily to have been the " Pen- telic" of the ancients, " Cipollino/* In the x So called from Mount Pentelicus, near Athens. It is a va- riety of the Parian and Carrara. y " Marmo Salino." z Dolcmieu intended to publish a work on the stones and marbles of the ancient monuments. His MSS. were lost, when he was taken prisoner in Calabna, a circumstance greatly to be regretted. 246 Materials Musee Napoleon there are now fifty-seven tlre. cup " statues of it, enumerated by Milling v *^ v ^ / The Parian, the Lychniles of Pliny, not, as Millin says, because Candelabra were made of it, but because, according to Varro, the quariies were sometimes worked by torch light, came out of Mount Marpessus in that isJand, and likewise from the promontory Lygdinum. It is fitter for delicate work- manship lhan the Pcntelic, because by not containing iron, it does not lose its colour by exposure to the air and atmosphere, and is remarkable for large grains of a cubic form, with which it is sown. It is extremely compact, though chrystalline or scaly. In the Musee Napoleon, there are thirty-one statues, of the genuine antique Parian marble. There is a beautiful white kind called Parian, which in reality is not so ; for Pliny allows that there were several sorts found in Greece, which even surpassed the real Pa- rian in whiteness, an argument against the 1 Dictiinnaire des b^anx arts. The four sorts of marble most higblv valued were the Claudian, the Numidian, the Carystian, and the Synnadian. Gibbon, 247 opinion of those M r ho consider all specimens that exceed the Parian, in fineness of grain and colour, to be necessarily of the quarries of Luni or Lunae. The marble of Mount Hymetlus was white, rather inclining to ash colour, which was used by statuaries. In the time of ihe Emperor Hadrian it was much esteemed, and imported to Rome, for ihe use of the Greek artists established there. A kind of marble, whiter than the Parian, was discovered at Luni in Etruria, but it is certainly less compact, and does not take so fine a polish ; it is sometimes grey, and then it is called Bardiglio or Bigio di Carrara. These quarries are now nearly exhausted. All the Roman statues, and those made by Greek artists at Rome, are of this marble. There are thirteen specimens of it in the Mus. Napoleon. Pliny says expressly, that white marble was used for statues. In his time, Vitranius Pollio sent to Rome a statue of Claudius, of variegated marble, and another of porphyry ; but they were neither admired nor imitated in that age. The excellence of mottled marble consists in its variety, as that of 248 Materials white and black, and the simple colours in ofSculi)- t»re. purity * The marble of Lesbos was of a livid white colour. Of black, that produced in Tama- rus, a promontory of Laconia, was much esteemed. The Lybian was equally so, and was first brought to Home by Lepidus and Lucullus. In Mount Pelineus, in the island of Chios, was a black transparent marble. The obsidian marble Mas black, and was so denominated because first discovered in iEthopia, by Obsidius. 3 That of Lybia, is called, by the present antiquaries, " rosso " antico:" of this marble there is no known quarry. The Phrygian is red and while ; the Co- rinthian, yellow ; and the serpentine, so called from its resemblance to the skin of a * Alabaster, abundant in Italy, was frequently used by the Roman sculptors in busts, the heads and pedestals of which were of bronze. Many so composed were in the Villa Albani. Dr. Kidd says, that the alabaster of the present day is a gypsum, consequently the ancient whs not so. a The account Pliny gives, 1. 36, c. 26, is, that it is a kind of glass, and from its brittleness must have been exceedingly diffi- cult to be worked. It is now called Icelandic agate, and is a vitrified lava Adamo Falbroni has written a dissertation on it. 249 snake. Such was the variety of marbles, Materials and probably many more, and of nearly tute. Up equal excellence, as applied to architecture ' v and sculpture by the ancients. In by far the greater number of instances Bronze the Latin term " iEs," may be translated uonand " Bronze for brass, which is compounded ca8t " of copper and zinc, is not the metal used by the ancients in their statues. They usually mixed the copper with fine tin; and though the proportions varied according to the pur- pose intended, in different instruments, that in common use for statues was from ten to thir- teen in a hundred ; and they possessed the art of giving such a degree of whiteness to copper, as to make it resemble silver." The alloy of copper by zinc was rarely practised by them, excepting for ornaments only, which might approach nearly to the colour of gold. Iron has likewise been combined with copper, in very ancient statues. Plutarch- observes, that 8 This was not from the copper and tin, but from zinc and copper, which according to Aristotle, quoted by Kidd, v. ii. 14Q. made it Xapitfora. toy xai Asuxora rov. most shining and most white. Pau=anias, 1. v. " L' Essai sur 1' art de la fonte des anciens, avec quelques remarques sur les Chevaux de Chio," par J. Seitz. b Plutarch. " Cur Pytha non reddit oracula." 250 Bronze when he was al Delphi, he was surprised to tionand fiud that lne oldest bronze statues kept tlieir an o cast- co j our s0 we i] ? tlittt neither rust nor verdi- v y ' grease could be discovered, (the consequence of this alloy,) but they had a blueish hue, not unlike the colour of the atmosphere. He is naturally led to an inquiry con- cerning the alloy of the bronze, and con- cludes that the Corinthian brass took its pale colour from the fusion and mixture of gold and silver, such as was practised in his time, which was not pleasant to the eye ; and that the blue tint of bronze, at Delphi, was the effect of the air penetrating into the pores of the metal, which preserved it from rust. Antiquaries give the name of bronze to all the relics of antiquity which consist either of pure copper or compounds of that metal with tin. Their general term is " XuXkos " a Copper as well as brass was for a great length of time called Ms, but later mi- neralogists, in order to distinguish them, gave the name of cuprum to the former. Copper XaAv.w S ougvahyro, jneXaj Ss oux eo.e ciJij^o;. Hesiod, Op. and Dier. \4g. 251 is much more easily gilt than bronze.* The Bronze Komaus borrowed this fashion from the Jblrus- tion and cans, who placed gilt statues upon the pedi- ing. ° a ments of their temples. The art of casting statues in bronze must have taken its rise in countries abundant in metals. If we can credit Diodorus Siculus, Semiramis had bronze statues in her cele- brated gardens, 1/40 years before the Chris- tian aera. c Pausanias, d at Phanea, observed a bronze statue, representing an equestrian Neptune, said to have been given them by Ulysses, a circumstance discredited by him, because the art of casting solid masses was unknown at that early period, when statues were made as a dress is, out of many pieces. £ The oldest caster in molten brass is Hiram, a Phaenician, sent for by Solomon from Tyre, 1015, A. C. If indeed he cast the two columns of bronze for the temple, which were forty-seven feet high, b Vitruvius, L. iii. p. 2. Baonarotti Observaz. p. 370, for the proportion of gold. c L. ii. 5y. d L. viii. p. 628. Kuhnii. e Calmet Diss, sur la richesse que David laissa a Salomon. Comment sur la Bible, (Kings ii. ch. g.) T. ii. p. l£>5. 252 Bron™ with the capitals, though not of more than uon and four diameters and a half, an Egyptian pro- hig 0 portion, proved by the columns found in the s Thebaid. But the sea of brass was a more stupendous work than any of those men- tioned by the Greek historians. The Jews however had previously made the breast- plate of the high-priest, and the golden calf, which proves that they took their art from the Egyptians, who knew it long be- fore. The moulds for these immense works were made of clay, for wax was not then used. In the time of Homer, (990 A. C.) iron was very scarce, chariot wheels were cast and swords were made of bronze. The art of casting bronze statues was known only in Asia IVIinor, at least all the instances quoted by Homer are in that country/ The iconic statues mentioned by Pliny, " ex membris eorum similitudine cxpressas," f In the Odyssey, L. vii. v. Q2. he mentions, in the palace of Alcinous, two dogs, one of gold and the other of silver ; it might therefore be too bold an assertion, that the arts were unknown in Greece in Homer's age ; but it is certain that he has adduced in- stances only in Asia Minor. In v. 100 he particularizes the golden statues of young men who stood upon altars with lighted torches in their hands. 253 were cast solid. A bronze Genius, at Flo- Broi«e_ composi- rence, of Etruscan, or rather Grecian work- t«o« and art of'cast manship, is so admirably worked to nature, ing. that sculptors and painters have concluded that it must have been modelled upon the body of a young man. 6 They, in course of e Boufferand, in the Encyclopedic des Arts et Metiers, says, that the antients did not take the trouble to make the first model of plaster, which serves to determine the thickness of the wax, but after having made their model with prepared potters clay, they skinned or stripped it (1' ecorchoient) by taking off so much as would correspond with the thickness they intended to give to their bronze, so that their model became their nucleus. According to Philo of Bysantium, (de septem orbis miraculis, c. v. p. xiii.) the antients never made any large statue of one jet, " simulachra artificis primum finguntur, deinde membra diversa confiant, tan- dem omnia bene, composita erignnt." He remarks, respecting the Colossus at Rhodes, that it was cast in pieces, first of all the legs, which were lowered into the ground, upon these the thighs were then cast hot and united, and this process was pursued with the rest of the figure. The ancients were apprehensive least in casting a very large mass the metal should cool, but modern ex- perience has found that it will pass over a space of forty feet without fixing. All the statuaries of France, Winkelmann says, would not be able to cast in ten years, the 360 statues which were made at Athens for Demetrius Phalerius in 300 days. In the practice of the antients it was not necessary to break the moulds, in order to get at the casts, and the same mould served for many statues, for otherwise how could Lysippus have made 6lO pieces of bronze sculpture, unless he had known a more ex- peditious mode of working than the moderns know. Vide Gau- ricus de sculptura, for the method of casting bronze. Andrea Verocchio followed the practice of the ancients in casting bronze in distinct pieces. 254 Bronze practice, produced the same effect with less tbnand metal, and cast them hollow, but many ex- art of cast- . ing. pcnments or the nature and possible combi- * nation of metals were first made." h Savot, in T. xi. of Gnevii Thesaurus, gives the follow- i'>sr account of '* iEs," of which he was a competent judge. 1. iEs, which could be melted and stamped at the same time, was called iEs regulare. 2. JEs c.ildarium, could only be melt- ed, and would not bear the stamp. 3. jEs purum, or cuprum rubrum, can be stamped either hot or cold. 4. iEs impu- rum, is only malleable when cold. 5. JE* flavum, was alloyed with cadmia, or lapis calaminaris ; it was Oricli3lcum, but cer- tainly must have been composed of other materials, from its rarity and great value. 6. JEs Cyprum, that in common use in the days of Pliny. He says that the yEs Corinthium was then in- discriminately given to the metal of all statues. /. JE.S coro- narium, very easily drawn out into plates. 8. -. 1 Plin. L. xxxiv. c. 7. m Statius in Sylvis, L. i. For the bronze of Septimiu-s Se- verus, see Winkelmann Lettere, p. 120. 257 bronze." The art of casting in bronze, as Bronze practised since its revival, will be discussed tion atuj in a future description of those celebrated fng.° ° ast works, which have reflected so much honour v- "" v ~*- - ' on the schools of modern Europe An art of great importance, and to which Restora- 11 i 11 r tion of all modern collections or statuary must owe statues, their excellence, is that called " restoration," or the giving to any mutilated figure its true effect, by a close imitation of its original members and attributes. According to Va- sari it was first attempted by Lorenzo Lotto, in 1541. Few of the antique statues have been found which did not require restora- tion in various degrees ; and which employed the sagacity and experience of the restorer, to decide in the first place on the original character, and all his skill to imitate or equal the perfection of ancient art. In numerous in- stances, it must be confessed, that absurd er- rors have been committed, 0 when the sculptor n Nov. Thesaur. V. 1. ° See Villa Mattei, pi. 87. Mus. Pio-Clem. T. iii. pi. 10. Montfaucon, T. ii. p. 2. pi. 116. No. 11. engraved as a pregnant woman, originally an Egyptian Canephorus, or priest carrying a basket before him. Difference between Canephorae and Chris- tophorae. Mus. Pio-Clem. T. iv. p. 47". 258 Restora- has been ignorant of mythology, and there- tion of Statues. tore misplaced the attributes ; or has totally v "*" v ^ misconceived the character formerly repre- sented by the disjointed marble. p At all p The Abbe May (Temples anciens et mod. pp. !>?, 66.) in- veighs with great spirit and acuteness, and it must be allowed, with a certain degree of truth, against an invidious love of the ancient, to the exclusion of all modern art. Le merite de ces mor- ceaux n'est pas prccisement d'etre antiques mais d'etre reellement des chefs-doeuvres. Mais, que Ton fasse descendre de leurs piedes- taux nos meillieurs statues modernes, pour y faire monter une ves- tale ou tin Consul trouve a dix pieds terre sous et a qui al aura fal- lu ajouter des bras et des jambes la moietie du visage pour leur don- ner une figure humaine n'est ce pas etre dupe de son imagination, et faire parade d'un gout, tout au moins puerile? Les artistes es- claves de la bisarrerie d'un grand Seigneur, et pour ne pas sacri- fier en meme terns h ur fortune et leur gloire, ils bornent leurs talens, et consacrent leur addresse a repiecer de villes anticailles, bonnes tout a plus a broyer pour en tirer du stuc. On les voit done, se peiner autour d'un troncjon de Dieux, ou des Heros. De concertes par des contours alteres, par des lambeaux de dra- perie a moitie ruinees, ils sont reduits a deviner le dessin de 1'an- cien sculpteur, a modeler vingt fois les mesmes merobres et apres tant d'ignobles fatigues, il ne sort presque jamais de leurs mains que des figures roides, disloquees, sans proportions et sans grace, a qui on donne le nom d'antiques, quoiqu'il y entre d'alliage trois quarts et demi de moderne. La Villa Albani est pleine de cette espece de fausse monnoie. Je puis en parler avec certitude." pp. 62, 63. A certain consequence of these injudicious restorations ha3 been the misleading of those who have written on the subject. Fabrctti, in hiswoik on the Trajan column, speaks incidentally of 259 events, it calls for infinite ingenuity in the Rsstora- i\,r l U tion °t executive part. Many restorations, though, statues, well effected, are to be discovered by the the manner of shoeing horses among the ancients, and brings for proof a bas relief, in the Villa Mattel, of the Emperor Gal- lienus hunting, when horses were shod with iron, as at present, but he overlooked the restoration. Description des pierres gravees de Stosch, par Winkelmann, p. l6g. Wright, in his travels through France and Italy, justifies Raffaelle for placing a violin in the hands of Apollo, from a supposed antique. These statue menders seem to have adopted the Horatian maxim, " Sic mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere Conor." Although on the first discovery, the great artists, as M. An- gelo and G. Delia Porta, were employed, they were not always correct. Bouchardon has not given suitable attributes to any single statue which he attempted to restore. Millin Diet, des Beaux Arts. It must yet be acknowledged that fractured marbles, ex- hibiting all the injuries of time and violence, afford little gratifi- cation to unlearned eyes. Dr. Clarke, in his account of the marbles lately presented to the University of Cambridge, has the following opinion : " No attempt has been made towards the restoration of any of the mar- bles here described. They have been deposited in the Vestibule exactly as they were found. In this respect, we have not imi- tated the example of the French, and it is believed, the public will not dispute the good taste of the University, preferring a mutilated fragment of Grecian sculpture, to any modern repara- tion. Had Ceres (the Eleusinian statue,) gone to Paris, she would have issued from a French toilette, not only with a new face, but with all her appropriate insignia, her car, dragons and decorations, until scarce any of the original marble remained vi- sible. Some of the statues in the French collection have not a cubic foot of antique marble in their composition. Even the fa- 260 union of two different kinds of marble. To avoid this detection, it has not been unusual with Cavaceppi, and others eminent in this art, when many fragments have been brought to light, to form a complete statue out of them, by an ingenious adaptation. The head of a Pudicitia, when the veil was chiselled away, became a Venus, and when placed on a headless trunk, was considered as one most indicative of the character, which the statue represented in its perfect state. It is now in England. There is sufficient reason to suppose, that many statues were broken and restored, even m the early ages. q During the civil wars between the Achceans and the CEtolians, the public monuments were overthrown, and others may have been damaged in their mous Belvidere Apollo (a circumstance little known) was de- graded by spurious additions, when placed in the Vatican. Its restoration has been since probably more notorious." Marmora. Cantabrig. pref. p. 3. The collection of marbles lately brought from Athens and Greece, by the Earl of Elgin,, (now deposited jt Burlington House,) are seen in the same state in which they were removed from the temples to which they were originally attached, with the repair only of the fractures incidental to that removal. See Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece, 8vo. 181 1, *j Millin Diction, des Beaux Arts. T. iii. p. 5Q4. 261 deportation to Rome. In that city they fre- Restora- quently suffered demolition, from causes al- Statues, ready assigned. Winkelmann conjectures that the broken statues discovered at Baiae, and among the ruins of villas on the sea- shore, were brought thither from Greece, in that state ; because that part of Italy was in no period of the Roman history ravaged by war. After the age of the Antonines, such was the decay into which sculpture had fallen, that there were probably no artists, capable of undertaking the work. [At Rome, the conflagration by Nero, and the insurrec- tion in the reign of Vitellius, when the capi- tol was defended by throwing down the statues on the assailants, will account for a great destruction of them, without attri- buting it solely and entirely to the rage of the Iconoclasts and Goths. Many which remained after these casualties, were destroy- ed in the civil wars of Italy. In turning over the ruins within the walls and the vicinity of the imperial city, disco- veries were very frequent, which were im- mediately consigned to ornament the palaces and gardens of the rich ecclesiastics. As imperfect objects convey little pleasure to 262 Restora- the sight, however venerable for their anti- tion of . . statues. quity, the attempt to restore them was a v- "~ v " w ' matter of course, but it was very rarely fol- lowed by complete success. The Greeks, and their imitators the Ro- mans, admired heroic and warlike vertue above all other, and their artists were conse- quent^ called upon to give heroic forms and attributes to their contemporaries. They invented a certain ideal composition beyond nature, under which all the victorious war- riors of their own times were designated, as Alexander, Lysimachus, Caesar, Augustus, Hadrian, &c. These were represented naked, having the casque and the chlamys only thrown over the shoulder, the belt, sword, or spear, and no other explication or attri- bute was given, by which the statue might be assigned to any individual in particular. The ancient authors themselves recile many statues as the works of their most celebrated artists, without giving them any name. Pau- sanias and Pliny speak thus vaguely of the bronze warriors by Polycletus and Pytha- goras, of Samos. Fragments and torsos of marble statues, copied from these which no longer exist, have been very frequently found, 263 and inacurately restored, without analogy to R«tora- i • • . tion of the original. In the most frequent instances, statues, heads, whether antique or modem, have been engrafted on the trunk, after its discovery, and the name of the hero or emperor it re- sembled given to the fictitious statue. Of these statues of military chiefs another description is in complete armour, and chiefly by Roman artists. This mode exer- cised the talents of the sculptor, as the casque, cuirass, and shield, were usually most elabo- rately wrought in bas relief. Lysippus is said to have cast such in bronze, of Alex- ander and his companions. Such statues were called " Achilleae," naked excepting the casque, and holding a spear. Of the Emperours we have numerous instances. These works are only to be known by the head remaining, or by an inscription, and therefore when those are deficient, or not original, reasonable doubt may be entertain- ed of their authenticity. Whenever we sus- pect that the statue denominated a Caesar, is not genuine, a very great portion of the interest we took in contemplating it, is instantly lost, and however ingenious and correct the adaptation of parts may be, it is 264 Restora- still fiction, for the lovers of portrait are sa- Statues. tisfied only with truth. How often do we * v ' complain of mediocrity in the specimens of antique sculpture which remain to us, when all their apparent errors arc, in reality, due only to the restorers ? Without implicitly acceding to the opinion of Dr. Clarke, given in the last note, the true fragment is certainly to be preferred to the miserable repairs of the Arundelian statues, the greater part of which they had undergone during the interval between their alienation from the Howard family, and their being presented to the University of Oxford. Be that as it may, the instructions of one of the best informed of the modern French virtuosi, for investigating any antique or restoration which may be presented to view, are founded on such solid principles of good sense and taste, that they may be of equal utility to the artist and collector. " The critical ex- amination of a statue requires great atten- tion, with a general knowledge of the art of sculpture, and above all, taste. It is parti- cularly necessary to decide with certainty, whether it be a new discovery, or already known by any description or engraving. In 265 order thoroughly to understand and accu- Rest a rately to describe a statue, we should beein < ion of J ' o Statues. by examining of what kind of marble it is v — v— * composed, and this inquiry will, in most in- stances, serve to determine the epoch, in which it was probably executed. So that if it prove to be of the marble of Luna, it may be evidently pronounced not to be anterior to the age of Augustus, because in his reign those quarries were first discovered and work- ed. The exact measure should then be given, the attitude correctly described, the light de- termined on, in which it may be best placed and seen, the restorations minutely pointed out, for the extremities of very few statues have escaped mutilation; and lastly, it should be defined with accuracy, whether the style be grand, severe, or delicate. We should judge by the ideal form given by the an- tique sculptors, whether the work under examination, were intended to represent a deity, a hero, or were simply a portrait ; whether that of Jupiter, Apollo, or Bacchus ; and observe whether the hair flow in ring- lets, like that of Apollo, be turned up in tresses, like Diana, curly and elastic as that of Hercules, or gracefully uniting with the beard, as in the heads of Jupiter. Re- 266 gard should be especially had to the existence or absence of the beard, to the vestments and attributes, whether they are those really used by the ancients, in any aera, and, more than all, what limbs or parts have been re- stored. If the statue have an inscription, we should be assured that it is authentic, and that the base, or where it occurs, has not been a modern addition, or an antique fragment so applied. The shape and charac- ter of the letters, and their aera, should be scrutinized. In order to ascertain the sub- ject of a statue, it should be compared with works of art already known, confirmed by passages in the classic authors, with bas re- liefs, medals, and engraved gems. These last are often extremely useful in fixing the real subject, because it is more difficult to- recognise a single or isolated figure ; when in seeing a group of many, the composition obviates all doubt. The history of the art should be consulted to verify the date of the work under consideration, at least, the age of the statue it copies, and whether that were of marble or bronze. We should know its literary history, the time of its discovery, the authors who have noticed, and their judgement concerning it, in point of art 26*7 or erudition, the engravings which have R es to. r a- been given, through what collections it Statues, may have passed, and where it may be now seen." Modern sculptors have copied the antique statues with imperfect success at least, if we do not allow, with Le Noir, that they have totally failed. He informs us, q " that Louis XIV. had several of the most famous copied in marble, for the royal gardens, none of which were excellent, with the single excep- tion of a Mnemosyne, by Le Gros, in the Thuilleries, which is still very unequal to the original. These artists have discovered this inferiority, says this able French critic, be- cause they have been led by false principles into too great a facility of working, while they consequently give up all to the labour of the hand, and thus diffuse over their works a sameness of outlines and forms, by which the art is degraded. Thus forgetting, or per- haps ignorant of, ideal beauty, and the free- dom of composition which true genius in- spires, too many students degenerate into the class of mere workmen/' But there can be no doubt entertained that, if the British i Le Noir Monumgns. T. v. p. 27. 268 Restora- school of sculpture were nationally encou- Statues. raged to the extent whieh it has already me- V ^ Y ^ rited, this censure would remain applicable only to French artists. ZETHVS. ANTIOPA. AMPHION. SECTION V. The Gallery at Florence was founded Florence by the Grand Duke Francis I. in the year vjH^i„ 3 581, and has been infinitely increased by his successors. 3 Previously to the late re- a The contents of this Gallery, before the dismantling in 1SOO, were accurately and critically described, in a work entitled " Sag- 270 Florence moval and concentration of the choicest re- Gallery. v -^v^ liques of ancient art at Paris, it contained unquestionably, (the Vatican only excepted) the first collection of ancient statues, bas- reliefs, gems, and medals, in Europe. The immense variety of elegant and venerable riches, brought together in this gallery, has been the admiration of ages. It was to the first branches of the illustrious house of Medici, that this magnificent assemblage of varieties owes its existence, and as they transmitted their taste and their munificence to their successors, it was still further enrich- ed and improved in process of time. In- estimable specimens, in every branch of Grecian and Roman art, were possessed gio Historico del Real Galleria di Firenzi, per Giuseppe Benci- venni, Direttore, 2 vols. 8vo. 1 779. Lanzi Nuova Descrizione della Ileal Galleria di Fiorenze, 1/85, published in the Giornale di Pisa. The extent of the spoliation, in 1800, has been adverted to, pp. 217, '-2 18. and the means by which the Venus might have been preserved. Museum Florentinum cum observationibus Goiii, et aliorum, 1731, 1762. Fol. Tom. xi. Tableaux, Statues, Bas-reliefs, et Camees de la Galierie de Florence, et Palazzo Pitti dessinecs par Wicar et publiees par Masquelier. Fol. en Livraisons, 1800, to be continued. Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici. 271 by the house of Medici, before their advance- Florence ment to the sovereignty, which have been ^^v-^ since transferred to the cabinets of collectors of all the European nations. The unbound- ed wealth of Cosmo, and the industry of the sculptor Donatello, united to give rise to this far-fan led collection of antiquity, which, with considerable additions, was transmitted by Piero to his son Lorenzo, and was deno- minated the " Museum Florentinum," under which title a very splendid account of it has been published. Of foreign princes, excepting those of Royal coi- . lections of Italy, the first who aspired to form a collec- Statues, tion was the magnificent Francis I. to deco- rate his palace of the Louvre. He sent to Rome Francesco Primaticcio, a very distin- guished painter of history, who acquitted himself with so much skill and address, that he returned with one hundred and twenty- five pieces of statuary, though few of them were perfect. But the best of this collection were not antique. Barozzi was employed, to procure models and casts at Rome, from the Laocoon, the Venus, and other statues then recently discovered, which he performed in bronze, with boldness and beauty rivalling their originals. i 272 Royal col- Prince Henry and his brother, afterwards lections of ~, , statues. Charles 1. ot England, commissioned Sir Henry Wootton, tlien resident at Venice, to collect for them, but obtained few an- tiques. The collection so begun consisted principally of small bronzes, exquisitely copied from the antique, by the Florentine artists. King Charles I. invited Fanelli and Le Soeur, into England, and favoured them with constant patronage." Philip IV. of Spain, was induced by Velasques, one of the most celebrated paint- ers of his time, to purchase marbles from Italy. Under his direction, the beginnings of a collection were made at the palace of Aranjuez, which were afterwards enriched and increased by the addition of the marbles which had passed from the Odeschalchi Pa- lace, to that of Christina, Queen of Sweden, at Rome. In 1724, they were removed by b Of their Medals, Coins, and Gem-rings, consisting of nearly 12,000, and described by Gorlaeus, we only know that they were sold, by order of the parliament. Gorlaei Dactyliotheca, 4to. 1609. et cum explicationibus Gronovii, 4to. 2 Tom. 1J95. In the MSS. Harl. Brit. Mus. No. 18g0, Chiffinch's catalogue of statues, in marble and bronze, at Whitehall, amounting to 135 pieces. W. Hawley's catalogue of pictures, statues, bronzes, &c. of Charles I. disposed of during the civil wars, but recovered for Charles II. Fol. 1660. 273 the orders of Philip V. to St. Udephonso. Coikc- Mengs's Etruscan vases are likewise deposit- Gamin ed there. In Germany no acquisition of this kind was made till a later period. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, purchased Cardinal Polig- nac's collection, and divided them between his palace at Potsdam, and his villa at Sans Souci. In the former there was a statue gallery, and the elegant apartments of the latter were embellished with the more select specimens of antique sculpture. 0 At Dres- c The statues restored as the daughters of Lycomedes with Achilles have been criticised by D'Hankerville and Levezow. They were discovered in the ruins of the Villa of Marius near Rome, and were procured by Cardinal Polignac, who consigned them to L. Sig. Adam, the celebrated French sculptor, for resto- ration, and who took them to Paris in 1732. After the Cardinal's death they were sold to the King of Prussia in 1742. D'Argen- ville (v. 1. p. 340) says that this group is composed of twelve sta- tues, and adds, " La plupart de ces figures etoient mutilees, sans tete quelquesuns n'avoieiat que la moiete du corps." They were then considered as Achilles in disguise with the daughters of Ly- comedes. They are now at Paris, and according to Landon, (An- nates du Musee, 2nd collection) have lately changed their appel- lation to Apollo or Bacchus, in the disguise of a female, with the Muses, upon the suggestion of Levezow. Landon asserts that ten statues only were originally discovered. This collection, as left by Frederick, was numerous and valuable, chiefly formed of the most excellent Roman sculpture, particularly a head of Julius Caesar* T 274 Coiiec- den, a collection had been previously made/ tions in Russia and and the Elector's cabinets were enriched by the Sweden. . ' _ v-»-v-^> accession of Stoscns gems. A gallery for the use of students was likewise furnished with casts and models, taken from the finest remains of antiquity, chiefly by French artists, em- ployed by him in Italy, and highly finished. The late Empress of Russia purchased a col- lection made by L} r de Browne, formerly al Wimbledon, consisting of eighty pieces, prin- cipally bought of Jenkins, at Rome, from the Barberini palace, or recently discovered. They are now at St. Petcrsburgh, and were added to the Crozat collection of bronzes. A catalogue was published before they were removed from England.. The contract is said to have been made in 1785, for twenty-three thousand pounds, but the imperial Catherine failed in perform- ing the whole agreement, lo the satisfaction of the representatives of that gentleman. The late Gustavus III. King of Sweden, in the two journies he made to Rome, (as Count Haga) professedly lo form a collection of statues, for the embellishment of his palace d Les marbres de Dresde, par La Plat. Fol. Dresde, 1/33. Becker's " Augustaeum," description des monuments qui se trou- vent a Dresde. 275 at Droningholm, succeeded in procuring TheAmn. del collec* a suile of beautiful figures of Apollo Mu- tion. sagetes, and the nine Muses, with an Endy- mion and sleeping Faun, both of great merit, and supposed to be original marbles. Ac- cording to Guattani, the group is the most valuable of the three known to exist, being superior to those at St. Ildefonso, and those once in the Museo Pio Clementino, and now at Paris. 6 The King of Sardinia had a collection at Turin, and the Republic at Venice, of both of which accounts and engravings have been published/ In the reign of King Charles I. Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, ill-requited for the services of his illustrious family in the cause of the Stuarts, passed many years of his life on the continent, and indulged his genius in the more elegant pursuits of lite- rature and the arts. Endowed by nature with taste and discernment, he became the patron of learning and ingenuity, and hap- pily projected the improvement of his own country, by proposing the study of the ele- ments of classical architecture, and the art * Guattani monumenti antichi inediti, T. i. where they are all engraved. ' Marmora Taurinensia cum dissertationibus et figuris, 2 T, 4to. 1/43. 270 TheAmn- of design. 6 Upon his return lo England, dd coiiec- j^-g p a ] ace g n i\ lG banks of the Thames, and ^"^^ his country retreat at Albury, in Surry, were resorted to by men of talents, who were in- structed by his consummate judgment, and supported by his munificence. He maintained Franciscus deYongh or Junius, and Oughtrcd themathematician ; he patronized Inigo Jones and Vandyke; he brought over Wenceslaus Hollar, an engraver of superior merit, and encouraged him in England ; and he em- ployed Nicholas Stone, LeSoeur, and Fanelli, who successfully practised their art of sculp- ture in this kingdom. It. was from the ex- ample and recommendation of Lord Arundel, and a very inferior cause, the envy of the favorite Villiers, that Charles I. was original- ly induced to study and encourage the arts. His taste was refined and elegant, and doubl- j The improvement of the buildings in Westminster was com- mitted to Lord A. and Inigo Jones, (Rymer's Fcedera, v. xviii. p. 9",) and in l6l8 other peers were included with him in a commission to reduce to uniformity Lincoln's Inn Fields, &c. Inigo Jones's design of Covent Garden, and Lincoln's Inn Fields, are now in Lord Pembroke's possession, at Wilton. " John Charle- wood appears to have been printer to the family of Howard, and was probably retained as a domestic, for that liberal purpose, in Arundel house, the seat of elegance and literature, till Cromwell's usurpation." Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. v. iii. p. 421. Walpole's Royal and Nob. Auth. v. i. p. 177. / 277 less, he found his propensity to follow them The Amu- del colleC" perfectly natural. But such were his primary tion. „ inducements. When Lord Arundel determined to col- lect a gallery of sculpture he retained two men of letters for that purpose. The inge- nious John Evelyn was sent to Rome, and William Petty h undertook a hazardous jour- iwy to the Greek islands and the Morea. In the islands of Paros and Delos, his inde- fatigable researches had been rewarded with ample success, when on his voyage to Smyrna he was shipwrecked on the coast of Asia, opposite Samos, and escaped only with his life.' At Smyrna he acquired many marbles h Tn one of Lord Arundel's letters to secretary Windebank, published in Clarendon's State Papers, v. ii. p. 5Q7, he is thus noticed. " Honest little Harvey is going a little start into Italy, and I give him some employment about pictures, to Mr. Petty." He was educated at Cambridge. See Cole's Athenae. Cantab. MSS. Brit. Mus. and Colmeriana, v. i. p. 55. Journals of the House of Commons, vol. v. p. 481. A. D. 1647, March 6th. An ordinance for granting to Mr. W. Petty the benefit of the invention of double and single writing, for fourteen years. ' Sir T. Roe gives very honourable testimony of Mr. Petty's perseverance and ability, p. 495. " He hath visited Pergamo, Samos, Ephesus, and other places j and hath raked together twe hundred pieces, all broken and none entyre." Acct. of Wil.' ji^ Potty, Arch. v. ix. 1/8, 182. 278 ThcArun- of extreme rarity and value, particularly tion. c ° *" the celebrated Parian chronicle. Slill the V jealousy of Yillicrs was active to interrupt Lord Arundel's pursuit, and the delight of his retired hours. Sir Thomas Roe, then embassador at the Porte, and consequently obedient to the minister, was directed to pur- chase beyond Petty 's power of competition ; and to withhold from him every assistance in his diplomatic capacity, which he dared not openly to refuse. At that time the Duke of Buckingham was very ambitious of furnish- ofCharies ing his palace of York House with statuary, atwilite- king had commanded Sir Kenelm Dig- haii. ky, previously, in 16'28, when admiral of a fleet in the Levant, to procure statues from that country ; how many, or of what subjects they were, the catalogue of his collection does not inform us. k Peacham says, that k Abraham Vander-Dort was the keeper of King Charles I.'s cabinet at Whitehall. He compiled a catalogue of the pictures and statues, the MS. of which is in the Ashmolrean Museum at Oxford. Vertue copied it, and from that copy it was published by Bathoe, 4to. 1/57. It appears that the royal collection was numerous and valuable, but nothing can be more vague and un- defined than the descriptions, as " an emperor's head — a woman's head — a Venus's body, &c." In the gallery at Somerset House, 120 pieces of statuary, appraised at 232/1. 3s. In the garden 20, appraised at 11651. 14s. In the palace at Greenwich, 230 279 they were chiefly brought from the ruins of Amnde- 1 1 ill colic the Temple of Apollo at Delos. 1 tion. Lord Arundel having assembled in his gallery his various acquisitions from Greece and Rome, a period to his gratification ar- rived, and he was driven from his elegant retirement by the civil commotions, which were bursting into a flame of avowed hosti- lity. He had adopted the following arrange- ment of his marbles. The statues and busts were placed in the gallery, the inscribed marbles were inserted in the wall of the garden of Arundel House, and the inferior at 137801, 13s. 6d. and at St. James's 29, at 6561. Among the statues, the copy of the Borghese Gladiator (now at Houghton) sold for 3001. A polio 1201. One of the Muses 2001. Dejanira 2001. &c. These prices, great as they may appear for the time, were given by foreign agents employed by Cardinal Mazarine, for his palace at Paris. Don Alonzo de Cardenas, embassador to Cromwell, bought pictures and statues, which when landed at Corunna, were conveyed to Madrid upon eighteen mules. Chris- tina, of Sweden, and the Arch-duke Leopold, governor of Flan- ders, were considerable purchasers. Not one of these princes offered to give up these acquisitions to Charles II. who perhaps did not regret it, as he did not inherit the taste of his father. Christina's purchases, with the Odeschalchi collection of statues, &c. were resold to Philip V. of Spain, for the palace of St. II- •defonso. 1 Complete Gentleman, p. 107. 280 Arunde- and mulilatccl statues decorated a Summer tion. garden, which the Earl had made at Lam* V ^ v ^' beth. We learn from catalogues," 1 that the Arundelian collection, when entire, con- tained 37 statues, 128 busts, and 250 in- scribed marbles, exclusive of sarcophagi, altars, and fragments, and the inestimable gqins. In 1642 Lord Arundel left England never to return, and died at Padua in 1646. It is said that he took his collection with him, but it is more probable, that his gems, cabinet pictures, and curiosities only suffered removal to Antwerp. Of the fate of this collection, in the high- est degree venerable to the English connois- seur, I have no apology to offer for a very minute account. m In Mr. Biand's catalogue, 1807, "'as MS. No. 103. Wil- liam Hawiey* catalogue of pictures, statues, bronzes, tapestry, &c. of King Charles I. disposed of d urine? the civil wars, but re- covered for King Charles II. after the restoration, l6u0. MSS. Harl. Brit. Mus. No. 4/18. Inventory of the pictures, medals, agates, and other rarities o King Charles I. in the Privy Gallery, Whitehall. No. 48g8, Inventory of ditto, sold by order of the Council of State, from 1649 to l£>52. No. G344, Account of paintings, &c. in York House. 281 When Lord Arundel died, he made an Dispersion of the equal partition between his elder son and Arunde- successor, and Sir William Howard, the un- lection.' fortunate Viscount Stafford. Henry, Earl of Norwich, (the restored Duke of Norfolk) succeeded to the elder share, and being much under the influence of the learned Selden (who had been honour- ed by the friendship of Earl Thomas) was persuaded to give the inscribed marbles to the University of Oxford. Evelyn, who had been instrumental to the original collection, added his suffrage. The same nobleman presented part of the library of the Kings of Hungary to the Royal Society ; and many very valuable MSS. to the library of the College of Arms. In the general confiscation made by the parliament, the pictures and statues remain- ing at Arundel House were in some measure included. Many were obtained by Don Alonzo de Cardenas, the Spanish ambassador to Cromwell, and sent into Spain with the wrecks of the royal collection. Arundel House and gardens were con- verted into streets, about the year l6?8, when it was determined to dispose of the 282 Dispersion statues by sale. It was proposed by the Arunde- agents to sell the whole collectively, but no lection. purchaser could be found. A division into ' - ^ Y ^ three lots was accepted. 1. Of those in the house; 2. of those in the garden; and Sdly, of those at Lambeth. The first, principally consisting of busts, was purchased by Lord Pembroke, and are at Wilton. The second was bought by Lord Lemster, (the father of the first Earl of Pom- fret,) who removed them to his seat at Easlon Neston, in Northamptonshire. The price was only 3001. For the last lot in Cuper's Gardens, near Lambeth, no purchaser ap- peared till 1717 ; when Mr. Waller, of the poet's family, gave 751. and conveyed them to Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. Mr. Freeman Cook had afterward half of them, which are at Fawley Court, in that county." Guelfi, a scholar of Camillo Rusconi, upon the recommendation of Lord Burling- ton, who had invited him from Italy, was n Some fragments since discovered in digging foundations for houses in the Strand, were sent to Worsop Manor. Dr. Ducarel procured etchings to be made from them. The marbles placed in Cuper's Gardens were drawn and engraved for the last edition of Aubrey's Antiquities of Surrey. 28S employed by Lord Pom fret to restore the im- Dispersion r l tt- of the perfect statues and torsos. His simply de- Amnde- , . .,, , (, , lianjco!- signed, but ill-executed figure on the monu- lection, ment of Secretary Craggs, in Westminster Abbey, is a certain proof how little qualified he was, as an artist, for so important a task. He misconceived the character and attitude of almost every statue he attempted to make perfect; and ruined the greater number of those he was permitted to touch. Mere workmanship is a very insufficienc qualification in him who would regain the perfection of any antique fragment. Yet even this Guelfi did not possess. In the year 1755, Henrietta Louisa, Countess Dowager of Pom fret, presented the whole of them to the University of Ox- ford, 0 whose gratitude was expressed in an ° Dr. Francis Randolph bequeathed 10001. towards a fund for erecting some building for their reception ; and the late Sir Roger Newdegate, in 1800, proposed to give 20001. the interest in the first instance to be applied to the restoration of the best of the Arundel Statues, which might be placed in the Radcliffe Library. The plan was either ill arranged or misconceived, for in 1808 it was determined in the convocation, that the benefac- tion should not be accepted. They are therefore doomed to remain in their present oblivious situation, alienated from the noble family to which they belonged, and by whom they would have been justly appreciated. 284 Dispersion oration by Mr. T. Warton, then professor of Amnde- poetry. They were consigned to an unoc- lian col- . lection. cupicd room of the schools, where they re- ^ v " w ' main, in a state very unworthy of them. It is said, that the late Lord Litchfield once intended to rescue them from their present oblivious station, and to build a receptacle in which they might be displayed to advantage. May it be a future destination of the fund bequeathed, for the embellishment of the University, by the celebrated Dr. Ratcliffe ! By the auction at Tar thai 1, Dr. Mead became possessed of Lord Arundel's favou- rite bronze head, long called Homer, which is introduced into his portrait by Vandyke. 1 ' At Dr. Mead's sale it was purchased by Brownlow, Earl of Exeter, who gave it to the British Museum. 9 D'Hankerville does This is a circumstance to be lamented by everv lover of an- tient art, and the younger students of the University might have been encouraged, by frequent inspection, to cultivate the arts in theory and practice ; and those who would visit foreign Museums would be no longer conspicuous only for their ignorance of the subjects they profess to admire. We might have had a better claim to assert " Nos etiam habemus eruditos oculos." p It is engraved in the quarto edition of Pope's Odyssey. i At Worksop Manor are two portraits of the Earl and Lady Alathea Talbot, his Countess, by Paul Vansomer, 1 6l 8. Lord A. is represented sitting, dressed in black, with the order of the 285 not allow it to be even an ideal representa- DJsper of the lion or the great poet. Anmde mi /~t it 1 * i • l uan co ' J he Cameos and intaglios, among which lection, is the celebrated marriage of Cupid and Psyche, were retained by a divorced Duchess of Norfolk, and bequeathed by her to her second husband, Sir John Germaine. His widow, Lady Elizabeth Germaine, gave them to her niece Miss Beauclerk, upon her mar- riage with Lord Charles Spencer, from whom they have passed to the present Duke of Marlborough. His grace has done them ample justice, in having them drawn and en- Garter hanging from his neck. He points with his Marshal's baton to several statues near him. Lord Orford, (vol. ii. p. 5. Svo.) omits these portraits. Among Vertue's limnings of the Howard family at Norfolk House, are copies of them. Sir William Howard, when afterwards Lord Stafford, suc- ceeded to a house built for his mother, the Countess of Arundel, by Nicholas Stone, in 1638. It stood near Buckingham Gate, and was called Tarthall. The second share of Lord Arundel's curiosities was deposited there, and was so valuable as to produce at a sale, in 1/20, 8S521. lis. and the house was soon after- wards levelled with the ground. The principal lots were sold to the agents of Lord Oxford, and the celebrated physician and vir- tuoso, Dr. Mead, which have since suffered a further dispersion by the same means. One part of the catalogue of the late Duchess of Portland, was called " The Arundelian." An ebony Cabinet, painted by Polenburg and Van Bassan, was purchased by the Earl of Oxford for 3101. This single article is mentioned only to convey an idea of the general value of the col- lection. 286 Disj^ion graved by Cipriani and Bartolozzi, in the Arunde- f jrs t style of those excellent artists/ lian col- l ^ ct '°°'^ 1 " M armora Oxoniensa, 5 " a very ex- pensive work, was published in 1763 by Dr. Chandler, the learned and ingenious tra- veller into Greece and Asia Minor. He professes to have been greatly assisted in his account of the statues and their characters, by Mr. Wood, the celebrated traveller to Balbec and Palmyra. It appears, that Mr. Wood was better versed in architecture than in ancient sculp- ture. The drawing of the statues is, in r " Gemmarum antiquarum delectus ex praestantioribus de- sumptus, in dactylotheca Ducis Marleburiensis, 1/83." 2 vol. Fol. cura Jac. Bryant. Printed at the private expense of the Duke of Marlborough, and never published. A copy was sold at an auction, in 17^8, for 861. Vide Dibdin's Bibliomania for the high prices of many single proof prints, before the books were made up, which were given at Mr. Woodhouse's sale, 1 801 , p. 50,1 . Part of this collection had been published, by Apollina, at Rome, 1627, and afterwards by Licetus, of Genoa. The Duke of Devonshire's collection of gems, drawn by Sieur Gosmond, and engraved on 101 plates, (never published, but a copy is in the British Museum,) and the Dactylotheca Smithiana, purchased of Joseph Smith, Esq. Consul at Venice, with some pictures, for 20,0001. by his present Majesty, and published in two volumes -Ito. in I/67, by Gori, beside gems of various proprietors in England, engraven and described by Ogle, ('Ito. 1/37,) and by Worledge, (4to. 2 vols. 1 768,) place this country on a level with others, for rare specimens of that branch of Sculpture. 287 some instances, extremely faulty and incor- Dispei rect, and will bear no comparison with simi- Amnde Jar works by Italian engravers. Mr. Hayley, lectin, in his copious and excellent notes to his ele- *~ gant poetical essay on sculpture, makes this observation of striking truth and propriety : " It is much to be lamented, that almost all the prints designed to illustrate the many voluminous and costly books upon sculp- ture, are rather caricatures of ancient art, than a faithful copy of its perfections." From this general censure, however, many modern works, in Italy and France, will claim an exception. The method of tracing the out- line only, now adopted by Visconti and Landon, and as it is practised by Piroli, is more frequently successful in giving a true idea, than by shaded engravings, which are ever liable to falsify the true effect. It would be much more satisfactory if those M'ho pub- lish engravings of antique sculpture, would be scrupulous in marking out the restora- tions in them, or, at least, notice them in their written account. Certain it is that this * Quarto, 1800, p. 251. Visconti. Monum. Gabini, et Ann. de Mus. Nat. In Beckers " Augustaeum ou Gallerie de Dresde," and in Levezow's " La pretendue famille de Lycomede," the restorations are marked by dotted lines. 288 Dispersion plan is attended with considerable difficulty, Arunde- especially in ascertaining the restored parts ]ection°. with a sufficient degree of precision. A me- v "^" v ~ w ' thod of etching the outline, and dotting the restored parts, where known, is preferable, because the explications may be given in a language not understood by the artist of another nation. The Arundelian collection should not be inspected merely with a view of comparison with other marbles, subsequently brought into England. The consideration that some pieces of sculpture may be comparatively neither excellent nor interesting, should not deprive the whole collection of the merit due to the priority of ils formation, and the ex- treme difficulty with which these marbles were then procured. When these statues were first brought to England, it is not improbable that they were repaired by Fanelli, who was patronized by Lord Arundel, and excelled in copying the antique in small bronze. Still, with an un philosophical ignorance of our cli- mate, many were placed in gardens, and are thereby extremely injured. Thomas, Earl of Pembroke, began his Collection collection of statues at Wilton House, about atwuton. ^ c c i osc G f the seventeenth century. He 289 purchased such of Lord Arundel's as had Dispersion 1 of the been placed in the house, and consequently Arurw }f" lian cellec- had escaped the injuries of this climate, so uen. conspicuous in those at Oxford. They were principally busts. Lord Pembroke was par- ticularly partial to that description of sculp- ture, as no less than 141 are seen at Wilton on marble pedestals." The scrutinizing eye of the connoisseur will not allow many of this great number to be either antique or genuine portraits, as now denominated. But the Wilton collection was not formed solely from the Arundelian. When the Giustiniani mar- bles were dispersed, (among which were 106 busts,) they were bought chiefly by Car- dinal Albani and Lord Pembroke. Cardinal Richlieu, in forming his collection of busts, was assisted by Lord Arundel, with in- telligence respecting many in Italy, which he afterwards procured. These were then added to Cardinal Mazarine's marbles, many of which had been bought when Charles the First's statues and pictures were " A catalogue of this collection, which includes 44 statues, 141 busts, 50 bas-reliefs, &c. has been repeatedly printed in. the " iEdes Pembrochianas," particularly in a recent edition., with many classical references, and judicious observations on the arts. U 290 Dispersion exposed to public auction, by an ordinance Arunde- of parliament. When the Mazarine colleo liancollcc- . . " ' tion. lion was likewise sold, Lord Pembroke was a ' v principal purchaser, to which were added some fine busts from the gallery of Valctta, at Naples ; a complete collection of all these constitutes the present magnificent and ex- tensive assemblage at Wilton. In surveying these splendid remains of ancient art, eaeli visitant will form his own selection of the more admirable, indepen- dently of the opinions of connoisseurs, which are certainly unfavourable lo many of them, with respect lo originality and workmanship. During a great part even of the last cen- tury, the Arundel and Pembroke collections stood alone and unrivalled. A few excellent copies of the antique, in bronze or plaster, were admired as single embellishments of the palaces of our nobility. But the more frequent ornament of libraries and saloons were busts, copied from the antique, or por- traits, by modern sculptors. Our national taste in gardening, borrowed from the French, and introduced by Le Notre, afforded con- stant employment to the mere " carvers of images," which seemed to take the air, in every garden, in ihc prevailing mode of the 29 1 age. Fashion universally superseded judg- Dispersion ment or taste/ Amnde- , , , . liuncollec- Dr. Richard Mead had a collection in tion. which were many excellent marbles, that were, at his death, dispersed by sale. In- cidental mention occurs at p. l6'4, of the earliest and most perfect collection of small bronzes then made in England by Mr. Kemp, which were sold in 1720. It contained sixty- three statues, few of which were six inches high ; beside seven heads upon a similar scale, and of equal excellence. It had likewise eleven small statues, and thirty busts and heads of marble. w About the same time, Thomas Coke, v In the beginning of the last century, these magazines of images were in Piccadilly, and excited a constant topic of ridicule from all foreigners of taste. The imitations of the antique were wretched beyond all description. I remember an anecdote which belongs to that day, and will venture to give it : A gentleman had purchased two capital antique statues in marble, at Rome, had brought them to England, and placed them in his garden. His son and successor, who was not a virtuoso, had married a city lady, ad- dicted to fashionable improvements. She directed these ill-fated marbles to be painted, in order, as she observed to her friends, that they might look like lead. w See " Monumenta vetustatis Kempiana et vetustis scripto- ribus illustrata eosque vicissim illustrantia." 8vo. 1720. In the British Museum, MSS. Harl. No. 5309, add. catalogue, " Ima- gines selectae ex monumentis Kempianis delineatae, quarum com- plures aere incisae adhuc non extiterunt." There are sixty-two sub- jects drawn in India ink by Dr. Ward, and presented by Mr. Hoi- 292 English Larl 0 f Leicester, completed bis sumptuous collections 1 1 made at mansion at Ilolkliam, in Norfolk, and fur- Rome. nished a gallery with statues. In 1755, the younger Brettingham, son of the architect, was commissioned by Lord Leicester to pro- cure antiques in Italy. Their example has been partially followed, as opportunities have occurred, either by sale of collections at Rome, or by recent disco- veries. At the close of this work these mar- bles, or at least the more remarkable of them, shall be distinctly enumerated. Within the last fifty years, three gentle- men established themselves at Rome, who exerted much address and knowledge of the subject, to promote a growing inclination for antique sculpture in several Englishmen of rank and opulence, who were then on their travels in Italy. Mr. James Byres, an architect, Mr. Gavin Hamilton, (who painted some subjects from the Iliad with truly clas- sical correctness,) and Mr. Thomas Jenkins, the English banker at Rome," were actively lis in J "6l. " Omnes hse imagines, justam fere archetyporum magnitudinem exhibent." " Musaei Meadiani Pars altera quae veteris otvi monuroenta ac gemmas complectitur." 8vo. 1755. x " Catalogo di monumenti scritti del Museo del Sig. Tom- maso Jenkins, 4to 1787." 293 instrumental in recovering from oblivion or Statues neglect, many a relique ot antique sculpture, covers which may vie with the choicest specimens in the galleries of the Italian Princes. 7 It occurred to the gentleman above mentioned, incited by the success of the sculptors, Cava- ceppi z and Pacilli, that " the campagna" had been imperfectly examined, whilst the site of Imperial Rome was become an ex- hausted mine. The late Popes, Ganganelli and Braschi, then intent upon forming the Pio-Clementine Museum, gave their permis- sion for such searches upon the following con- ditions. When an excavation was made, the antiquities discovered, were divided into four shares. The first was claimed by the Pope, the second by the " camera," or officers of state, the third by the lessees of the soil, and the last was the right of the adventurer. The Popes sometimes agreed for the pre-emption of the whole, at others, all the shares were bought by the contractors, before the ground was opened. In consequence of these searches, the villa of Hadrian at Tivoli, the * " Callidus huic signo ponebara millia centum — Hortos, egregiasque domos mercarier unus, Cum lucro noram." Hor. Sat. L. ii. 3. v. 23. z Cavaceppi published " Statue, &c. restaurate," 5 torn, folio. 294 Resiora- city of Gabii, a and many other places in the tiouof ... J 1 statues, vicinity of Rome, have amply repaid the la- v "~ v "~"' hour of examination, and the public curiosity. The Popes and Cardinals of the Barba- rini, Borghese, and Giustiani families, when they formed their collections from disco- veries in their territories near Rome, exhibit- ed, only the more perfect statues, or such as were capable of restoration. The fragments and torsos were then consigned to cellars, from whence they have been extracted, from lime to time, by the Roman sculptors, as studies in their art. Cavaceppi, Cardelli, Pacilli, and Albacini, have restored many of them, with astonishing intelligence and skill. The elder Piranesi was equally inge- nious in composing vases and candelabra from small fragments of excellent work- manship. These artists have found in several of the English nobility and gentry, a very liberal patronage. Some of those fine speci- mens which are now the boast of our nation have been obtained from them. Other oppor- tunities have not been wanting. The well- known collections of the Barbarini, Matlei, a Monumenti Gabini della Villa Pinciana descritti da Ennio Quirino Visconti. in Roma, ] 797- 295 and Negroni palaces and villas, have been nearly transferred by open sale, and in others, the necessities of individuals among their possessors were often secretly relieved by the occasional disappearance of a famous marble long before the distress occasioned by the French invasion. b The plan I have proposed to myself, in this little work, will not allow me, nor am I competent, from a deficiency of information, to give a detailed account of Gems. Yet those exquisitely beautiful subjects of ancient art, must not be passed over in silence. A few general observations respecting the ori- ginal artists, and the collections of them made in England, may not be irrelevant, in this stage of our inquiry. c The study of an- tique Gems is that of a very pleasing and instructive branch of the art of sculpture. We find engraven on them the portraits of princes, heroes, and celebrated men, which are in general more accurately given, and with truer resemblance than in marble or bronze, or even on medals, and are liable b Hac arte Pallas, et vagus Hercules Eductus, arces attulit Anglirc. — c Watelet Diet, arlicle " Pierres Gravees." 296 Cameos to less injury from time or decay. They re- imagiios. peat in miniature the subjects of the finest single statues, groups, or bas-reliefs ; and those not only of known marbles, but of others, of which the written descriptions only remain. They serve more especially to elucidate new discoveries of statuary, and to explain the mythology and customs of an- cient nations, and they exhibit symbols and literal characters, of which no other specimens are presented to us ; whilst they compress into the narrowest limits accurate representa- tions of beauty, strength, and grace, and add to the riches of nature, the consummate per- fection of art. An accurate observer will discover as much in their smallest intaglios as their colossal figures, those unerring prin- ciples which directed the best works of the antients. Gems consist of two kinds, Cameos (Ca~ mci,J which are raised from the surface, and Intaglios, (Intagli,J which are indented or carved below it. Being more frequently en- graven on hard stones, they are called gems with reference to the material, not to the ■workmanship. 8 1 Coral, ivory, and mother of pearl, were sometimes used by 297 Cameos are generally wrought in agate Cameos and onyx, and Intaglios in carnelion. b The intaglios, first mentioned are not always favourable to these representations on gems or precious stones, as there must always exist in the mind of the artist a wish to accommodate the colours of the stone to his ideas of the subject. The remotest origin of this elegant art has been referred to iEgypt, where the ar- tists, from superstition, gave the gems an oval form, which are now distinguished as " Scarabaei/' It would not be easy to fix the the ancients. Agate, sardonix, onyx, and jasper, were the gems usually selected by engravers. The onyx, frequently consisting of two or more laminae of different shades, was preferred for that effect. The apotheosis of Augustus or Germanicus is engraven upon four such laminae of an agate onyx which was sold in 123Q by Baldwin II, emperor of Constantinople, to St. Louis. In the Museum at Paris. Satisfactory information on this subject, both historical and cri- tical, will be found in " Traite des Pierres gravees, par Marnette," fol. 2 torn. 1750. " Sur l'Art glyptographique des Anciens, par M. le Compte de Caylus. Acad, des Inscript. t. 32.— Phil. Lip- perti Dactyliothecae universalis Chyliades tres, 4to. 1 755 and 1/62. Lipsiae. — Gemmae Antiquae ex Thesauro Mediceo Francisci Gorij, 2 torn. fol. 1731 and 1732. — Description des Pierres gravees du Baron de Stosch, par Winkelmann. 4to. 176O. h " Atfoy\v that of Baron Stosch to Berlin, of the Medi- ci to Paris, and of the Duke of Orleans, and of the Slrozzi, to Petersburgh ; but I shall enumerate those only which now belong to our own, to which a great part of the Bar- barini collection had been transferred by pri- vate sale, before the French had invaded Rome. Of the Arundel Gems an account has been already given. The Devonshire collection, that purchased by his present Ma- jesty of Joseph Smith, Esq. that formerly the Colonna, brought from Rome by Sir R. AVorsley, the late Mr. C. Townley's, slill in the possession of his relatives, anil that of the Earl of Carlisle at Castle Howard, and of land (in his " Thoughts on Outline/' 4to. 1/95,) for the use of artists. But in earlier times the art of engraving on gems and stones had attained to singular perfection. Lorenzo de' Medici was a great protector and encourager of these rivals of antiquity, and deposited their works in the cabinets of his magnificent gallery. The first artists whose names are recorded in modern times, is Giovanni dellc Cornioule and Domenico de' Camei, Yalerio Vicentino, and Giovanni Bolognese, in the sixteenth century. 301 R. P. Knight, Esq. are the most distinguished Barbarini, and curiosity, are in the cabinets of Eng- lish virtuosi/ Several modern artists, particularly Pich- ler, Amastini, Andrieu, and Marchant, have reached great excellence in the imitation or ri- valship of the genuine antique ; and have exe- cuted Cameos and Intaglios in a st3-le much nearer to the Greeks than has been hitherto obtained in any other branch of the fine arts. In copying the beautiful pastes which are daily found in the ruins of Rome, they have been alike able to deceive the cautious dealer, and the experienced dilettanti. Certain of these artists, indignant at the d No individual specimens will, with more decision, confirm the claim of the antients to superior proficiency in this most exquisite art, than the few which I shall enumerate. 1. The group called the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (Sardonyx) for- merly in the Arundel, now in the Duke of Marlborough's collec- tion, the work of Tryphon. 2. Jupiter GEgiochus, a head found at Ephesus, now at Paris. 3. Cupid and Psyche, Townleian. 4. Priam, a head, Duke of Devonshire. 5. The Medusa, by Solon, now at Petersburgh. 6. Diomedes, with the Palladium, now in the same cabinet, by Dioscorides, and styled by Marriette, when in the collection of Louis XIV, the " ne plus uUra of art." Con- sult a very interesting account of engraved stones in Millin's Diet, de Beaux Arts, in the copious article " Glyptioue." 30'2 Barbarini, neglect shown to their avowed works, made or Fort- ° land Vase, such deceplions their frequent study, which were often so well managed, as to fix no discredit upon those who were cheated by them, so little inferior were they to I rue Roman workmanship.* 1 The Barbarini, now the Portland Vase, is analogous to Cainci in point of execution, and the manner in which the relievo has been produced upon a solid substance. The figures are exquisitely wrought in white glass, raised on a ground of deep blue glass, which appears to be black, excepting when held against the light. It was the opinion of the late Mr. Wedgwood," that the figures have been made by cutting away the external crust of white opake glass, down to the blue ground, in the manner that the finest camei have been produced upon an onyx of several laminae, and from that circumstance it must have been the workmanship of a great many d He lias made an excellent model of this vase for sale. Dar- win's Bot. Gar. v. ii. p. 352. Lumisden's Rome, p. 68. Visconti Mus. Pio-Clem. T. vi. p. / I, records the story as of the marriage of Pcleus and Thetis, D'Hancarville Recherches sur les Arts de la Grece, v. ii. p. 133, as the descent of Orpheus. Archa?log. v. viii. pp. 30/-31/. Dissertation, by Mr. Marsh. Vide Description of the Portland Vase, by Josiah Wedg- wood, F. R.S. A.S. &c. Ito. 1/90. 303 years. Antiquaries place its dale many cen- Barbarini, turies before the Christian aera, as sculpture land Vase, is said to have declined in point of excellence even before the a«;e of Alexander. It does not appear to have been made to contain the ashes of any individual, because more than the life of man must have passed away be- fore it could have been completed, and the subjects of its embellishments are of a general nature. Dr. Darwin inclines to an opinion that they represent a part of the Eleusinian mys- teries. The story, whatever it may be, is exe- cuted with an incomparable effect. In the first compartment, three figures are placed by the side of a ruined column, without a capital, which lies at their feet, with other disjointed stones ; they sit on loose piles of stones beneath a tree, which has not the leaves of any evergreen of this climate, but may be supposed to be an elm, which Virgil places at the entrance of the infernal regions, (/En. vi. v. 281); and adds, that a dream was be- lieved to dwell under every leaf of it. In the midst of this group reclines a female figure, in a dying attitude, in which extreme languor is beautifully represented ; in her hand is an inverted torch, an ancient emblem of extin- guished life. On her right sits a man, and on 304 Barbarbi, her left a woman, with their backs towards or Port- land Vase, the central figure above mentioned, which appears to be the emblem of " mortal life." Upon the other side of this celebrated vase is exhibited an emblem of immortality, the representation of which was well known to constitute a very principal part of the Eleu- sinian mysteries, The first figure in this group is a " Manes,"' or ghost, conducted by a cupid flying, who is received by a beautiful female, playing with a serpent, a symbol of " immor- tal life." She sits down, with her feet to- wards the figure of Pluto, but turning back her face to the timid ghost, and taking hold of his elbow, supports his steps as he passes under a portal, " patet atri janua Ditis." (iEn. vi. v. 126.) On the bottom of the vase is the bust of an Hierophant, or priestess of Ceres, larger and less accurately sculp- tured. 3 a Count Giralamo Tezi iEdes Barbarinae, p. 2~, conjectures that the vase and its mythology refer to Alexander Severus. Ve- nuti oservaz. supra l'urna d'Alessandro Severo, endeavours to dis- prove that idea in particular, and Caylus avows that he has found no satisfactory explication. D'Hankerville supposes this to have been one of the Necro Corinthia Vasa brought to Rome when that city was destroyed, and the sepulchres ransacked to procure them. 305 This singular curiosity, which England BarWmi, or Fort may be proud to possess, is about ten inches land Vase, high, and six in diameter, in the broadest v ~ v ~ > part. It was discovered in a sepulchral mo- nument, called Monte del Grano, (attributed to Alexander Severus,) about the middle of the sixteenth century, two miles and a half from Rome, on the road to Frescati. Having then been purchased by Prince Barbarini ; from the cabinet of that family it was pro- cured by Mr. Byres, for Sir William Hamil- ton, who sold it to the late Duchess of Port- land, at whose sale it was re-purchased for one thousand guineas, by her son. The present Duke of Portland has placed it, during pleasure, in the British Museum, for the gratification of Virtuosi, with a liberality most worthy of imitation. The Brunswick Vase was brought into The ° Bruns- England by the late Duchess of Brunswick, wickVase, , , . n i • ii originally when driven from her own territory by the the French invasion. It is of sardonyx, six inches « — in height, and of true proportion. The sto- ries engraven in relief upon its surface, are those of Ceres, searching for her daughter Proserpine, and of Triptolemus. Originally it graced the cabinet of the Gonzaga family, and was greatly celebrated. During the siege 306 J 1 - of Mantua, in 1630, it is said to have been r'igSy taken in P illa ge by a soldier, and it was 2n au " P rocured h y a Duke of Brunswick for one — hundred ducats. b After the death of the late Duchess of Brunswick this vase was offered for sale, and a price, apparently enormous (30,000/.) was set upon it. But as Government was not dis- posed to purchase it, at that valuation, it was deposited with Messrs. Hammersley, bankers, where it lately remained. b Of this vase two ample descriptions have been published. « Mysteria Cereris & Bacchi in vasculo, ex uuo onyche, Ferdi- nando Aib. Ducis Biunsvicens. & Lunenburg, per epistolam evo- lutaaJohan. Henr. Eggelengio Reipub. Bremens. secretario. cum 4 figuris, 1682." And in Gronovij Antiquit. Graec. v. vii. p. 5/. SECTION VI. This last Section, which is intended as a corollary to the whole of this slight work, will contain a compendious examination of various collections of Sculpture, more par- ticularly of those in this kingdom. A ge- neral view has been already taken of the Ro- man and Florentine museums, as originally belonging to Italian states. The removal of the most celebrated statues to Paris, had taken place when the former pages of this volume were printed ; and after an interval of x 2 303 some years* they have been once more, for- tunately, replaced in their former repositories. Whilst they formed the Napoleon Muse- um, it is not to be denied, that such an assem- blage of all that is most excellent among the remains of antient art, which have been hither- to brought to light, was never exhibited under one roof or described in one catalogue ; and it may not be unreasonably conjectured, that even the villa of Hadrian did not contain more various or exquisite specimens. The restitution of these statues to their for- mer possessors, as an act of political justice, is worthy of due approbation, and the indig- nation expressed by many men of erudition and taste 3 on account of their predatory re- a In the account of the subversion of the Papal government in 1/98, by my highly valued friend, the ingenious and classical author of the life of M. Angelo, is given a very accurate list of the marbles and bronzes removed from thence to Paris. The total amount of the several pieces were from the Museo-Pio-Clemen- tino sixty-two— from the Musco-Capitolino nineteen marble and two of bronze. In the whole eighty-three. A choice out of the collection at the Villa Borghese was afterward sold to Napoleon by a degenerate prince of that family. Mr. Eustace (whose lamented death will deprive literature of most interesting acqui- sitions,) observes with the indignant feeling which lie so forcibly expresses upon other occasions, that " the French, who in every instance, have been the scourge of Italy, and have rivalled, or rather surpassed the rapacity of the Goths and Vandals;, laid their sacreligious hands on the unparalleled collection of the Vatican, tore its masterpieces from their pedestals, and dragging them from 3Q9 moval, has been heard above the sordid flat- teries, which were, incessantly, lavished upon the victorious founder — opima spoliaEuropae; triumphali manu, direpta ! ! ! b For the remo- val of these statues from Paris to Rome, 202,400 livres c were allowed out of the con- tingent paid by France to this country. But it is my immediate object to take a cur- sory view of statues now in England, chiefly noticing those which are discriminated by a certain excellence peculiar to them, and upon which the claims of superiority of the collections have rested, in which they are pre- served. Such illustrations as may convey in- formation to those younger virtuosi, to whom they may be acceptable, will appear in de- tail, in the course of our progress, through the several mansions of Ensjand. d their temples of marble, transported them to Paris and consigned them to the dull sullen halls, or rather stables of the Louvre." Classical Tour in Italy, v. ii. p. 5g. 8vo. b Lord Grenville remarked in the House of Lords, respecting the interference of the English court for the restoration of these plundered works of art, " that they were taken possession of not in the spirit of modern warfare, but according to the practice of the barbarous ages. It was, indeed, a laudable use of the right of conquest to restore that property of which its owners were despoiled by France, not merely in the spirit, but in the in- solence of conquest, for the purpose of humiliating the rest of Europe." c S424/. 3s. Ad. d A volume of most erudite criticism and splendidly exe- 5!'- V--.Z C.a.its lie F.rs-i i n-e zear :o :ne Iotcb of the arts, ^fcylrJ from Ac sopb- ragw ob the ntkn, the idea of oolect- iii- zer.iiie -lilies rim Iia.j. no* ccntenC nil 1'iize i: ;.a.-ie* n ~_i:-i ^tre certain] j executed with great troth aad Ail by the artists wbon he patronised; jet paint- in* eiiii'ii chief care and att-rii.i. Or ii'- .1 filler o: v^i^ v.anes :i :ie royal n . .-mi r.i ii: li- sat:- factory is n~ £i:*n. from the extreme ignorance with which the catalogue- -c-re cmpnei. a: lie ime of :ae:r dispersion. Very few of them were retail -t 1 in this country.* Thomas, Earl of Arundel, concerning whom ana collection notices have been already given/ well merited the tille of die « Father of Vertu in England." So ardent ' hit pursuit of genuine sculptural anti- quities, at that period, scarcely to be procured in Italy hy foreigners at any price, or by any permission, that he exhausted his patrimonial cured *rrl,r:l shments, which will communicate to foreigners, a very accurate Idea of the treasures of antient art now in Eng- land, has already appeared, and a second is eipectcd with erjiial interest. It is entitled " Specimens of Antient Sculpture, >E?yptian, Etruican, Greek and Roman, selected from different collections in Great Britain, by the Society of Dilettanti, Lond. Imp. Folio, I8O9. Published by White, :*.r se*. en teen guineas, m boards. « P. 2/8. r P. 279. 311 estate, and if their merit is to be calculated by expense,his collection must have been little inferior to those of the Roman palaces. At Wilton, in the next age, Thomas Earl of Pembroke formed a gallery of antiques from the Arundelian and other repositories, as before mentioned. 6 Arundel . ii> i Collection As a general observation upon these ear- v— liest dawnings of a taste for Sculpture, which appeared in our nation, it must be acknow- ledged, that though prior in point of date, they are by no means so, in point of excel- lence. Individual pieces of Sculpture in each of these collections are still of great merit, even when compared with many rival speci- mens of art which have been subsequently col- lected. In the Arundel, now at Oxford, are 1, a Bacchanal with a scabillum (most inartifi- cially restored,) and 2, a Puella Greca, (fortu- nately a fragment, because capable of skilful restoration) which are of genuine GreekWork- manship. There is an exact coincidence in the height of the last mentioned, and that of the Medicean V enus, and it is apparently of that aera, when simplicity was happily and principally studied, and consummate grace was the effect produced. Several fragments are well worthy of judicious restoration, be- 2 P. 289. 312 Amndd ing as yet undeformed by uncharacteristic Collection ^ , 01 w*-v^ additions. Of Roman Sculpture there are 1, A fragment of a sepulchral bas-relief repre- senting two boys, one supporting the other who is fainting, at the point of death. The thought is extremely beautiful and the ex- ecution good. 2, A Vir Consularis, the dra- pery of which is very bold and fine. It has been much exposed to the external atmos- phere, and has consequently suffered from it. The attitude appears to be that of pub- lic speaking ; and he now holds a sudarium in his right hand and in his left a roll, which are evidently restorations. The head is dis- proportionably small, and appears to have been ingrafted. This statue in its present slate is called " Cicero/'" A few cursor v re- h It was probably first so called by Evelyn who procured it at Rome for Lord Arundel, where it had perhaps received that name from the antiquaries of that day. Had it been considered as genuine by them it had never been brought to England. Plutarch in Vita Ciceronis Edit. Reiske, v. 4. p. /48, is the first author who mentions the peculiarity of the wart, or cicer, in the coun- tenance of the great Roman orator. As the size of this statue exceeds life, it could not convey a portrait of Cicero's person, nor is ths style of the drapery of the Augustan age. Plutarch, who died in the reign of Trajan, relates, that the ancestor of Cicero, had a cicer, or division like a vetch, at the end of his nose. Pliny (1. xviii. c. 3.) remarks, that this became the family name from the first of them having been successful in the cultivation of vetches. But on all accounts, the placing the wart on the cheek 313 marks may confirm a dissent from this ee- Anmdd J t 0 Collection nerally received opinion. We have the au- ^—y^ thority of several of the Roman historians, that it was no uncommon practice to ex- change the heads of statues, which were sometimes of bronze, and to give the statue a new character. It was no unusual flattery to remove the heads of past tyrants and to replace them with the portrait of the reigning Emperor. In private families by removing a head, a new portrait was made. A know- ledge of this fact will account for so many disjointed heads and decapitated statues, which are found in that state. Another cir- cumstance is worthy notice, which is, that when they were first taken out of the ground and placed in the hands of ignorant artists, the restored statue always bore the name of some eminent personage. Suspicion of ge- nuinesses in statues, the heads of which are engrafted, is therefore at least allowable and of the orator is a nugatory pretension to genuine resemblance. It is not authorised by historians or the Mattei bust. At Venice there is a statue, nearly as large as this, but doubtful : the bust above mentioned in the Mattei collection at Rome is allowed to be authentic. Others formerly attributed to Cicero are said by Visconti to be portraits of Domitius Corbulo, a general, mentioned by Tacitus, Ann. xi. c. 18. of whom a statue is now preserved in the Villa Borghese, discovered in the ruins of Gabij, not many years since. 314 Arundel often justified. So well convinced are the best Collection _ . . ^v~w Italian antiquaries or the extreme uncertainty of deciding upon every head marked with a " deer," as a portrait of Cicero, that, such claim to originality is not admitted in any bust or statue, which they possess. Pembroke The distinguishing statue at Wilton is one v^v^/ Qf Hercules with the Hesperian apples, co- lossal (7 feet 11 inches high) not in repose as the Farnese, but equally muscular. It has been much restored, and probably before it was brought from Italy, for Lord Arundel. The excellence of this statue, therefore, must be appreciated by those parts which are in- dubitably antique. There is an Apollo, of which, as to merit, the same account may be given. A Faun is very characteristically designed, and has suffered less from intended restoration. Of the busts, which when first brought to England were considered as form- ing one of the finest collections ever made in Italy, a Greek hero, called Pyrrhus, and several females of the Augustan family will be readily distinguished. Mead's Dr. Mead's collection was vcrv small. He Collection ^ <~-v~^> had an Hygeia about two feet high, in mar- ble, which is beautiful, and now at Ditchley, in Oxfordshire. His Flora is at Stourhead. 315 The most valuable bust is of Antinous, now at Wentworth House, Yorkshire. In the reign of George IT. two rival man- sions were erected in Norfolk, Houghton and Holkham. At the former, many marbles were seen, but none of great value. The justly celebrated collection of pictures was Collection transferred to Petersburgh, as well known ; Holkham. and whilst Lord Orford was engaged in form- ^ ing it, the Earl of Leicester, with a zeal emulous of equal fame, procured from Italy, at a princely expenditure, many marbles of genuine antique sculpture. His agent was the younger Brettingham, whose activity and talent overcame many obstacles which were then opposed to the removal of any marble of known celebrity, notwithstanding the all- powerful intervention of money skilfully applied. The result of his labours was the forma- tion of a gallery of antique sculpture at Holk- ham, the fame of which subsequent collec- tions have scarcely rivalled.' One specimen, 1 Heyne des distinctions veritables et supposees qu'il a entre les Fauns, les Satyres, les Silenes, et les Pans. Jansen Recuil des pieces interessantes, T. i. p. 6l. Fauns were ideal beings which originated in the mysteries of Bacchus, at whose feasts they were 316 Collection a " Faunus" has been decidedly designated Hoikham. " as the finest male statue in England/' by supposed to form the choragic dances. They were first imitated by the Etruscans of the remotest antiquity. Homer does not mention them. Plato and Xenophon have given the earliest idea of the head of Silenus. The exact figures of Satyrs or Fauns has not been given by any ancient author. They appear first on a' frieze of the monument of Lysicrates at Athens, in the best epocha of art. Fauns or Satyrs, as they are always called by the Greeks, are represented at different periods of youth and age, but when young of the greatest beauty. Their ears are sharply pointed (aures capripedum aucutas) ; small horns elevate the hair above the forehead, and they have the tail of a goat. The Faun of the Capitol, supposed to have been a copy of a bronze statue by Praxiteles, was dug up in 1/01, near Civita Lavinia, and ex- hibits every kind of juvenile beauty. Winkelmann, Storia delle Arti, T. iv. c. 2, says that there were more than thirty statues of Fauni, either repetitions at Rome, Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxxiv. c. 28. Athenseus, 1. xiii. 1, p. 5Q\. Some of these have been taken for young Bacchus. The Faun of the Capitol has the " nebris" or goat-skin, thrown as a scarf over his shoulders, and reposes against the trunk of a tree, after having played on the flute. This attitude is described by Strabo. The dancing Faun at Florence is supposed to be a copy of a bronze by Scopas or Praxiteles ; An- thologia, 1. iv. epig. 6. Edit. Stephan. ; Maffei Raccolt, tav. 35. Borghese Raccolt. tav. 77- Mus. Pio-Clement, t. ii. tav. 30. Mus. Capitol, t. iii. No. 22, 23, 24. Brit. Mus. Townleian. Female Satyrs and Fauns composed likewise the train of Bacchus, in his orgies. The worship of Bacchus was among the first introduced into Italy. The Greeks did not know Fauns by that name, which is Latin, and primarily signifying a local deity, to be con- sulted as an oracle. Virgil. JEn. 8. Heyne Excurs. v. p. 125. Acad. Des Inscript. 17/6. par L'archer & Abbe de la Chau. D'Hancarvillc, T. i. &c. 317 a judgment, from which it would not be safe Collection to appeal. It is very entire. The two hands Hoikham. and part of the lituus which he holds, are v- ^ w the only modern additions. Having been first brought to light in the Campagna of Rome, it was purchased by Cardinal Albani. 2, Diana k This statue was purchased at Rome by Lord Leicester for 1500/. English money, as it was then reported, and having been conveyed to Florence, his lordship is said to have been put under an arrest, but was soon liberated at the instance of the Grand Duke. For the convenience of removal from 1 Heyne De l'invention des figures sous lesquelles les Dieux ont etc represented dans les anciens ouvrages de l'art. Jansen. T. vi. p. 2S4 Diana resembled Minerva in form with different habits, some- times with a flowing robe ; at others succinct. Her attributes usu- ally allude to the moon. It is uncertain by whom her figure was invented, perhaps by Scopas at Thebes. Three attributed to Praxiteles, and one to Cephissodorus, are at Rome. This statue is a repetition, without the deer, of one originally at Versailles, brought from Italy by Henry IV. as the attitude is exactly similar. The Diana described by Visconti (Mus. Pio-Clem. T. i. tav. 30.) came from the Pamfili palace, and was esteemed the most beau- tiful of those draped. It is habited in the simple Spartan tunic, without sleeves, having one arm bent backward to draw an ar- row from a quiver, and the other holding a bow. A kind of pallium is thrown over the shoulders, fastened only by two studs. This statue is described by Callimachus, Hymn, ad Dianam, v. xi, & Ovid de arte amand. 1. iii. El. ii. v. 32. 318 Collection one palace or villa to another, to be exhi- Hoikham. bited on particular festivals, it has the pecu- liarity of being made of two pieces of marble. The upper one is fitted to the lower, under the folds of the drapery above the cincture which conceals the joint. 1 The right arm of this statue is raised and the hand bent back- ward, in the action of reaching an arrow out of the quiver. The head, in part, and some of the figures were restored by Rusconi. It is mentioned by Spence, in his Polymetis, who conjectures that it was once in the pos- session of Cicero from a passage which he quotes. 3, A colossal bust of Lucius Verus, which was discovered in the port of Neltuno, into which it had propably been thrown by the inconoclasts. Personal vanity induced this weak emperor to direct many repetitions of his portrait to be made. Several of them have been brought to Enoland. Egremont The late Earl of Egremont, first formed ^^v^ the gallery of anlient sculpture at Petworlh. He commissioned Mr. Gavin Hamilton to 1 Of this kind is the beautiful half-figure of Bacchus found near the Temple of Peace at Rome, and engraven on the Mus. Pio.-Clem. T. ii. lav. 2Q; and the Dione, or Venus, in the Mus. Brit. Townleian. 319 make a large collection, upon the most liberal % terms. At the time of his death, in 1763, s- the cases containing these statues were not unpacked, so that their distribution and ar- rangement were by the direction of their present noble possesor. They exceed fifty pieces in the whole of various but great me- rit and curiosity. The Dilettanti Society deputed Mr.Townley to make a selection from these to be engraved in their splendid work, which shall be first no- ticed in deference to his exquisite taste, and superior judgment, in every thing relating to the arts. 1 " 1, A statue of Camillus, or an assistant at a sacrifice, his head bound with a garland of leaves. He holds a pig by the legs before him, as if about to lay it upon an altar. The knife in its sheath is placed on the marble support to which the left leg joins. This singular figure is nearly perfect with the antient polish preserved ; the sculpture rather coarse, but in a broad good style, though savouring of the decline rather than m The Editor of the D. Spec, remarks, " that Mr. Townley's judgment was as nearly infallible as human judgment can be." D. Sel. PI. 68. 320 Egrcmont the immaturity of the art." 2, Silenus Cane- collection. 1 — s-^ phorus, or as bearing a basket on his head, of still coarser sculpture, perhaps part of a group, as the preceding. 0 3, Apollo Ci- tharaeda, or Musagetes : this statue is habited in a pallium, hanging loose before and be- hind, and open on each side, which dis- covers the naked arm. It is joined by fibulas on the shoulders. On the feet are sandals. The right arm, with the left hand and part of the lyre, have been restored. The drapery of this Apollo is particularly fine. Affixed to the trunk which supports him is a neck- lace strung with rings and beads, indistinctly ; in which respect it resembles another, in the Villa Albani. The hair, like that of a Muse, is brought backward, as if radiated, tied behind, and falls upon the shoulders, and from under each ear hang two ringlets. 4, A head of Venus, p heroic size. It has a sweet and expressive countenance of genuine Greek workmanship. 5, A head of Ajax, q colossal. The face has suffered from age or " There is a bronze statue in the Farnese collection called Camillus, and another in the Villa Borghese. ° D. Sel. pi. 69. p D. Sel. pi. 62. 1 D. Sel. PI. 45 & 46. 321 exposure to the outward air ; the nose and Egremont i collection. mouth are restored; but the whole is in the ^v-^ free and grand style of the early schools of Greece. 6. Head of an aged woman upon a bust. The head-dress is that of the wife of a pontifex, and the tutulus or top of the hair is rolled with a lace round the crown of the head, for that distinction. Beside these, is a female bust, the head-dress and features of which re- semble those on the medals of Julia Pia, the wife of Severus. It is a fine portrait. The un- certainty or misapplication of statues and busts, as portraits, is greater in those of private persons than of the emperors, their wives, or others of the Imperial connection, whose coins confirm the resemblance. 7. A young Faun upon the plain pilaster, which serves as a support, the mutilated word " AFIOAAO." is only legible, the traces of letters are scratched in, and perhaps by the same hand. The whole neck, the right shoulder and arm, and the left arm from the shoulder, have been broken off. They have been repaired without due correspondence with the general action of the figure, which is very fine. The graceful shape and muscular agility, which in every antique instance, partake of that y 322 SuecTion' °^ & oat ' are expressed with great truth \**y~ss and skill. This superior piece of art was discovered near Rome. 8. Marsyas teaching Olynthus to play on the flute, an animated group, of early Greek sculpture.' It was purchased by the present Earl of Egremont, out of the collection of the Earl of Bessbo- rbugh, at Roehampton ; a repetition of it is in the Florence gallery, and there called Pan and Olynthus. Lord Orford, (better known as Horace Orford Walpole,) had several marbles of merit and rollection at Straw- curiosity, which are now at Strawberry hill. berry-hill. . . , 1. An Eagle, 8 found in the gardens of Boc- capadugli, within the precincts of the baths of Caracalla, at Rome. Another, the head of which is modern, was sent from Rome to Mr. Townley, and is now in the British Museum. Neither of them can be considered as a repetition of the eagle in the Mattei Palace, but not greatly inferior. 2. Vespa- sian, 1 a bust of ^Ethiopian marble, and very ' Pausanias, 1. x. p. 30. * ' " The feathered king With ruffled plumes and flagging wing." Gray. 1 In a letter to Mr. West, (Works, V. IV. p. 455) he calls it 323 excellent workmanship. 3. A bust of Marcus Orfbrd ... T , . i • /♦ collection Aurenus. It is a goon portrait and in fine atStraw- preservation. I here is a leading distinction between Greek and Roman busts in point of execution. Those of the Imperial Ro- mans are infinitely minute and exact, descend- ing even to every particular and accidental mark of the countenance. In those of the Greek heroes and philosophers, we are struck with the effect of a great and unbroken style, which contents itself in delineating only those remarkable features, which give character to the face. The one is analogous to his- torical painting ; the other is merely portrait. 4. A small bronze bust of Caligula, with silver eyes. It appears to be a portrait of that emperor at the commencement of his madness. It was one of the antiques dug " the famous Vespasian in touch-stone, reckoned the best in Rome, except the Caracalla of the Farnese. I gave but 12l. for it, at Cardinal Ottoboni's sale." u Lord Orford, when frequently shewing this bust to his friends, asserted, that even the worst artist among the antients always hit the character and likeness, which the best of ours sel- dom do. This, said he, is a problem worthy of discussion in a country fond of portraits. Had the antients any particular mode or machine, or was it the pure effect of superior genius 5 Y 2 324 up when Herculaneum was first discovered, and was then procured by Count D'Elboeuf." The Earl of Carlisle, at Castle Howard, has a few busts. A head of Atis Diphues, with the Phrygian bonnet, much mutilated and restored, is of excellent sculpture. Townky About the year 1765. Charles Townley, collection. J J 9 ' — s-~> Esq. then resident at Rome, formed his pri- mary intention of enriching his native coun- try with a collection of statuary and sculp- ture, (which should find no equal to it there,) by the future dedication of his mind and fortune to that leading object. His growing love of the arts was fostered by many op- portunities, which would not have occurred to the merely wealthy collector; his knowledge was confirmed and his taste perfected by conversation with the literati, whose works on the subject of vertti have gained them lasting fame. He knew, and discussed the opinions of, Winkehnann, D'Hancarville, x It is is said to be the only bust of Caligula in England, which is rarely seen, even in the Italian collections. Jenkins had a Cameo representing this emperor laureated, with the forehead, like that of an old woman " oculorum sub fronte anili torvitas." Seneca de constantia, cap. xviii. Suetonius likewise describes the physiognomy of Caligula ; " ocnlis & temporibus concavis, fronts lata & torva." Winkehnann, 1. iv. et scq. 325 and others, before they were committed to the Towniey press. With Sir William Hamilton he en- co ^Z tertained a constant correspondence ; and as the objects of their researches were different branches of the arts, most friendly and va- luable communications were mutually made. While Mr. Towniey was gradually acquiring the finest specimens of Greek sculpture, Sir William was effecting his plan of examining the sepulchres of Magna Graecia, in order to collect the vases, which Avere embellished with the utmost efforts of Etruscan design and painting. The British Museum, by a happy coincidence, now contains their joint acquisitions; and under the same roof is de- posited a collection which reflects the highest honour upon our nation, noAv no longer ri- valled by the transitory treasures, which were intended to consecrate the victories obtained over Europe, by Napoleon. As by singular good fortune, Mr. Towniey was present at an aera, next to that of Leo X. the most in- teresting, in point of discovery, he availed himself of that circumstance. Competitors indeed he had, for beside the Camera or Pope's council, who claimed the greater share for replenishing the Pio-Clementine Museum, then about to be formed, the Prince Bor- 326 ghese, and the agents for the Empress of Russia, and the Kings of Prussia and Swe- den, there were three British residents already noticed, who embarked deeply in this ad- venture, and supplied their countrymen with a greater part of those marbles, of which the modern English collections are composed. About the year 1770, these gentlemen rightly conjectured, that the site of the spacious villa of Hadrian was, by no means, an ex- hausted mine. Having obtained permission from the Pope, with the usual right of pre- emption, to search those classical domains, their eventual success realised their hopes. At that time, the resort of noble and opulent Englishmen to Rome was particularly fre- quent, and a taste for sculpture, promoted by a desire to embellish their own residences in England, was encouraged by a competi- tion of wealth. Occasions of gratifying these inclinations were not wanting, not only by the transfer of certain marbles from the known collections, to supply the occasional necessities of the Roman nobility ; but the sculptors, intimately versed in all the arts of restoration, filled their exhibition rooms with newly discovered fragments, so admirably re-adapted as to present to unlearned eyes, 327 at least, perfect statues of every excellent Tow,, colleen workmanship. Of our countrymen, who were s^v- most distinguished as collectors and purcha- sers, the names which chiefly occur to my memory, are those of Messrs. Weddel, Jen- nings and Duncombe, with Lords Carlisle, Besborough and Cawdor ; Messrs. Lock, Smith Banw, Mansel-Talbot, and Sir Richard Worsley ; all of whom, excepting Mr. Lock and Mr. Jennings, made considerable col- lections, and built or adapted galleries for their reception, where they now remain, de- posited in counties far distant from each other, and therefore not accessible to ama- teurs, who reside in London, without a long and expensive journe3 7 . y With more decisive y The principal collections of statuary and sculpture in Lon- don, are, 1. Mr. R. Payne Knight's bronzes, 2. The Townleian, 3.. The Landsdowne, 4. British Museum, (not Townleian,) 5. I ,ord Elgin's, 6. Mr. T. Hope's. In Yorkshire, 1. Lord Grantham's ■ • Weddell's), at Newby. 2. Mr. Duneombe's, Duncombe Park. 3. Earl of Carlisle's, Castle Howard - ; and 4. Earl Fitz- William, Wentworth Castle. In Cheshire, Hen. Smith Barry's, at Marbrook Hall. Isle of Wight, Sir R. Worsley's, at Apuldurcombe. In Lancashire, Mr. Blundell's, at Ince Bhmdell. In Sussex, Earl of Egremont's, at Pelu orth. In Glani'irgarishirf, Mr. Mansel Talbot's, at Margam. In Norjolk, Mr. Coke's, at Holkham. Not to mention smaller collections and individual statues, extremely interesting to virtuosi and artists, but still more widely dispersed, and inaccessible ts> visitors. 328 Towniey judgment, and a greater degree of prudence, collection. *' 0 ° o r > *-*y^ Mr. Towniey, though he never spared money for a competent object, hesitated to comply with those exorbitant demands, which, in many instances, were readily acceded to. After residing, with peculiar advantages, at Rome, for several years, he determined, about the year 1772, to bring his acquisitions to London; and having purchased a house in Park-street, Westminster, he there exhibited his stores of Greek and Roman art with an arrangement classically correct, and with ac- companiments so admirably selected, that the interior of a Roman villa might be in- spected in our own metropolis. It was in a superior degree gratifying to learned eyes to contemplate a scene, which realised the de- scriptions of Cicero and the younger Pliny. But theurbanity and intelligenceof theirowner held forth equal attraction. He allowed a most liberal access to all who were known in the literary circles, as antiquaries or men of taste: and he never disappointed the curiosi- ty of others, less versed in the arts, but no less susceptible of pleasure from the effect produced by an assemblage of objects of genuine beauty. It was delightful to see him frequently joining himself to these visitants, 329 and as often as he found them desirous of Townley . n . , , collection. more inrormation than the catalogue con- v-^^ tained, 2 freely entering into conversation, and with a gracefulness of manner, peculiarly his own, giving a short dissertation upon any piece of sculpture under consideration. With delicacy and good sense, he always propor- tioned his own display of erudition to the measure of that which he found his inquirers to possess. Like his great ancestor, 3 the Earl of .Arundel, Mr. Townley not only contri- buted to form the taste of his countrymen, but the collection he had brought to England gave them a near and accurate view into the properties and merit of antient art. It has been already stated with what liberality and judgement they were displayed. It has seldom fallen to the lot of any man to pass his life in a manner so happily congenial with those elegant pursuits to which it was dedicated, as to Mr. Townley. b 1 " Mr. Townley 's learning and sagacity in explaining the works of antient art, were equal to his taste and knowledge in selecting them."— D. Select, p. 6l. " Ingenium subtile videndis artibus."— Horat. Serm. " Non aliis malles oculis, Lysippe, probari." — Statius. a His grandmother, Lady Philippa Howard, was the daughter of Henry Duke of Norfolk. b Such was his intercourse with the public at large, and whs' 330 T S* n ) e y After he had adapted his house in Park-street — ^ for the reception of his marbles, his time was chiefly occupied in arranging a library, which comprised almost every curious work upon the subject of the arts. These he con- sulted with equal industry and science, and his numerous manuscript observations,' on the a called the literary world. But the select few he sometimes as- sembled at his table. The dining-room in Park-street is spacious, the walls and "JnniiK are wrought in scaglola to resemble por- phyry, and the largest and most valuable statues were placed around. Limps were hung so as to form the happiest contrast of '. gh: and shade, and the improved erTic: of the marble? by :he?e means, almost reached animation — to a mind replete with clas- sical imagery, the illusion was perfect. So complete a coincidence with the entertainment given to the poet Statius by Nonius Vin- dex, the celebrated Roman connoisseur, will not probably occur again in oar days. " Mule ubi tunc species aerisque, eborisque verusti Arque locururas, menrito corpore, form as Edidici — quis namque ocu'.ls certaverit usquara find'uis, anincum veteres agnoscere ductus Et non inscriptis, auctorem reddere, siguis." Statii. Epitrap. Herculis. Xon, Vindicis. Lib. Sylv. W. c The gems, which are numerous, are mostly set in gold, as rings. Those of superior excellence and curiosiry are, a Cameo exhibiting the lower part of a Venus — a Cornelian, engraved in relief by Pamphilos, the scholar of Praxiteles — of the story of Cupid and Psyche, which D'Hancarville thought to be the oldest monument upon which this subject occurs, and 500 years before our own aera. The figures are represented in a similar manner and number, as upon the famed Arundelian Cameo, now in the ca- 331 gems particularly, in his own collection, Townley afford ample testimony of that fact. His Cameos and Intaglios have been drawn by Skellon, and with very copious annotations,, compose two volumes, in imperial folio. His bas-reliefs, bronzes, antique pastes, Etruscan vases and coins, were delineated and described in a similar manner, and nearly to as great an extent. He died on January 3, 1805, in the 68th year of his age. After his decease, his ex- ecutors, 11 upon mature consideration of all circumstances, offered the marbles and terra- cottas only to the nation, fulfilling Mr. Townley 's conditionary view, with respect to the British Museum. An act was con- sequently passed for purchasing them: the sum voted was 20,000/. ; and they were freely admitted to inspection, in 1808. The Mu- seum Brilannicum, 4to. by Taylor Combe, binet of the Duke of Marlborough— a Swan in Sardonyx ; an Hermaphroditus sleeping on a lion's skin ; and a jasper head of a lion, with jewels for eyes, sufficiently large to have been once used for the pole of a chariot ; now in the possession of Peregrine Townley, Esq. Two busts of Mr. Townley, taken from the life, are extant : one by Turnerelli, the other by Nollekins, 1804. d His will bears date Nov. 9, 1802, and his codicil, Dec. 22, 1804. 332 Towniey Esq. Keeper, and the drawings by Mr. W. collection. . , .... . Alexander, his assistant, are now in the course of publication. Several parts are already completed with erudition, correctness, and elegance, both by the editor and artists. Mr. Towniey had himself prepared a ca- talogue raisonnee of his collection, which was usually submitted to visitors. 0 It con- tained an account of ninety-two marbles of every description. Of those selected by the Dilettanti in their classical and splendid work, nineteen specimens are Townleian, Avith critical descriptions. The accounts which accompany the plates in the Museum Britannicum are, in most instances, ample and satisfactory. To both these the reader is directed, with due defer- ence, reserving to myself the liberty of of- fering a few cursory observations upon some of the statues, founded upon the opinions of other virtuosi. 1. Ceres-Isis, or Canephora. The editor of the Museum Britanicum describes this singularly interesting marble ■ This catalogue was, by his special permission, printed in the Anecdotes of the Arts in England, Svo. 1800. 333 as " a female statue larger than life, with a Towniey modius on the head/ It is evidently an ar- °tJ^!!» chitectiual statue, and was one of the cari- atides which supported the Portico of an ancient building." It was found with another, nearly similar to it, at the villa Strozzi, on the Appian way, about a mile and a half beyond the tomb of Caecilia Metella, in the reign of Sixtus V, and was placed with its companion in the Villa Montalto. The marbles there preserved having been pur- chased by Jenkins in 1786, Mr. Townley pro- cured it. In 1766, three other female figures of the same size and subject as the before- mentioned were dug up, at no great distance from the same place, together with a statue, somewhat larger, of the Indian or bearded Bacchus. This coincidence induces him to a&sert, that they were all Cariatides, and sup- ported the portico of a temple dedicated to that deity. Eminent virtuosi have held a different opinion. 5 Winkelmann supposed, that these female figures were attached, as an ornament, to some of the sepulchres which f This statue is 7§ feet high with the modius, and is n«arly perfect. b Histoire de Tart, T. ii. p. 378. 554 Mr were frequently placed near the Appian-wav; s^^j but he does not positive) r call them " Cah- .u;c-;>. Mr. To wide r himself, neither in the catalogue which be made, nor in his cootcx- ::. -: >. r ■ t: J- Hi -zerec :zds:d'iH as of that description : and he weD knew the feet or' the dis c me rw of those in ljG6. x He considered it as iUostratrre of the m jsteries of Ceres or Isis, and of loo high a character of sculpture to bare been origmaBy applied, as a wjonahrr of mi hin i In .* Yisconti s> i a cBn ed to discredit the application of it to fans, and thcwJac sisaply styles it a *~ Cans- : . ssi .ant ituuier :i n iznmsi :s jei t.iitth IT 3s ^ o:e* as nf yajncxn. : Tie :oer xune rrns, Tbe -501 -nam, s ninttfn. m :ne n-jpisi. in iciirrr. :a» ~ie Aims icw^r 11 ae .uunner n vncn ms ieore s a iena-nfy T^Tdiei jn ner:-i^, rjmej*. — T rwiitP' ..inucsT*;. use Tninst m ie Atasnuns jr -±-~2 ? . :OJ. "'"icniTr l£us> 7~-u— ".rrnginnu. T ' or £1 irners x: e- z icnuii ir iss. ir uie i.I'voe mn. r 3«sla sans is cth r- 1 "ila lN«sirnmi. 21 in it-ln anirin mL thoe ca- xug SijtiurT —inn vim "'m 5;(«ju Tsmramre 1 amenim. 115- a ler cms am, tala sis. isincsr^. u:- • m „ 335 phora." He insinuates, that Mr. Townley, Towniey , ... . collection. at the time of his acquiring it, was associated v-^, — > with D'Hancarville, and had adopted some of his opinions, respecting the mysterious origin and application of the forms and at- tributes of the sculptured divinities. k Guat- tani supports the opinion of Visconti. He adds with decision, that this statue is of ge- nuine Greek workmanship, from the per- fection of drapery and finishing. It could not have been Roman, unless sculptured be- fore the consulship of Piso and Gabinius ? under whom the worship of Isis was pro- scribed, and her statues brought to the capitol and destroyed. This religion did not flourish again before the reign of Caracalla. So fine a piece of sculpture could not reasonably be ascribed to either epocha. Dr. E. Clarke of Cambridge, in his account of the fragment of Ceres brought from Eleusis, and now pre- served there, considers this statue as of that divinity, and as distinguished by symbols peculiar to her. 1 k Monumenti antichi inediti, ovvero Notizie sulla Antichita e belle arti di Roma, 4to. 17S4 — 1/89, da Guiseppe Anton. Guat- tani, in which is an interesting dissertation on Caraatides and Caneforae. 1 " The statue of Ceres at Eleusis was distinguished by the 336 Towniey 3. Cupid, less than life, bending his bow. collection. . _. f . . . . ^— A lion s skin hangs over the quiver, which serves as a support. It was found at Castel Guido, in 1775, by Gavin Hamilton, enclosed within a large amphora. The hand holding the bow is perfect in this statue, which is wanting in all repetitions. D'Hancarville conjectures that it was put into a vase or am- phora, of such small dimensions, as not to receive it without breaking off the wings and legs, which circumstance was occasioned by the haste with which it was necessary to con- ceal it from the iconoclasts. The fragments were included in the same receptacle. Of the numerous repetitions which he knew to exist, he declares this to be, without compa- rison, the best.™ 4. The head of a Faun, the KaXa5c>v, or holy basket which she bore on her head, and which during the celebration of her mysteries, was carried in solemn procession. She is thus represented on a medal of the Ptolemies in a bas-relief engraved in Wheeler's Travels, on the colossal statue brought from Italy, now in the possession of Mr. Towniey, and on various antique medals, gems, lamps and vases." Marmora Cantabrigiens, p. 28. m Recherches, T. i, p. 345. " Le Cupidon de Praxiteles fut quatre fois apporte a Rome, ou Ton ne peut guere douter que l'envie de le posseder, le cas qu' on en faisoit, & sa celebritc n' en ayent fait multiplier les copies. On trouve quantite des statues antiques de Cupid, qui toutes sont evidemment faites d'apres un 337 statue of which, in the legs, has been imper- Towniey fectly restored ; and a head only of another, C °^J^' have a wonderful expression of hilarity, pe- culiar to them, and show that the ancient artists were capable of exhibiting the affec- tions of the mind, whenever their subject required it. The two Fauns, exactly similar, DTIancarville calls Bacchus-Satyr, suppo- sing them to represent that divinity." 4. Mead of Homer, on a Terminus. 0 meme original. Ces copies sont plus ou moins bonnes, suivant la capacite des artistes, qui les ont faites. De touts celles que je con- nois la mei'leure, sans compataison, se voit dans la collection de Mr. C. Towniey." " T. i. p. 341. The bronze original, by Phidias, appears never to have been taken from Athens, where Pausanias saw it. Lyde Browne, at Wimbledon, had a Silenus or Faun in marble, of fine sculpture, the body, legs, and arms of which were alike covered with hair, as a goat. ° D'Haiicarville Recherches, T. ii. p. 293. " Toutes les recherches de P. Atticus & deVarro, les plus savant de Romaines, n' avoient peu leur faire decouvre un veritable portrait d' Homere, ainsi tous ceux, que nous possedons a present, doivent etre du genre des ces portraits done Pline fait mention ' quae non sunt, fin- guntur.' Tout le monde connoit la fameuse tete d' Homere qui se conserve a Rome dans le palais Farnese, quelque belle qu'elle soit, elle me paroit encore surpassee par une des celles qu'on peut voir maintenant a Londres. dans la collection de Mr. C. Towniey." He is described in the Greek epigrams as having a beard spreading lightly over his face, not formed to a point, but square. " Ou?g ya.g yjkv Ot,vT£v^g x\x' svpv egavsto" Z 338 Towniev Found in 1780, among the ruins of ancient collection. 0 Baia?. The celebrated bust in the capitol at Rome, was dug up in the garden of the Gae- tani palace, and placed as a stone in a wall. Cardinal Albani bought and afterwards trans- ferred il to Clement XII. Every represen- tation of Homer must be ideal, for he had no contemporary artist able to transmit his exact likeness to posterity. The original and characteristic idea has been adopted and considered as a genuine portrait. Pliny ob- serves that the libraries at Rome were fur- nished with busts and portraits of poets and philosophers. " Quae non sunt, finguntur, pariuntque desideria non tradili vultus, sicut in Homero evenit." Yet though the ancients were thus doubtful, they never gave the name of Homer to any head which did not resem- ble this. These portraits are not, strictly speaking, copies of each other, being of dif- ferent periods of life, but formed upon the same idea of his character. Some modern critics, indeed, have asserted, that the name of Homer is only a short way of expressing the author of the Iliad and Odyssey, totally discrediting his existence, as an individual. 5. Head of Caracalla p placed upon a p There are two singularly fine busts of this emperor. One 339 modern bust, which has this singularity and Towniey ° collection. excellence, that the nose is perfect. It was ^--v^ found in 1776- 6. A bust of Trajan q of the size of large life, with the breast naked. It was found in 1776, in the campagna of Rome, and added to this collection. The head of this em- peror, whether original or placed on the cele- brated statue once in the Matlei, and now in the Pio-Clementine Museum, has a very near resemblance to this. A Vase r three feet high, with handles. Its form is oval, and it is ornamented with many Bacchanalian figures and symbols re- in the Farnese collection of which Du Bos (Reflex, sur la Poesie et la Peinture, L. ii. p. lQ'i) says " that it was the last sigh of the art." The othei is the Mus. Pio-Clem. having been since found near the ruins of the temple of Peace. He affected to imitate Alexander in his attitude " truci fronte, et ad laevum humerum conversa cervice." Victorini epitome, c. 21, from which circum- stance his portrait can scarcely be mistaken. i The serene and self-commanded countenance of this great man, under every accident of fortune, is noticed by Dio Cassius, L. 68. Visconti (T. iii. p. 7) gives the preference to a bust brought into England by Lord Cawdor, as superior to any hitherto discovered. Statues of him were very rare. In reply to Pliny, he says, " Statuam poni mihi a te, quo desideras loco, quanquam hujusmodi honorum parcissimus, tamen patior, ne impedisse cur- sum erga me pietatis tuae videar." r D'Hancarville, T. i. p. 199. 340 Townley lalive to the Elcusinian mysteries. It was co^ecuon. ^ ^ Monte Cagnuolo, the site of the Villa of Antoninus Pius, near the ancient Lanuvium. In point of workmanship, it may vie with the Bacchanalian vase in the Villa Borghese, or that of the Medici at Florence, of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, so justly ce- lebrated. Two busts, not Townleian, now preserved in the British Museum, are worthy of remark. 1. A Head of Hercules colossal 5 , discovered in lava, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, when it was procured by Sir W. Hamilton. By several learned Virtuosi it has been conjec- tured to be the original head of the Hercules Farnese, and also, in every particular, wor- thy of that celebraled statue. 2. A Head of Mercury slightly inclined, as in a great degree peculiar to all the busts and statues of that deity. This is a specimen of ex- quisite and characteristic beauty. A small collection of marbles was made Strickland collection, by the late Sir G. Strickland, at Baynton, in Yorkshire, among which arc, 1. Juno, four feet ten inches high, carrying a faun under her left arm, which is encircled in a wreath 5 See p. 219. 341 of fruits and flowers suspended from the right Strickland i 11 • «ii r,^ collection. shoulder ; in the right hand a bunch of flow- w ers. In great preservation arid the drapery excellent. This fine statue was found in 1777, at the Torre tre teste, four miles from Rome, on the Praenestian way, laid on a tessellated pavement, probably of the temple to which it belonged. 1 2. A head of M. Ju- nius Brutus, large life, and of perfect and excellent sculpture." The first Marquis of Landsdowne patro- Lands- 1 downe nised the spirit of discovery, which was ac- collection tive at Rome, and which, as already men- tioned, had been particularly excited by the investigation of unexplored ruins of the im- perial palaces. Gavin Hamilton was his agent. This collection consists principally of torsos and mutilated statues, discovered in the vine- yards near Tivoli, in 1778, which were adapt- ed and restored under his immediate direc- * The idea of Juno, like that of Jupiter, is strictly followed from Homer. Her statue at Samos was draped and armed. Po- lycletus finished another at Mycenae, which became a model, but a greater degree of excellence was given by Praxiteles to those at Platea and Matinea. Pausanias. u When the late Empress of Russia sent an agent, Count SchwallorF, into Italy to form a collection, a list of which had been previously sent to Petersburgh, certain pieces were rejected " as unsuitable to the genius of her empire," among which was this admirable marble. 342 Lands- lion. They were bought of the executors colEn. by the late Marquis for 6000/. and, at his v ^~' death, by his brother, so that they have not been removed from Landsdowne-house. 1. A Statue, size of life, in the action of fastening a sandal to his foot, formerly sup- posed to represent Cincinnatus preparing to take the command of the Romans, but ac- cording to Winkelmann is more probably a Theseus, putting on the sandals of his father /Egeus. v 2. A statue seven feet high, being a repe- tition of the fine statue of the Meleager, in the Belvidere. but proved to be a Mercury by Visconti. It is the most perfect statue of that deity now in England, and was found at the Tor Columbaro, about nine miles from Rome, upon the Appian-waj r . 3. A statue, nearly seven feet high, of a T This subject does not occur among those which are enu- merated of the ancient Greek sculptors. Visconti adopts an his- torical fact from Diodorus Siculus, and considers this statue as Jason, after having passed the torrent Anauros, carrying on his shoulders the goddess Juno, as an old woman. When the goddess appeared in her own character he was so much alarmed, as to forget his sandal. Pindar. Pyth. iv. v. 135 — J 68. Mus. Pio Clem. T. iii. pi. 48. There are several repetiiions, in small: that formerly at Versailles, was brought from the Villa Negrone. 343 Young IIcrcules w bearing a club. It was found Lands- do e in 1790, on the site of Hadrian's villa, Ti- collection, burtina. By the learned e ditor of the Di- lettanti selections, this is ranked as the finest male statue in England, with the single ex- ception of the Faunus at Holkham. Mr. Townley, to whom it had been first promised by Jenkins, preferred it to his own Discobo- lus, now in the British Museum. 4. A Statue of the size of large life, re- stored in the character of Diomedes, taking the Palladium. The body was found by G. Hamilton at the Columbaro, then a mere torso, wanting both head and arms, and was not then known to be a repetition of the Townleian Discobolus; and of another re- moved from the Pio-Clementine Museum to Paris, but now reconveyed to Rome. 5. A head of Mercury." About the same period, and by the same means, small collections were made by the late Marquis of Monthermor, Lord Palmer- ston, Mr. Mansell Talbot, Mr. Weddel, and Mr. Duncombe. Subsequently, by the Duke of Dorset at Knowle, and the Marquis « Dilettanti Select. PI. 40. x Dilettanti Select, pi. 51 344 of Buckingham, at Stowe. Among those at cojicuon. ]\£ ar g am? j n Glamorganshire, which remained unopened in their cases, during the greater part of Mr. Talbot's life, are three busts exe- cuted in the best Roman style. 1. Hadrian, 7 in great preservation. 2. Sabina, z his em- press. 3. Antoninus Pius. The more remarkable marbles in Mr. ' Hadrian was the first Iloman emperor who wore his beard thick and spreading, and, as Spartian asserts, to conceal the wounds in his face, but more probably to imitate the philosophers. This fashion was continued by his successors, till it was relinquished by Constantine. Julian, as a philosopher, resumed it. 1 In the Mus. Pio-Clem. T. ill lav. 8, is a statue of Sabina, remarkable for the elaborate and intricate fashion of platting the hair, as Venus, with a transparent tunic of exquis'te finishing. The statues of this empress, more than those of others, represent the attire peculiar to the Roman ladies of rank, by which they were distinguished when they appeared in public. The " stola" was formed of a vest, with a broad border of purple, sometimes fringed with gold, not descending below the knees, and sloped to a point behind. It had many narrow plaits, closely set together. The " Palla," synonymous with the Greek Hzt/.oc, was the ex- terior mantle, and was loosely thrown over the shouldeis reaching to the feet, and unconfined by a clasp. he Roman ladies prided themselves upon the grace with which they threw the palla, so that it might fall into the most graceful folds. Ferrarius, in his work " de re Vestiaria," calls this action of the Roman ladies " pallam componere." Several statues elucidate these remarks, such as that of the Empress Sabina Monum. Gabini, No. 34, Plotina Villa Pinciana, No. 15, and the Julia Soemias, in the same collection. 345 WeddeFs collection" are, 1. Venus, a statue Weddei five feet one inch and a half high, in the c ^j^3 altitude of the Medicean ; both arms, and the right leg from the knee, are modern ; and the head also, having been lost, is re- placed by a beautiful head of a Pudicitia of a suitable size, the veiled part having been worked to the resemblance of hair by the sculptor Pacilli. This fine fragment had re- mained for a long time, in the vaults of the Barbarini Palace, from whence it was purchased by G. Hamilton, who exchanged it with Pacilli. Jenkins possessed himself of it, and found a purchaser in Mr. Wed- dei, who did not place it in his gallery for a smaller sum than fifteen hundred pounds sterling. The antique parts are of genuine Greek performance, and it has been consi- dered as the best statue of Venus, which has hitherto been brought toEngland. b 2. Minerva, a Now inherited by Lord Grantham, at Newby, in Yorkshire. b Heyne, in his disquisition on the statues of Venus, observes concerning this in particular, that it is taller than the Venus de Medicis, and represents a female of a fuller growth A bracelet is marked out on the upper part of the right arm. The marble is beautifully compact, and of a yellowish hue, retaining the an- cient polish. In Jansen Recherches, T. i. p. 1, is a very curious inquiry, " Des differentes manieres de representir Venus dans les 346 the head not its own, but beautiful and well adapted. The price paid to Jenkins, a* a dealer, was 700/. A sarcophagus, unrivalled m Eng- land, of pavonazzo marble, six feet long and five feet high. The Romans were magninceni in their sepulchres, and their sarcophagi were composed of tne most rare and valuable mar- ble, and enriched with the most elaborate sculpture ; many of them in the early ages, having been copied from exquisite designs. The •otrages de I'Art," and others in the Mem. de la Acad, des In- scriptions I "6. It is a general opinion that the Venns de Medicis was the Venus of Gnidus. JLucian, ( Amer. 13,) informs us that she was nude, had a cheerful air, and that her left hand was placed in the same position as that of the Venns ; but no account is given by Lucian, or in the Anrhologia, of die p«-.si-:«:n cf ±e other. The Venus of Gnidus was taken to Ccr..-.:s. z ncple.. and placed in the palace Lansi, which was destroyed by hre, accord- ing to Zonaras, CAnn. L. 14; 2nd Eiagrias Hist. L. ii. c. 12- It could not therefore have been removed to Rome. A Venus at Petersburgh claims nevertheless to be the Gnidian ; it has a vase □ear it. According to Wickelrnann all the draped statues of Venus have their prototype in the Coan. Venus was styled " VictrLx," from having obtained the golden apples from Paris. " Genetrix," as being the mother of iEneas, the ancestor of the Roman Im- perial family,- " Urania, or CaEbstial," " Pandemos; Vulgivaga," or the popular; all of which exhibit a variety of attributes and drapery. Gruter has preserved an epigram, placed on the base of the statce of Venus, Sol calet igne meo, flagrat Xeptunos in andis, Pensa dedi Alcidae, Eacchum servire ccegi ; Quamris liber erat, feci iervire Tonantem Quamvis liber erat, Martem, sine Marte, subegi. " — 347 finest bassi-relievi known to have been so ap- Lan(ls ta>.>.oj ro r/.ij5(vov o acyjT'jTzov e$-i ruiv xaXtov." c It was purchased by auction, at Christie's, for 1000 guineas. f P. 232. 349 lus, in repose, was found at Tivoli, and pur- chased by the late W, Lock, Esq. of Nor- bury Park, in Surrey, who after some years possession, sold it to Mr. Duncombe. It is in no degree inferior to the other, removed from the Pope's collection to Paris, but now restored to it ; and has, of that description of statues, no equal in this country. At Stowe, as the embellishment of a very • r 1 ii n ir n t* Collection magnificent saloon, the late Marquis or Buck- at ingham placed a few statues. Among them, ^y-^ two are more remarkable, which were pro- cured by G. Hamilton. 1. Meleager, called Paris, when first discovered at Monte Cag- nuolo in 1771; and 2. Adonis, dug up at Villa Fonsega, which is a specimen of un- common beauty. The late Earl of Bessborough had col- Besbo . lected several valuable marbles, at his villa c0 [i°cfi 0 n. near Roehampton. These were dispersed by auction in 1801. 1. Pan instructing Olinthus, size of life, and of genuine Greek workman- ship, being a repetition, like that in the gal- lery at Florence. 8 2. A fragment of an ex- quisite statue of Venus, broken off above the s Purchased by the present Earl of Egremont, and added to the collection at Petworth 350 knees and below the bosom. It is not pro- perly a torso, though so called by Baron Stosch, the celebrated virtuoso, who first acquired it, and asserted it to be, as far as remained, of a character of sculpture more exquisite, even than the Medicean. Cawdor Lord Cawdor's collection was sold by coHection. auc jj on ^ j n igrjO, when Mr. Blundell pur- chased a Faustina with drapery of Lesbian marble, and a philosopher sitting,' 1 a repeti- tion of which, from the villa Negrone, was taken from the Vatican to Paris. It has been called Demosthenes, from a certain resem- blance to his busts. But the most worthy notice was a bust of Trajan in a paluda- mentum, 1 or military habit, which has merited the exclusive praise of Visconti. Worsley The late Sir Richard Worsley, having been appointed his Majesty's resident at Venice, collection. h Guattani. Mon. Inedite, T. 4, p. 46. Mus. Pio-Clcm. T. 3, tav. 14. ' The paludamentum was a vestment peculiar to the emperors, which was thrown over the cuirass, and fastened over the shoulder with a golden clasp of a round form, and sometimes set with a cameo. It owes its origin to the Greeks, and among the Romans was indicative of the imperial dignity. Severus is seldom repre- sented without it, either in his statues, busts, or medals, and it has been occasionally adopted by all the emperors, from the age of Julius Qaesar. 351 imbibed the ardour of collecting statues ; worsley and made an excursion into Greece, with a c0 > J^^ ; n - view of acquiring, through the medium of unbounded expense, the genuine remains or fragments of antient art. His success was answerable to the means which he employed; and after three k years investigation he re- turned to Rome, and applied himself to the restoration of these valuable reliques, assisted by Visconti, keeper of the Capitoline Mu- seum, as far as ascertaining the history and character of the several pieces, and in their restoration by Canova, one of the most ce- lebrated of modern sculptors. He lived to place them, so restored, in his gallery at Apuldercombe, in the Isle of Wight, and he dedicated his leisure to the printing two vo- lumes, of imperial folio, 1 in which the whole k In the years 1785, 80, and 87. 1 Museum Worsleianum, or a collection of Antique Basso- relievos, Bustos, Statues and Gems, 2 vol. London, 1794. The text is in English and Italian, byEnnio Querino Visconti, President of the Capitoline Museum ; and Sir Richard adds, in his preface, that " the present publication is in a great measure owing to the assistance and friendship of that polite scholar." In the second volume, there is a series of etchings on a large scale, of the me- topes of the Parthenon, or the temple of Minerva, at Athens, since brought to England, by the Earl of Elgin. Not more than 20U 352 Worsley of his collection is admirably engraved and collection. ■• mi described. 1. A most beautiful group of Bacchus and his mythological favourite Acratus, in which, we are told, that " the masculine energy of youth is blended with female soft- ness and virgin delicacy." 2. Cupid, found fifteen miles from Rome, in 1793, under the Colonna, where Varus had a villa. It is one of the many repetitions which, with a slight variation of attitude, approach so nearly to each other, in point of excellence. m 3. The Tripod belonging to the monument of Lysi- crates at Athens." 4. Bust of Alcibiades, found at Athens, conformable to that in the Pio-Clementine Museum. Biundei Mr. Blundel had nearly attained to his collection. it • i i • • i grand climacteric, and having accompanied copies were printed, and none were sold. At the time of his death, Sir Richard had not given more than twenty-seven copies to his friends. m The bronze statue of Cupid by Praxiteles, which Lais ob- tained by a stratagem, has been generally considered as the pro- totype of these marbles. But, Pausanias speaks of another like- wise in bronze, which was executed by Lysippus for the Thespians. It is not certain which of them was the exquisite original, so fre- quently repeated. n See description of Athens by Le Roy and Stuart. 353 Mr. Townley to Rome, he was present when Biundei through the agency of Jenkins, the marbles c0 ^™ of the villas Mattei and D'Este were offered to sale. An opportunity so alluring of be- coming possessed of well known antique sta- tues, and of a collection without a gradual and tedious acquirement, was a temptation which he could not resist. He purchased and transferred them to Ince Blundel, near Liverpool, where he erected as a repository for them, a rotunda of great architectural beauty, upon the idea of the Pantheon at Rome. Artists having been employed to make drawings and engravings from these statues, &c. Mr. Blundel determined to col- lect them into two folio volumes, 1 " and as he informs us " the work was beg-un with the advice, and with the assistance, of a very intelligent friend." It does not, however, ap- pear that Mr. Townley gave much assistance. The good old gentleman amused himself with writing an introduction and notes, in which m Engravings and etchings of the principal statues, busts, bas- reliefs, sepulchral monuments, cinerary urns, &c. in the collection of Henry Blundel, Esq. 2 vols. imp. folio, I8O9, not published, but given to his friends. These engravings are by many hands, and of various merit. 2 A 354 Biundei vei T ^ l ^ e science or connoisseurship will be pHectioii. f oulK j 5 0l ,t certain anecdotes concerning sta- tues, now of high estimation, and of the un- certainty which attended the giving names to fragments capriciously pieced together. He purchased likewise Baron Slosch's Venus, and a mystic group at Lord Bessborough's, aitd the Faustina and Demosthenes at Lord Cawdor's. Having thus noticed the Enolish collec- tions, it will be necessary to my plan to men- tion several single marbles belonging to indi- vidual vertuosi, who have not made an assem- blage, but have rested content with the possession of one piece of transcendent merit. At Knole, in Kent, the late Duke of Dorset placed several marbles acquired by him in Italy. 1. Demosthenes," standing, thehead itsown, both hands restored, one holding a volumen; the drapery is bold and flowing. It came from the Columbrano Palace at Naples, and was found in the Campagna of Rome. The surface is much corroded, probably from its having been long exposed to the external air n This statue is engraved in Winkelmann's Storia delle arti, T. 2, tav. 6, and was sold to the Duke of Dorset for /OOl. 355 in a portico, but it is a statue of great merit Collection . . ... atKnole. and curiosity. 2. Two infantine heads; one of Gallerius, the son of M. Aurelius Anto- ninus and Faustina ; the other of Nero.° The Roman sculpture was rarely applied with greater success, than to the portraits of chil- dren or early youth. Accuracy of portrait and extreme finishing are very remarkable in those subjects. The singularly fine head of Niobe, belonging to Lord Yarborough, has been already mentioned with due piaise. p Mr. T. Hope has two statues size of life, which were discovered in 1797> at Ostia, near the mouth of the Tiber, among the ruins of a magnificent palace, and thirty feet below the surface of the ground, broken into frag- ments, and buried immediately under the niches, in which they had been once placed. They represent the Minerva of Phidias and Hygeia, deities not unusually associated in the same temple. The antique parts are admirably preserved, and the whole probably 0 This countenance answers precisely to the description of him by Suetonius, " vultu pulchro magis quam venusto." p P. 103 -Dilettanti Spec. V. 1. pi. 35, 3d and 37. "Justly as the ancient copies have been admired, their inferiority to this exquisite specimen is such, as to put them below comparison." 356 copies by Greek artists settled at Rome, of some of the finest works of the Phidian aera.' 1 A single statue of Mercury was acquired by the late Lord Bateman, and is now at Shobden in Herefordshire. In the opinion of the late Mr. Townley it is equalled by few statues of that deity, of which he had any knowledge. Mr. The singularly excellent collection of knight's . ^ small small bronze statues begun in 1785 by R. P. ironzes. e m ~^ m ^-v— » Knight, Esq. is unrivalled, perhaps, both in rarity of individual subjects and perfect work- manship. The greater part was purchased of the Duke de Chaulnes. Twenty-five of these exquisite specimens have been en- graved, with critical descriptions of each, and discussions upon ancient art, to which, as a rich mine of information, the intelligent reader is directed. An elucidation of the most ancient mystical symbols is promised, i Pliny mentions several sculptors, employed at Rome, with- out setting their dates. When he says " Palatinas domus Caesarum replevere probatissimis signis," he means that, Greek artists were (expressly for that purpose,) employed at Rome : not that their works were transported there from Greece. He did not parti- cularise the efforts of these artists, merely because they were his contemporaries, although he pays a general compliment to the state of the art of sculpture, as practised at Rome, in his day. 357 9° 6 - At Auberne in France, 1 7 1 . Or Commodus, 187- With Tel- phus,218. Farnese, 219 Hermaphroditus, 39, 11 7, sleep- ing ; repetitions of, n. four in marble Hesperides at Olympia, 25 L, 79 Heyne, Observations by, Qi. 103, 126 Hope's Essay on Costume, n. 21 Homer, Bronze head of, 284. E X. 409 Description of the Shield of Achilles, 34, n. Homer, head of, ideal, 338, n. Hygeia with ./Esculapius, 240 Horses, four bronze, of Chios, 121 Horses in Rome, and equestrian statues, 56, 256 Holkham, Collection at, 29 1 ICONOCLASTS, 195,200 Instructions for the restoration of statues, 264 Intngliatori. Greek, Roman, and modern, 298, 299, n. Isis Florentine, 42 Jansen Essays on Sculpture, 103, 137 Janus, 59 Jews, Sculpture among, 3-4 Julius Caesar, 1 40, 1 58 Juno, 42. Of Argos, 9/. Of Samos removed to Constan- tinople, 192 Jupiter, 7- Ammon, bronze, 14. Jupiter Homeri, 47, Jupiter, n. 47. n.48, 52. Co- lossal, 66. AtElis, 88, 93. Verospi and Marbrook hall, n. 88, 89. Olympic, 91, 129. Of Phidias, 97. Colossal, at Tarentum, 120 KNIGHT, Mr. Payne, Essay on taste, 2, 43, 90. His col- lection, 356 410 I X D E X. LACHES, 123 Lanzi, on Etruscan rases, IS Laocoon, Account of, 38, 50, 125,n. 12€,o. 12/, 129, 1/4 20S. Lares or Penates, account of, 67, 1 63 . Lara ri urn, 1 05 . Usage of among the Romans, 1 66, n. Le'.kchus of Rbegium, n. 77 Le Soeuk, 272 Leochahes, 105, 107, n. Lions, Capitol, and Aqua Felice, 15 Lysippcs, n.32, 6l, IO9, 113, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123: n. 129 j 130, n. 152 Ltsisteatcs, n. 58 L--::~iia. Daughters c:, 2~2, n. MACRINUS, bust, 152 Malas of Chios, 62, 77 Marble. Basalt, 242. In Asia Minor, 244. White, 244. White and Blue, 242. Fran Mount Pentelicus, Hjmettus and Pryon, 244. Attic mar- bles, 245. Pentelic modern Cipollino, 245. Lychnites from Mount Marpessus, 247. Parian and Luna, 24. Va- riegated marbles, 248. Les- bian, Lybian, Obsidian, and Pelinean, 248. Corinthian, 245. Phrygian, 249. Gold added to marble in Statues, 78, n. Maiimai Oxomtnsia, 266 I 1 MV./.- T rob of, 105 Maximin, IS9 Medici Cosmo, 202, Lorenzo di. 203 Medici Family, 202, 203 Mercury or Antinous, 45, I7S, 213, n. 47, 49. Group, 50. Hermes of wood, 59. 59, 165. By IxGExt f s, sculptor, 1S1, n. Meleager, description of, 230 Mexeceates, 128 Milizia, observations by, 229 Minerva at Platea, n. 7 Minerva, 38—12 ; n. 47, 49, 52. Colossal, 66, 68. Pan- theon, 94 Mithridaies, 181 Moles Adriana, 199 Monte Cavallo, 63 Muses, 117. Three collections of, n. Mummias, 1 35 Musagetes and Mases, three Collections of, 1 1 7 Miisaeum, Meadianum, and Kempianum, 1 64, 291 Musee Napoleon, 232 Masacam Britannicum. 235 Pio-Clementine, for- mation of, 2U3. Napoleon, dispersion of, 90S Myron, 63, S5,&6, &7, 96, 131 My s, 53 NAUCIDES, 101 Nemesis, 92, 100 Neptune, n. 47, 251 INDEX. 411 Nero, age of, 170. Statues of, 171 Nerva, 173 Ninas, Bronze statue of, 4 Niobe, Florentine, 33, 38, 44 Sons of, 50, 102, 125. Head of, 103 Group of, at Flo- rence, description of, 221 The Nude in Statues, 51 OLYMPIC Games, Five, De- scription of, n. 81 Osiris, Mr. P. Knight's collec- tion of small bronzes, n. 1 1 PALLADIUM of Troy, 8 Pamphilus, 61 Panathenaeon, n. 55, gg Papias, 179 Parthenon, relics of, 55, gg Pasiteles, 149, 152 Pausidippus, 240 Pausanias, n 5o, 72, n. 73 Paterae, Etruscan, 29 Peace, Temple of, 1 73 Penates and Lares, 163 Pericles, 61, 86, g3, 108, 109, 133, 154 Petty, William, 277 Phidias, 7, 47, 52, 61 , 62, 66, 80, 86 87, 88, 9' , 93, 94, 96, 99, 100, 102, 107, 108, 199, 122, 130 Philippus, sen. bust of, 152, n. Philiscus, Four Muses by, 159 Phryne, anecdote of, 112, 114, 115 Plinius Secundus, n. 71. n. 107 Poggio, his account of statues at Rome, 193 Polydorus, 142 PoLYCLES, 39, 51, 77, 117 Porphyry, 243. Varieties of, 244 Polycletus, 52, 63, 68, 83, 87, 95, 96, 102, 106, n. 107, 121 Pompey, statue of, in the Spada palace, 155 Portraits in statuary, Roman, 169, 172, 221 Praxiteles, 46,51, n. 68, n. 69, 86, 103, 105, 108, 109, 111, 113, 114, 119, 122, 129, 130 Priapus, 7 Prometheus, J3 Psolus, Bronze statue of, 4 Pupienus, I89 Pytharagas of Rhegium, 36, n. 33, 62 RELIEVO, three kinds of, 53 1. High or full, 2. Half or middle, 3. Low, or Basso-relievo Restoration of statues, 257, 2 94 Rhaecus, 75, 77 Rhodes, Colossus of, 125 Roman Sculptuie, School of, 160 SARCOPHAGI, 185 Satyrs, 48, 49. Group with a nymph, 89, n. 112 412 INDEX. Sauroctonos, n. 110, 112, n. Scarabaei Pelasgo Greek, n, 1/ Septimins Sevcrus, 152, 188 Scopas, 102, 105, n. 106 Scordisci, Kings of, 155, n. Sculpture, Origin of, 1. ^Egyp- tians. Etruscan, 30. Schools of, in Greece, fl. At JEgy- na, Corinth, and Sicyon, ?3 ; at Chios, /8. More antient than-painting, 10. Decline of, 188— 196 Sculptors, modern, Failure of in copying the antique, p. 267, 275. Restorers, 294 Semiramis, bronze Statue of, 4 Seneca, 173 Severus Alexander, age of, 188 Colossal statue of, 190 Septimius, Arch of, 188 SignaTuscanica, 166 Smillis, 75 Sphynx, great Borghese, 15 Statues, Kinds of, 65. Colossal, 6. In wood, 74. At Argos, 78. Two by Scopas in Eng- land, 104. Of Horatius, Codes, Clelia,. and Curtius, 140- Deportation of Grecian statues to Rome, 144, n. Se- pulchral statues, 162. Do- mestic, 168. List of Eques- trian, 181. Few destroyed by the Goths and Lom- bards, 1 98, 264. Spoliation by the French, 232. Critical examination of, recommend- ed, 27 1. Royal Collections in Europe, 272, 275, 276. Discovery of, near Rome, 292 Stacua and Signum, difference between, 66 Statuaries and Sculptors in Greece, Series of, 82. Greek, Pliny's list of, 159 Statues, design and size of, 65. Heads of, removed by Calli- gula, 189. Discovery of, 261. Discovery of, at iEgina, 364. Destroyed by Sabinus, 199. Deportations by Aure- lian and Constantine, 199. Heroic, or Achillea:, 203. Of silver, 194. Engravings of, Hayley's Observations upon, 287 Strongylion, g.5 Styles, Four, assigned by Win- kelmann to the Greeks, 130 Syracuse, pillage of, byMarcel- lus, 144 TAURICUS, 127 Telecles, 76 Terminal, or Hermoean statues, 58 Terra Cotta, 46, 169. Analysis of the composition of, 30 Terminus, 7 Temples, richest in Greece, 137 Theocles of Laconia, 78 Theodosius, 184 Timotheus, 105 Titus, Palace and Baths of, 172. Arch of, 182 Toreuma, Toreulice, or Chas- ing, 53, 97, 153 I N D Toro, or Farnese bull, 1 27 Trajan, age of, 1/5. Arches, 1 82. Column, Description of, 1S3 Trebonianus, Bust of, 189 Townley, Charles, anecdotes of, 322, 324. His celebrated collection, 325-32 Trojan War, 19, n. VASA Necro-Corinthia, n. 19 Vasa Thericlea, n. 19 Vases at Herculaneum, Pom- peii, and Stabiae, 28, 29. E- truscan, 17, 28. Celebrated collections of, 28, n. Medi- cian, Vatican, Neapolitan, 27. St. Ildephonso, Hamil- ton, B. Museum, Imperial Museum at Paris. Mr. T. Hope, 28, n. Bacchic, Lord Warwick's and Lord Caw- dor* s, 186, 187- Townleian, 187- Account of others brought to England, 28 Venus at Paphos, 6. De Me- dici, 40, 42, 50, 52- Cceles- tis, 43, n. 44 Dimensions of, 46, and n. Description of, 219. Of the Capitol, 229 Urania, 6/, n. 68. Crouching, n. 80, of the gardens, 99, E X. 413 103. With Pothos and Phae- ton, 104, 106. Of Gnidus, 111. Coan, 112. Genetrix, 147, 156. Of the Capitol, 229. Head of heroic size, 320. Colossal, 168 Urbs Roma, 168 Verres, Gallery of, 136, n. Vertuosi, English, at Rome, 292 Villa of Hadrian, 177, 185, 186 Lanti, J 87 Vindex, 123 Visconti, Observations by, 117 WILTON Collection, 288. Account of, 289 Winkelmann, his works on Sculpture, 5, 8, 64, 98, 130, 136 Works on design, n. 180. Lost to the moderns. Workmanship and polish of statues, 60 Worsleiana, 351 Wrestlers at Florence, 221 ZENO, 179 Zenodorus, 171, 172 Zethus, 127, 128, n. Zeuxippus, Baths of, 193 ETCHED OUTLINES, INTENDED TO ELUCIDATE THE PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF SCULPTURE. 417 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETCHINGS. No. 1. ^Egyptian priests and Osiris. Borghese. 2. Leucothoe. Bust in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. 3. Head of Hercules. In the British Museum. 4. Cameo of Minerva. ByAspasius. Baron Stosch. 5. Aspasia. Bust. Rome. 6. Greek matron, basso-relievo. 7» Venus or Dione. Townleian. 8. Jupiter Meilikios. Head, Townleian. 9. Demosthenes sitting. Once in the Villa Negrone, now in the Mus.-Pio-Clementino at Rome. 10. Clio Musa. Discovered near Rome. 11. Thalia Musa. Townleian. 12. Cupid bending his bow. Townleian. 13. Cupid, &c. Worsleian, at Apuldurcombe. 14. Cupid, with the Venus of Cos and the Venus of Gnidus. Borghese. 15. Discobolus. Townleian, and head of the re- petition. In the Mus.-Pio-Clementino. 16. Discobolus in repose. Mr. Lock, now Lord Grantham. 17. Mercury sitting on a ram. Count Potoski, now at Petersburgh. 2 E 418 No. 18. Athletse, or Olympic Victors. Villa Borghese. 19. Sauroctonos and Faunus. Villa Borghese. 20. Laocoon, Belvidere. Mus.-Pio-Clementino. 21. Athleta Moriens, commonly called the Dying Gladiator. In the Mus. Capitolino at Rome. 22. Curtius throwing himself into the gulf. From the large alto-relievo in the Villa Borghese. 23. Antinous from a bas-relief and Egyptian sta- tue. Formerly in the Villa Borghese, now at Paris. 24. Bust of Brutus with a naked arm. Rome, now Sir G. Strickland. 25. Busts, Augustus, Caracalla, Septimius Severus. 26. Vespasian, Titus, Hispania Provincia. Villa Borghese. 27. Augusta incognita. Townleian. 28. Candelabrum. Oxon. Found among the ruins of Hadrian's Villa. 29. Warwick Vase, Bedford Vase. Brought from Rome. T. Bensley and Son, Colt Court, Fleet Street, London. AS n ASIA - {/Itrr.^L /- IS J?. ■ V / y/////// y/f~ ///s/.r/ ///r r.r/ >?*?■/ /i /<> / //.i////' //fi 7 ///,(/ /'////rf/?//// , M iu 15 R.VTE !!! ;>7 • WARWICK "VASE B E DFO III) Vase GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 3 31 25 00451 3277