[ 193 ] 



XXVIII. Essiyupon the ^rt of the Foundnj amcw; the An- 

 tienfs : u'ith some Remarks upon the celebrated Horses of 

 Chin, noiv brought from Venice to Paris. Bij M. Seitz*. 



History of the Art amoivj the Assyrians, the Etruscans, 

 and the Greeks. 



X HE art of working metals must have had its rise in 

 coontries where the heat of the sun produces them in abun- 

 dance. If the account given by Philnstratus f ot a ul^Ic or 

 bas-relief of bronze, which Apoilonius found in a temple 

 nearTaxilla. is not exig^erated, the Indians must have car- 

 ried this art to the highest possible degree of perfection. We 

 there see represented the combats which Alexander fongTit 

 with the army of Porus. Thp different metals were there 

 employed and mixed, so as to form the effect of colours J, 

 and this bas-relief might be compared with the finest pic- 

 tures of Euphranor and Polycletes. This kmd of mosaic 

 work in metals cannot be refern-d to a more anlient dale 

 than the days of Alexander ; but the finished manner in 

 which the works of that period are executed, must Lave been 

 the result of several centuries of experience §; and the abun- 

 dance of metallic substances which under a burning' soil we 

 often find pure and without mixture, must have induced 

 the most anlient nations to practise the art of the foundry 

 at an early period. The table of Isis, the blackisli ground 



• From Mag. Kncij. for DccombLT 180(5. 



f Life of Apolhu'iut of Thy:ii!a, book ix. ch. 20. 



\ According to Pliny, the metal founders imitated the purple v.iih which 

 the toaa pretext:! vvai> edged, by mixing lead with Cyprus copper. Lib. xx\iv. 

 cij. -10. 



Aricionidcs expressed the remorse felt by Atliamas for h.ivin^ crushed his 

 son I.caichus .Tjrainst a rock, by mixing iron with bronze, so that the siiame 

 whicli suddenly succeeds fury was perfectly well expressed. Tiiis status was 

 to be seen at 'fhebts. 



§ I am iiitlincd to think, with the learned author of this a-'ticlc, that th^ 

 art </f inciting metals is very antient in India ; bu: I do not think the monu- 

 mcut he refers to is any proof of it: it was, as he himself says, of the days 

 of Alexander, but, in addition to this, it was certainly executed by a Grcciua 

 artist. — S'ili- 111 M. Xiihn, Edilm of Ihc Mag. A'/icy. 



Vol. 28. No. 111. Aumst 1807. N of 



