304 Notices respeciing New Booh. 



" Of the nature of the Parian marble we are enabled to speak 

 positivelvj since some blocks of it have been quarried during the 

 last few years, and are now to be found in the shops of the 

 sculptors of this city. The grain of this marble is large and 

 glistening, while at the same time its texture is loose and soft, 

 and its colour of a yellowish and watery white. It possesses 

 considerable translucency on the edges, a quality which, how- 

 ever desirable in statuary marble when of a fine grain, from the 

 softness which it gives to the outline, only increases the disagree- 

 able aspect of the Parian, by the angular reflections of light 

 which take place on the j)ellucid edge and surface, from the 

 innumerable faces of the small plates. The specimens of sculp- 

 ture which I am about to quote, will exemplify this fault. It is 

 certain indeed that the Greek sculptors abandoned the marble 

 of Paros after the quarries of Luna and Carrara were discovered, 

 the superior fineness and whiteness of these marbles, which at 

 present cause them to excel any with the places of which we are 

 now acquainted, rendering them also at least equal to the best 

 of those ancient ones of which the native places are now un- 

 known. 



" Independently of the injurious effects which the large grain 

 of the Parian marble produces on the transparent surface of 

 sculptured works, and the false lights which it thus introduces 

 into tlie contour, it interferes materially with the requisite cor- 

 rectness of drawing in the lesser works, and is thus inapplicable 

 to the details of small sculptures in relief. It is nevertheless sus- 

 ceptible of a good polish, a quality, however, of little value in 

 the eyes of the statuary, and one which in this variety only serves 

 to render the defects of its texture more apparent. It is also 

 said to have been deficient in size, since it was so intersected by 

 fissures as to be incapable of yielding blocks of more than five 

 feet in length. I may add, that in the present state of the public 

 habits with regard to white marbles, there is no demand for 

 modern works executed in Parian marble. Its celebrity is con- 

 signed to the metaphors of poets. 



" It will afford satisfaction to those who arc interested in the 

 arts to point out such works in the British Museum as appear 

 to have been executed in Parian marble, or in one of similar 

 character. 



" A Cupid bending his bow. This specimen is rather of a finer 

 grain than the generality. It may perhaps belong to that mar- 

 ble called by the Italian sculptors murmo stafuurio, but this 

 question cainiot be determined without a fresh fracture. 



" A bust of Minerva. 



** Aratus, a bust. This also is of a fine grain like the Cupid. 



" A Vcnu*, 



