the Earl of Elgin’s Collection of Marbles, &c. 271 
antiquity. The general current of this portion of the evidence 
makes no doubt of referring the date of these works to the ori- 
ginal building of the Parthenon, and to the designs of Phidias, 
the dawn of every thing which adorned and ennobled Greece. 
With this estimation of the excellence of these works it is na- 
tural to conclude that they are recommended by the same au= 
thorities as highly fit, and admirably adapted to form a school 
for study, to improve our national taste for the fine arts, and to 
diffuse a more perfect knowledge of them throughout this king- 
dom. 
Much indeed may be reasonably hoped and expected, from 
the general observation, and admiration of such distinguished 
examples. The end of the fifteenth and beginning of the six- 
teenth centuries, enlightened by the discovery ef several of the 
noblest remains of antiquity, produced in Italy an abundant har- 
vest of the most eminent men, who made gigantic advances in 
the path of art, as painters, sculptors, and architects. Caught 
by the novelty, attracted by the beauty, and enamoured of the 
perfection of those newly disclosed treasures, they imbibed the 
genuine spirit of ancient excellence, and transfused it into their 
own compositions, 
It is surprising to observe in the best of these marbles in how 
great a degree the close imitation of nature is combined with 
grandeur of style, while the exact details of the former in no 
degree detract from the effect and predominance of the latter. 
The two finest single figures of this collection differ materially 
in this respect from the Apollo Belvidere, which may be selected 
as the highest and most sublime representation of ideal form 
- and beauty, which sculpture has ever embodied, and turned into 
Shape. 
The evidence upon this part of the inquiry will be read with 
satisfaction and interest, both where it is immediately connected 
with these marbles, and where it branches out inte extraneous 
observations, but all of them relating to the study of the antique. 
A reference is made by one of the witnesses to a sculptor *, 
eminent throughout Europe for his works, who lately left this 
metropolis highly gratified by the view of these treasures of that 
branch of art which he has cultivated with so much success. 
His own letter to the Earl of Elgin upon this subject is inserted 
in the Appendix. 
In the judgement of Mr. Payne Knight, whose valuation will 
be referred to iu a subsequent page, the first class is not assigned 
to the two principal statues of this collection ; but he rates the 
metopes in the first class of works in high relief, and knows of 
* Canova. 
nothing 
