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their remaining medals, the precious stones of their 

 engraving, and their cameos. There is still to be 

 seen a silver medal 'of Alexander the Great, on 

 the reverse of which there is Jupiter sitting on 

 his throne, finished with the finest strokes of art ; 

 not a feature, even the smallest, but seems to dew 

 clare his divinity. The stones engraved by Pyrgotcles, 

 who had an exclusive privilege of engraving Alexan- 

 der's head, as Lysippus had of making his statue, and 

 Apelles of painting him ; those of Dioscorides, who 

 engraved the heads on the seals of Augustus ; the ce- 

 lebrated Medusa, Diomedes, Cupid, and other per- 

 formances of Solon ; in short all the other eminent 

 pieces of sculpture and engraving, so carefully sought 

 after by the curious, and with so much reason admir- 

 ed by connoisseurs, render it needless for me to enlarge 

 on the praises of artists sufficiently renowned, by 

 being the authors of works so lasting and so precious* 



15. As to painting, so few, and so scanty are the re. 

 liques, and so much more injured by time, than the 

 statues and other remains of sculpture in bronze and 

 marble, that to form a proper judgment of the merit 

 of the ancients in it, appears at first very difficult. Yet 

 if due attention be paid to what of that kind has been 

 discovered at Rome, and more lately in the ruins of 

 Herculaneum, we shall be obliged to admit the justice 

 of that applause, which the painters of antiquity re- 

 ceived from their contemporaries; an applause co' l : 

 firmed by all we have had occasion to observe of the = ir 

 excellency in sculpture. The ancient paintings in 

 freses, still to be seen at Rome, are, a reclining 

 Venus at full length,* and seven othrr pieces, f taken 

 out of a vault at the foot of mount Palatine ; among 

 which arc a satyr drinking out of a horn, and a 

 la d.e.ipo of figures, both of the utmost beauty. 

 There are also a sacrificial piece, consisting of three 



* In the palace of Barbnrini. 

 f In chc gailery of the college of St, Ignatiu s. 

 G 5 



