Dl CESNOLAS DISCOVEBIES AT CURIUM. 77 



setting. The most beautiful gem is no doubt Boreas candying off Oreitliyla 

 — 'the most precious example,' says Mr. King, 'of Grreek art just emerging 

 from the archaic stage yet brought to light.' One of the feet of Boreas is 

 slightly distorted, it seems, but we must remember that on the chest of 

 CyiDselus, according to Pausanias, 'snakes' tails hath he in place of feet.' 

 This grotesque survival gives the chest of Cypselus an earlier date than 

 the Cypriote ring, which indeed is clearly of later execution. Mr. King, 

 whose eminent authority will be acknowledged, speaks in glowing terms of 

 two other gems, which English students are to see no longer. Eings as 

 many and glittering as those of Andvari's hoard in the Saga will be stored 

 in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. As years roll on American 

 ladies will learn that Phoenician is not the European way of pronouncing 

 Yenetian, and popular education will thrive immensely. 



"We must confess that, though not so instructive as the gems, the neck- 

 lets, armlets, ear-rings and fibulee from Curium are even more attractive to 

 the amateur of gold work. The Etruscans never beat the patient granula- 

 tion which Cyprians lavished on morsels of gold, and we have never seen 

 designs — those of GhimasrsB and dragons, for example — so full of spirit and 

 life. The little tortoises on studs are the prettiest of 'totems;' and, in fact 

 it scarcely needs an educated eye to discern the manifold merits of the 

 jewelry of Curium. The bronzes and sculptures have only been unpacked 

 for a short time, and few people have had the good fortune to see them. 

 Eeport speaks very highly of a sarcophagus, adorned with reliefs from the 

 important myth of Medusa, which some Transatlantic scholar may eluci- 

 date at his leisure. The designs have been engraved in the Revue Archeo- 

 logique, and nothing can be more curious than the mixture of Assyrian trees 

 and beasts with thoroughly Grreek warriors going to the chase in shields 

 and helmets. The whole collection has been bought by the New York 

 Museum for a sum of about £14,000." 



The comments of the English press upon the refusal of the treasury de- 

 partment to ask parliament for the £10,000 demanded by Gen. Di Cesnola 

 for this magnificent collection, are about equally divided between vain re- 

 grets at their own loss and rather cynical doubts as to whether the erudition 

 and capability of American scholars are sufficient to appreciate such objects 

 in the requisite degree. While there may be something of truth in this latter 

 suggestion, it must at least be admitted that our movements in this respect 

 are in the right direction, and that the beginning we have made and the 

 zeal displayed by those making them, are the sure forerunners of that eru- 

 dition, and the foreshadowings of se.sthetic tastes which will, within a short 

 time, be capable of appreciating fully even such exquisite and recondite 

 treasures of ancient art. 



