202 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XIV. 



statues and busts here there is weariness. One or two fine works, 

 isolated near or in a grove of evergreens, might be introduced 

 happily— the more so if the statue had any associations con- 

 necting it with the place ; but it would be better to have such 

 works, under cover. No one who witnesses the disfigurement 

 and decay of statues in the open air, here and elsewhere, can 

 doubt, that, for mere safety's sake, all works of any value from an 

 artistic point of view should be under cover. If the works are of 

 no such merit, it is not wise so to place them that they continually 



statue on Terrace. — Vase from the Basin of Neptune. — Vase Borghese. i^Hackette.') 



interfere with the pleasant impressions one receives in a fair 

 garden. And if these things be true of the green tree, what shall 

 we say of the dry ? How is it when Venus is leprous with lichen, 

 when Mars is armless, and when the lion has lost his tail ? In 

 Italy, in the open air, in a drier climate than that of Versailles, 

 statuary is distinguished mainly by mouldiness. It is not only 

 the moist climates of the north and west that favour the small 

 spreading growths which so disfigure the forms wrought in marble. 

 Everywhere in Italy, from Genoa to Caserta, the statues that 



