SCULPTURE. 



armour are more complicated and divided than thofe of the 

 ancient Greeks, added to the inferiority and confufion of 

 parts, ilill augmented by the introdudlion of fhips, bridges, 

 piles of wood, battering rams, catapults and other miUtary 

 engines, &c., wholly omitted in the works of the beil ages. 

 Ti>e contclts are of the coarfelt means, and of the moft 

 brutal force, unalleviated by any interference of lupreme 

 bfings, and unexalted by the beauty of the ancients. With 

 fuch a charadler in the whole, the fculpture on the arch 

 of Trajan, now the arch of Conitantine, is fuperior to 

 the red of thefe works. Upon the whole, although the 

 bas relief of the apotheofis of Fauftina, formerly on the 

 arch of Marcus Aurelius, is a more fublime conception, 

 the fculpture of the Trajan column has a great variety of 

 natural attitudes, according to the fituations in which the 

 perfons are placed, and the rehevo has that general breadth, 

 which is belt fuited to fhew the outline of the column in all 

 views. The figures and groups on the Antoninc column 

 are carved with a bolder relief; but fuch as deforms the 

 ihaft of the column by its irregular hollows, producing 

 fomething of the appearance of rock-work to the whole 

 outline. The fculpture on the arch of Severus is llill 

 more deteriorated in its tlyle and conduft ; and fuch of the 

 bas reliefs on the arch of Conftantine as were executed in 

 the reign of that prince, have fuch a Gothicifm and barba- 

 rity of execution, as would utterly exclude it from that 

 clafs of fculpture, which has moderate pretenfions to fcience, 

 or anv pretenfiou whatever to fentiment. 



We mult not omit to mention fnme colofTal ftatues, Itill 

 cxifting entire or in parts in the city of Rome : ill, two 

 colotial ilatues of marble on Monte Cavallo, ftandmg be- 

 fore the pope's palace, each nineteen feet and a half high. 

 The figures are in the prime of youthful manly beauty ; the 

 faces are of the highcil clafs of Grecian beauty ; the figures 

 feem to breathe and move ; their pofition is advancing ; 

 with one hand each holds his charger. They have been 

 called Callor and Pollux, Achilles and Patroclus, Alex- 

 andiT and Hepheftion, alio Achilles, at the moment when 

 his horle declares the will of Jupiter ; on the authority of 

 two coins of Nero and Adrian Itruck at Corinth, bearing 

 on the reverfe a hero holding a horfe, much refenibling this 

 «;roup ; it has been called Bcllerophon holding Pegafus. 

 One of thefe Ilatues bears the name of Phidias on its pe- 

 deftal, the other ftatue feems to be this original, reverfed 

 by fome other artift, to ftand as its companion in fome con- 

 spicuous fituation. 



In the cortile of the Capitol are remains in marble of the 

 colollal llatue of Domitiau, which appears to have been, 

 when entire, about forty feet high ; the head and neck to 

 the bottom of the gullet is of one Hone, and about eight feet 

 high ; the feet are each fix feet long ; the knees, elbows, 

 and lonie other fragments, are remaining. It appears to 

 have been nearly naked, to have flood ereff, to have had a 

 chlauiys hanging on the left arm ; and is perhaps the fame co- 

 lolTus of Domitian as that defcribed by Philo Byzantius, 

 according to his tellimoiiics from different Latin authors. 



There is, in the lame cortile, a head in bronze, believed 

 to be that of the emperor Commodus, which from other re- 

 maining fragments was a colollal llatue alfo. 



The equcllrian llatue of Marcus Aurelius, coifidcrably 

 above the fi/.e of nature, in the centre of the Capitol, of 

 noble workmanfliip, is fufiiciently known to lovers of art 

 by the prints of Perrier and other artills. 



When Conllaiitine removed the feat of empire from Rome 

 to By/.antiuin, he and his fuccclfors are faid to have taken 

 from the ancient capital of the world, as many of the line 

 works of art as they could poflibly remove. The Greek 



artilts were employed in their own country to decorate the 

 new capital, with the fame magnificence indeed as in former 

 times, and like their predecellors were employed in the caufe 

 of religion, not m emulation of Phidias's Jupiter or Piaxi- 

 teles's Venus, but in the caufe of that facred perfnn who 

 difclofed, and of his followers who propagated the new dif- 

 penfation of mercy. The archiledls were employed in build- 

 ing Sanfta Sophia and other great facred buildings in the 

 city ; and the painters and fculptors in the illullration of the 

 Old and New Tellament. 



The controveriles of religion and philofophy had been 

 agitated with fo much violence by the philofophers of Alex- 

 andria againft the Chriflian divines, as induced the fucceflbrs 

 of Conftantine to abolifh the feiiools both of Athens and 

 Alexandria ; they alfo illued orders for the removal and de- 

 ftruftion of the Pagan idols ; and in the fourth and fifth 

 centuries it is believed that the Olympiai. Jupiter at Elis by 

 Phidias, and the Venus at Gnidos by Praxiteles, with others 

 of the mofl diitinguifhed works of Pagan fculpture, were 

 deftroycd, either by imperial orders or the ravage? of bar- 

 barians. The Iconoclafles, and the irruptions of the fol- 

 lowers of Mahomet and other barbarous people, very nearly 

 dellroyed all the remains of the fiiult Greek fculpture in the 

 Eall as well as in weitern Europe. This dellruftive fury 

 againft the arts and artifts, continued with interruptions for 

 two hundred years , Itill, however, the Chriftian Greek com- 

 pofitions from the Old and New Teftament, from the time of 

 Conftantine down to the thirteenth century, were followed 

 as examples of charafter and compofition by the reviver* 

 of art in weftern Europe, down to the limes of Michael 

 Angelo and Raphael. 



After the facking of Conftantinople by the Venetians, 

 the only elforts of that feeble Hate were a few faint ilrug- 

 gles for exiftence, previous to its dellrudlion by the Maho- 

 metans. 



To give fome idea of the magnificent fculpture which 

 adorned Conftantinople, we Ihall infert the defcription given 

 by Coniatus, of thofe fine works which decorated this city, 

 before it was taken by the Venetians. 



The Roman conquerors, wlio were of an avaricious tem- 

 per even to a proverb, praftifed a new method of rapine and 

 plunder, unknown to thofe who had taken the city before 

 them : for breaking open by night the royal fepulchrcs in 

 the great grove of Heroum, they facrilegioully rifled the 

 corples of thofe blefled difciples of Jefus Chrift, and car- 

 ried ofl whatever was valuable in gold, rings, and jewels, 

 which they found in thefe rep<ifitories of the dead. They 

 fpared neither the houfe of God nor liis miiiifters, but 

 Itripped the great church of Sanfta Sophia of all its fine 

 ornaments and hangings, made of the richelt brocades of in- 

 cllimable value ; but tltey no fooner calk their eyes on the 

 brazen ftatues than they ordered tliem to be melted down. 

 The fine ftatue of Juno in brafs, which ftood in the forum 

 of Conllaiitine, tht-y chopped to pieces and threw intu the 

 forge. The head of this ftatue was fo large, that four yoke 

 of oxen could fearceiy drag it. On the bafe of it was 

 cut, in bafto relievo, the ligure of Paris prefenting Venus 

 with tlic apple of dilcord. The noble quadrilateral 

 pillar, fupported by leveral ranges of pillars, and which 

 by its height overlooked the whole city, and was both the 

 wonder and deli):;lit of the curious fpeftator, Ihared the lame 

 fate. This lofty column was adorned with rural reprelenta. 

 tions of all kinds of birds, folds of cattle, and ot Ihccp 

 bleating and lambs frilking and playing, &c. There was 

 alfo engravid upon it a view of the fea and fea-gods, fome 

 of whom were catching fifli with their hands, other? order- 

 ing their nets, then diving to the bottom, while fome in a 

 a wantoB 



