( 9* ) 



ON THE DIFFICULTY OF ASSIGNING 

 CHARACTER TO ANTIQUE FEMALE 



EASY as it mav be to an kalian cicerone, to 

 provide the foreigner' whom he has taken under his 

 tuition, with names for the gods and goddeffes, and to 

 mufter up a whole Olympus in a moment : it is no lefs 

 difficult for the man of real information to give his 

 opinion of them directly, from the fallible characte- 

 ristics of attributes and adjuncts. lie that has feen the 

 bone-houfe of antique ruins and remains piled up by a 

 Cavaceppi, and has obferved the careleflhefs with 

 which the maimed ftatues are fupplied with arms, 

 heads, and feet, and how the moft i nd ifpenfibly-vili- 

 ble mufcles are often chilieled away to make them fit, 

 will feel a great want of confidence in this creative ta- 



o 



lent of the moderns, whereby they raife heroes and 

 gods again to life according to their pleafure. No one 

 of the moft celebrated ftatues was found in a ftate of 

 perfect, confervation, but was defective either in the 

 legs, the head, an arm, or a hand. It lay entirely 

 with the artifr, who xirfb completed it for faie, or with 

 the poiTeflbr who had it reftored by the artift according 

 to his own directions, what deity fhould be formed 

 out of it, and with what attributes this main idea 

 fhould be f imported, 



I fuppofe the cafe, that a ftatue were found unmu- 

 tilated in all its parts, or that thefe parts, though dif- 

 perfed, were yet eahly brought together : it is never- 



thelefs 



% 



THE REAL 



STATUES. 



