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MUSEUM. 
would escape unmolested, when the con- 
tents of otiiers, far less important, were 
conveyed to Paris ; aware of the probable 
fate of the best articles, many of them are 
said to have been removed to jdaces of 
safety, and particularly the beantifid Venus, 
and the Hercules Farnese, to Sicily. Little' 
is known in England of the state of the 
Florentine Museum, but it is feared to be 
deplorable. 
We shall now turn our attention to the 
Musc^ central des Arts, formed in the Louvre 
at Paris, composed tiom the best collec- 
tions on the Continent, and consequently 
consisting of the finest specimens of human 
art extant, which money could not procure, 
and supreme power alone could command 
from their previous situations, in the diffe- 
rent circles of Germany, Holland, and the 
states of Italy. The only circumstance 
tending to alleviate the regret arising from 
this universal plunder, is the thought that 
every facility is afforded tor viewing and 
studying the excellence of the various arti- 
cles which can be expected or desired. The 
method adopted for arranging the paintings 
thus assembled is judicious,* as they are 
classed in nations, by which means the eye 
is conducted gradually to the acme of the 
art in the works ot the Italian masters. 
The gallery of antiquities is directly be- 
low the gallery of pictures j and to‘g.,^ 
some idea of the nature of the general con- 
tents, we shall mention the names of the 
several divisions, which are : La Salle de 
Saisons, la Salle des Hommes illustres, la 
Salle des Remains, la Salle de Laocoon, la 
Salle de I’ApoIlon, and la Salle des Bluses. 
The laocoon, which we have noticed in our 
account of the Vatican, here receives distin- 
guished honour within a space railed in • 
and the Apollo Belvidere is equally honour- 
ed in giving name to one of the halls. These 
exquisite works are desciibed in a catalogue 
which may be obtained in the gallery ; and’ 
of the manner we shall venture to give a 
specimen, hoping that a similar method may 
be adopted to explain Bie objects offered to 
view in our national repository. Under the 
head Pythian Apollo, called the Apollo 
Belvidere, the author of the catalogue ob- 
serves, “This statue, tlie most sublime of 
those preserved by time, was foimd near 
the close of the fifteenth century, twelve 
leagues from Rome, at Capo U'Anzo, on the 
borders of the sea, in tlie ruins of ancient 
Antiuni, a city equally celebrated for its 
Temple of Fortune, and for its pleasant 
successive emperors, 
which, emulous of each otlier, they deco- 
rated with the most rare and excellent 
works of art. Julius II. when a cardinal, 
obtained this statue, and jilaced it in the 
palace were he resided, near the church of 
the Holy Apostles. After his elevation to 
the pontificate, he had it removed to the 
Belvidere of the Vatican, where it remained 
three centuries an object of universal admi- 
ration. A hero, conducted by victory, drew 
it from the Vatican, and causing it to be 
conveyed to the banks of the Seine, has fix- 
ed it there for ever.” 
Another museum established at Paris, 
Mce the return of order, is that of the 
National Monuments, those were indiscri- 
minately destroyed, or mutilated, during 
the first frantic emotions of the late revolu- 
tion; and this act contributed not a little 
to the general dislike it excited : at len-^th 
die most enlightened part of the National 
Lonvention decreed imprisonment in chains 
to those who should thenceforw'ard injure 
or destroy, the marble and bronze records 
of their country. Le Noir, a man of taste 
and learning, seized this opportunity for 
rescuing tlie French nation from the re- 
proach It had incurred by destroying what 
was honourable to themselves, and conceiv- 
ed that, tliough late, it might still be possi- 
ble to collect whole monuments in some 
instances, and fragments in others, suflicient 
to interest foreigners in favour of his coun- 
try, or at least to evince to them that a 
change m sentiment had occurred. For- 
tunately his plan received public encourage- 
ment, and he has, through the assistance of 
government, procured an astonishing num- 
ber of specimens from all parts of Uie kinv 
dom. Mr. Pinkerton observes of this col 
lection, ‘ It will not escape the attention 
of the reader of taste that the arrangement 
IS confused, nay, often capricious, and is 
capable or great improvements.” And Le 
Maistre says, upon the same subject “After 
several hours employed in this second view 
I continue of my former opinion, that the 
spot (formerly a convent) in which the e 
monuments are collected, is infinitely to® 
small, that the garden, meant to be the 
tranquil site of sepulchral honours, and the 
calm retreat of departed grandeu^, is on so 
limited a scale, is so surrounded with adjoin- 
ing houses, and altogether so ill arraiS 
that instead of presenting the model of ^ ' 
“ Those deep solitudes .... 
'^‘''iTwe!ls7'"'^ P""«ve ■ coniemplation 
And ^ver musing melancholy reigns,” 
