1804.} 
It may be divided into nine claffes :— 
a. The edifices.—2z. The paintings. —3. 
The {culpteres—4. The engravings.— 
5- The Mofaics.—6. The vafes.—7. The 
inftruments.—-3. The medals. —9. The 
inicriptions. 
1.—The Edifices make us acquainted 
with the architectural talte of the different 
nations, and with the ftyle of the different 
epochs of that ait. Amid their ruins an 
attempt ismade to divine, by what they 
ftill are, what they may have primitively 
been. The monuments which exift in an 
entire flate are carefully defcribed.. The 
pyramids and obelbfks of the Egyptians 
enable us to judge of the tafte of that na- 
tion for the marvellous. The comparifon 
of the Perfian edifices with thofe of other 
nations difplays to us the fucceffive pro- 
grefles which have been made in the art 
of conftructing arch-roofs. The Greeks 
and Romans have tran{mitted to us 
temples, tombs, theatres, hippodromes, 
circuses, and amphitheatres. 
deur and induftry of the Romans. are 
evinced by their triumphal arcs, columns 
with hifterical inf{criptions, aqueduéts, 
baths, and highways provided) with 
miliary columns. On thete different mo- 
numents are to be difcovered, by the 
means of the objeéts fculptured on them, 
the traces both of military and naval ar- 
chitecture, Laftly, we find that the 
Egyptians and Perfians had a tafte for the 
gigantic and marvellous—that the Greeks, 
who in the firft initance aimed merely at 
folidity and fimplicity, fucceffively in- 
vented the five orders of archite¢ture— 
that they determined not only the true 
proportions, but likewife the decorations 
which belong to each of the orders—and 
that the Romans were nothing more than 
their imitators, We proceed thence to 
the Gothic architelure, the monuments 
belonging to which difplay a particular 
tafte. 
2.—The Ancient Paintings acquaint us 
with the different procefies employed by 
the ancients, when they painted, either in 
Srefeo, in diftemper, or in encauftic.— 
Thofe which are ftill in exiftence may be 
compared with fuch as have been defcrib- 
ed by the claffic authors whofe works have 
been tranfmitted to us. The number of 
the monuments of this defcription is not 
very confiderable, although it has been 
much augmented by the difcoveries made 
at Herculaneum. 
3.— The Sculptures are far more nume- 
rous. They comprehend the ftatues, 
buifts, and bees. and convey to us 
the images of the gods and iljuftrious 
» \Monraty Mac. No, 113. 
Tatroduftion to the Study of Archeology. 
The gran: 
225 
men, together with the reprefentations of ° 
the facred and profane ceremonies, and of ° 
the remarkable events and tranfaétions of 
fable and hiftory. Thefe monuments, fa-- 
bricated in earth, ftone, marble, or metal, 
exift either in the places they were intend< 
‘ed to adorn, or in the cabinets of the vir« 
tuofos, ‘They are multiphed by cats, 
copies, drawings, andengravines. Final- 
ly, thefe monuments are of the greatef 
utility in afcertaining the different ftyles ° 
and different ages of fculpture—the pro- 
ceffes employed. by the ancient flaruaries— 
and the ideas by which they were govern- 
ed in the poetic partiof their art. They 
enable us not only to form a jut eltimate 
of the tafte of the ancients, and of:the opiz’ 
nion they entertained relative to the natu- 
ral or ideal beautiful, but likewife to lay 
down precife inftructions on the naked 
figure, the draperies, and the coftumes.: 
4.—The Engraved Stones, whether in ® 
the form of intaglios or of cameos, are 
the moft ufeful monuments, on account 
of the great and various information with 
which they fupply us.° Theit) hardnefs 
has enabled: them to refit bothethe fire: 
and a collifion with other fubftances, at® 
the fame time that their minutenefs’-has ' 
refcued them from the fury of the Barba- 
riaos. The. traits of illuftrious. men, 
which are frequently effaced on ftatues by: 
the injuries of the. airy and on medals by* 
frition, are found on them in an-unal-~ 
tered ftate. We read on. them the moft: 
ancient alphabetical characters; and they 
bring to our view fingular hieroglyphics 
and fymbcls, together with ‘animals, 
plants, and the inftruments which illuftrate 
the hiltory of the fciences among the an. 
cients. They are the monuments the mof 
conducive to the hiftory of the art; becaufe 
they enable us to trace the progrefs of 
drawing, from its origin, inthe different 
nations ; becaufe we can difkinguiih in 
them the name and the manner of each of 
the different. mafters, and the tafte and 
ftyle of the different ages; and, laftly, be- 
caufe we fee on them the imitations of the 
moft celebrated flatues and groups which 
are {till exifting, and the faithful repre. 
fentations of feveral which are loft to us. 
To conclude, we may collect from them 
precife ideas relative to the lithology of 
the ancierts, and aicertain the fones the 
names of which are m:<ntioned. in their 
works. 
5-—T he Mofaics, which imitate pain‘-. 
ing by the juxta-pofition of cubesof glais, 
or of portions of hard (tones, are equally 
interefting to the antiquary, on accoun: of. 
the fingularity of their conitraction and of 
Hh the 
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