30% 
and medals, deprived them of the precious 
varnifh which is the fure teft of their anti-- 
guity. The legends, and even the re- 
verles of medals, have been changed, with 
a view to render them more yaluable ; and 
the names of ancient artifts have been 
foifted on modern engraved ftones. 
It has not unfrequently happened that 
the forgers have gone ftill further. Seve- 
ral artilts have been fo fuccefsful in their 
imitation of antique monuments, that the 
beft connoiffeurs have been liable to be 
deceived. While fome have applied them- 
felves to the imitation of ftatues and en- 
graved-ftones, others have counterfeited 
medals. Thofe which were fabricated by 
Giovanni Cauvin, of Padua, are highly 
celebrated. The imitations of the Etruf- 
can vafes, by Fondi, are univerfa]ly known 
and admired. Jofeph Guerra has imi- 
tated the paintingsof Herculaneum. And, 
Jatily, Winckelmann was himfelf impofed 
on, in miflaking for an antique a painting 
made by his friend Cafanova. 
The above alterations and fubftitutions 
produce a multitude of errors, which the 
antiquary ought feduloufly to fhun.— 
Accordingly, I am careful, in delivering 
my lectures, to place before my pupils, at 
tie fide of the real monuments, the moft 
Striking imitations. I do this more efpe- 
cially, becaufe thefe errors give rife to 
talfe explanations, which are, however, 
fometimes occafioned by the manner in 
wliich thofe who publifh the monuments 
-reprefent them. The infidelities in this 
jatter cafe are owing either to a with to 
embellith the monuments, or to the igno- 
rance of the artifts ; or, laftly, to the aim 
and purpofe of making the figures agree 
with the explanations. It is thus that 
Struys and Serlio have given imaginary 
figures and falfe plans of the monuments 
of Perfepolis. Laurus, Daccfta, Picart, 
Panvinius, &c. have publifhed amphithe- 
atres, naumachia, and ftatues, which ne- 
ver exifted unlefs in their own imagina- 
tion. Several of the medals engraved and 
defcribed by Goliz, have fallen under the 
well-founded fufpicions of the antiquaries. 
To thefe different caufes are to be 
afcribed the miftakes, fometimes of a ve: 
palpable nature, of thofe who undertake 
to explain monuments. Baronius miftook 
an Ifis for the Bleffed Virgina ; but this 
error is not peculiar to him. ‘The ftatue 
ef the Virgin, inthe church ef Puy-de- 
Dome, was an Iifis of bafaltes, holdipg her 
fon Horus in herlap. It was, notwith- 
ftanding, broken by the modern Vandals 
of the Revolution, as an image of worfhip. 
The greater part of the black Virgins 
4 
Introduction to the Study of Archealogy. 
[May 1, 
were, in the fame way, antique ftatues of - 
Ifis, Many of them were brought inte 
France, either by the Saracens, or after 
the crufades; but they were, without ex- 
ception, broken and deilroyed in the reign 
of terror. 
Thus has the political fanaticifm of the 
Revolution deftroyed the monuments 
which religious fuperftition had preferved. 
To the credulity of the priefis we gre, 
however, ftill indebted for the preferva- 
tion of feveral engraved-ftones ot infinite 
value, the profane devices on which they 
changed, as their imagination prompted 
them, into Chriftian and pious fubjefis.—= 
The Valentinianus, which ornamented the 
choral ftaff of la Sainte Chapelle, was, 
according to them, a Saint Louis. The 
apotheofis of Germanicus was the raifing 
up of St. John the Baptift into Heaven ; 
and the magnificent cameo, called the 
agate of Tiberius, which reprefents the 
triumphs of that Emperor, and the apo- 
theofis of Augultus, was regarded as the 
triumphal march of Jofeph. Neptune 
and Minerva, beftowjng on man the horfe 
and the olive-tree, were transformed into 
hehe and Eve eating the forbidden- 
ruit. 4 
With a great fhare of knowledge and 
circum{pection,  antiquaries themfelyes 
oftentimes fall into great errors. The 
name of Solon on an éngraved-ftone, led 
fora long time toa perfuafion that the 
figure which is reprefented on it was that : 
of the above legiflator, at the fame time 
that it belongs to the artift by whom the 
gem was wrought. A prefedus viarum 
was transformed into Saint Viarius. A 
head, having the name of the engraver, 
Arethen, infcribed cnit, was the portrait 
of Arethufa. The Minerva of Afpafius 
was the fgureof Afpafia. Montfaucon, 
Bellori, and Winckelmann, have them- 
felves heen fometimes deceived in the ex- 
planation of monuments ; and every one 
is acquainted with the reveries that refult. 
ed from the delirious erudition of the pro. 
found Hardouin, who could find in the le- 
geod of medals nothing befide initial let- 
ters, which he filled up with a prodigious 
induftry. Errors like thefe are infepa- 
rable from human frailty ; but an hifto- 
rian cannot be allowed to (peak, as Rollin 
has done, of the ftatue of Laocoon as a mo. 
nument fpoiled in the execution. An ar-- 
tit might not be fuffered to reprefent a 
Greek hero in a Roman cofiume ; and, ftill 
lefs, a Hercules with a peruke of the time 
of Louis XIV. The reprefentation of 
C2dipus cannot be tolerated on the French 
fiage ; and every man of talte is fhocked 
when 
