\ 
"1809.] 
the back of a young tame crocodile. 
Na. 92, is a trophy found on the cele- 
brated plains of Marathon. No. 94, a 
head of the celebrated and lbidinous 
Valeria Messalina. No. 99,1s a head of 
Jupiter Serapis, highly characteristic of 
the god, The paint with which the face 
was anciently coloured js still discernible, 
Wo. 100, with which this room finishes, 
is an exquisitely fine basso-relievo, which 
formerly was one of the ornamental 
pannels on the triangular base of a 
candelabrum. 
Bacchante dressed in floating drapery, 
through which the beautiful forms of her 
body are perfectly apparent. With one 
hand, which is held above her head, she 
holds a knife, and at the same time se- 
cures a portion of her robe which is 
blown behind her. With the other, 
which is-held downwards, she carries the 
hind quarter of a kid, | 
The seventh room is also devoted to 
Roman antiguities, the majority of which 
have been discovered in England. No. 1, 
is a beautiful groupe, representing a Faun 
“strugeling with a Nymph: the size is 
smaller than life, which has been assigned — 
as one reason of-its beauty, upon an 
hypothesis that a thing to be beautiful 
should be small.. They are both rude 
figures; their limbs are entwined with 
the greatest skill, and evince the most 
perfect knowledge of the art in the 
sculptor. : 
one, and fear of disappvintment in the 
other, are well expressed. This groupe, 
for Gbvious reasons, is placed in an ob- 
scure and rather dark corner. No, 2, is 
a pig of lead, with the name of the Em- 
peror Domitian impressed upon it. It 
was discovered in the year 1731, under 
ground, on Hayshaw Moor, in the manor 
of Dacre, in the west riding of Yorkshire, 
and was left by will to the Museum by 
‘Sir John Ingilby, bart. .No. 3, 5, and 6, 
are also pigs of lead; the first, inscribed 
with the name of Lucius Aruconius Ve- 
recundus, found near Matlock, in Derby- 
shire; the second has the name of the 
| Emperor Hadrian upon it, found in the 
4 
q 
year 1796, in a farm called Snailbeach, 
in the parish of Westbury, ten miles 
S.W. of Salop; and the other is also in- 
seribed with the name of Hadrian, found’ 
9 on Cromford Moor, in Derbyshire. No. 7, 
is a large sepulchral cippus, with an in- 
‘scription to Agria Agatha. No.8, isa 
‘puteal or cover to a well, three feet 
high, and ae in diameter. 
is a cylinder of marble placed over the 
central diameter of a weil, 
yy 
eI 
Use of Ancient Statues, Ke. £0 History. 
It represeats a female 
The passions of anger in the. 
This» 
and orna- 
139 
mented with beautiful basso-relievos oa 
the outside face; the inside is worn in 
several places by the ropes that pulled 
up the -buekets. The basso-relievos are 
Fauns, Bacchahals, and Nymphs. ‘This 
for a simmlar reason to No, 4, is placed 
mn a corner, where more than two-thirds 
of its sculpture is hidden, and the rest 
almost lost in. darkness; and although it 
is made to turn una pivot, it islocked on 
all public days. 
| Your’s, &c. Ai, 
te Sia 
_ For the Monthly Magazine 
On ANCIENT MEDALS, INSCRIPTIONS, 
. and STATUES, 
(Continued from vol. xxvii. p, 438.) 
fF NOW pass to those objects of admi- 
ration, the statues of eminent per- 
sonages, princes, and deities; of which 
Callistrates says, ‘* that sciences appear 
animate only hy the fire of the poets, 
and the tongue’ of orators, under the hes 
vine inspiration; but that. the artis¢ 
equally partakes of celestial guidance and 
supernatural,-emotions; and, in the ex. 
pression of their works, where the en. 
thusiasm and divine cestram strikes the 
judicious mind with no less force.” Sta- 
tues have gained to themselves lovers, 
subjects, and worshippers, It appears 
that, fora long time, Argos and Ephesus, 
and other cities, had no other sovereigns 
than their goddesses and their temples, 
and that the former distinguished its 
years by the names of the priestesses of 
Juno, ‘The passion of the young Perin- 
thian for the Venus of Gnidos, is tog 
well-known to dwell on the circumstance 
here. Philostratus mentions another, i 
the time of Domitian, who squandered 
away the, best part of his fortune in pre- 
sents'to a temple, froma delirious hope 
of marrying its goddess. The magis- 
trates and people of Gnidos, ¢ounte- 
nanced this prodigious frenzy, as enhan- 
cing the tame of their town and its 
deity, and drawing thither a vast resort of 
people. Yet this statue was not the only 
one which kindled these extraordinary 
desires. That of Good-Fortune,at Athen Sy 
had a lover of one of the. hest families 
in the city; and so violent was his pas-. 
sion, that, as lian tells us, the magis-_ 
trates not allowing of his purchasing it, 
after making very splendid sacrifices and 
presents to this inaccessible and. un- 
alienable mistress, he stabbed himself as 
the last victim, Wowever surprising 
these effects may seein, it is no less cer~ 
tain, that by such statues men were 
drawn from the worship of the Supremé 
‘ Being © 
i 
Ys 
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