1809.] 
ties at the British Museum, which is de- 
voted to the terracottas. All the articles 
in this department, (antiquities,) unless 
where it is otherwise specified, formerly 
belonged to the collection of the late 
Charles Townley, esq. prefacing my ob- 
servations, as 1 there promised, with a 
few remarks on basso relieyos and terra 
cottas. . Res 
Earth or clay is generally the first mat- 
ter used by sculpters in torming their 
designs, and, when rendered solid by eva- 
poration and burning, is called terra cotta. 
That modelling, or sculpture in terra cot- 
ta, was known and practised by the an- 
cients, besides the undoubted specimens 
in this and other collections, we have the 
authority of Pausanias, who in the second 
chapter of the first book of his Description 
ofGreece, mentions a temple of Bacchus, 
an which were several works in terra cot- 
ta, gne of them representing Amphictyon, 
king of Athens, entertaining Bacchus, and 
other deities of the Grecian mythology. 
In the following chapter he says, that in 
the Ceramicus,* there were several fine 
works of this material, and, among others, 
mentions two very celebrated specimens, 
one of them representing Theseus throw- 
ing the robber Scyron into the sea, and 
the story of Aurora and Cephalus. The 
ancients sometimes painted or coloured 
their statues and bas-reliefs. Pliny and 
Pausanias both mention several exam- 
ples; and though in the infancy of art, 
they coloured both their sculptures and 
terra cottas, yet they did not disdain te 
employ the latter, even. after they had 
abandoned the barbarous practice of co- 
louring them. Basso-rilievos were also 
employed as frizes to their temples, and 
to ornament tablets and otber plain 
spaces; they also used them as we do for 
models for their artists, for many of them 
hare been discovered with holes through 
them big enough for a small cord, as if 
they had,been suspended in their studies. 
Several of these ornamental pieces of 
modelling have been found in the tombs 
* The Ceramicus was one of the most 
beautiful quarters of Athens; Pausanias says, 
that it derived its name from Ceramus, the 
son of Bacchus and Ariadne ; but Pliny says, 
that it was called Ceramicus, because Chal- 
costenis, a celebrated sculptor and modeller 
in clay, had his workshop in this place. It 
was probably so, or from other artists and 
modellers of clay or fictile vases, statues, and 
basereliefs, residing there; as the Greek 
words Kegamog, terra figularis, vas fictile, or 
Kegaixoc amphora, urceus fictilis, from Kéw 
Bro and éew terra, imply. 
Montary Mac. Ne, 181. 
The Dilletantt Tourist.—No. LI. 
44 
that have been discovered in the Appian- 
way, and in the Campagna di Roma; 
the httle temple at Rome dedicated to 
Homour and Virtue, has also its orna- 
ments modelled in terra cotta. The ruins 
of Herculaneum and Pompeia were full 
of basso-relievos, foliages, festoons, ta- 
blets, and other architectural and sculp- 
tural ornaments of this composition,which 
adorn the cabinets of almost every anti~ 
quary on the continent; that of the im- 
perial library at Paris has several, the 
boast of the French cognoscenti, though 
I have doubts as to their superiority over 
our museum: but the modern ravagers of 
Europe, who, as in the days of Attila 
and the Goths, war even against the arts, 
prevent an English artist from feasting 
his mind, and indulging his fancy, in see« 
ing and enjoying these much vaunted col- 
lections of ancient art. : 
Although most subjects in sculpture 
that are not isolated statues are called 
bas-reliefs, yet there are three distinct 
species of reliefs; the alt relief, (in Italian, 
alto rilievo,) the half relief, (mezzo ri- 
lievo,) and the bas relief, (basso rilievo.) 
In alt-relief the figures are entire, or 
nearly so, the legs, arms, head, and other 
principal parts, being relieved and per- 
forated behind, as in the charming ccl- 
lections of frizes from Athens in Lord 
Elgin’s museum, and similar works. The 
half relief is that m which the ground 
appears at half the depth of the figures, 
or to speak perhaps more intelligibly, the 
figures and other subjects appear sunk 
half in the ground and half raised. This 
kind of relief is the most common, though 
it is usually called bas-relief. And bas- 
relief, properly so called, is that species 
in which the figures are scarcely raised 
above the ground, as in coins, some mne- 
dals, some of the frizes from the remains 
of the temples at Athens, &c. and other ex- 
amples of the first style of Greek sculp- 
ture. The two last species being by usage 
or consent amalgamated into one, I shall 
not venture to separate them, but in this 
and our future correspondence class them 
both under the head of bas-reliefs, 
Tn almost every work that contains de- 
scriptions of ancient monuments, you will 
find delineations of antique bas reliefs; 
and in the following works, which IT be- 
lieve are the principal, you will find 
enough to gratiiy your curiosity and your 
pencil; many of them, if not all, I dare 
say you will find in the college library at 
Manchester, viz. The various descriptions 
of the triumphal arches ; the description 
of the “ Columna Tyajani,” by Fabretti'; 
G those 
