beautiful appearance, looking like a garden, and adorned with roses, hawthorns, and the Judas tree. In a retired vale, surrounded by forests, is the little convent of Constascript copy of Eschylus, The Seven Chiefs at Thebes, and part of Hesiod. Though the sun was setting, and the road to the next monastery long and dangerous, yet we resolved to proceed rather than pass the night with so rude and inhospitable a body of caloyers, as we found at Constamoneta. Their Hegoumenos, or abbot, is a native of Maina, the ancient Eleuthero-Laconia. A beggar, passing some months ago by the door of this convent, asked the accustomed alms of bread and wine: on which the porter told him, that the abbot had strictly forbidden him to distribute any more, as the convent was poor, and scarcely able to support its own members. In the course of conversation, the beggar asked him how the convent became so poor, and on the porter's not being able to give a satisfactory answer, he replied, I will inform you. There were two brothers who dwelt in this convent at its first foundation, and on them its happiness solely depended. Your tyrannical abbot forced one of them into exile; the other soon fled, and with them your prosperity. But, be assured, that until you recal your elder brother, you will continue pocr. What were their names? said the wondering caloyer. The expelled brother, replied the beggar, was called AGTE, and the name of him who followed, was AoGET. (Give, and it shall be given moneta. In their church we found a manu unto you. Luke vi. 38.) runs away, already possess on the matters of which | peace, and not of war, and from Observations, Moral, Literary and Anti- A fisherman at Naples wants to imlian, which he solemnly affirmed had pose upon him "an exquisite cornebeen washed in by the sea only the day before. Out of curiosity (says our humourist of St. John's, Cambridge) 1 looked at the pretended treasure, and on it found a most ridiculous figure of an ass, in imitation of the Etruscan. I told the man I should have no more sense than the animal represented on his cornelian, if I could be persuaded to buy such a specimen of antiquity." This is a fair example of the bon mots. The better part of valour is discretion, and we never encountered a man in our lives, who made so undisguised a claim to this quality of courage. With respect to the style of the work, Even when a half-starved drove of pigs it is generally easy, perhaps too familiar surround his cabriolet at Piombino, the and showman like," Here you shall terrors of the tourist came heavily upon see what you shall see." The author is him, and he assures us, that the dan- an amateur of the arts, but not a congers they threatened were "worse than noisseur. He informs us one must love the field of battle!!" A stumble on this, and admire that; but rarely points the road, near any precipice, is record-out the peculiar beauty which demands ed like one of Othello's " Scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;" and our bold countryman tells us, quite at his ease, of his flight from Brussels to Amsterdam, on the glorious day of Waterloo. In sooth, he is a man of this love and admiration: he himself seems to feel that such things are excellent; but not to enter into the exquisite emotions which a genuine passion for, and a knowledge of, the fine arts, excite. His enthusiasm is common-place; yet as his notices are copious, we are inclined to receive the catalogue of paintings, sculpture, &c. in various parts, as one of the chief merits of the tour. It is but fair also to state, that there is a gentlemanlike and scholarly manner running through the whole work. The Critic may not be able to praise, but the Reader will find nothing to offend. In deed the absolute carelessness of the composition demands positive censure from the former, though the latter may, without stretching indulgence too far, pass the offence over lightly. We will support our judgment by quotation. At the Royal Museum at Naples, it is said, that among the ancient Roman treasures are some egg-shells, which are in a perfect state to this day, besides innumerable other antique utensils of the kitchen, as well as for the altar, during a sacrifice." Egg-shells are neither utensils for the kitchen nor altar! The very next page the author talks of seeing "men employed in unravelling the different manuscripts found at Herculaneum:"-surely a word less descriptive of this operation could hardly be used. The number of Lazzaroni is estimated at 30,000 instead of 3000. But it is needless to dwell on this looseness of expression, which is much too prevalent, and, in truth, there are still graver charges of incorrectness, where no apology can be suggested for it. For instance, at page 51, vol. 2, the inscription on the area of the Theatre at Pompeii, is thus copied, "MOCULATUS M. VERUS, PRO LUDIS." M VELASIO CRATO distant, from which the Prince of Orange receives his title. It has belonged to the crown of France for about a century. Louis XIV. having gained possession of a strong fort in the environs, took the town, and annexed it to his dominions. Orange contains two monuments of Roman antiquity; a triumphal arch and a circus." The former is supposed to have been erected by Marius. The following is a curious account of a yearly fête at Pisa, which the author witnessed on returning from a peep at Buonaparte in Elba: This is equally gross with the apparent is about the best article in the book, and are habited in the most fantastic costume. In their struggles of desperation for conquest, the combatants do not lie down and die, like the warrior in Tom Thumb, but the vanquished boldly and nobly jump over the bridge into the Arno; ming out of the reach of their conquerors, where they refresh themselves with swimto the admiration of the fair umpires who side of the river, to make prisoners, or are spectators. Boats are stationed on each rescue the swimming vanquished, or pro"We ascended a hill, and took a view of bably, in fact, to prevent these warriors Pompeii. The ashes were twenty-five feet being drowned. As these games are stated deep, and the walls of the houses now to be from remote antiquity, we may, if standing, are about twelve high; but not we please, conclude this regatta has its demore than one quarter of the city (which is rivation from the Naumachia of the Rosaid to have been four miles in circumfer-mans, and the bloodless war on the bridge, ence) is yet uncovered. The remainder is from the Olympic games." still overwhelmed with cinders, and the surface above planted with fruit trees." Our limits forbid us to enter more we would not wish to separate on bad into details, yet we should like to add one or two extracts more, as favourable specimens of a writer from whom, whereas the letters in brass on the floor though we have pointed out his defects, are in one line, as follows, MOCULATIUS. M. F. VERUS 11. VIR PRO LUDIS. At page 57, the inscription on the tomb of Mammia is stated to be "Mamiæ. P. P. Sacerdoti Publica Locus Sepultur datus de Curionum decreto." but it is in fact very different: Mammiæ P. F. Sacerdoti Publicæ Locus Sepulturæ Datus Decreto Decurionum. In the very next page, the epitaph of a boy, he says, is of one who died at the tender age of twelve years. It is very concise and simple, A velasio grato vix Anno 12."-But concise and simple as it is, Mr. Milford has contrived to misunderstand it, and convert into a pretty boy of twelve years of age, a person who might, for aught we know, be an elder of fourscore, as he certainly lived in very ancient times, for his epitaph is, There is something very horrible in the Roman executions. execu "When at Rome, I attended the tion of four murderers and highway-robbers, brought from the neighbourhood of Terracina. This sight was really so shocking to humanity, and I was so sensibly affected, that it has made a very strong four unfortunate wretches were conducted impression on my mind ever since. The in separate carts to a church, situated in "Crucifix in ivory, reputed to be more the Piazza del Populo, where, after devaluable than any other relic of the kind in voting a short time to confession and existence. With the exception of the arms, prayer, one of them, with a rope round it is composed of a solid block of ivory, his neck, was conducted into the centre of twenty inches high, and six broad, the the square, where a temporary gallows had whole weighing twenty-six pounds. The been erected. He was attended by several veins and muscles, delineated with the most priests, all masked, and over his eyes wore admirable exactitude, express the agonies a black handkerchief. Having now arrived of grief and pain in the last convulsions at the gallows (which differ but little from of death, with extraordinary effect. This those used in England), one of the priests chef-d'œuvre, by being carefully buried upon ascended the fatal ladder with him, utterof the revolution, and still remains in as last moments; and keeping the cross close the first alarm, escaped the horrible plundering a prayer aloud to console him in his perfect a state as when it was first executed. to his face for him to kiss during the whole On the back is the name of the artist, Jean time. Now comes the fatal catastrophe! Guillemi, 1659. The uncommon size of Having fastened the rope to a large nail the block of ivory alone, is sufficient to fixed at the top of the gallows, they pushed render it unique." the culprit off the ladder; by the sudden broken: but the horror of the thing follows, jirk his neck was, no doubt, immediately when you observe two of the executioners jump on his body, the one fixing himself Proceeding from Avignon, our traveller arrived next at Orange, a small town about 20 miles JOURNAL OF THE BELLES LETTRES. dued, 55 Sitst thou, thy state foregone, thy banner furl'd; on his shoulders, the other pulling him by mature society; but to the man of" Then, wherefore, Albion! terror-struck, subhis legs, and suspended by them; by these deeper knowledge, it is enough for his means, disgusting as they appear, the strug-estination and honour, to know that gles of death are quite imperceptible. In poetry is one of the products of the mind in its most powerful operation, this manner the whole of the four were exewith all its vigour, however silently, in cuted, and afterwards, before a large concourse of spectators, their legs and arms were cut off a sight which made me shud-act, heaping together, into that one der, although I had witnessed all the horrors secret réservoir and furnace, its whole of a field of battle! These limbs are after-treasure of knowledge and experience wards hung up on a pole, on the spot where of other hearts, and trial of its own. the robbery or murder was committed. The Romans are said to possess a taste for We cannot help looking on the present these horrible exhibitions."-Some well-popularity of the higher ranks of poetry as among the finest omens of an age, dressed females were present on this ocwhich, if we are not altogether decasion. But we must now take our leave ofceived, is destined to throw all the past Mr. Milford, who, if not a very instruc-into the shade, and to be memorable to tive, is an amusing companion, and who all the future, 'by a grand and general has gone over a large and interesting advance in happiness, illumination, and district, though the paths are somewhat virtue. beaten. Upon the whole, his work is a pleasant modern itinerary. re "Wherefore should this music be, i'th' air or This is no mortal business, nor no sound The cause is given in "The death- Nor wrong the theme? Conspicuously in thee, Fixt as the pine while circling storms contend; How sweetly did its gentle essence blend friend! And thus, like Ferdinand, after hav- Lines suggested by the Death of the in nature, belong to poetry, "GENIUS OF ENGLAND! wherefore to the earth Now,-like a cypress, shiver'd by the blast, The poet then gives a brief glance at Nor wing'd by pleasure, fled thy early hours; In silent study's dim-sequester'd bowers: Thou sought'st to make the historic page thine own, And view the treasures of recorded time; The forms of polity, the springs of power; Exploring still with unexhausted zeal, The poem advances to its close with some reflections of true poetical richness of allusion, and sweetness of language. Melts on our souls, like music heard no more, The poet solicits her to pour balm upon the general sorrow, and promises her the general memory. "Spontaneous incense o'er thy tomb shall rise, And, midst the dark vicissitudes that wait Earth's balanc'd empire in the scales of fate, Isle." Be THOU our angel advocate the while, And gleam, a guardian saint, around thy native Farther than these extracts, our readers must look to the poem, and we presume that from these, they will look with curiosity and pleasure. Its fault is the imperfection arising from its brevity; its merit, vigorous thought in vigorous language, a masculine seizure of the leading ideas which should constitute character, to the neglect of that multitude of inferior conceptions, which load, without filling the sketch. Mr. Gent has but once used the commonplace, the tempting, and from universal evidence we suppose, the irresistible common-place of allusions to dying lilies and new cropt roses; and, on the whole, he may congratulate himself on the distinction of having produced the best poem on a subject which has engaged the national mind, and which was worthy of all its sorrow, and all its genius. THE OLYMPIAN JUPITER, or the Art of Ancient Sculpture considered in a new point of view, &c. (Concluded from our last.) It is after having found, in the first direction of the art, in Greece, the origin of the taste which afterwards became general, that the author takes a view of the various substances which the ancients employed to make statues; he collects all the examples which certify that the custom of colouring, or of diversifying by colour, the works of sculpture, was practised, in different degrees, in all the ages of antiquity: he demonstrates, by a multitude of other examples, that the employment of marbles of different colours was not less frequent; that the custom of mixing marbles with bronze, or of varying marble by the application of an encaustic, was generally spread. By quoting the numerous facts which prove it, he explains a multitude of ancient texts, which had never been understood, or had been wrongly interpreted; such for example is that passage in Plato, (Plato, Republ. lib. v. in init.) where Socrates speaks of the custom of painting statues; and that of Pliny * on the Circumlitio, which, being applied by Nicias to the statues of Praxiteles, enhanced the value of them in the opinion of that celebrated sculptor himself. This circumlitio was a sort of encaustic, which embellished the marble with various tints and colours. The researches of the author on the alloys of statuary bronze, tend to the same object, * Hic est Nicias de quo dicebat Praxiteles, interrogatus quæ maximè opera sua probaret in marmoribus: Quibus Nicias manum admovisset. Tantum circumlitioni ejus tribuebat! Plin. xxxv. 11. and present a result not less curious; tradictory texts of some ancient authors, they prove, by incontestible facts, that who have employed this word improperly. the Greeks, sensible to the connexion He proves that the ancient texts, considerwhich might exist between certain tints of ed only in a grammatical sense, and withmetal and the impression of certain figures, out regard to the notions drawn from the sometimes contrived to draw from this ana- knowledge of the art, are insufficient to logy an effect nearly of the nature of those give a just idea of it. All that it is poswhich are produced by the colours of the sible to infer from the texts, thus considerpainter, and which the art of the latter ed abstractedly, is that the word Toreutic alone, seems to have the right to express. was employed particularly to designate They produced local tints by different alloys works of sculpture in metal. in a statue of bronze: thus the statuary Aristonidas, to represent with more energy the expression of repentance mingled with shame, in the countenance of Athamas, made the head of a mixture of iron and copper; thus the paleness of death, in the head of Jocasta, in a statue of Silanion, was expressed by means of a pretty large proportion of silver mixed with the metal that formed the countenance. It is by this custom of modifying the tints of objects of art, by means of alloys author explains the shield of Achilles in (or mixtures) carefully prepared, that the Homer; for though it is certain that this shield never had any existence, except in the imagination of the poet, we cannot help considering the description of it as a kind of testimony, both to the customs of the age, and the practices of the arts, at the time when the poet composed it. We are therefore entitled to consider it as the first monument of the history of the arts in Greece. The author defends Homer, both against his censors, who have considered it as impossible to unite upon a shield all the subjects which the poet has placed upon it, and against Boivin, who first undertook to shew, by a design in which he united them all, that the sight of a real work might have inspired the poet. M. Quatremere de Quincy, after having pointed out the numerous defects of Boivin's design, enters into a profound discussion of the description of Homer, and shews how it may be easily explained, upon the hypothesis that the poet intended to represent one of those works of sculpture upon metal, the manner of making which must have been known in his time, as he afterwards proves. The design which the author has added to his description, leaves no doubt of the possibility, nor even of the good effect, of the execution of such a work. He thus finds himself naturally led to inquire into every thing relative to the Sculpture upon Metals (very distinct from dedicates the second part of his work. statuary in bronze), to which he entirely The modern critics had not only never well understood the processes of this art, but they even turned from its true sense the very term by which the Greeks expressed it. The first care of M. Quatremere de Quincy therefore is, to determine the He shews that the moderns, as, for exmeaning of the word Toreutic (TopEUTIxn). ample, Saumaise, Hardouin, Caylus, Heyne, Ernesti, and even Winckelmann, have suffered themselves to be misled by the con M. Quatremere has, therefore, recourse to another method to discover the true meaning of it. After having shewn, by a multitude of examples, that the word Toreutic must have a more general sense than has hitherto been supposed, he inquires what were the divisions of sculpture among the Greeks. Three of these divisions are sufficiently characterised by Pliny, by particular names: the Plastic, or the art of making all kinds of works of sculpture in earth baked, or not baked;-Statuary in (Sculptura). But there is another manbronze (Statuariæ);—Sculpture in marble ner of making statues, than of clay, of metal cast in a foundry, or in stone and in marble;-it consists in making them of all kinds of metal; of gold, silver, bronze, and many other combinations of materials, by pieces joined together by compartments; either cast separately, or hammered, either worked or chiseled, soldered, joined, and forming an entire figure. Now, this species of sculpture was one of the most ancient: it produced numberless works. Greece was indebted to it for its greatest, its most admirable monuments. It embraced all the parts of imitation;-it was practised by the most celebrated artists. Lastly, this mode preceded statuary, and subsisted, after the establishment of the latter, with more or less lustre, till the disappearance of the arts. It is evident that this important branch had a name, and a name which expressed the sculpture or metals. We find none, except that of Toreutic, to express an art which was neither plastic, nor statuary, nor sculpture. Besides, it is to be observed, that Pliny himself has employed the word Toreutic in this sense, when he says of Phidias, Primusque artem TOREUTICEN aperuisse atque demonstrasse meritò judicatur; of Polycletus-Hic consummasse hanc scientiam judicatur et Toreuticen, sie erudisse, ut Phidias aperuisse.* The opinion of M. Quatremere, so well supported by these two passages of Pliny, serves also to explain them, and to remove the embarrassment which the word Toreutice, employed by Pliny, offers in the contrary opinion. It is thus that the author succeeds in demonstrating that the Greek authors quoted by Pliny, and Pliny him self, could not have understood the word Toreutic in the limited sense which the they understood by it the art of sculpture, moderns have hitherto assigned it;—that Plin. xxxiv. 8. considered in a technical division, which in gold, in silver, &c. but who does not incog. is felt and acknowledged by all. But was distinguished by a particular character. say a word of works in marble, sufficiently it is curious to discover or observe the Sculpture in marble, as we have seen, refutes the first proposition;-as for the materials which a skilful artist employs; exercised among the moderns the principal second, it is contradicted by experience, often the most simple in their way. The influence, or rather an exclusive influence, which teaches us that ivory, worked with character of Eddie Qchiltree has been upon taste. Among the Greeks it was not the instruments, and in the manner appro- traced (or imagined so) to a well-known in vogue till a late period. It is an im- priate to it, is really less hard, and more beggar, an account of whom was given in portant fact, connected with the progress easy to work than marble. Besides sculp- a late periodical publication. Dandie Dinof the art, which in its origin was solely ture in wood, which gave birth to sculpture mont, the black dwarf, and others of the employed in the representation of divine on metals, became its auxiliary. Accord- most striking characters, have also been images. When it was permitted to forming to the researches of the author, the referred to well-known individuals. these shapeless images a little less rudely, working of ivory is analogous to that of the means of execution of sculpture in wood. One is convinced of it on reading statues of marble or bronze could not have that the one depended on the other, and entirely conformed to the almost servile that the sculptor in ivory was obliged to imitation to which it was restricted ;-on possess, in a very high degree, the art of the contrary, the working in wood, and working the wood, which essentially conin metals plated or hammered, natu- stituted the nucleus, or internal solid mould rally took the station of the forms and of the statues. materials which it was intended to replace. Thus Toreutic was the first to assume exclusively the right of manufacturing statues of the gods; and this priority is confirmed by a multitude of facts, or historical traditions, and by the authority of the most ancient writers. It gave birth to statuary in bronze, which arose long afterwards;-in fact, the custom of covering a nucleus, or, to speak more technically, an âme of wood, with pieces, with plates of metal, naturally led to the idea of casting a statue in bronze. Thus it was in the Toreutic school that all the celebrated artists were formed, such as Gitiadas, Rhæcus, and Theodorus; Learchus, of Rhegium; Smilis, of Egina; Perillus, of Agrigentum; Menechmus, of Naupactus, &c.: all Toreuticians, who formed the second period of the arts in Greece, and preceded Phidias. This great man inherited the treasures of the ages which had preceded him. If he was considered as having created and opened the career, it is because his vast genius and his rich imagination carried all the branches of Toreutic to a degree of perfection which it had never before known. It was, in fact, through him, and after him, that it acquired its full extent. To the practice of working the metal with a hammer, to the art of plating, and of compartments, it added the process of casting in separate parts;—it combined the work in precious stones with that in scarce woods, and Mosaic;-it varied and coloured metals, either by preparations, by caustics, or by alloys;-enchased them with precious stones, or enamels;-lastly, it embraced also that important branch to which the modern critics, even Winckelmann and Heyne, were not able to assign a place, viz. Statuary in Ivory. Upon this kind of presumption, Mr. Editor, I send you the following whimsical scrap, in which I imagine there is some resemblance to the language and character of the German adept Dowsterswivell, in the Antiquary; and it is to be remarked that the concluding sentence, in this whimsical advertisement, is in the very words of Dowsterswivell. It appears, however, in a note to the second volume of Rob Roy, page 134, that our unknown author has no great pleasure in these conjectural lights, any more than the artist is fond of being told from whence he drew his ideas of what he wishes to be thought original inventions. But this is being fastidious overmuch; the author or the artist who draws from Nature, will convert the slightest accident into useful and often valuable purposes. This process has no resemblance to what Peter Pindar calls, Smuggling the whole dog." Advertisement stuck up in Charles Town, South Carolina, and copied from a publication fifteen years since. M. Quatremere terminates his researches on the Toreutic by the account of a curious monument, of which Pausanias has left us a description, the Coffer of Cypselus. This monument, the body of which was of cedar, and the bas-reliefs, formed of a mixture of wood, gold, and ivory, belongs to the Polychromous style of sculpture, from the diversity of the colours, and to the Toreutic style, from its being worked in compartments. What renders it interesting is, that it may be considered as the first of all the works of this kind which is within the province of history; for, according to all appearance, it was more ancient than the family of Cypselus, and nearly of that period (about the middle of the eighth century before Christ) when Gitiadas made the bas-reliefs of metal, horse, I rite him two tays in mittle op te "He is run away agin mine littel plack which ornamented the Temple of Pallas at nite, un ven he vill not be stumping-he Sparta. This is proved by the inscriptions in Boustrophedore, which were engraved stumps as te Deefel was in it-un he trows upon it; by the resemblance which Pausame town-I have not sich fall since pefore nias found between the style of the Epi- Shintle Clymer. It have five vite feet peI was pornt. I pye him of von Jacop graphs and that of the poet Eumélus, who fore met oon plack snip on his nose, von lived about the beginning of the Olympiads; lastly, by the entire want of facts ed met John Keisler Stranger on his pehind he is prandvill look plue like glass. eye relative to the history of Cypselus. The side py his tail. author has attempted the restoration in two coloured designs, all the parts of which are formed with the greatest care, after the description of Pausanias; and if we are not sure that the monument was precisely as they represent it, at least they serve to enable us to form an idea of it. The description of the Coffer of Cypselus, placed between the history of Toreutic and that of sculpture in ivory, forms a natural transition to this last, which we shall make the subject of another article. "Whoever vill take up said horse and Congerce, shall pay me two tollars reward, pring him to me top on mine house near I vill put te law in force ginst all te un if dey vill not pring mine horse agen, peeples.""" 4 TO THE EDITOR OF THE LITERARY GAZETTE. With all the best wishes of the season, included, as they seem to be, in the obɛolete phrases, "A merry Christmas!" and "A Happy New Year!"I have to remind you, ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. perhaps, of" THE OLD ENGLISH GENTLE CURIOUS ANECDOTE. A HINT TO THE DETECTORS OF SUPPOSED MAN," a poem, which contains, I believe, a description of Christmas and its festivities, on a much more extensive canvass than they are exhibited any where else, either in prose or in verse. This last kind of sculpture, as a branch issuing from the Toreutic, must have preceded statuary in marble. Then M. Quatremere refutes the opinion which has been frequently expressed "That most probably they did not work in ivory before "Each scene of many-coloured life he drew." From this description (which is too long marble; first, because it must have been' In applying this line to the author of to be inserted entire) a few selections may more scarce, and then because it is harder Waverley, Guy Mannering, the Antiquary, not be unacceptable to you. and more difficult to cut." The authority &c. we cannot be wrong, since the know-"Yet must the muse record the feats that crown'd of Homer, who speaks of works in ivory,ledge and variety displayed by this writer In order due the knight's domestic round; |
