Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/145

 ANCIENT PORTRAITURES OF OUR LORD. 115 US that in a ]I8. in the library at Jena Avas preserved a j)orti"ait of our Lord, accompanying a copy of that epistle in golden letters, and " ad prosopograpliiam banc aifabre depict 03." It is to be regretted that no description of the type of portraiture was given by 'Mr. Kerslake ; it may possibly have been full-face, with forked beard and long falling hair, a type of which numerous sti'iking examples exist. It has indeed been believed that the portraits connected both with the legend of Lentulus and that of King Abgarus and the linen Vernicle are always in full face. I proceed to notice briefly certain interesting reproduc- tions of the profile type of another description. Mr. King lias figured a beautiful medal,^ from an example in my own possession, a portraiture that had been described as most precious by Ambrosius, who wrote in the times of Julius II. and Leo X. (1503 — 1521). It had been supposed contem- porary with its divine prototype. ]lr. King states that this medal is not uncommon, and that it is a sand-cast in white bell metal ; Ambrosius describes it as of brass ; that which belongs to myself had long been accounted as of silver. Be- sides the engraving that has been given by Dr. Walsh, a medal of nearly similar type, and as I believe identical with that under consideration, was figured by llowlands,in his ]Mona An- tiqua. It had been found, about 1 723, at the "round cirque at Bryn Gwyn,"— the supreme tribunal — in Anglesey.^ This medal is described as of brass ; this, however, might obviously designate bell-metal, especially if its surface were discoloured or decayed. We cannot marvel that the discovery, having occurred near Tre'r Dryw, with its supposed Druidical grove and megalithic monuments, was advanced in confirmation of the conjectui-e that the place had been the Forum or tribunal of the Druids. Edward Lhwyd, the learned custos of the Ashmolean, willingly sought aid from the most eminent Hebraists in the university to elucidate so rare a relic of antiquity, in those hazy times when erudite scholars giavely discussed the probability that Hebrew was the tongue of Noah and his faniik. ]5c this as it may, and whether the want of precise conformity between the Tre'r Dryw medal and " Arcli. Journ., vol. xxvii. pp. 182, 93 ; Bee also, in the Appen.lix, pp. 297— 186. 300, the reniarkB of bis learucd corre- ' Rowlands, second edition, pp. 90, spondenta at Oxford. VOL. XIIX. *