Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/408

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [*- s. m. MAY 27,

Naples for Six Weeks, and quitted Rome to return home in June 1777. He passed thro' Florence: where he had already spent two Summers to Bologna ; and went by Cento to Venice, where he continued a Month. From this City he proceeded to Vicenza, (adorn'd with the finest Buildings of Palladio), and pursued his course by Verona to Mantua ; and from thence to Parma, w ch contains the grandest Examples of Correggio's Art. He went by Milan through Switzerland, crossing S' Gotard, and by Strasbourg, through Alsace, a second time to Paris. In September he arriv'd in England, and reestablish'd himself, painting gener- ally in oyl, 'till the End of the year 1784 when he embark'd for India, and after having touch'd at the Cape of Good Hope, and Madrass, landed at Cal- cutta in Sept r 1785. It was suggested to him on his arrival, that altho' he had provided himself w th necessaries for pursuing his profession in every Line, yet as the Field was most open in Miniature, it was required that he should practice only in that, to prevent contention. To this he willingly acceded. He visited the Courts of Moorshedabad, Benares, and Lucknow, where he painted several large Miniatures of Princes, Nabobs, and Rajahs, w 01 many other persons, of hif/h distinction. His 111 State of Health however compelled him to return to England, 1788, where he resum'd and continued his original profession 'till 1790, when he was oblig'd to relinquish Miniature painting entirely. After an Interval of somewhat more than a year, his Eyes were so far restor'd, as to admit of his practising in Crayons, to w ch his Studies in Rome, had been eminently conducive, & in this, succeeded to his utmost wishes, till April 1797 : when, after having completed portraits of their Royal & Serene H 88 the Princess, and Prince of Orange, Stadtholder his Sight fail'd him so entirely (without pain) that he never was able to paint another picture."

It may be added that the remainder of the artist's life was passed in seclusion, and that he died in Thornhaugh Street, 9 March, 1810, being buried in the ground behind St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road, near London.

In the original paper as above are some alterations and a few numbers (as I have given the same), the latter doubtless intended to refer to notes, which do not, however, appear. W. I. R. V.

ANCIENT ZODIACS. (Continued from p. 25.) Babylonian Zodiac.

209. This is described as a Babylonian boundary stone of the time of Nebu- chadnezzar I., B.C. 1150, with emblems of the gods, prototypes of our signs of the zodiac, it appears to be a matsebah or zodiacal pillar stone (Deuteronomy xvi. 22). It is divided by double lines into six compartments. In the uppermost are Astra, Luna, Sol, as if to indicate to the initiated that the figures below are not earthly, but are heavenly asterisms. In the second are three altars bearing pyra- midal fire. In the third are Ara (decan in Sagittarius), Capricornus, Aries, and two

more fire altars, which make the five altars for five planets (2 Kings xxiii. 5, vide No. 3). In the fourth appear Pegasus, ? Gemini, Eri- danus, Corvus (in Leo), and one defaced. In the fifth are Ophiuchus (in Scorpio), Leo, Sagittarius. In the sixth is a defaced sign followed by Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio, and a lamp (for Libra). It is engraved in Ball 'Aids to the Bible.'

Egyptian Zodiacs.

210. On the ceiling of the interior of the great temple at Esne the signs are depicted in two parallel lines, A.D. 29. Engraved in Osburn, ' Antiquities of Egypt,' 1847, p. 68.

211. In the Grand Ducal collection at Florence in 1827 was the mummy of Takarheb, daughter of a royal scribe and priest, not much older than the Ptolemies. On the cere- ments was found a hypocephalus (flat round disc) somewhat similar to one engraved in ' The Pearl of Great Price,' by Joseph Smith, 1851. This one on Takarheb appears to con- tain a zodiac, a likely circumstance, as she was a priest's daughter (see Nos. 7, 10, 11, 20). The circular form corresponds to that of the Dendera zodiac (No. 9). The zodiacal heavens are here divided into three compartments (as in No. 1) in agreement with the Hebrew idea (2 Cor. xii. 2). Above the first is apparently a titular heading, perhaps analogous to that in Nos. 1 and 26. Underneath are Aquarius (a bird-headed man, as in some ancient zodiacs), Pisces (shown by an eye, as in the Dendera sign, and a fish), Taurus (cow of Isis, hence Ovid, "Vacca sit an taurus non est cognos- cere promptum " ; Riccioli, ' Almagestum,' i. 399), Sagittarius (throned man, as at Dendera), Ara (holding mystic eggs), Aquarius (two vases, as at Dendera), Virgo (lotos branch above Ara, held in Virgo's hand, as at Den- dera and Esne), Aries (large egg under branch denoting a female, as at Dendera and Esne, under Aries, referring to Cassiopeia). Second compartment, the central one, perhaps re- ferring mystically to the person embalmed, Virgo (four monkeys, a monkey appearing for Virgo in the Tartar, Chinese", Mongolian, Indian, and Turkish zodiacs), Aries (human figure with four rams' heads), Hydra (serpent in circle, decan in Leo, so at Dendera), Cas- siopeia (a seated female body under Aries). Third compartment, Argo (boat), Cancer (scaraba3us), Gemini (two-headed man wear- ing two feathers), Capricornus (goat on staff), Ophiuchus (in Scorpio as a hawk in a boat). Engraved in Archceologia, 1855, vol. xxxvi. pi. xv. p. 174.

Persian Zodiac.

212. A Zoroastrian Mithraic zodiacal ; tablet, sculptured on a rock, has Perseus,