Page:The Monthly anthology, and Boston review, volume 9.djvu/214

208 Fauns kneeling, one of them playing on a tambourin, the other accompanying him with small musical instruments, called krotala, the materials and form of which have been subjects of strong contention among criticks. Paris carrying off Helen in a car drawn by three horses (34,) is a bas-relief, not inferiour perhaps in correctness of design and elegance of execution to any in this collection. No. 36, of unknown antiquity, representing two persons navigating the Nile in a boat, is worthy of notice. In the fore-ground are an hippopotamus, two crocodiles, some birds, and several plants of the lotus. In the distance are buildings, on the roofs of which are three ibises. The whole of this scenery is viewed through two arches, supported by columns, the two extreme ones of which are fluted in wreaths, and all the capitals resemble the Corinthian. For singularity of composition, No. 42 has no parallel in the room. It is a short, naked human figure, with the head of an old man, a long thick beard, and the body of a child; holding in each hand the stem of a plant. On each side of this figure is seated a no less curious quadruped, whose head is that of an elderly man, with the breasts of a woman, and body of a sphinx, whose tail terminates in a flower. In this unrivalled collection are some of the largest statues ever found of terra cotta, among the rest one of the goddess Salus, both the hands of which are wanting; another of a Muse resting her left arm upon a pile of writing tablets, placed on a square column; and a third of Thalia.

On quitting this room, which of itself would form an excellent academy for the student, we come to the second, appropriated to Greek and Roman sculptures. It is circular, and receives light from an elegant dome, excellently contrived for its distribution. The walls are beautifully stuccoed, and painted in fresco, as are all the rooms of this elegant gallery. The effect of this circular apartment, which looks like the vestibule of the palace of the goddess of art, from which you look downwards on the principal rooms of the antiquities and sculptures, is uncommonly striking. A beautiful figure of a discobulus, the light and shade of which thrown from a superiour window, are truly magical, finishes the perspective. The wooden pedestals on which some of the busts are placed, are such fine specimens of the skill of the painter in imitating antique marbles, as even to deceive the experienced eye. In this room the first subject that you come to, is a colossal head,