MUTILATED STATUE.
55
promiscuous fragments that remained, and to
re-compile them into a new figure; that is, to
convert the four horses into one, by taking
the fore leg of one of them, a hinder leg of
another, the head of a third, &c. and where the
breach was irremediable, to cast a new piece. To
this handy contrivance, therefore, the bronze
horse in the court-yard of the Museum of Portici
owes its existence; it happened, however, unfor-
tunately, that the fragments which had escaped
fusion were rent, inflated, or bruised, by the burn-
ing lava ; and, in addition to these disasters, they
were made up unhappily; for the eye of an artist
can sometimes detect two styles of art, evidently
different, the large and the exquisite soldered
together on the same statue.
On leaving the theatre, we entered a narrow
passage, where, on one hand (for the feeble glim-
mering light of a few torches necessarily confines
the view to one side at a time), we observed that
the walls were occasionally incrusted with marble
or oriental alabaster, which had escaped calcina-
tion, though sometimes they were constituted
merely of bare brick ; as we proceeded, however,
we perceived, both above and around us, pillars
of marble or stucco, crushed and broken, and
strewed about in every direction.
55
promiscuous fragments that remained, and to
re-compile them into a new figure; that is, to
convert the four horses into one, by taking
the fore leg of one of them, a hinder leg of
another, the head of a third, &c. and where the
breach was irremediable, to cast a new piece. To
this handy contrivance, therefore, the bronze
horse in the court-yard of the Museum of Portici
owes its existence; it happened, however, unfor-
tunately, that the fragments which had escaped
fusion were rent, inflated, or bruised, by the burn-
ing lava ; and, in addition to these disasters, they
were made up unhappily; for the eye of an artist
can sometimes detect two styles of art, evidently
different, the large and the exquisite soldered
together on the same statue.
On leaving the theatre, we entered a narrow
passage, where, on one hand (for the feeble glim-
mering light of a few torches necessarily confines
the view to one side at a time), we observed that
the walls were occasionally incrusted with marble
or oriental alabaster, which had escaped calcina-
tion, though sometimes they were constituted
merely of bare brick ; as we proceeded, however,
we perceived, both above and around us, pillars
of marble or stucco, crushed and broken, and
strewed about in every direction.