DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15098#0042
34
Col. Leake considers this figure to represent Mars, from its
resemblance to the figure of that Deity referred to by Visconti, and
calls the staff upon which the left leg is resting, his spear.
We doubt the correctness of this interpretation ; all these great
personages appear to be grouped in pairs, and we, therefore, are of
opinion that the figure in question must have some connexion with
Ceres, which we do not know to have been the case with Mars.
The staff is not necessarily that of a spear, and we want
some further indication of armour, before we can admit this sugges-
tion of the learned author. He acknowledges the claim of Tripto-
lemus to be present upon this great occasion, and considers that
he finds him in the figure on the other side of Ceres, leaning upon
the shoulder of Mercury; but we do not know of any authority for
such an intimacy between that deity and Triptolemus as is indicated
by the mode in which those two figures are here sculptured. Trip-
tolemus too is generally represented, both upon coins and vases, as
a young man without a beard, though upon a vase in the Durand
collection, he is described (No. 67 of the catalogue,) as bearded ; the
style of painting upon this vase is not mentioned, it may have been
very old, and in early times of art some personages were represented
with beards, who, in latter ages, when beauty and grace were
much more cultivated, appeared with smooth chins and all the
attributes of youth.
The figures represented on this plate are sculptured upon a
portion of the same slab with those which will be found in plate
XXXVI. The length of the whole slab is 11 ft. 10 in.; the part
comprised in this plate is 7- ft- 6 in.
Col. Leake considers this figure to represent Mars, from its
resemblance to the figure of that Deity referred to by Visconti, and
calls the staff upon which the left leg is resting, his spear.
We doubt the correctness of this interpretation ; all these great
personages appear to be grouped in pairs, and we, therefore, are of
opinion that the figure in question must have some connexion with
Ceres, which we do not know to have been the case with Mars.
The staff is not necessarily that of a spear, and we want
some further indication of armour, before we can admit this sugges-
tion of the learned author. He acknowledges the claim of Tripto-
lemus to be present upon this great occasion, and considers that
he finds him in the figure on the other side of Ceres, leaning upon
the shoulder of Mercury; but we do not know of any authority for
such an intimacy between that deity and Triptolemus as is indicated
by the mode in which those two figures are here sculptured. Trip-
tolemus too is generally represented, both upon coins and vases, as
a young man without a beard, though upon a vase in the Durand
collection, he is described (No. 67 of the catalogue,) as bearded ; the
style of painting upon this vase is not mentioned, it may have been
very old, and in early times of art some personages were represented
with beards, who, in latter ages, when beauty and grace were
much more cultivated, appeared with smooth chins and all the
attributes of youth.
The figures represented on this plate are sculptured upon a
portion of the same slab with those which will be found in plate
XXXVI. The length of the whole slab is 11 ft. 10 in.; the part
comprised in this plate is 7- ft- 6 in.