DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0459
442 CORTONA. [chap. lvi.
vases of great beauty or interest; merely black or red
ware, often witb bands of small archaic figures in relief.
Many little idols, or figurine, as the Italians call them, of
earthenware, from four to ten inches in height, votive
offerings, or more probably the Lares of the lower orders,
who could not afford deities of bronze. Heads of the
same material, the size of life and evidently portraits, con-
taining the ashes of the person whose features they repre-
sent. Sundry small lamps, some of them grotesque.6
There are several small cinerary urns of terra-cotta, with
toga-wrapt figures on the lids, and the usual subjects in
relief.
The Museum is more rich in bronzes than in pottery.
The most remarkable are—a naked figure of Jupiter
Tonans, about seven or eight inches high, with an inscrip-
tion on the stand in Greek letters, but unintelligible,—a
female divinity with a cock on her head, and the wings of
a sphinx,—many purely Egyptian idols, found in the
tombs around Cortona,—the head of a negro.
There is also a considerable collection of Etruscan coins.
But the wonder of ancient wonders in the Museum of
Cortona, is a bronze lamp of such surpassing beauty and
elaboration of workmanship as to throw into the shade
every toreutic work yet discovered in the soil of Etruria.
Were there nothing else to be seen at Cortona, this alone
would demand a visit. It merits therefore a more detailed
description than I have generally given to individual
articles. It is circular, about twenty-three inches in
diameter, hollow like a bowl, but from the centre rises a
sort of conical chimney or tube, to which must have been
attached a chain for its suspension. Round the rim are
sixteen lamps, of classic form, fed by oil from the great
6 One is formed like a face, with a and other holes in the forehead and chin,
hole in the nose, by which to suspend it, for the wicks.
vases of great beauty or interest; merely black or red
ware, often witb bands of small archaic figures in relief.
Many little idols, or figurine, as the Italians call them, of
earthenware, from four to ten inches in height, votive
offerings, or more probably the Lares of the lower orders,
who could not afford deities of bronze. Heads of the
same material, the size of life and evidently portraits, con-
taining the ashes of the person whose features they repre-
sent. Sundry small lamps, some of them grotesque.6
There are several small cinerary urns of terra-cotta, with
toga-wrapt figures on the lids, and the usual subjects in
relief.
The Museum is more rich in bronzes than in pottery.
The most remarkable are—a naked figure of Jupiter
Tonans, about seven or eight inches high, with an inscrip-
tion on the stand in Greek letters, but unintelligible,—a
female divinity with a cock on her head, and the wings of
a sphinx,—many purely Egyptian idols, found in the
tombs around Cortona,—the head of a negro.
There is also a considerable collection of Etruscan coins.
But the wonder of ancient wonders in the Museum of
Cortona, is a bronze lamp of such surpassing beauty and
elaboration of workmanship as to throw into the shade
every toreutic work yet discovered in the soil of Etruria.
Were there nothing else to be seen at Cortona, this alone
would demand a visit. It merits therefore a more detailed
description than I have generally given to individual
articles. It is circular, about twenty-three inches in
diameter, hollow like a bowl, but from the centre rises a
sort of conical chimney or tube, to which must have been
attached a chain for its suspension. Round the rim are
sixteen lamps, of classic form, fed by oil from the great
6 One is formed like a face, with a and other holes in the forehead and chin,
hole in the nose, by which to suspend it, for the wicks.