Dyer, Thomas Henry: The ruins of Pompeii: a series of eighteen photographic views : with an account of the destruction of the city, and a description of the most interesting remains (London: Bell & Daldy, 1867)

THE RUINS OF POMPEII.

103

exaggerated features of the masks,
the vast size of the ancient theatres;
to our taste, at least, nothing but
the softening effects of distance
could have rendered such pre-
posterous figures endurable. In
comedy a more natural character
was preserved, as will be seen
from the second cut.
We now approach the higher
class of painting, which had for its

seem to have been rendered necessary by


COMIC SCENE, FROM A PAINTING AT POMPEII.

subjects the gods and heroes of mythology. Here also we may observe two
distinct classes; namely, pictures which tell no story, but which consist of
single figures, or, at most, two or three not engaged in any particular action ;

and another and a higher kind,
which represent some well-known
mythological, epic, or tragic story.
The single figures represented
in this sort of painting are princi-
pally those of the gods, accom-
panied in general with their attri-
butes. The house at the top of
the Street of Mercury, near the
triumphal arch, called sometimes
the Casa del Naviglio^ or House of
the Ship, sometimes also of Ze-
phyrus and Flora, or of Ceres,
contained in its atrium several
fine paintings of this sort ; as
Jupiter, Bacchus, Cybele, Ceres,
and Mercury, in sitting postures.
Some of these have been carried
to the Museum, others have be-
come effaced or nearly so. We
insert a cut of one of the latter,
representing Jupiter enthroned, in *
a contemplative attitude. At his