DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0087
PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.
61
ing walls and masses of brick. Ruins, till
the revival of taste in the fifteenth century,
were considered as quarries furnishing ma-
terials to those who chose to employ them :
and unfortunately many did employ them
with little or no regard to their ancient
fame, their costly workmanship, or their
fair proportions. When Belisarius turned
the tomb of Adrian into a fortress, he paid
little attention to the masterpieces of sculp-
ture that adorned its circumference, and it
is said that, on that occasion the sleeping
Faun pleaded in vain the beauty of his
limbs and the grace of his attitude. What-
ever obstructed the machinery was tumbled
to the ground ; whatever was fit for defence
was worked into the rampart. In short,
first war, then convenience, and lastly,
Taste itself directed by self-love, destroyed
or defaced the works of ancient art, and
either left no marks of their existence be-
hind, or reduced them to a mere dislocated
61
ing walls and masses of brick. Ruins, till
the revival of taste in the fifteenth century,
were considered as quarries furnishing ma-
terials to those who chose to employ them :
and unfortunately many did employ them
with little or no regard to their ancient
fame, their costly workmanship, or their
fair proportions. When Belisarius turned
the tomb of Adrian into a fortress, he paid
little attention to the masterpieces of sculp-
ture that adorned its circumference, and it
is said that, on that occasion the sleeping
Faun pleaded in vain the beauty of his
limbs and the grace of his attitude. What-
ever obstructed the machinery was tumbled
to the ground ; whatever was fit for defence
was worked into the rampart. In short,
first war, then convenience, and lastly,
Taste itself directed by self-love, destroyed
or defaced the works of ancient art, and
either left no marks of their existence be-
hind, or reduced them to a mere dislocated