DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0048
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IL
38
lation of Monte Cavallo. They are of colossal
size and exquisite beauty; are supposed to re-
present Castor and Pollux, although the inscrip-
tion says, Alexander and Bucephalus, and are
acknowledged to be the works of some great
Grecian master. They were transported by
Constantine from Alexandria, and erected in his
baths which stood in the neighborhood; and from
thence they were conveyed, by order of Sixtus
Quintus, to their present situation. The erection
of the obelisk between these groupes has been
censured by some, as taking from their effect,
and oppressing them by its mass: but, as it is
admitted that they were made not to stand in-
sulated, but probably to adorn the side or angle
of some edifice, perhaps a mausoleum, and even,
as appears from the roughness of their back
parts, to touch the wall, and seem as if spring-
ing from it, their connexion with the obelisk
must be considered as an improvement and an
approximation to their original attitudes and ac-
companiments.
The Vatican hill retains its ancient appella-
tion, and gives it to the palace and church which
adorn its summit and declivity. Whether this
appellation took its origin from the influence of
some local divinity, which was supposed to ma-
nifest itself in omens and predictions, more fre-
3
Ch. IL
38
lation of Monte Cavallo. They are of colossal
size and exquisite beauty; are supposed to re-
present Castor and Pollux, although the inscrip-
tion says, Alexander and Bucephalus, and are
acknowledged to be the works of some great
Grecian master. They were transported by
Constantine from Alexandria, and erected in his
baths which stood in the neighborhood; and from
thence they were conveyed, by order of Sixtus
Quintus, to their present situation. The erection
of the obelisk between these groupes has been
censured by some, as taking from their effect,
and oppressing them by its mass: but, as it is
admitted that they were made not to stand in-
sulated, but probably to adorn the side or angle
of some edifice, perhaps a mausoleum, and even,
as appears from the roughness of their back
parts, to touch the wall, and seem as if spring-
ing from it, their connexion with the obelisk
must be considered as an improvement and an
approximation to their original attitudes and ac-
companiments.
The Vatican hill retains its ancient appella-
tion, and gives it to the palace and church which
adorn its summit and declivity. Whether this
appellation took its origin from the influence of
some local divinity, which was supposed to ma-
nifest itself in omens and predictions, more fre-
3