DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0048
INTRODUCTION. 4]
I thought, I should have applied the quotation, " I
met Smellfungus one day coming out of the Coli-
seum. Psha! says he, nothing but a huge cock-
pit." This is too often the English in Italy.
I wish, however, to dismiss Smellfungus from my
train, and to carry my readers, with what ability I
may, through the old pots and pans of the Museo
Gregoriano. On entering we first saw a number of
sarcophagi with recumbent figures on the lids, some
of great beauty and elegance, others stiff and mas-
sive, and others grotesque and almost revolting.
They were chiefly in the style of Cav. Campana's,
and, as I remarked before, all possess a character
peculiar to themselves, and very different from any
works of the classical periods of Greece and Rome.
Those which I call stiff and massive, bear a strong
resemblance to our own sepulchral effigies of the
middle ages, and we have often seen mitred abbots
and prince bishops chiselled like the old Lucomones.
Among the terra cotta representations there is a
very fine horse's head, a beautiful relievo of Adonis
and his dog, and a most spirited and elegant statue
of Mercury, which, though found in Etruria, would
appear to be of Roman workmanship, The first
rooms are entirely filled with terra cotta : amongst
which one might easily miss some rude and ugly, but
tfery singular, and, as the Germans would say, mark-
rthy sepulchral urns They stand upon a shelf
the entrance of the first room, and were found at
Albano under the lava of a volcano, which must
have been extinct before the foundation of Alba
nga, three hundred years prior to Rome. They
I thought, I should have applied the quotation, " I
met Smellfungus one day coming out of the Coli-
seum. Psha! says he, nothing but a huge cock-
pit." This is too often the English in Italy.
I wish, however, to dismiss Smellfungus from my
train, and to carry my readers, with what ability I
may, through the old pots and pans of the Museo
Gregoriano. On entering we first saw a number of
sarcophagi with recumbent figures on the lids, some
of great beauty and elegance, others stiff and mas-
sive, and others grotesque and almost revolting.
They were chiefly in the style of Cav. Campana's,
and, as I remarked before, all possess a character
peculiar to themselves, and very different from any
works of the classical periods of Greece and Rome.
Those which I call stiff and massive, bear a strong
resemblance to our own sepulchral effigies of the
middle ages, and we have often seen mitred abbots
and prince bishops chiselled like the old Lucomones.
Among the terra cotta representations there is a
very fine horse's head, a beautiful relievo of Adonis
and his dog, and a most spirited and elegant statue
of Mercury, which, though found in Etruria, would
appear to be of Roman workmanship, The first
rooms are entirely filled with terra cotta : amongst
which one might easily miss some rude and ugly, but
tfery singular, and, as the Germans would say, mark-
rthy sepulchral urns They stand upon a shelf
the entrance of the first room, and were found at
Albano under the lava of a volcano, which must
have been extinct before the foundation of Alba
nga, three hundred years prior to Rome. They