DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5674#0017
(io)
merit of these Vases , for altho a great number of such
Vases have been dug up in this kingdom smce that pu-
blication , the price they bear, is infinitely greater now,
than when I made my first: Collestion and yet 1 may
venture to assirm that there are but very few , even
among the Artists them selves , that are truly sensible of
the sublime merit in the Ample outline of the figures on
these Vases, nor can they be so , untill they have had
an opportunity of studying them thoroughly . The Artists
employed in this work, not withstanding that they are ve-
ry good draughtsmen , have often been obliged to make
three or four copies from the same Vase before they cou'd
arrive at giving an idea of the purity in the outline of
the figures on the original. I am confident, that there ne-
ver has been a Work of the kind executed with such a
scrupulous attention , and the learned Antiquarian may ma-
ke his Dissertations from these drawings as well as if he
had the Vase itself before him. It is well known that An-
tiquarians have been often misled by drawings from Sta-
tues , Basrilievos, and Vases that had been modernly re-
paired , and their Dissertations have turned entirely upon
certain attributes and Additions that did not exist in the
originals. A Vafe in my first Collection in the British Mu-
seum , representing a Bachanalian subje6t , was published
by Passeri before it came into my possession , and whilst
it made a part of the celebrated Mastrillo Colle&ion at Na-
ples The learned Antiquarian has displayed in his Disser-
tation on that Vase much of his erudition to explain the
reason w hy a Silenus was represented there compleatly clo-
thed , and not naked as in most monuments of Antiqui-
ty . When that Vase came into my possession , having pur-
chased the whole Collection, I soon perceived , that the
drapery on the Silenus had been added with a pen and
Xnk j
merit of these Vases , for altho a great number of such
Vases have been dug up in this kingdom smce that pu-
blication , the price they bear, is infinitely greater now,
than when I made my first: Collestion and yet 1 may
venture to assirm that there are but very few , even
among the Artists them selves , that are truly sensible of
the sublime merit in the Ample outline of the figures on
these Vases, nor can they be so , untill they have had
an opportunity of studying them thoroughly . The Artists
employed in this work, not withstanding that they are ve-
ry good draughtsmen , have often been obliged to make
three or four copies from the same Vase before they cou'd
arrive at giving an idea of the purity in the outline of
the figures on the original. I am confident, that there ne-
ver has been a Work of the kind executed with such a
scrupulous attention , and the learned Antiquarian may ma-
ke his Dissertations from these drawings as well as if he
had the Vase itself before him. It is well known that An-
tiquarians have been often misled by drawings from Sta-
tues , Basrilievos, and Vases that had been modernly re-
paired , and their Dissertations have turned entirely upon
certain attributes and Additions that did not exist in the
originals. A Vafe in my first Collection in the British Mu-
seum , representing a Bachanalian subje6t , was published
by Passeri before it came into my possession , and whilst
it made a part of the celebrated Mastrillo Colle&ion at Na-
ples The learned Antiquarian has displayed in his Disser-
tation on that Vase much of his erudition to explain the
reason w hy a Silenus was represented there compleatly clo-
thed , and not naked as in most monuments of Antiqui-
ty . When that Vase came into my possession , having pur-
chased the whole Collection, I soon perceived , that the
drapery on the Silenus had been added with a pen and
Xnk j