File:Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages (14780901414).jpg

English: Full translated description: "A frame composed of two bands, one dark red, the other black, and separated by a white border, surrounds this painting. It was found in Civita, on April 7, 1761, and represents the entrance of the famous wooden horse into the city of Troy. The three towers and crenellated walls justify the epithet of well-walled which Homer often gives to the unfortunate Ilion (1). The horse is, as we can see, the main object of our painting. Homer (2) gives him the name Δουράìτος, Dourateos, which Lucrece preserved for him (1). Other authors of antiquity (2) called him Δουρειος and Δουριος; Doureios and Dourios, from the Greek word δοũρου, wood. Euripides prefers to give this name another origin and relate it to δόρυ, of which, he says:

Οθευ προς άνδρων ύστέρών xληθήσεται[ Δούρειοϛ ĩππος xρύπτον άυπισχẁν ẟ ό ρ υ (3). [All men's hearts are full of Trojan horses, they're not to be trusted.]

Indeed, it seems that there was a Durateus in Athens, in bronze, from which spears came out (4), which undoubtedly motivated the etymology proposed by Euripides. One was also sent to Delphi (5), and among the paintings of Polygnotus, there was one which represented Durateus entering the city of Troy, and showing her head above the walls, which they had been obliged to pull down. In our painting, the size of the horse is not disproportionate to the height of the walls, and he could very well have entered through the door. This is also how the fact was represented in the Tabula Iliaca (6). Of all the ancient monuments that have been preserved to us, there are only two, not counting this one, where the horse Durateus was staged: they are the Tabula Iliaca and a precious stone from the Gualdi museum (7 ). Ancient literature provides numerous documents on this subject (8). The length of our painting, of which only the front part can be seen, emerges from behind a tower between the battlements of which passes a dark red drapery. It is yellowish in color. His head is adorned with a headpiece and a kind of crest which imitates a human figure or a mask and ends in the shape of a mane. This ornament was perhaps given to the Trojan horse, to indicate that it was consecrated to Minerva (1). A rather wide band, color of lacquer, surrounds his neck and is attached to the chest. His back is covered with an animal skin of the same color. Between his legs is a support, such as is seen in many equestrian statues. The support and the horse's feet rest on a large wooden base, at the bottom of which is a circle, also in wood, which is undoubtedly one of the wheels of the machine.

Pedibusque rotarum

Subjiciunt lapsus (2).

Several ropes attached to the base, despite the authority of Virgil, who wants them to start from the horse's neck:

... And stupea vincula collo Intendant (3),

are drawn by two rows of persons, among whom there are only four painted in a distinct manner. The first two are oddly dressed; they wear a white coat, which goes down to mid-thigh; a kind of drapery covers their chest, shoulders, and head. The other two, painted in reddish chiaroscuro, have a mask in the shape of a dog's muzzle. These figures are not the least singularity of our painting. To explain this, we will first observe that Duratea's procession must have had the character of a religious ceremony, and that the wooden horse was indeed considered by the Trojans as a pleasant offering to Minerva, their protective goddess. and finally that in the festivals in honor of Bacchus (1), Isis (2) and the goddess Syria (3), the ancients used masks.

In Athens, in certain festivals, in ceremonies or in religious pageants, "those in the processions wearing masks hurled insults at each other":

Ẻπὶ ταῖϛ πομπαῖϛ ἐλοιδοροῦντο άλλἥλοις προσωπεĩα φοροῦντες

Thus, it is quite probable that the artist borrowed from the Bacchanalia the masks which were often employed in these sorts of festivals; and that he thus wanted to give to the scene which he represented the character of joy, of delirious joy, and perhaps of wantonness and drunkenness. Philostratus (5) had a similar idea of the state of the Trojans on this occasion. We could also take advantage, for the understanding of the subject, of some traditions of pagan religions. In the feasts of the Great Mother Idaea, whose cult had been brought to Rome from Pessinunte, a city of Phrygia (1) , it was customary to mask oneself (2). In Rome, the masks figured in the minor Ouinquatria, instituted in honor of Minerva (3). Finally, the mother Idaea and the ancient Minerva were one and the same deity. It would therefore be possible that the Trojans themselves wore masks in their religious ceremonies, and that this use followed the worship of their divinities, when the Greeks and Romans went to seek gods in the classical land of the Troad.

As for the particular shape of the masks in our painting and the resemblance that two of them have to the muzzles of dogs, we will say that it seems constant that, in the Isiac festivals, this kind of masks was adopted by preference. In the feasts of Minerva there were some who imitated the heads of lions, ravens and other animals (4).

A character dances next to those who are pulling the wooden horse towards them. Two others are in a similar attitude, facing the horse itself. To the left of Duratee, we see a group of women and young girls with branches in their hands. They are dressed in white dresses and wear red veils, raised at the back (1). Their faces seem covered with masks of the same color. On the other side we see a long procession of figures in long dresses; who hold lighted torches (2) in their hands. In the middle of the plane which separates this procession from those who draw the machine, rises a column surmounted by an urn and objects which cannot be distinguished: a funereal monument can be seen there; and if we want to attribute it to some historical figure, it will be the tomb of Hector (3), or that of Ilus (4), or even that of Laomedon (5). An old man dressed in a long drapery, his head resting in his right hand, is seated on a stone at the foot of the column and next to a large tree in the attitude of a man who is suffering or reflecting. On the other side of the column we see several cypresses. Behind is an edifice resembling a temple, and opposite, on a porphyry base, adorned with a drapery of changing colors between red and blue, rises a Pallas in yellow metal, wearing a helmet and army with spear and shield. A figure, clothed in a long robe, is on her knees at the side of the pedestal, and, her hands raised towards the goddess, she addresses her supplications. She may be the wife of Laocoön, terrified by the death of her sons and the blindness of her husband, trying to appease the goddess; or Cassander begging Pallas to forgive the Trojans for their stupid disbelief in the predictions she made to them; or Hecuba thanking Minerva for the deliverance of Ilium. An old man dressed in white, his hair falling over his shoulders, seems to be looking at her and is carrying something indistinguishable in his hand.

In the distance, we see mountains and a landscape that ends in a blue sky; finally on a height, between the temple and the mountains, a woman, her bare chest and her right arm raised, waves a torch or a branch. We recognize Cassander holding a laurel in her hand and predicting to the incredulous Trojans the ruin of their country (1); or Helen giving a signal with a torch to the Greeks who remain hidden (2), and impatiently await the result of their stratagem." - Louis Barré, 1870

Identifier: herculanumetpomp18703barr (find matches)
Title: Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Barré, Louis, 1799-1857 Roux, H. (Henri), Sr Bouchet, Adolphe
Subjects: Art, Greco-Roman
Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
cheval est tenu en main parun écuyer qui sentretient avec une jeune fille. Beaucoup (l)Hygin., Fab., 32; Pausan., (2) Eurip., Hère, fur., 100-2 et IX, ir. seq. 101 PEINTURES. — DEUXIÈME SÉR1K. de conjectures ont été tentées pour expliquer cette scène :Pelée et Acaste, Bellérophon et Prœtus, Aleinoiïs etArété, ont été proposés tour à tour, mais sans une vrai-semblance suffisante pour fixer les esprits incertains. Noscloutes sont tels que nous devons nous abstenir. Le bas de la planche est occupé par un fragment dedécoration architecturale. Sur un fond rouge, une corni-che jaune, chargée de palmettes et de festons verts, etsoutenue par une colonne grisâtre, porte elle-même unsphinx au collier et au diadème dor, dont les pieds etle visage sont couleur de chair, et le corps rouge tachetéde brun. A cette première corniche sen rattache uneautre, en arc renversé, de couleur brune, avec des or-nements jaunes, et portant un tigre. FIN DE LA 2e SERIE DES PEINTURES.
Text Appearing After Image:
? H EXPLICATION DES PLANCHES. paaQïOQaSc 5e ôme. PAYSAGES PLANCHE 1. Un cadre composé de deux bandes, lune dun rougefoncé, lautre noire, et séparées par un filet blanc, entourecette peinture. Elle a été trouvée à Civita, le 7 avril 1761,et représente lentrée du fameux cheval de bois dans laville de Troie. Les trois tours et les murs crénelés justi-fient lépithète de bien murée quHomère donne souvent àla malheureuse Ilion (1). Le cheval est, comme on le voit,lobjet principal de notre peinture. Homère (2) lui donne (1) Euripide, Troad., v.5;Ovide, (2) Odijssée, VIII, 493. Faut., 219. 5e Série. — Paysages. 2 PEINTURES. le nom de AoupàiToç, Dourateos, que Lucrèce lui aconservé (i). Dautres auteurs de lantiquité (2) lontappelé Aoupsioçet Aoupio; Doureios et Dourios, du mot grec$ofltoov, bois. Euripide aime mieux donnera ce nom uneautre origine et le rapporter à &>pu, dont, lance : OQev Trpo; àvopiov uc-ipwv xArjô^Gctat AoupElOÇ 17T7TOÇ XpUTTTOV à

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