File:The antiquities of Herculaneum (1773) (14775092544).jpg

Identifier: antiquitiesofher00baia (find matches)
Title: The antiquities of Herculaneum
Year: 1773 (1770s)
Authors: Baiardi, Ottavio Antonio, 1694-1764 Martyn, Thomas, 1735-1825 Lettice, John, 1737-1832 Bannerman, Alexander, fl. 1730-1780 Lamborn, Peter Spendelowe, 1722-1774 Grignion, Charles, 1721-1810 Leacroft, S. (Samuel), -1795 Accademia ercolanese di archeologia (Naples, Italy)
Subjects: Art, Roman
Publisher: London : Printed for S. Leacroft ...
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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and have equal merit in the execution. (8) A conjecture being propofed in the 14th note on the preceding plate to ac-count for this ornament, which feemed too ingenious and far-fetched ; another veryiimple one is offered. Thefe two paintings were found in the fame place; and theornament does not terminate in the compartments of the wall which contained them,and which were cut from the reft of the ftucco. Whence it is probable, thatthroughout the whole wall of the room the very fame ornament recurs. And, asin almoft all the edifices, the walls were found covered with paintings, reprefentingarchitecture, grotefques, and the like; and fometimes there were fingle figures, orgroups, which had no other connection with each other than that of fymmetry, andthe ornament of the walls : fo we may alfo affirm, that this is the cafe withthe ornaments which form the back-ground of the pictures of the centaur and fatyr;jvithout fuppofing that they have any reference to the perfons themfelves. PLATE
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( 41 3 PLATE X.W EVERY one at firft fight will imagine he underftands allthat is reprefented in this painting (2) : but if he wouldexamine the whole minutely, and feparate the parts from eachother, he will perhaps find the piece exhibited here to differ fowidely from common tradition, as to make it very difficult,without diligent enquiry, to give a good account of it. Tiswell known, that among the Cyclopes (3) Polyphemus (4) was £ 1) Catalogue, n. 249.(2) Found at Refina. (3) The Cyclopes were the firft Inhabitants of Sicily. They lived in the moun-tains, and fubfifted on the fpontaneous produce of the earth ; that fort of life whichPlato imagines men to have lived immediately after the deluge, as Strabo obferves,xiii. p. 592. See Cluverius Sic. Ant. ii. 15. and Bocbart in Chanaan, i. 30. Someconfider them as the original founders of fociety, and as the firft who furroundedcities with walls. See Natal. Com. Mytbol. ix. 8. But the poets, in conformity toHomer, Odyff. ix. 105, &c.

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