A Guide to the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum

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Trustees of the British Museum, 1912 - 256 pages

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Page 131 - The composition is supposed to represent, on the obverse, the meeting of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion, and on the reverse, Thetis consenting to be the bride of Peleus. in the presence of Poseidon and Eros. On the bottom of the vase, which is detached, is a bust of Atys.
Page 75 - Peter in 1846, and four more were discovered in 1856—57 on the site of the Mausoleum. One other slab of this frieze, No. 1022, was formerly in the Villa di Negro at Genoa, to which place it was probably transported from Budrum by one of the Knights of St. John, some time in the fifteenth or early in the sixteenth century, and was purchased from the Marchese Serra in 1865. The entire length of these slabs is 85 feet 9 inches, the height 2 feet llf inches; they all represent combats of Greeks and...
Page 112 - he was the first, and, saving his colleague and successor Aurelius, the only one of the emperors who devoted himself to the task of government with a single view to the happiness of his people.
Page 50 - ... modulation of the veins, he has taken away all look of flatness from the necks. He has drawn the eyes and nostrils with dark incision, careful as the finest touches of a painter's pencil ; and then, at last, when he comes to the manes, he has let fly hand and chisel with their full force ; and where a base workman (above all, if he had modelled the thing in clay first...
Page 109 - Room (p. 54), and a comparison of the two figures gives a clear idea of the difference between Greek and Graeco-Roman art. The graceful spontaneity of the Greek maiden is in striking contrast with the formal convention of her Graeco-Roman counterpart. To the right of the room are the following in order : — 1656.
Page 122 - UPPER FLOOR. ROOM OF TERRACOTTAS.* SUBJECT :- GREEK AND ROMAN WORKS IN TERRACOTTA. The specimens in this room illustrate the art of working in terracotta (that is, ' baked clay ') as practised by the Greeks and Romans from the beginning of Greek art onwards to the time of the Roman Empire. As might be expected from the nature of the material and the small scale of most of the works with which we are concerned, the terracottas show a slighter and often more playful manner, when compared with the formal...
Page 22 - It is, however, still pervaded by a certain grave dignity and simplicity which is wanting in the more sensuous, more florid, or more conventional works of a later time.
Page 146 - A girl writing on tablets. Row d. (466.) A scarab with a wild goose flying ; very finely and delicately engraved. Scarabaeoid, winged River-god ; an early work in a minute and formal manner. Case X 41-43. Selected Graeco-Roman. gems, produced by Greek engravers working in Rome towards the end of the Republic and in the first centuries of the Empire. The 'subjects are mainly mythological. The favourite material is the sard, in tints varying from pale yellow to orange red. Other stones used less frequently...
Page 116 - AIP 37. Epitaph in elegiac verse, on Athenians who fell in battle before Potidaea. Potidaea was a town in the Thracian peninsula, and tributary to Athens. With the help of Corinth it revolted in the summer of 432 BC The Athenians sent an expedition to Potidaea, which gained a victory ; but only with the loss of the commander Callias and 150 men, who are here commemorated [Thucyd. i. 63 ; Grote, vol. iv. chap. 47]. The Peloponnesian war was an immediate consequence of the Potidaean campaign. After...
Page 151 - ... are galloping in the air, and Victory holds out a wreath. Below are a couch, a table with food, an altar, and two worshippers. Among the dedications are fragments of a large vase of black ware inscribed with a dedication by one Phanes, who appears to be the person of whom Herodotus (iii., 4 and...

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