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DEPARTMENTS OF ANTIQUITIES.

THE collections in these Departments are divided into two series. The first, consisting of Sculpture, including Inscriptions and Architectural remains, occupies the Ground Floor of the Southwestern and Western portions of the building; and to this division have lately been added some rooms in the basement, not originally designed for exhibition, but now supplying the only space which the extensive acquisitions recently made from Assyria and other countries have left available for that purpose. The second series, placed in a suite of rooms on the Upper Floor, comprehends all the smaller remains, of whatever nation or period, such as Vases and Terracottas, Bronzes, Coins, and Medals, and articles of personal or domestic use. To the latter division is attached the collection of Ethnographical specimens.

The arrangement of the series of Sculptures is still incomplete. So far, however, as that arrangement has been carried, the collections are so disposed as to admit of being visited, with few exceptions, in chronological order, from the earliest monuments of the Egyptian Pharaohs down to the latest memorials of the Roman dominion in this country. The peculiar form of the galleries has made it necessary to place the most ancient remains at the Northwestern extremity, which is farthest from the Entrance Hall; so that a visitor, wishing to pursue the more natural historical course, is recommended to descend the North-western staircase from the Gallery of Minerals and Fossils, on the Upper Floor, and enter the Ground Floor by the Egyptian Vestibule, proceeding through each apartment in the reverse order to that adopted in the ensuing description, which commences with the latest, or Roman monuments, and is continued through the Lycian, Greek, and Assyrian, to those of Egypt. The arrangement of the four principal series of sculptures may be stated generally as follows: the Roman

including the mixed class termed Græco-Roman, occupies the South side, running East and West: the Greek, strictly so called, the Assyrian, and the Egyptian, form, approximately, three parallel lines, running North and South, at right angles to the Roman. To the left of the Hall, on entering the building, is the

ROMAN GALLERY.

On the South side, under the windows, are miscellaneous Roman antiquities discovered in this country, belonging to the Department of British Antiquities. On the opposite side is the series of Roman Iconographical or portrait Sculptures, whether statues or busts, forming part of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Each wall is divided by pilasters into six compartments.

ANGLO-ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.

Immediately to the left of the door, on entering, are Pigs of lead, marked with Roman names, which specify either the mines from which the metal was obtained, or the Emperors, or local authorities, by whose license it was worked and sold.

Against the walls are mosaic or tessellated Pavements.

The oblong piece in Compartment I., decorated with a figure of Neptune, amidst fishes and marine monsters, was found in the ruins of a Roman villa at Withington, Gloucestershire. The large pieces in Compartment II., and the two smaller pieces, to the left hand, in Compartment III., originally formed part of the same pavement, though the space does not admit of placing them in juxtaposition.

The right-hand fragment in Compartment III. was discovered at Woodchester, in the same county.

In each of the first four Compartments stands a Sarcophagus, which, like most monuments of Roman sculpture found in this country, exhibits, more or less, the rudeness of provincial art. Within the Sarcophagus in Compartment IV. (which was discovered in London) was found a leaden coffin, the lid of which may now be seen above the Sarcophagus. Within the three other Sarcophagi, were discovered various remains, consisting chiefly of vases of glass or red earthenware, and in one instance a pair of richly-ornamented shoes, all of which are exhibited in glass cases in the British Room and Second Egyptian Room.

The large scroll in Compartment V. is probably an ornament from the cover of a Sarcophagus. It was found (with the fragment of a mill-stone, now placed on it, and two sepulchral Inscriptions, in Compartment VI.) at the foot of the old Roman wall of London. In the intervening spaces are placed Roman Altars

Against four of the pilasters on this side stand Ogham Inscriptions,

of which three are from Ireland, and one from Fardell in Devonshire. Against another pilaster is a remarkable Altar, with a dedication in Greek to the Tyrian Hercules.

Against the Western wall is a large Basin, in the form of half an octagon, with bas-reliefs on the sides; as well as several smaller sculptures.

To the Roman period of the occupation of Britain belong the six specimens of mosaic or tesselated work attached to the upper wall on the North side of this Room. Those in Compartments VII-IX. were discovered in London; and those in Compartments X-XII., at Abbot's Ann, in Hampshire.

AUGUSTUS W. FRANKS.

ROMAN ICONOGRAPHY.

Along the North side of the gallery is arranged the series of Roman portraits, in chronological order. Upon the pedestal of each statue, or bust, are inscribed, when known, the name of the person represented, the dates of such person's birth, death, and (if an Emperor) of his reign, and the site where the sculpture was discovered.

The greater part of the collection which here commences, and which is continued through the four succeeding, or GræcoRoman, rooms, was formed by Charles Townley, Esq., and purchased, after his decease in 1805, for £20,000. Subsequent acquisitions have been made by the bequest of the collection of R. Payne Knight, Esq., in 1824, and by various individual purchases and donations.

In the centre of the gallery are the head of a barbarian chieftain, an equestrian statue, restored as the Emperor Caligula, but probably a work of the time of Caracalla, from the Farnese Palace, Rome, and the torso of an Emperor.

Compartment VII.-Head of Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, Proprætor of Cyrene, about B.c. 70-56, and heads of Julius Cæsar, Augustus, the younger Drusus, Tiberius, and Caligula, or perhaps the young Augustus.

Against the pilaster, a statue of an unknown personage, wearing the toga; apparently dating not far from the Christian Era.

Compartment VIII.-Heads of Claudius, Nero, and Otho, bust of Empress, and busts of Dom tia and Trajan.

Against the pilaster, an Iconic female figure, thought to be the Empress Livia, but perhaps a priestess. Found at Atrapalda, Lower Italy.

Compartment IX.-Busts of Hadrian; his favourite Antinoüs;

Julia Sabina, and a young man with a dedicatory inscription on the pedestal.

Against the pilaster, a statue of Hadrian, in armour.

Compartment X.-Bust of Antoninus Pius; head and two busts of Marcus Aurelius, the one attired as a Frater Arvalis; busts of Faustina and Lucius Verus when young.

Against the pilaster, a statue of Hadrian, found at Cyrene, in civil

costume.

Compartment XI.-Busts of Lucius Verus and Lucilla; head of Commodus; and busts of Crispina, Pertinax, and Septimius Severus.

Against the pilaster, an unknown Iconic female figure, found at Cyrene, probably of the time of Hadrian.

Compartment XII.-Busts of Caracalla, Julia Mamæa, Gordianus I., Sabinia Tranquillina, Otacilia Severa (wife of the Emperor Philip the Elder), lower half of a statue of Lucius Verus, found at Ephesus, and head of Herennia Etruscilla.

On shelves above this row of busts is a series of heads and busts, mostly portraits, beginning at the west-end of the room with portraits of celebrated Greeks.

FIRST GRECO-ROMAN ROOM.

This and the two succeeding rooms are, for the most part, appropriated to statues, busts, and bas-reliefs, of the mixed class termed Græco-Roman, consisting of works discovered (so far as is known) in Italy, but owing their origin and character, either directly or indirectly, to the Greek schools of sculpture. Some few of these may, perhaps, be original monuments of the autonomous or præ-Roman period of Greece, afterwards transported by the conquerors to their own country, but the majority were certainly executed in Italy during the Imperial times, though generally by Greek artists, and in many instances copied, or but slightly varied, from earlier Greek models.

Along the sides of the room, commencing from the Northwest angle, are the following statues and heads :

North Side. A headless figure of Minerva, from Ephesus, and a head of Minerva. Against the western column are a Canephora and a small seated figure of Pluto or Hades, with whose attributes those of Jupiter are here combined. At the back of the same column is a bust of Minerva, with drapery and helmet restored in bronze, and at the back of the eastern column a statue of Hecate, or the Diana Triformis, with a Latin inscription_recording the name of the person who dedicated it. Against the Eastern

column are a statue of Apollo, from the Farnese Palace, and a bust of Serapis. Against the wall is a statue of Ceres, with the attributes of Isis.

On the East side of the room an heroic figure, and a Satyr playing with the infant Bacchus, both from the Farnese Palace.

On the South side are a statue of Bacchus found at Cyrene, a head of Juno, a statue of Diana, a head of Diana, a statue of Apollo Citharœdus from Cyrene, a head of Apollo, a statue of Venus, a terminal bust of Homer, a statue of a dancing Satyr, a head of a poet, and a statue of Diana.

On the West side of the room are a torso of a 'youth from the Farnese Palace, perhaps representing the god Somnus, a head of Jupiter, a head of Minerva, and a colossal bust of Jupiter.

Between this room and the Egyptian Gallery, is temporarily exhibited a large terracotta sarcophagus, found at Cervetri, and acquired with the Castellani Collection.

SECOND GRÆCO-ROMAN ROOM.

In an alcove in this room is the Townley Venus found at Ostia; in the alcove on the opposite side is an athlete hurling a disc, presumed to be a copy of the celebrated Discobolus of Myron.

In the angles of this room are four heads; the Giustiniani Apollo, purchased at the Pourtalès sale; a female head from the Townley collection, formerly called Dione; an heroic head from the same collection, and a youthful head, probably of Bacchus.

THIRD GRECO-ROMAN ROOM.

This room contains a variety of statues, busts, and reliefs, most of which represent divine or heroic personages. The description commences from the North-West door, leading to the Lycian Gallery.

On the North side the following may be noticed: Acteon, transformed by Diana into a stag; a group representing a sacrifice to Mithras, the Persian sun-god; a statue restored as Paris; a tablet in relief, representing the Apotheosis of Homer. In the upper part of the scene are Jupiter, Apollo, and the nine Muses on a hill in which is a cave: this relief is inscribed with the name of the sculptor, Archelaus of Priene. Then follow statues of the Muses Thalia and Erato and heads of Muses; the head of a wounded Amazon, on a bracket; an heroic head restored by Flaxman, and formerly in the collection of the late Mr. Samuel Rogers; the beautiful female bust commonly called Clytie, and which may represent some imperial personage of the Augustan age in the character of a goddess; a reclining figure of Endymion, and two statues of Cupid (Eros), one being a life-size figure bending his bow, and the other a small figure in the same attitude; a recumbent figure of Cupid with the attributes of Hercules.

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