TOWNELEY SCULPTURES.

TOWNELEY AND MISCELLANEOUS SCULPTURES.

THE collection of sculptures which we are now about to describe consists chiefly of those procured by Charles Towneley, Esq., between the year 1765 and his death in 1805, together with some other monuments obtained since that period from other sources. The finest statues in the Towneley Collection are probably either the original works of Greek artists during the early times of the Roman empire, or copies of works by celebrated early Greek masters. We have no means of proving that this or any other English collection, with the exception of the sculptures in the Elgin and Phigaleian rooms, contains any specimens of the best period of Greek sculpture, as was formerly supposed. The collections in the Elgin and Phigaleian rooms are those alone on whose date we can rely with undoubting certainty.

We propose, in describing these monuments, to pursue the same course we have already taken in the case of the Elgin marbles— that is to throw them first into certain groups, and to arrange them under general heads of similar or kindred subjects, so that the spectator who is willing to employ his mind as well as his eyes, may learn something more than he can from the perusal of dry catalogues, or lists, in which no scientific arrangement has been attempted.

The general heads we propose to make use of are the following:

I. STATUES AND BAS-RELIEFS, EITHER EXECUTED BY GREEK
SCULPTORS, OR PRESUMED TO BE COPIES OF CELEBRATED
GREEK ORIGINALS.

II. BUSTS OF MYTHOLOGICAL PERSONAGES.

III. PORTRAIT BUSTS OF GREEK PERSONAGES.

T. 15.

IV. FINEST STATUES OF THE Roman Period, from Augustus

TO HADRIAN.

V. STATUES OF THE LATE ROMAN PERIOD.

VI. BUSTS OF ROMAN EMPERORS.

VII. SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS.

VIII. ROMAN ALTARS.

IX. BAS-RELIEFS AND SCULPTURES, ARCHITECTURAL AND
DECORATIVE.

I. STATUES AND BAS-RELIEFS, PRESUMED COPIES OF GREEK

ORIGINALS.

The first statue we shall describe is that called Venus or Dione (T. 15). This beautiful piece of sculpture was discovered among the ruins of the maritime baths of the Emperor Claudius at Ostia by Mr. Gavin Hamilton, in 1776. It consists of two pieces of marble imperceptibly joined at the lower part of the body within the drapery. The marble of which the body is composed is of a lighter colour than that of which the drapery is formed. The two parts being thus detached, they were allowed to be exported from Italy as fragments of two different statues. The marble of this figure retains its original polish; the left arm, the right hand, and the tip of the nose have been restored. A figure nearly resembling this, the position of the arms being reversed, occurs on a bronze medallion of Lucilla, on which this Goddess is represented standing at the edge of the sea, or at the head of a bath, surrounded by Cupids, one of which is leaping into the water. This statue is about six feet seven inches high. It has at different times borne the names of Hebe, Isis, Ariadne, and Venus. The last is certainly the most appropriate.

The next statue we shall describe is that called the Discobolus, or quoit-thrower. This statue is, without doubt, an ancient copy of the bronze statue by Myron, of the size of life. The figure is represented just before he throws the discus or quoit. Its surface has in many places been corroded and re-polished; and the head, which is restored, differs from the position described by Pliny, in which the face is said to have been turned back towards the quoit about to be thrown by the right hand. There are four other ancient copies of Myron's statue extant, and differing from this one in the

1 Wherever the number in Mr. Towneley's Collection on the statue or bas-relief is legible, we shall indicate it. Thus the first statue is marked T. 15.

position of the head. This statue was found in 1791, in the grounds belonging to Hadrian's villa at Tibur (Tivoli). The left hand has been restored.

The third (T. 13), which is called a Nymph reposing after the fatigues of the Chase, but, more probably, an Astragalizusa, or Nymph playing at the game of osselets or Astragali, is one of the most elegant statues in the Museum. It represents a female seated on the ground in a very graceful attitude; she is covered with a close drapery, which has fallen from her left shoulder, and leaves that part of her form exposed. Upon the plinth is a bow, the extremities of which are decorated with heads of griffins. The head, left shoulder, both the feet and right arm are modern. This statue, and one similar to it, were found in the year 1766, near the Salarian Gate at Rome, in the Villa Verospi, the supposed site of the Gardens of Sallust. Two similar figures, both of whom are probably Astragalizusa, are known, one in the Villa Borghese, and the other in the Colonna Palace. In each of these, the head and right arm are wanting. The statue in the Museum alone retains the ancient plinth, and thereby gives some indications of the character and meaning of the statue when originally perfect.

T. 13.-Nymph.

JACKSON S