TREASURE TROVE AT ROME.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 260, 12 April 1875, Page 4

TREASURE TROVE AT ROME.

{Pall Mall Amidst the records of death and suffering with which the newspapers abound just now it is more than pleassnt to read of those discoveries at Rome. The ruins of the ancient city have once more yielded up treasures that are as a precious gift to all civilised mankind. When the news first reached us we were inclined to disbelieve it. It seemed hardly safe to encourage such expectations as the report was calculated to excite; better to "hedge" with hope, for fear of disappointment. But there is no longer any reason to expel the anticipations conjured up by the rumour of discovery. A correspondent of the Times gives an extremely interesting detailed account of the treasure, and, if we may trust him as a critic, it is one of the most important ever brought to light. His description of the " gem " of the discovery is almost enough to send every idle, art-loving, well-to-do man on a pilgrimage to Rome forthwith. There is a " Venus," it seems, comparable to the Medician Venus—even worthy to rank above her, perhap3. But it is not to be called Venus if the Times correspondent's description of the statue be correct. It is perfectly nude; but it is not the figure of a fully developed woman, but of " a lovely girl of seventeen; and might not inappropriately be called a Psyche, did not the style of art suggest an earlier period than the date of the fable." And this is how she looks. 11 She stands with both feet upon the ground and close together, the left a couple of inches further back, with the heel very slightly raised. A moment before she was erect, but she has dropped into an easier position, with the left knee bent forward and inwards against the right. Her left hand is resting on the knot of hair at the back of her head, while her right holds the fillet she has already passed several times round it. In doing this she has swayed a little over and down to the right, bringing the left side forward. The shoulders are well set back, and the face is turned to the right and a little downwards, showing from the front a not quite three-quarter view." This is the description of a most orginal and beautiful conception ; and if it is only carried out with true Greek skill, we can well understand the enthusiasm the statue has excited. And the modelling is said to be perfect, " the contours have that delicious softness given by the gradually increasing fulness of approaching development, together with all the beauty, charm, and sweetness of youth, virginity, and innocence." On the ground at her right is what appears to be a perfume box, ornamented with flowers like daisies, and upon it a slender kind of balust3r, upon which her drapery had been thrown There is one damping sent-nce in this account. We are told that the execution is slightly unequal, and, though good, is inferior to the beauty of the conception and modelling: from which the critic concludes that " the statue is a copy, but from a master piece." " The statue is broken across the neck, below the left and above the right knee, and above the left ankle. The nose is slightly broken at the lip, and the right arm has not yet been found." Then, among other treasures, there is a remarkable bust of Commodus, it appears, for a description of which we refer our readers to the Times ; as well as a statue of Bacchus, two Tritons, two draped portrait statues of women, and the head of a Venus described as pretty but not remarkable. Of Bacchus there is the head, the right arm, and the whole of the front of the body down to the hips. " The back was evidently cut away at the time when the work was sculptured in order to fit it into the drapery, which was probably of bronze." The left arm, broken off at the shoulder, has not yet been found. The Tritons we have "as far as the human portions of the monsters are concerned—that is, down to the hips. They had not been broken off at that point, but were terminatad in such a manner as would lead to the inference that the tails were originally of bronze." Altogether the discovery seems to be of the highest value ; and not improbably the mine has yet to be worked out.