TREASURE TROVE AT ROME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 92, 17 April 1875, Page 4

TREASURE TROVE AT ROME.

(From the 2 3 a1l MaU Gazette.) Amidst the records of death and suffering with which the newspapers abound just now, it is more than pleaBant 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 (he news first reached us we were inclined to disbelieve it. It seemed hardly safe to encourage such expectations aa the report waa calculated to excite; better to "hedge " with hope, for fe-ir of disappointment. But there is no longer any reason to expel the right anticipations conjured up by tbe rumor of discovery. A correspondent of Jthe Times gives an extremely interesting detailed account of •the treasure, Bnd, 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 pilgrimto Rome forthwith. There is a " Venus," it seems, comparable to the Medician Vet«3 — even worthy (o rank above her perhaps. 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 lhe 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 BUggeßt an earlier period of the date of the fable."' And this is how she looks. "She stands with both feet upon Jhe ground and close together, the left a couple of feet further back, wiih the heel very slightly raised. A moment before she was erect, but she bas dropped into aa easier position, wiih the , left knee bent forward and inwards . against the right. Her left hand is resting on the knot of hair at the back of ber 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 lo the right, bringing the left side forward. The shoulders are well set back, and the faco is turned to tbe right and a little downwards, showing from the front a not quite three quarter view." This is a description of a most original 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 wiih all the beauty, cbarm, 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 dasies, and upon ita slender „- hied of baluster, upon which her drapery had been thrown. There i 8 one damping sentence in this account. We are told tbat the execution is slightly unequal, ond, though good, is inferior co the beauty of the conception aDd modelling; from which the critic concludes that "the statue is a copy, but ftom a master-piece." "The statue is broken , across the neck, below the left and above tho right knee, and above the left ankle. The nose is slightly broken at the tip, and the right arm has not yet been found." Then among other .; .treasures,, there is a remarkable bust of '■'•'■ Commodup, it appears, ior v description of wbich we refor 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 ofthe 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 bas 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 terminated in such a manner as would lend to the inference that the tails were originally of bronze." Altogether tbe discovery seems to be of the highest value; and not improbably the mine has yet to be worked out.