AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1032, 18 November 1882, Page 3

AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

The following interesting letter appears in the London Times which came to hand by the last mail:— 1 Sir,—An important painting has been found at Pompeii, and was yesterday placed in the Naples Museum among the Pompeian irescoes. It represents the judgment of Solomon, and is the first picture on a saered subject, the first fragment either of Judaism or Christianity, that has been discovered in the buried cities, I have therefore, studied it carefully this morning, and send you a description of it, as 1 think the discovery of such a painting is a matter of public interest. The picture is five and a half feet long and 19 inches in height, and is surrounded by a black line about an inch in width. The scene is laid upon a terrace in front of a house adorned with creeping plants and shaded with a white awning. On a dais (represented as being about four feet high) sits the King, holding a sceptre and robed in white. On each side of him sits a counsellor, and behind them six soldiers under arras. The King is represented as leaning over the front of the dais towards a woman in a green robe, who kneels before him with dishevelled hair and outstretched hands. In the centre of the court is a three-legged table, like a butcher’s block, upon which lies an infant, who is held in a recumbent position, in spite of bis struggles, by a woman wearing a turban. A soldier in armour, and wearing a helmet with a long red plume, holds the legs of the infant and is about to cleave it in two with his falchion. A group of spectators complete the picture, which contains in all IS figures. The drawing is poor, but the colors were particularly bright, and the preservation is excellent. As a work of art, it is below the average Pompeian standard, but it is full of spirit and drawn with great freedom. The bodies of the figures are dwarfed, and their heads (out of all proportion) large, which gives color to the assertion that it was intended for a caricature directed against the Jews and their religion. This may be so, but my own impression is that the artist was anxious to develop the facial expression, and to do this, exaggerated the heads. There is nothing of the caricature about it in other respects—the agony of the kneeling mother, the attent’on of the second woman, who gloats over the division of the child—are all manifest, and to my mind there is no attempt, intentionally, to burlesque the incident, but this is a matter of opinion. —I am, Ac., Eust.ace Neville Rolfe. 263, Rivieradi Chir.ja, Naples, August 23.”