This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1807 Excerpt: ...conjectures, as he modestly calls them, are much more probable; that this vase, intended for the ashes of no particular person, is sculptured with merely a general emblematic allusion to death and a future state, the serpent being a wellknown symbol of immortality. Its cost indeed must have been so great, that the ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1807 Excerpt: ...conjectures, as he modestly calls them, are much more probable; that this vase, intended for the ashes of no particular person, is sculptured with merely a general emblematic allusion to death and a future state, the serpent being a wellknown symbol of immortality. Its cost indeed must have been so great, that the ashes by which it was occupied could be of no mean rank, though we are still totally in the dark about their owner; except I may venture to guess, that the dress of the two figures on the tomb, their luxurious bed (ornamented with representations of hunting the stag and wild boar), the style of decoration, and the good execution of the sculpture, indicate the most refined refined age of Rome, probably about, or not long after, the time of Augustus. The boldness of the alto-relievos is an argument for their not being of much later date. But I find myself getting into the inextricable labyrinth of antiquarian conjecture, and shall retreat in time. Enough has been said to show the uncertainty at least of the vulgar opinion respecting the vase in question, which all books copy implicitly from one another. How strange is it, that all this magnificence should have been entirely concealed from sight, the vase shut up in the tomb, and the tomb inclosed in a dark sepulchral chamber, discovered in the last century, about three miles out of the gate of St. John Lateran I We cannot, however, tell with what external magnificence the spot might originally have been adorned. CHAFCHAP. XXIX. PALAZZO BORGHESE, BARBERINI, GIUSTINIANI, COLONNA, DORIA, MONTE GAVALLO, AND CICCIAPORCI.--VILLA MEDICI, NEGRONE, LUDOVISI, ALDOBRANDINI, GIULIA, BORGHESE, ALBANI. For pictures the Borghese palace stands unrivalled by any collection we have seen, except perhaps that of the Fl...
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