Wonders of sculpture . fortress of theEternal City. They have converted it into astrange word, Campidoglio, which signifies rathera field of colza, a field of oil, than the citadel ofrising Rome, which became the temple wherevictorious Roman generals sung the Te Deum, intheir imposing triumphal ceremonies. Ascending tothe new Capitol by the double staircase of MichaelAngelo, we pass between the two black Egyptianlions, the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux,called the Trophies of Marius, and reverentlybowing before the bronze equestrian statue ofMarcus Aurelius, on the noble head of which t
Wonders of sculpture . fortress of theEternal City. They have converted it into astrange word, Campidoglio, which signifies rathera field of colza, a field of oil, than the citadel ofrising Rome, which became the temple wherevictorious Roman generals sung the Te Deum, intheir imposing triumphal ceremonies. Ascending tothe new Capitol by the double staircase of MichaelAngelo, we pass between the two black Egyptianlions, the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux,called the Trophies of Marius, and reverentlybowing before the bronze equestrian statue ofMarcus Aurelius, on the noble head of which theancient gilding is still visible, we enter the it there is another room of Emperors, con-taining an Agrippina, which is a fair type of theRoman ladies of the age ; an Antinoiis, the finestof all the statues of Hadrians devoted friend; and a ROMAN SCULPTURE. 185 Julius Ccssar, placed under the portico of the last-named is said to be the only authenticportrait of the founder of the empire which the. Fig. 42.—Antinoiis. (Rome.) Papal city has preserved. The proverb whichsays a saint is at home in his shrine, wouldapply to Caesar in the Capitol, near to a fine statue 186 ROMAN SCULPTURE. of Triumphant Rome, and seated between twocaptive kings, not far from the celebrated Wolff,venerated by the ancient Romans, and immortalisedb^ Cicero in his Catiline Orations, and in his poemon the Consulate. At Naples we find the nine statues of the Balbusfamily already alluded to—the father, mother, son,and three daughters—found together in the theatreof Herculaneum, over which town this familyexercised a protectorate. Two of them, theequestrian statues of Marcus Nonius Balbus and ofhis son, are very fine and very curious. The horsesare ambling, that is to say, they raise both legs onone side in trotting—a strange attitude, not repre-sented, to my knowledge, in any other ancient ormodern equestrian statue. The head of theyounger Balbus was broken to pieces by aFrenc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublis, booksubjectsculpture
