Hunc Modo Serpentem Baculum Qui Nexibus Ambit
Perspice -
Behold the snake his mystic Rod intwine.
He has in his hand the fascia herbarum, and the crepidae on his
feet. There is a wild-boar represented lying on one side, which I
admire as a master-piece. The savageness of his appearance is
finely contrasted with the case and indolence of the attitude.
Were I to meet with a living boar lying with the same expression,
I should be tempted to stroke his bristles. Here is an elegant
bust of Antinous, the favourite of Adrian; and a beautiful head
of Alexander the Great, turned on one side, with an expression of
languishment and anxiety in his countenance. The virtuosi are not
agreed about the circumstance in which he is represented; whether
fainting with the loss of blood which he suffered in his
adventure at Oxydrace; or languishing with the fever contracted
by bathing in the Cydnus; or finally complaining to his father
Jove, that there were no other worlds for him to conquer. The
kneeling Narcissus is a striking figure, and the expression
admirable. The two Bacchi are perfectly well executed; but (to my
shame be it spoken) I prefer to the antique that which is the
work of Michael Angelo Buonaroti, concerning which the story is
told which you well know. The artist having been blamed by some
pretended connoisseurs, for not imitating the manner of the
ancients, is said to have privately finished this Bacchus, and
buried it, after having broke off an arm, which he kept as a
voucher. The statue, being dug up by accident, was allowed by the
best judges, to be a perfect antique; upon which Buonaroti
produced the arm, and claimed his own work. Bianchi looks upon
this as a fable; but owns that Vasari tells such another of a
child cut in marble by the same artist, which being carried to
Rome, and kept for some time under ground, was dug up as an
antique, and sold for a great deal of money. I was likewise
attracted by the Morpheus in touchstone, which is described by
Addison, who, by the bye, notwithstanding all his taste, has been
convicted by Bianchi of several gross blunders in his account of
this gallery.
With respect to the famous Venus Pontia, commonly called de
Medicis, which was found at Tivoli, and is kept in a separate
apartment called the Tribuna, I believe I ought to be intirely
silent, or at least conceal my real sentiments, which will
otherwise appear equally absurd and presumptuous. It must be want
of taste that prevents my feeling that enthusiastic admiration
with which others are inspired at sight of this statue: a statue
which in reputation equals that of Cupid by Praxiteles, which
brought such a concourse of strangers of old to the little town
of Thespiae. I cannot help thinking that there is no beauty in
the features of Venus; and that the attitude is aukward and out
of character. It is a bad plea to urge that the antients and we
differ in the ideas of beauty.
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