1 creative genius. On the other hand, as collectors they have never had their equals, and a taste for magnificence prevailed at the commencement of the Empire which despised doing things by halves. The last days of the Republic had seen the first real beginning of artistic knowledge at Rome; and the magnificent views of Augustus and his immediate successors led to the erection of edifices in which the masterpieces of Grecian art were collected and preserved. Hence arose the manufacture of new statues by Greek sculptors for Imperial masters, chiefly, if not always, copies of celebrated early Greek works. Of these, the Museum possesses a considerable number, the best statues in the Towneley Collection being, as we shall see hereafter, copies of Greek works in Roman times. The age of Hadrian is remarkable for a partial revival of ancient Greek art, arising almost entirely from the personal influence of that Emperor. The most original works of the Imperial period were-1. Sculptures on Public Monuments, such as the Reliefs on the Arch of Titus, representing the Apotheosis of that Emperor, and his triumph over the Jews. The Reliefs on the Column of Trajan are historical, and show considerable power in the treatment of the drapery, and the costume of the different conquered nations. 2. The portraitbusts and statues of individual Emperors, belonging generally to their respective reigns, some of which exhibit the Emperor under the character of a God or Hero. Many of these, as those of Antinous, have great artistic skill. 3. Bas-reliefs, used as the decorations of Sarcophagi, often extremely curious, as preserving, under a rude treatment, the interpretation of early Grecian myths by a Roman representation. Under the Antonines, the decay of art was still more manifest, the coins of the period, like the busts of the Emperors, displaying the same want of simplicity, and a similar attention to trivial and meretricious accessories. Thus, in the busts, the hair and the beard luxuriate in an exaggerated profusion of curls, the careful expression of the features of the countenance being at the same time frequently neglected; while under Commodus, Severus, and his family, we dis The lines of Virgil express the feeling of the Romans even at the close of the Republic: "Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra Tu regere imperio Populos Romane memento." cover the use of perukes and false hair, and a drapery not unfrequently adorned with coloured stones. The reliefs on the Triumphal Arches of this period exhibit a mechanical style. We here close what we have thought it necessary to say on the Progress of Greek Sculpture, and the subdivisions which its different styles admit; reserving till we come to the Vase Room such remarks as it may be worth while to make upon the subject of ancient painting. We proceed now to the description of the monuments themselves, and take first those preserved in the PHIGALEIAN ROOM. PHIGALEIAN SALOON. THE room called the PHIGALEIAN SALOON contains four distinct collections of Sculpture (either casts or originals) which we shall now describe in their order of date. They are as follows: 1. THE CASTS OF THE METOPES FROM SELINUS. 2. THE CASTS OF SCULPTURES OF THE TEMPLE OF 3. THE BAS-RELIEFS FROM THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO 4. THE BAS-RELIEFS FROM THE MAUSOLEUM AT 1. Casts of Metopes from Selinus. These Metopes were originally the ornament of the east front of two temples at Selinus, in Sicily, and were discovered in 1823 by Messrs. Angell and Harris, by whom these casts were presented to the Museum. The originals are preserved at Palermo. These fragments consist of four portions. The first was from the central temple on the Eastern hill, and consisted formerly of two blocks of stone attached to each other by metal clasps. Of these the lower part only now remains, containing a combat between a warrior and a female. The warrior is in a kneeling posture, and yields to the superior force or skill of his adversary. The second is from the central temple on the Western hill, and represents Heracles carrying off two robbers called the Cercopes. He is naked, and has perhaps once had a lion's hide of gilded bronze. The third, from the same temple, has for its subject Perseus, with the petasus and talaria, Athene in the Peplos, and Medusa with Pegasus. The fourth contains the subject of a quadriga and three figures; one is a youth standing in a car, holding the reins in his left hand, the right hand being wanting, as well as the upper part of the body and the neck of the figure. The horses are in very high relief, the heads, necks, and fore-legs being quite detached from the ground of the Metope. The second and third of these sculptures are executed in a rude, archaic style, probably as early as the 50th Ol., B.C. 580. The coins of Ænos illustrate the form of Perseus's cap. The fourth is a later example of the same archaic school of art. It will be observed that the proportions in these figures are short, and the forms clumsy and loaded with muscle. It is interesting to know that the exertions of the first discoverers of these curious relics of archaic art led to further discoveries a few years later. In 1831 the Duca di Serra di Falco found portions of five additional Metopes (now preserved at Palermo), which formed part of the decorations of the pronaos and posticum of the temple nearest the sea. The bodies of the figures are of calcareous tufa, with remains of a coating of paint: the extremities only being of marble. Such statues were called Acroliths. The flesh of the female figures only is represented white, as is the case on the more archaic vase pictures. These later discoveries belong to a period more than a century and a half subsequent to the elder ones described above. They show a freer and livelier treatment, somewhat modified by the architectural severity which still maintained its ground in Sicily later than in Greece Proper. 2. Casts from the Tympana of the Temple of Athene in Ægina. These Æginetan sculptures were discovered by Mr. Cockerell, the Chev. Bröndsted, Von Stackelberg, and others, in the year 1811, at which time careful excavations were made on the spot, by means of which all the members of the cornice and mouldings have been ascertained; minute and accurate measurements were also taken, so that it might be possible to reconstruct the pediments as they once were. From the notes then made, and from long and careful subsequent study, Mr. Cockerell composed groups similar to those now exhibited in this room. Owing to the great violence of the earthquake by which the temple was thrown down, almost all the statues were found shattered into numerous pieces, so that it was in many cases hopeless to attempt to reunite them. These statues were purchased by the Prince (and subsequently King) of Bavaria, and conveyed to Munich. At Munich they were entrusted to the hands of Thorwaldsen, who has judiciously put together all that could be |