There is a richly-ornamented and very characteristic head of Commodus,
which really looks as if it might have come from the sculptor's hands
yesterday. A colossal bust of Maecenas, also the gift of Signor
Castellani, a bust of Tiberius, a small statue of the child Hercules, a
Venus Anadyomene, may be, and many others might be, mentioned. The
last-named is a very lovely statue of a young girl entirely nude. The
archaeologists have chosen to call it a Venus, but it is to my thinking
clear that it never was intended for the laughter-loving goddess. The
expression of the face is perfectly and beautifully chaste, and indeed a
little sad. I should say that it must have been a nymph coming from the
bath, and just about to clothe herself with the drapery thrown over a
broken column at her knee as soon as she shall have completed the
arrangement of her tresses, with which her hands are (or, alas! were,
for the arms are wanting) engaged.
Room No. 10 contains a very extensive and most interesting collection of
ancient pottery. There are many of the painted vases with which the
world has become so well acquainted, and which, as being the more showy
objects, will on his first entrance attract the eye of the visitor. But
if he will with loving patience examine the vast numbers of utensils of
every sort which have been with the utmost care sifted, one might almost
say, from out of the mass of debris which the recent excavations have
thrown up, he will find an amount of suggestive illustration of the old
pagan life of two thousand years ago which cannot fail to interest and
instruct him.
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