NEW FINDS AT POMPETI.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 26

NEW FINDS AT POMPETI.

I was anxious to sco what was doing at the new excavations, but I knew that the best things would be at once transferred .to the museum at Nbples, so I went thore first. I found one room entirely devoted' to the newest frescoes. There are about five pictures, averaging four feet square, each full of romantic interest ; some of them have only been there a few weeks, and none of them are yet labelled. The colours are fresh, the drawing is equal to most things at the Royal Academy; and the effect of these buried relics of the first cencury (a.d, 79) so suddenly lifted into the daylight of

1881, is, I confess; a little. ghostly, I should not have been surprised on turning round to find a Pompeiian of the arrested life of the period looking over my shoulder at some of his 0 Id haunts. One of the larger pictures gives a sort of a bird's-eye view of the theatre at Pompeii, with a wild-beast fight going on. You "look down upon the arena from some height. You also command a view of the , street with the passers-by and a few booths, from one of which a thief has stolen something and is 'making off.. The 'velarium,' or vast awning, is half drawn over the top of the theatre. • It is, as far as I know, the only contemporary representation of the thing ever discovered. , We know that sailors were employed to stretch a similar veil, supported by ' poles,,. over the. top of the Colisseum, but exactly how, the thing was managed I believe has puzzled antiquaries. They may get a hint from a closer inspection of this amazingly vivid bit , of .contemporary, history. Two long flights . of steps outside enable the spectators to reach ' the top seats without going inside the theatre. This is surely an admirable idea, worthy of our imitation. The next day at Pompeii I puzzled over, the ruins of both theatres. I could not make "out where these external stairs could have been placed. In the painting they rise from a public square, but the temple of lsis is built close against the big theatre, and the small theatre is also completely hemmed in by houses, ,Ib, it perchance the theatre atHerculaneum? ■> , , . , • A 1 large painting of a sleeping bacchante, nude, watched by a satyr, might' have been . designed by.Etty in drawing, colour, and per1 spective ; it- is a masterly' study, showing besides a great deal of feeling for landscape painting, which, for some reason or other, the ancients are not supposed to have cared for; but the more we conceited creatures know of them the more evident it is that they_ knew quite as much about colour and drawing as they did about' sculpture. Look at Pyramus and Thisbe on the other wall, or Mars, and Venus and a capital study of Europa mounting the' bull, surrounded by her maidens. All these are highly preserved, and show a perfect easp, vigour, and freshness of handling that many a modern artist might ' envy, The new • find in bronze is an exquisite, statuette of ' Abundantia,' about a foot high, holding a patei% or cup ; her chair is adorned with horns of plenty, and the pressure of her body and the set of her drapery over the cushion on which she sits is sjo realistic that one expects to see her mova.upon her chair or rise at any moment. Beside her is a slave boy, in a backward attitude','about a foot and a half high, pouring wine, into a cup. This is also new. I visited Pompeii next day, and went straight to the diggings. The only wonder is that anything is eyer dug up at all ; the process 1 is ridiculously slow, even for Italy. The directors sit all day on, the rubbish heaps smok- " "ing and dozens of children file up and down with their little baskets o£ earth, whilst a few idle peasants shovel up a few lazy spadefuls at _ a time. Still, the first thing I saw was the side of a dining-room, uncovered only a few ;days agd. . On fine side was a bright picture" of a fine \ '.cook j*nd;hens in a gseat. state of excitement . • over a large.basket of grain and red.chemes, all upset— Landseer could not haye done it better. '.The. fondness of the Pompeiianß for. birds, 'beastej. and fishes is, very # > apparent, and jthey ,i" always. seemed to be dining. The, wealth of ' cooking apparatus in the museum is astomsh- . .ing.,l You iiave saucepans perforated with countjeps. holes, , in most elaborate patterns— every conceivable kind. of boiler .and' qaldron, oasts for jellies, representing the,prostrate|hare and the sucking pig; ladles, spoons, skewers, „ 'dishes, for, roasting six eggs .or a dozen eggs at ri once,", toasting-forks, gridirons, and';f,ancy machines for pastry and delicate confectionery, what in Elizabeth s day were called ' conoeits.,' InPompeiiitself theoilipots an&wine amphorae " let intqi slabs, and ,of mosaic work of : coloured marble, are, among the quaintest features <j>f the 'ruined shops." I. saw in another new P&rt ,a fine drawing-room, found three months {ago, . with some of, the liveliest, animal painting imaginable.' . The first section of the walls • all ,' round jepres,ented the boldest scenes unde> the f|e£-ria', conger struggling with an joctopjis, a 1 shark pursuing', its, prey, a shoal of ■ fish fljing ' through the water, all glittering and fresh. . ! .The middle section' dealt with birds and wild- ' 'ifowl floating flying, quarreling, divings and the upper and largest section gave fierce hunt- , ,-ingi scenes— a horse pursued by a lion, an ox in ■ deserfc scenery sprung upon by a .tiger, j and ,all these .were set in scenery of great fprce, variety, and character—woods, rocks, rivers, and green v hills; The corridors and ante-rooms of ; this ' house are equally rich, the walls copiously vignetted with figures— dwarfs on stilts, street •soenes, animals. • In one" room there is a 1 perfectly white suite of marble steps in'-sitit, belonging to a fountain. The whole thing stands as though finished yesterday, without a 89U or chip or scratch. , They seem now to be coming to some of tha richest houses, and have broken into the outer court of one in which stands a beautiful fountain cupola and niche, of elaborate . mosaic work, representing ' gods ! and goddesses in tne deep blue heavens half-veiled ' with 'fleecy clouds. The house is still: em- , bedde'dunder thirty feet of, earth j, but if, this ' is the back yard, what must the .halls and corridors'be'! The plan now adopted is to leave as much as possible in situ. Specimens repeat ' themselves, and it is needless to go on removing ' similar, mosaics or $ rescos, of which there are plenty , in the Naples museum. As a rule, .'.'therefore, all tho later excavations are more in- ! • teresting than the old ones, because they jhave been left unspoiled of their treasure. , I should like to spend a week at Pompeii every yekr, if 'only to watch the uncovering and revel in the finds.—' H,'in the Pall Mall Gazette.'