HOME and BACK, VIA AUSTRALIA, CEYLON, SUEZ, NAPLES, ROME,, FLORENCE, BOLOGNA, &C.

Otago Witness, Issue 2289, 13 January 1898, Page 45

HOME and BACK, VIA AUSTRALIA, CEYLON, SUEZ, NAPLES, ROME,, FLORENCE, BOLOGNA, &C.

By John Clegg.

V. The Orient G-uide's description of Naples and Pompeii so entirely coincides wilh my own feelings and experiences, and ia at the same time bo accurate and instructive, that I will quote it in etclenso :—": — " There Is much to be seen m Naples, and still more in its neighbourhood. The observatory, botanical gardens, aquarium, and Zoological station in the public gardens will attraot many visitorg. The ancient tnnnel of Posilippo and near it the traditional tomb of Virgil are very interastiDg. The summit of the hill, with St. Elmo crowning the height and St. Martino (Cormeily a palace, now a museum) close under it, forms the object of a very beautiful drive. But iE time is short the visitor .cannot do better than spend it in tbc mussum. Hare all the chief treasures found at Herculaneum and Pompeii are shown, as well as the old royal collections, including books and pictures. The ancient brorzes in the muaeum at Naples are worth any journey ono may have made to see them. Most people will feel that they are a revelation of what bronze statuary can be. There is nothing to be compared with them anywhere elßs. The exquisitely delicate modelling, the life, the movement, illustrate the surpassing excellence of antique sculpture, because it is nearer than anything else to the first thought, the original conception, of the artist. This dictum is almost unintelligible when one illustrates it by the broaza statues to be seen In the streets cf London and other English towns; but in the Naples museum the meaning is plain enough. The sculptor puts all the beauty and life which hiai genius can conceive and his hands create into the clay mould, and all this i-i transferred by a mechanical process to the brocze •, whereas in marble there are many more intermediate stagep, many more touches from the mers mechanic's har.d, between the clay mcdel of the artist and the finished statue. It may be interesting to note one curious distinction between antique and the best modern bronzes. A bronze statue is never solid. The hollow part icside Ihe statue, which is called the core, in modern work is rough and sbapelezs, leaving the bionze all round an inch or two thick. But in antique bronzes the core is as finished in form as the statue itself. The accients must have used in casting two perfect models, the one inside the other, the space between the two being surprisingly thin and fine. The bronze of which the statue is made is often so thin as to suggest that the ancients must have bad eecrets in. the art of casting which sr-s lost to the modern world. The best modern bronze statue is now to be seen at Munich. Another kind of srt can scarcely he studied better than at Naples. The discoveiy of so many antique frescoes on the walb of Pompeii enables us to judge more completely than bad before been possible as to how far the ancients had mastered the principles of piotorialart. It must be al lowed th at, considering their position as sculptors and the immense -proficiency they showed in bro^zs casting and other arts* of the kind, their paintings are strangely deficient.- Sjme of the figure subjects are full of fire and spirit, and are correct in drawicg and colour ; but other laadscapee and views of buildirgs have for the most pars grotesque perspective, which we associate in our minds with the art of the Chinese, and are as like nature as the view on the willow pattern plate. The chambers of the museum in wbich the frescoes and mosaics — wbich partake of the same characteristics — are exhibited are near the entrance of the ground floor, and should on no account be overlooked.

" Ths marblo and the principal brorzs statues aye on the same floor and the small Egyptian collectioo, which may ba neglected by & traveller who has scon Ibe Biiii^h Museum or who is goirg to Cairo. • The marbles are especially fine at Naples. Tiie Faraete Bull was brought from Rhodes to R:>aie before the time of Pliny. It is, or rather was, for ib is no«v in many pieces, sculptured from a single block of marble, the artists being Apollonius and Tauriscus (third csatary 8.C.). Michael Argelo himself canied out the principal restorations, and so added a new interest to this remarkable group. The Farneso Hercules is another piece of ancient sculpture, the work of Glycon, of Athens, and was also repaired by^Michael Angelo. The portraits of Roman emperors are very fine, and worthy of special study. One of the ground-floor chambers is well named the ' Hall of Capolavori,' or masterpieces, and contains the well-known bust of Homer, the statue of Antinous, the supposed statue of Aristidee, ths Venus of Capua, the Gladiator, and, above all, the lovely Psyche, found in the amphitheatre at Capua, a mere fragment of one of the most exquisite and ir,imitablQ pieces of sculpture in tne world. "In the upper roooas we may indulge in many different binds of arti3tic and awtiqnarian pleasure. Finally, neglecting macy attractive chambers, we come to thosa which contain the common objects found at Pompeii : the chairs and tables, the bread and eggp, the combs and toothpicks, the surgical instruments and painted vasss, the iron stocks and loaded dice which have been found from time to time and brought here ; nor should we omit to visit the papyrus room, with its skilfully unfolded and often halfcharred fragments of the scanty literature of the first century. Nearly all come from a single chamber or library at Hercclareum, and have ha.3. to be hewn cut of a substance as hard and solid as rock; whereas the ashes which covered Pompeii have become converted into soft and easily-worked earth, which can readily be removed by spade, pickaxe, and hand. Moreover, the site of Herculaneumhas been rapidly covered by successive eruptions of lava and ashes, and consequently the ruins which have been excavated lie at a great depth (40£fc to 100£t) below the present surface. This makes a visit to Herculaneum resemble in some respects a descent into a mine. The dim torch

of the guide is a poor substitute for the glowing Italian sunshine that will light the visitor to Pompeii. The interest in Pompeii is like nothing else in Italy, or perhaps in the world ; repeated visits only add to the wonder and awe t>f the first impression, Here we see a city of tliß dead, dead the3B lßoo years, and yet the Pompeiians seem stracgely real and alive as we tread the silent streets. The marks of the chariot wheels are there ; the oil jar 3 are in the shops ; the drinking fountain is there, with the soft stons worn by the pressure of hands that were living when Jesus walked on earth ; the baker's loavee are in the oven ; the splendid bath is there with the vases for ointment and perfumes. In the museum attached to the ruins may be seen the casts taken of human figures crouching together or clasped in one another's arms, as they were when the last awful moment came. One of the casta here is that of a dog which has fallen on its back with its feet in the air. The attitude of the poor beast appears to express pathetically the horror of the fate that overwhelmed it, together with its human fellow creatures. One feature of Pompeii which is not often dwelt upon by guide books and travellers is the exquisite beauty of its surroundings. Vesuvius sends its pillar of smoke into the sky on one side; on the other is the Bay cf Naples, with Ca&teliamare and Sorrentoe sparkling like jewels on its shore. The great public statues, fountains, columns, aud altars were aizongst the first things dug out, for no difficulty imposed the discovery of the chief buildings, for the upper wall of the great theatre was always visible above ground.

' la 1718 a peasant, Making a well, found a painted chamber, nl the King of Naples, Charles 111, who h-d baen much interestet by the discoveries a Herculaneum a few years before, can if d on the excavations. They have cever ceassJ for a&y long period since, yet only abcut th ee-nfths of the whole area has been clerAred."

( To be continued )

— Peoestrian : " EUva you no occupation?" B j ggar: " Y?s. sir; I am a collector of rare coins. You haven't a spare sovereign about you, have you 1 "