ROMANCE OF LOST MONUMENT

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16320, 8 January 1921, Page 8

ROMANCE OF LOST MONUMENT

NOW IN BRITISH MUSEUM.

A long-lost Roman antique lias teen discovered, forming the central feature of a rock garden at Putney, England. It is a beautiful specimen of sepulchral carving, and has Leon added to the British Museum through the generosity of Mr Ernest, Dixon, a yell known landscape gardener, of Putney. Tho story of its recovery is romantic m the highest- degree. . , Mr Dixon acquired the sculpture from a contractor in St John s \Vood. in whose yard it had lam for at least fifty years. He placed it in his garden it Putney, but, struck with its unusual beauty, he afterwards brought it to the notice of the British Museum authorities, who have succeeded m identifying it. A MILLER'S MONUMENT. It was a, monument to Lucius Ampudius Philomusus, the freedom of Lucius Ampudius. It is over oft long and nearlv 2ft wide, showing three haltlength, full-face draped busts—representing Philomussus. his wile and daughter. He is shown as a shrewd old man, with strongly marked features and thin, compressed lips- . A remarkable piece of realism is the carving of the thumb of the right: hand, t-o which a noticeable backward flexture has been given. At each end of the monument is carved a corn measure, ono being considerablv larger than the other. 1 heso facts, together with the inscription beneath the monument, give nse to the belief that Philomusus was a corn merchant or miller, in which case the bend of the thumb is explained by a miller’s constant action of spreading n sample of meal over his palm by the means of his thumb. The busts of the two women are also beautifully carved, one representing, both in face and hand, the flesh of a middle-aged matron, and the other that- of a young girl. HISTORY OF THE SCULPTURE. The British Museum authorities have traced the sculpture’s history, so lar a-s it is known. Professor A. H. Smith, of the Museum, stated that the relief is not part of a sarcophagus. It is a slab, built originally in the wall's of a tomb. The back has been worn by long use, a fact which suggests that in mediaeval times it was placed face downwards in the earth, so as to form a paving stone. Ampudius Philomusus, Professor Smith states, lived probs-bly between B.C. 25 and A.D. 25. A break through the marble, where it is thinnest, may have led to the discovery of the sculpture, which was first reported by Bianehini, of Verona, who was copying Roman inscriptions between 1706 and 1715. It had been frobably excavated, therefore, about 700. near the Porta Capena, and was taken to the Villa Casall. LOST FOR 100 YEARS. Seen and noted on more than one occasion during the eighteenth century, the last copy to mention it was George Zoega. who' was established at Rome between 1784 and 1809. After this the relieUbecame lost to tlie world. It was no doubt shipped home, writes Professor Smith, by some travelling Englishman, who placed it in Ids house or garden in the St John’s Wood region. When this was submerged in tho tide of the building towards the middle of the last century the stone must have found its way to the contractor’s yard, from which it has now been rescued.