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Show 176 TilE ART OF ROME. and their workmanship little artistical. Besides, we know from rliny that tho family pride of the Romans cared more for the names than for the likenesses of their ancestors. The admiral complains that whilst the original wax-effigies represented the great men such as they renlly had been (they were probably casts of tho faces of the deceased), a later age delighted in silver busts and in the workmanship of great masters (probably Greeks, and given to idealizing), without regard to the likeness. Pliny's complaint cannot apply to tbo portrait of Scipio, which is entirely individual, and of that stern and energetic cast which fully expresses the Roman character. Scipio may be taken for a good specimen of the Roman patrician type; for, at his time the aristocracy had not yet lost its national purity by the admixture of foreign blood. Not loss characteristic is the head of Agrippa [68],-the friend, minister and son-in-law of Augustus, aud maternal ancestor of the emperor~ Cali.gula, Claudius and N oro. Next to the Roman type represented by these two highly expressive portraits, let us consider the features of their enemies. Fig. 69 is the bust of a "barbarian" found in Trajan's forum, now in Fig. 68. Fig. 69. VIPBANIUB AORIPPA, (Pul8zky coll.) B ARBARIAN. tho British Museum. Mr. Combe, in his description of tho ancient marble~ of t]~e British Museum, after adverting to the feelings of rage, d1sappomtment and revenge strongly marked in this faeo, inclines to believe that the head was intended to represent Armin ins tl~e German hero, who defeated Varus, and was defeated by Gcrmamcns. Mr. Gottling, in an essay which has become very popular in Germany, attributes this head with specious reasons to Thumclicus, ~he fig~ tor of Ra~o~na, ~on of ~rminius. We therefore Rcarcely err m scckmg the or1gmal reutomc type in this excellent bust. TilE ART OF ROME. 177 Tho effigy of Dccebalus,-prince of the Dacians [70],190 is copied from a bas-relief originally belonging to the triumphal arch of Trajan, which by the addition of later patchwork has been transformed into an arch in honor of the emperor Constantine. The effigy is peculiarly interesting for its resemblance to the present Wallachians, true descendants of the ancient Dacians. This similitude between the Dacians and W allachians is not exclusively confined to the cast of features nor to the costume, since we see on the reliefs of the column of Trajan, decorated with episodes of his Dacian Fig. 70. DAOIAN. campaign, that even this moral character has in one respect remained the same. The Romans seem to have been peculiarly struck by tho ferocious treatment of prisoners among these Dacians; and they did not fail to represent thcDacian females, who tortured the disarmed and fettered Romans with raving brutality. The same feature recurred in the Hungarian war of 1849. Hungarian prisoners were tortured and murdered by the servile Wallachian population,-the females being always the most cruel among them. We copy the head of a Col tic Gaul [71 J from a sarcophagus found in the vineyard Ammcndola at Rome. It is characterized by a peculiar Gallic necklace (torques), and by angular expressive features. For those of our readers who are loss acquainted with the latest archreological researches we mention the fact, that the celebrated dying-Gladiator of the Capitol has been recognized to be a Celt, by Nibby 191 and by Raoul-Rochettc. Fig. 71. CELTIC GAUL. This suggests a digression. Having given the earliest effigy of a Celt, we feel bound to copy likewise the features of a Norman, in order to put the principal ancestors of the inhabitants of tho British Islands and of North America side by side. William tho Conqueror lived in times and among nations unpropitious to art: his likeness, [72] therefore, cannot be peculiarly characteristic. It is taken from 190 D~LI.OitiUS, Vetere& Arcu&, Rome, 1090, Pl. 44, "Victoria Dacica." 101 Ob&ervaziotli &opra la statu a del Gladiatore moribondo:- Bulletin univerul, VIII, 1880, Aout. ; comp~tro PLINY, XXXIV, 19-24. 12 |
