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Porphyrites, Porphyry

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PORPHYRITES.
ateness and high relief of the sculptures, and the invincibility of the material employed. The magnitude of the original blocks is likewise a subject for admiration. Of these monuments the principal are the Sarcophagus of the Empress Helena, in a single block, 19-1/2 palms high by 12 long (13 χ 8 ft.) of the finest texture and deepest colour. It is adorned on the two fronts with a mili­tary procession, the " Triumph of Constantine," comprising many figures on horse and foot. Busts of Helena and Constantine stand out in the highest relief, as medallions above. Placed at first in the Mausoleum of Helena (now the Torre Pignattara), it was removed thence to the Lateran by Anastatius IV., in 1154, to serve for his own tomb ; and was set close to the Porta Santa until 1600, when it fell to pieces on being removed in the course of the alterations of that Basilica. The fragments remained in the cloister until restored and placed in the Vatican Gallery by Pius VII. The restoration and repolishing of this monument occupied many hands continuously during seven years.
The second, the Sarcophagus of Constantia, daughter of Con­stantine, is of very inferior work to the preceding. Cut like that out of a single block, 11 palms long by 8 high (7-1/2 x 5-1/2 ft.), the two fronts present groups, prettily designed, of Cupids en­gaged in the vintage : below are peacocks and rams. On the ends stand boys holding up bunches of grapes in allusion to Christ's words, " 1 am the vine, ye are the branches." On ac­count of these sculptures it was known during the Middle Ages as " La Tomba di Bacco," and remained uninjured in its original site within the sepulchral chapel of Sta. Costanza, until transferred by Pius VII. to the Vatican. A copy in plaster occupies its ancient place in the Mausoleum. Small pieces of Porphyry, selected for their peculiarly bright colour, were occasionally engraved upon by the later Romans, but merely as talismanic intagli, and similar devices making no pretensions to art.
The ingenuity of Eenaissance gem-engravers, however, has availed itself of this substance : there is in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence an excellent head of Leo X., an intaglio on a large circular seal, set in iron after the manner of a coin-die, and designed to impress the leaden bulls of that pontiff.
The art by which the Bomans worked these vast masses with
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