|
432 DESCRIPTION OF THE TAIL-PIECES.
and
devoid of any serious meaning, we may conjecture in this an allusion to
the restoration to the state, through the instrumentality of the
signet's owner, of some corn-producing province, Sicily or Africa, the
result of a recent victory. Early Roman. Sard.
P.
282.—Warrior twining a fillet, a customary mark of respect, around a
sepulchral column. From the cautiousness expressed in his approach on
tiptoe, it seems intended for Orestes secretly visiting the tomb of
Agamemnon. Early Greek. Sard.
P.
284.—The expiring Medusa : after the type created by Praxiteles. An
admirable imitation of the Sicilian-Greek manner ; the work of the
Italian school of the last century. Black Jasper.
P.
287.—Ajax, the gigantic, rescuing the corpse of Achilles ; his vast
sevenfold shield rests dropped upon the ground. Early Roman. Dark Sard.
P. 290.—The Sign Capricorn (horoscope of Augustus) mounted by the genius of the native, "
natale comes qui tempérât astrum." The trident he wields declares the
rule of the Sign over the waves " tyrannus Hesperiaj Capricornus undœ."
Early Roman. Sard.
P. 292.—Gallic Trophy, expressing the triumph of the Consul P. Cornelius Cethegus (b.c. 197) over the confederate Insubres and Camomanni upon the Mincio ; the confederation being denoted by the two Gallic shields en saltire. The
horse is the emblem of Gallia. This gem was engraved for the signet of
a Q. Cornelius Lupus, of the same family as the Consul, and, it may
with reason be presumed, a sharer in his victory. Roman. Sard.
(Waterton Collection.)
P. 301.—Brutus the Younger : a contemporary portrait. Sard.
P.
310.—The Great Marcellus. This portrait exactly coincides with one upon
a denarius of the gens Claudia struck in the next generation. The
shield introduced in front alludes to the spolia opima won by him from the Gallic king Viridomarus. Contemporary work. Sard.
P. 327.—Comic Mask : the moustache marks it as belonging to the character of a barbarian. Roman. Black Agate.
P.
329.—Julia Titi, as Juno, crowned with the peacock : an idea borrowed
from the primitive Egyptian mode of depicting their queens similarly
crested with the phœnicopterus. A contemporary portrait. Yellow Sard.
P.
335.—Snail-shell, whose proper inmate is replaced by an elephant in
this case, as in others by a lion, or a pigmy. Such combinations were
not mere jeux d'esprits, but amulets against the Evil Eye ; for
which end, the more unexpected and ludicrous the object, the more
effectual was it. Roman. Sard.
P. 340.—Socrates. Roman. Sardonyx.
P.
343.—Cybele : but the features are easily recognised for those of
Faustina Mater, so deified. Contemporary portrait. Red Jasper.
P. 374.—Cupid illumining with his torch and peeping into the depths of a vast Corinthian crater, containing a palm-branch : a skeleton, Ovid's
|
||
|
|
||