THEPORTRAIT GALLERYOF THECRYSTAL PALACE.

THEPORTRAIT GALLERYOF THECRYSTAL PALACE.BYSAMUEL PHILLIPS.SealCRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY;ANDBRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON.1854.

BYSAMUEL PHILLIPS.

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CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY;ANDBRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON.1854.

BRADBURY AND EVANS,PRINTERS TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY,WHITEFRIARS.

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The object of the following pages is to extract from the valuable collection of Statues and Busts, that will be found adorning the vast area of the Crystal Palace, some of the interest and instruction which such works, if properly addressed, are certain to yield. Man looks at his own image with a more feeling curiosity than he regards the architectural remains of a city, however ancient, or of any structure, however beautiful. The broad brow of the poet whose works we have read, or the martial air of the soldier whose deeds we have heard, excite an instant desire for more intimate acquaintance with the men; and such acquaintance can never be formed without lasting advantage to all who are susceptible of instruction.

The limits of the present small volume have prevented my doing more than record, as briefly as I might, the salient points in the characters of the various personages whose statues and busts constitute the Portrait Gallery of the Crystal Palace; but I trust sufficient has been done to throw a little light upon the various features which the visitor will contemplate on his pleasant journey, and to indicate, however indistinctly, the universal path which, in life itself, leads to all true greatness. A portrait gallery exhibits the men who have worked their way to eminence. Biography teaches how they travelled the difficult and thorny road.

The collection of Statues and Busts in the Crystal Palace is necessarily imperfect; but it begins with a goodly array. It is the intention of the Directors to extend and, as far as the nature of the subject allows, complete it; and there can be no doubt that we have already the elements of one of the finest portrait galleries in Europe.

I desire in this place to express my thanks to my friend M. Regnier, the eminent French comedian, to whose kindness I am indebted for much information in connexion with the French busts. I am also anxious to acknowledge the services of my assistant, Mr. Shenton, who, under severe pressure, has rendered me great help in the collecting and verifying of our interesting materials.

SAMUEL PHILLIPS.

Crystal Palace,June, 1854.

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Portraiture is associated with the earliest attempts at representing living objects, both in sculpture and in painting. Even amongst savages we find resemblances, carved or painted, or both, of the human form, generally grotesque, but always presenting an idea of Art. With the advance of civilization, the demand for portraits increased, as the knowledge of the means available for painting and sculpture improved. Men in authority, or possessed of great wealth, or renowned by deeds of arms and feats of strength, became the first subjects for the art.

That the Egyptians early practised portrait-painting, is evident from the discovery of mural sculpture, at a date anterior to the time of Rameses, representing painters delineating men and animals, and sculptors carving out of granite the very figures reproduced in another material, in the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace. Herodotus records the fact that Amasis sent his portrait painted on wood to Cyrene as a present; and some portraits of this kind were found in the tombs at Thebes. On comparing the heads of Rameses and Amenoph, several of which are to be seen in the Egyptian court, the individuality of each is at once perceived. Rameses has an aquiline nose and thin lips, while Amenoph has the turned-up nose and thick lips of the African.

In Clarac’s “Musée de Sculpture,” are collected many accurate engravings of the portraits of the Egyptians contained in the Louvre, which, according to this authority, are all verified, as many as eighty-six of them having their names attached. In the Imperial Library, at Paris, there is a collection of a hundred Chinese portraits of great antiquity. They were brought fromChina by the well-known Jesuit missionary, Père Ameot. Pauthier, author of a History of China, refers to these portraits, and considers them to be those of celebrated men and women living at a period long anterior to Confucius.

Croesus, King of Lydia, had the image of his baking woman set up in gold: and Herodotus has preserved the names of two Argive youths, Biton and Cleobis, who for their piety in drawing their mother, the priestess of Juno, to the temple, when the oxen for her car in a great solemnity did not arrive, had their statues placed by their countrymen at Delphi.

To the Greeks, indeed, we owe the finest examples of portraits in Sculpture. Their temples, forums, and other public places, as well as their private dwellings, were ornamented with the busts and statues of heroes, kings, poets, orators, and others distinguished by their achievements. Many of these examples have fortunately been rescued from destruction, and preserved to the present time.

The Romans, although not themselves, either by the gift of Heaven, or by their own tastes, artists, were great patrons of art. Many a rich Roman citizen had the court of his house converted into a kind of forum, which he adorned with his favourite portrait statues. From the precious ruins of Ancient Rome—from her temples, palaces, villas—countless statues and busts have been dug out. Her tombs also were furnished with portraits, busts, and statues, recumbent, or in other postures.

In all times, and in all countries, we note a desire to perpetuate the memory of the dead; and the pious as well as humane intention was carried out in various ways. The Egyptians enclosed their mummies in wooden and stone cases, carved and painted in order to resemble, more or less, the inhabitant within. The tombs of Etruria are usually surmounted by a half recumbent statue, which although but rudely representing the features and attitude of life, clearly reveal the intention to produce a portrait of the deceased person, but never—which became the custom in after ages—as though he were dead.

From the employment of sculptured portraits upon the monuments of the dead, and from the use of other images in the funeral rites, such representations came to be called “busts,” from the Latin wordBustum, signifying a tomb, or rather place where the burning of the body took place. Since the majority of persons could not afford a statue, the less expensive memorial, consisting of the head and shoulders, was the more generally adopted; and hence the name now current amongst us.

Portraits played a still more important part in the economy of the ancient Romans. Images, or rather masks, made in wax and representing their ancestors, were kept by the Romans in the vestibules of their houses, placed in cases formed like temples, and there constantly exposed to the notice of the family and of visitors. When a member of the family died, these masks were worn by the friends who assisted at the funeral, as were the dresses and robes of office belonging to the ancestors whom they personated. After the ceremony, the images were faithfully restored to their sanctuaries in the vestibule.

Another use of portraiture was originally peculiar to the Greeks, but it became subsequently adopted by other nations. We refer to the practice of painting upon a metal shield the portraits of a family—often with the father in the centre—and of hanging it up as sacred to the gods. There are similar portraits extant, interracotta, of Demosthenes in exile at Calauria, and of Thales. The ancients also painted portraits on wood in encaustic, and some portraits formed in mosaic still exist.

In proportion to the growth of luxury, and to the development of the arts, do we find the increased employment of portraiture. Every kind of work was decorated with a portrait. This was especially the usage of the Greeks under the successors of Alexander, at Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamus; and with the Romans, towards the close of the Republic, and under the Emperors.

Engraved stones of seals and rings are exceedingly valuable in enabling us to identify antique busts and statues; their hardness having preserved them from injury. Very frequently they give the impression of being most accurate portraits. In the Greek Court is a large collection of casts of these extremely interesting works, which merit careful examination. Many of the heads are wonderfully beautiful—far surpassing in execution any similar work of the present time.

In like manner the portraits upon coins, being connected with writing, have been most useful in contributing to the knowledge and naming of antique busts and statues. Of these illustrations also, the visitor is enabled to study a very complete series from very early times.

The universal taste for portraiture exhibited by the ancients, and the encouragement to art which the vast wealth of many enabled them to afford, soon led to the formation of a gallery of portraits in every house of importance. Such a gallery contained portraits, both sculptured and painted, of great men in art, science, letters, and arms, and was called “ThePinacotheca.” The desire to render such a collection as complete as possible, led to the production of an infinite number of copies from those originally taken from the life: just as with us, houses are adorned with plaster-casts of the busts of Wellington, Shakspeare, and Milton.

It will now be understood how it has happened that so large a number of portrait-busts have remained to us from antiquity. Unless they had been multiplied in the manner described, the acts of ignorance and the accidents of time would have effaced all record of the features and aspect of the good and great in ancient story. Most of the works, executed in metal, were melted down and converted into money. One valuable mine, however, was happily discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum, completely preserved, and was removed to the Museum at Naples, where it still exists. Of several, so recovered, we possess fine copies in the Crystal Palace.

During the reign of Hadrian in Rome (A.D.120), art enjoyed a revival—a Medicean period. A multitude of works of every kind were produced, and portraiture was carried to its height through the very zealous loyalty to which sculptors gave way, in their desire to flatter their imperial and magnificent patron, by representing the members of his family as so many gods and goddesses. The like encouragement was afforded under the dominion of Antoninus Pius (A.D.140), and his adopted son, Marcus Aurelius; followed, unfortunately, by the destructive propensities of the odious Commodus, who would have limited portraiture to the representation of his own face.

We see the first efforts of portraiture in Christian art, in the representations—sculptured and painted—of saints in the earlyages of the faith. Some examples of these will be found in the Byzantine and Mediæval Courts. A certain conventional form was adhered to in all these works, in which we remark especially a general elongation of the face and features, as if the aim had been to impress upon them the natural effects of emaciation from penance and fasting, the body and limbs being also subjected to the same treatment. The eyes are always almond-shaped, half closed, and sloping upwards from the nose. The portraits of Justinian, Theodora, Nicephorus, and Charles the Bald, on the façade of the Byzantine Court, bear evidence of their authenticity.

In forming our idea of an individual portrait painted in the early Christian period, we must never forget to allow for the formalities by which an artist of that time was inexorably directed. Statues and pictures were then produced (as indeed they are to this day by the monks of Mount Athos,) in accordance with rule and system—a sort of holy heraldry. At the time of which we now speak, we trace no general and popular use of portraits, such as we observed amongst the ancients, although they were still to be found in the hands of the most wealthy and cultivated. These were of an expensive kind, in mosaic and in miniature painting, the latter style being frequently employed when a valuable manuscript or missal was copied for presentation, and a portrait of the author or donor was usually painted upon it.

Mediæval portraiture shows a considerable advance upon the Byzantine, but is still inferior to the antique and to the portraiture of our own time. It was confined, almost exclusively, to monumental effigies, in which the artist was constrained to present the lifeless form, in the stiffness of very death—whether sleeping the sleep of eternal peace, or kneeling in the attitude of prayer. Some of the finest examples are to be seen in the Mediæval Court: of these more than one are doubtless portrait-statues of the time. The same may be said of some of the effigies of the Knights Templar, which exhibit great individuality, having been executed in a very hard kind of marble, that has well retained the features originally carved out of it. Busts of this period are exceedingly rare; inasmuch as portraiture of the kind was not in accordance with the religious feeling of the age. We must be content to take the effigies of mediæval art as portraits of the time; treated, ofcourse, after certain conventionalities, but nevertheless truthful and most interesting.

The art of portraiture revived under the creative genius of Giotto and Orcagna, and of the great men of theRenaissance—Domenico Ghirlandaio and Giovanni Bellini—until it reached the highest dignity and beauty in the superb works of the mightiest of the mighty Italians—Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Titian. The most remarkable portraits of this period are paintings, and are therefore not to be found in large numbers in the Crystal Palace. In the beautiful gallery, however, of copies from the old masters, will be found several fine examples. In the Renaissance and Mediæval Courts, will be seen some of the statues from the tombs of Maximilian and Albert of Saxony—the finest portrait-statues of their kind. In the Italian Court, too, there are the immortal monumental statues of the Medici, and a superb bust of Cosmo de’ Medici by the inimitable Cellini.

The antique statues and busts described in the following pages are from

The Vatican, at Rome,The Capitoline Museum,The Naples Museum,The Florence Gallery,The Louvre,The Berlin Museum,The British Museum.

ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ.

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[28]1.Homer.Great Epic Poet of Greece.

[Born, probablyB.C.850. Place of birth unknown.]

A majestic antique Bust. The kingly and venerated Patriarch of all Poets, for the western civilization—or, the sound of a Name! The two wonderful poems which bear down this name—whatever signifying—through the lapse and revolutions of time, preserve, as it were, the image of an extinct world: although of a world, perhaps less than half real, and more than half ideal:—for the mannerswere: the persons and events may, or may not have been: and the gods and goddesses of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” were, we know, only a believed-in, waking dream. But, by the potency of the song, the picture lives! The war, imaginary or no, raging between the Hellespont and thefoot of Mount Ida, remains, to the educated memory of the nations, like the beginning—if not of the world’s, yet of its western half’s—history. And those heroes and heroines, with their high actions and their deep passions—the unrolling, embroidered web of their fortunes and fates:—the king of men, Agamemnon,—the swift-footed son of the sea-goddess, Achilles,—-the sage, long-lived Nestor,—the shrewd, enduring Ulysses,—Ajax, a tower in the fight,—Diomed, favoured of Minerva present beside him in the storm of spears;—and that grey-headed, imperial sire of Troy, with all his falling sons, Priam,—the gallant and good Hector,—the loving and faithful Andromache,—the aged, too fruitful mother, Hecuba;—even the fatal and criminal, but divinely beautiful Helen—Is it not a strange magic that dwells in the creative thought of the poet, and in his modulated words, and that thus, in a language, and with manners, a faith, an age—all so long since dead and gone—can, as if reviving all, render those Shadows, to us—now, here—the earliest objects of a wondering and aspiring enthusiasm:—the first enkindlers in our bosoms of that glowing, intense, comprehensive, and intelligent sympathy, which transports us out of the central self, and beyond the close-drawn horizon of our own particular life, to feel the conditions and to understand the spirits of all our fellow men? Let the theory be true, which denies to these incomparable works an individual author—which supposes them woven together of many songs, first sung in many places, by many singers; let the benignly august, fillet-bound head before us, be—that which only at last it can be—a conjecture of the Grecian chisel;—we see at least here how the consummated art of sculpture has chosen to express, in corporeal form, the one soul of power which animates those immortal twins of poesy. We see in what shape of a human head, crowned with its own irradiations, the fountains of all song might have sprang. We see what the living and wandering minstrel of Greece, beloved and honoured wheresoever, in hall or on green, he and his harp came,—what the individual Homer, for whose birth seven cities contended, and whom in the after-day the land numbered amongst her half-divine and worshipped heroes—WOULD HAVE BEEN:—or,WAS!

[Although modern antiquaries agree with Pliny that busts of Homer are apocryphal, yet there can be no doubt this is the true Greek conventional portrait of that poet. A headless marble was dug up inscribed with his name and shortly afterwards the head itself was found in the same hole, and it fitted precisely to the marble previously discovered. The bust, so found, is now in the Naples Museum. The same head is constantly found in other representations of the ancient poet. The head is bound with the “strophium,” an ornament given by the Greek artists to their gods and heroes. The attitude of the head would seem to express the blindness with which Homer, according to tradition, was afflicted. This bust is from the marble in the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitoline Museum, Rome.]

[28]The objects forming the Portrait Gallery in the Crystal Palace, are numbered in red figures throughout.

2.Archilochus.Greek Poet.

[Born at Paros, aboutB.C.700. Killed in battle, aboutB.C.635]

A satirical poet of great renown, whose acrid pen spared neither friend nor foe. A writer also of licentious verse. Fragments only of his compositions have come down to us. To him is attributed the invention of the Iambic measure, and he shares with Thaletas and Terpander the honour of establishing lyric poetry in Greece. The victors in the Olympic games were accustomed to sing one of his hymns in their triumphal procession. The countenance of his statue denotes impudent boldness.

[The two early poets united: a mode of portraiture adopted by the Greek artists when two celebrated men were of the same country, and of kindred pursuits, as Herodotus and Thucydides, parallel historians; Metrodorus and Epicurus, philosophers of the same sect (seeNo. 20). This double terminal or Janus was found at Rome on the Celian Hill: it is now in the Vatican. The ends of the noses are modern, as are some other parts in the Homer. That portraits of Archilochus existed so long after his death is proved by the existence of an inscription in the Analecta of Thucydides written for his portrait.]

2A.Homer.Great Epic Poet of Greece.

[For life seeNo. 1.]

3.Æsop.Writer of Fables.

[Born in Phrygia, aboutB.C.620. Died aboutB.C.560.]

The reputed author of the fables to which his name has been for centuries attached. According to the general account, he was originally a slave, and gained much notice for his wit, and especially for his talent of communicating useful maxims in the form of apologues. His talent procured him favour at the court of Crœsus. He is said to have been thrown from the top of a rock and killed, by the priests of Delphi. His fables, at first preserved by tradition, were at a later period converted into Greek and Latin verse by Babrias and Phædrus. We have them in Greek prose, told naturally and in the utmost simplicity. In stature Æsop is described as small and hump-backed, with a prominent stomach and pointed head, yet the intellectual expression of his countenance is not that usually given to dwarfs.

[From the very remarkable half-figure in marble in the Villa Albani, at Rome; the whole of which is of great antiquity. It has been maintained that Æsop was not deformed, inasmuch as the circumstance is not mentioned by writers, before the time of the Greek monk, Planudes Maximus. There are, however, traditions affirming his deformity, and Plutarch, in his Feast of the Sages, makes him sit upon a low stool at the feet of Solon. The countenance has a thoughtful and elevated expression. Lysippus sculptured the portrait of Æsop to be placed amongst the sages of Greece at Athens. Phædrus refers to this work, and the celebrity of the man is fixed by the fact that the court sculptor of Alexander employed himself upon his statue.]

4.Homer.Great Epic Poet of Greece.

[From the marble. Once in the Capitoline Museum; now in the Louvre.]

5.Epimenidies.Poet and Prophet of Crete.

[Flourished aboutB.C.596]

St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus (i. 12) is supposed to allude to Epimenides. But little more than his name and existence are known, apart from tradition. AboutB.C.596, he was invited to Athens, in order to stay the plague brought upon the city by an impious outrage committed by Cylon, one of the Athenian rulers, on the altars of the Acropolis. Succeeding in arresting the pestilence, he augmented his already great fame—but he refused any other reward beyond the goodwill of the Athenians in favour of the inhabitants of Gnossus, where he dwelt. He was a native of Crete.

[From the marble in the Vatican. One of the conventional portraits of the ancient Greek poets. The closed eyes are to represent the sleep which tradition says he fell into for fifty-seven years.]

6.Æschylus.Tragic Poet.

[Born at Eleusis, in Greece,B.C.525. Died at Gela, in Sicily,B.C.456. Aged 69.]

The founder of Greek tragedy as it existed in its greatness. He introduceda second actor upon the scene, and gave dramatic interest to his act, by rendering dialogue the most important element in the play. He improved the masks and dresses of the actors, and raised the character of the choral dances. The scenes painted under his direction were, it is said, the first in which the idea of perspective was maintained. Sublimity and magnificence characterize the style of his tragedies, in which the action and plot, with an unparalleled simplicity of structure, move on, in commanding and stern strength, to their catastrophe; supported by grand imagery, with diction wrested to the height of energy and solemn passion. The characters drawn by Æschylus are as lofty as the language which they speak. We almost yearn for the simple voice of Nature as we listen to the sustained thunder-tone of this great master. His mind seems ever attuned for discourse with the Gods; yet in the “Prometheus,” though dealing with a demigod, he describes with awful power, human suffering and human passion in its saddest and most thrilling aspect. The family of Æschylus were remarkable for their valour, and he himself fought bravely at Marathon and Salamis. He was an actor in his own plays.

[From the marble in Stanza dei Filosofi, of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]

7.Sophocles.Tragic Poet.

[Born at Colonus, in Attica, aboutB.C.495. Died probably at Athens,B.C.405. Aged 90.]

In Sophocles, Æschylus found a rival and a conqueror. When Cimon (B.C.468) returned from the Isle of Scyros, with the ashes of Theseus, the first play of Sophocles (“Triptolemus”) was preferred to the composition of Æschylus, who in chagrin retired to Sicily. From this time Sophocles stood alone, until he, in his turn, met a successful rival in Euripides. In 440, he produced “Antigone,” for its calm beauty, and the pure picture of heroic, feminine self-devotion, one of the finest antique tragedies extant, and the occasion of his promotion through the favour of Pericles. In the person of Sophocles was represented the ideal of Greek perfection. He was very beautiful; he excelled in gymnastics, music, and dancing; in temperament he was calm and contented; in disposition kind and cheerful; he had a ready wit, a serene piety, and intellectual grandeur. His tragedies have an advantage over those of Æschylus, in being essentially human; they appeal to the feelings of an auditory, and are written in a less magniloquent style than that of the sublime father of Greek tragedy,—to whom, however, Sophocles lay under the obligations of a pupil to his instructor. Both are profound masters of their art.

[This bust is from the Capitoline Museum, and is identified by another in the Vatican—found in 1778—on which all the letters of the name remained, except the SO. It was for a long time calledPindar,* because of the inscription; Bottari has proved it to be Sophocles, whom it completely resembles. Compare the Lateran statue, No. 325, standing in the great Transept, near the monument of Lysicrates.]

*.Pindar.Greek Poet.

[Born probably at Thebes, aboutB.C.522. Died there, aboutB.C.442. Aged about 80 years.]

The most famous lyric poet of Greece. Sent at an early age to Athens, he became the pupil of Lasus. He sung the victors in the Olympic, Nemæan, Pythian, and Isthmian games,—the great festivals of assembled Greece. Forty-five of these odes of triumph are all that have descended tous; they are characterized by great boldness of style, spirit, and trumpet-toned enthusiasm, but the brilliant diction does not escape obscurity; and the modern student often follows with difficulty the excursive wing of “The Theban Eagle,” through the wide regions of Hellenic mythology. Pindar’s earliest extant work was written in his twentieth year. He is described as a man of strong religious feelings, and a devout worshipper of the gods.

8.Æschines.Greek Orator.

[Born in Attica, aboutB.C.389. Died in the Isle of Samos,B.C.314. Aged about 75.]

One of the greatest Greek orators. Was at the battle of Mantineia (B.C.362), and distinguished himself at the battle of Tamynæ in Eubœa (B.C.358). Afterwards entered into political life, and became a partizan of Philip of Macedonia. Accompanied Demosthenes on two embassies to Philip, and was accused by Demosthenes of betraying the interests of the state to that monarch. The speech of his accuser and his own admirable defence are extant. His last great public act was the prosecution of Gtesiphon for illegally proposing to present Demosthenes with a golden crown for his services to the state. Demosthenes defended the accused, and the speeches of the two orators delivered on this occasion are also preserved. The prosecution failing, Æschines at once went into exile (B.C.330). As a popular leader and orator worthy to be called the rival of Demosthenes. He lacked the vehement passion and powerful invective of that consummate master, but his lucid arrangement, his facility and perspicuity, have never been surpassed.

[For an account of this statue, so long called Aristides,* see Handbook to Roman Court and Nave, No. 326.]

*.Aristides.Athenian Patriot.

[Born (uncertain). Died aboutB.C.468.]

His unbending integrity procured him the title of “The Just.” Was at the battle of Marathon (B.C.480), where he fought bravely. Opposed to the extreme democratical party in Athens, headed by Themistocles, by whose influence he was banished (aboutB.C.483). He was still in exile at the time of the sea-fight of Salamis (B.C.482), but he raised a band, and fought for his country in this battle. Recalled by the Athenians from banishment, and commanded their army at the battle of Platæa (B.C.479). His sense of justice spotless: his self-denial unimpeachable. At his death he was very poor, although he had borne the highest offices of the State. The Athenians became more virtuous from the contemplation of this bright example. It is related that in the representation of one of the tragedies of Æschylus, a sentence was uttered in favour of moral goodness. The eyes of the audience turned involuntarily and at once from the actor to Aristides.

9.Euripides.Greek Poet.

[Born at Salamis,B.C.480. Died in Macedonia,B.C.406. Aged 74.]

The father of Euripides, putting his own interpretation upon the oracle which promised that his son should be crowned with “sacred garlands,” had him carefully trained in gymnastic exercises, and whilst yet a boy Euripides won the prize at the Eleusinian and Thesean games. But the lad was soon allured from physical sports, by the fascinations of philosophy and literature. He became the ardent pupil and friend of the philosopher Anaxagoras, and the instruction thus derived is visible in many of his productions. At theage of 18, Euripides wrote his first tragedy. He gained the first prizeB.C.441, and continued to exhibit his plays until within two years of his death. He died in Macedonia, and is said to have been torn in pieces by the dogs of the Macedonian king. Twenty of his plays are extant. Like Anaxagoras, Euripides was of a serious temper, and averse to mirth. He was intimate with Socrates, and the contemporary of Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides, Pindar, Aristophanes, Æschylus, and Sophocles. To assign him his poetical rank we must look back. In the three great Attic tragedians we trace a natural progress of their theatre. In Æschylus, the stage appears attracted with predominant force to the high mythological ideas which it arose to embody: the muse stalks sublimely above the heads of men. In Sophocles, the art tempers and adjusts, with admirable equipoise, the superhuman and the human element; the spirits and hearts of men are more closely approached by the poet, still overshadowed by the heroic and the divine. In Euripides, although the story which he represents is still drawn from the same source of divine and heroic fable, the sympathy with passions, events, interests, and sufferings, incident to humanity, prevails in excess. With him, amidst strewings of beautiful poetry, and whilst penetrated with strokes of singular pathos, we too much feel that we step on our own daily and common earth. We miss the elevation of an art which should, in reflecting ourselves, lift us above ourselves: as we have experience in our own Shakspeare. Sophocles said that “he himself represented men as they ought to be, but Euripides as they are.”

[This bust is verified by another in the Louvre, and one in the Naples Museum, which has the name of Euripides engraved on the breast. There is also a cameo of exceeding beauty in the Louvre, on which we find the same head. Portraits of Euripides were common at Athens, and even as late as the 5th century his statues were to be seen at Constantinople. A small seated statue of Euripides will be found in the Bas-relief Gallery, No. 215. It is inscribed with his name, and has a list of his plays, upon the slab which supports the statue. See Handbook to Greek Court, No. 215.]

10.Aratus.Astronomer.

[Flourished aboutB.C.270.]

A fellow-countryman of St. Paul, who quotes one of his works in his address to the Athenians. Called to the Court of Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia. He there pursued physics, grammar, and philosophy. He also versified two astronomical treatises by Eudoxus. There are many errors with much want of precision in the descriptive portions of these works, proving the poet to have been neither a mathematician nor an acute observer. As a poet, Aratus was hardly more eminent. He is wanting in originality and poetic feeling; yet his verses obtained popularity both in Greece and Rome.

[The well known head, representing, as it is supposed, the Poet of the Stars, in the attitude of viewing the heavens. The same head is found on medals, of which the best is preserved in the Hunterian Museum of the College of Surgeons, London.]

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