“The Musæo Borbonico (as it is now called) contains all the most choice
and valued works of art and objects of interest which the excavations at
Herculaneum and Pompeii have brought to light. To this we repaired on
the day following our visit to Pompeii, to follow up our researches into
the details of these most interesting discoveries. Here we saw the
golden ornaments found upon the skeletons in the house of Diomede, as
before mentioned, and many others also. One pair of bracelets weighed a
pound each. As for the workmanship, all that was said of the Etruscan
golden ornaments is substantially true of the Pompeian. The ladies of
these cities were certainly well provided with costly jewelry, both of
pure gold and of the same metal set with precious stones. There was one
ribbon of wrought gold. Ring stones and brooches without number are
preserved here, and among the cameos in agate, are the largest as well
as the smallest and most exquisite of these elaborate works of art ever
found. Many of the latter can be appreciated only when examined under a
strong magnifier.
“Utensils in earthen ware are abundant, but porcelain seems to have been
unknown to the Romans. Blown and molded glass of various forms and
colors, and designed for various uses, is also common. Pickle jars and
olive jars, still retaining their preserved fruits in good condition,
were found, and others contained cosmetics or colors. One elegant vase,
of the color of =lapis lazuli=, has figures in white enamel cut on its
sides, reminding us of the celebrated Portland vase. The Romans seldom
employed iron for culinary purposes, but almost every vessel of this
description was fashioned from bronze. A very extensive collection is
found in this museum, reproducing nearly all our modern metallic vessels
both of utility and ornament. They are generally elegant in form, and
are often ornamented with artistic designs, especially in the attachment
of the spouts, handles, feet or other prominent parts. They are
generally also in a remarkable state of preservation, being for the most
part merely covered by a thin coating of greenish rust, easily removed.
Sometimes, however, they are corroded through and through with holes.
Among the bronze vessels in the collection is one showing that the
Romans were well acquainted with the modern device of a heater to keep
liquids hot in a large vessel. It is quite on the model of the coffee
urn of our day. They also employed, as is evident, steam and hot water
to keep dishes hot; for there is a very pretty affair in bronze, like a
shallow pan, to hold water, set on legs, with a fire beneath, and
provided with valves for the escape of steam.
“Among the objects most frequently found in Pompeii are fishing-nets and
tackle, showing the habits of the people in this particular to be
similar to those of the modern towns of the same coast, although now
Pompeii is a mile from the sea. The iron rings in the walls for
fastening vessels were also found, and prove still more conclusively the
accumulations in seventeen hundred years. Two vases were discovered in
Pompeii full of water; in one it was tasteless and limpid, and in the
other brown and alkaline. Among the things preserved in the buried
cities were walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, dates, dried figs, prunes,
corn, oil, peas, lentils, pies and hams. Papyri were found in large
numbers, but the rolls were blackened, as were the timber and the corn,
as vegetables are by inhumation in coal beds. Beside the pickles, and
olives, and roe of fish, already mentioned, we saw in a glass globe, in
this part of the museum, wheat, and barley also, blackened by age and
dampness. The loaves of bread, bearing the baker’s stamp, which were
found in the shop already named, are singularly perfect, showing
distinctly the lines of quartering in which the loaf was designed to be
cut.
“The works of art found in Herculaneum are in general much better than
those from Pompeii, and every external sign proves it to have been a
town of more refinement and wealth than its neighbor. Numerous statues
in bronze and marble have been collected from these cities, and a large
hall in the museum is devoted to their exhibition. Many are
mythological, but busts and statues of the several emperors are also
common. One bronze horse, considerably injured and corroded, has been
found, and an admirable bronze Hercules. The candelabra were numerous
and elegant. One we observed fitted to take apart for the convenience of
traveling; its sliding rod drops into a case or sheath, and the tripod
foot folds together as snugly as the wing of a bird. A very beautiful
candelabrum, taken from the house of Diomede, has a basis formed of a
small flat table of bronze standing upon feet. It is elegantly inlaid
with silver in the form of a running vine and of leaves; some portions
have been burnished, to give an idea of its original beauty. A
perpendicular rod rises three feet in hight, and supports a cross upon
which are suspended four lamps. All the parts are preserved; and were
this tasteful candelabrum put in order and burnished, it would be a fine
form for our modern artists to copy, who, indeed, often profit by
ancient models.
“The Roman steelyards had a scale suspended so as to receive the thing
to be weighed, and the weight slid, as with us, upon a graduated beam;
in one the counterpoise is fashioned into an elegant female head. There
is a collection of surgical instruments, some of them very similar to
those used at the present day. Iron probes, iron teeth extractors,
elevators for the operation of trepanning, a cauterizing iron, lancets,
catheters, amputating instruments, spatulas and obstetric forceps. Along
with these things are rolls of the apothecary, ready to be divided into
_pills_. The articles of the _toilet_ are abundant; pins of ivory in
large numbers and great variety for the hair; combs, curling-tongs,
boxes for perfumes and rouge, which is preserved in a small glass
bottle; mirrors of metal, small, but sufficient for a lady’s face, and
reflectors, to be used probably in a position to give seasonable notice
of the approach of a visitor from the vestibule, similar to the
arrangement now common in Holland and Germany. Numerous small objects
attracted our attention, among which were the ivory dice, and tickets of
bone or ivory for admission to the theater, marked and numbered. Musical
instruments were common; among them numerous flutes or flageolets,
prepared from bone. Numerous bronze penates, truly =dii minores=, often
less than a finger’s length in hight, some partly finished, are to be
seen in the museum at Naples.
“There is an apartment here, finished in the style of an ancient Roman
house. This is in the extreme end of one of the long suites of rooms.
The sky-blue panels have each, in the center, a female figure, volant or
quiet; the upper part of the side walls, and of the dome, is divided
into compartments, which are decorated by colored lines and forms of
great beauty, the entire effect of which is charming. The eye delights
to dwell upon them, and would never be tired, because the beauty,
although exquisite, is simple and tasteful. We saw in the museum, as
already mentioned, the helmet and skull of the Roman sentinel found at
his post in the city gate at Pompeii, with his short sword by his side;
there, too, was the complete armor of a Roman knight with a decorated
and crested helmet, with figures embossed upon the breast-plate, and the
coverings of the arms and limbs. We must not forget the iron stocks for
punishment. A bar of iron or bronze of great weight had metallic
projections standing upward, between which the feet were placed, and
secured by a cross pin. It does not appear that the head was pinioned,
as in modern times; but we could well understand how the feet of the
apostles were rendered lame by confinement in the Roman stocks.
“The hall of ancient sculpture, chiefly from Pompeii and Herculaneum,
with some figures from Rome, powerfully attracted our attention. These
sculptures, usually of full size, and sometimes colossal, are very fine.
Excellent, manly forms, and noble, elevated features of men, and of
women, worthy of such companions, with great variety of characteristic
attitude, and in general, in full costume, served to convey to us, as we
may believe, a very perfect idea of the personal appearance of Roman
citizens of that age. The family of Balbus found in Herculaneum, is
particularly interesting. It is composed of the father, a noble figure,
the mother, equally impressive, and sons and daughters worthy of such
parentage. Their features are calm and mild. It is a most interesting
group, and in perfect preservation. The moral and intellectual
expression of the figures in these rooms—through a long series of
apartments and a host of figures—is as various as that of living people.
“It is convenient to introduce here a notice of the Farnesian bull; for
this inimitable piece of sculpture is in this place, although it was not
found interred in Pompeii or Herculaneum, but buried among the ruins of
the baths of Caracalla. A large bull, of perfect and beautiful form, is
rearing upon his hind legs, as if about to bound away in his course; but
this he is prevented from doing, as he is powerfully held by the horns
and the nose by two resolute, athletic young men, one on each side, who
have him in such durance that his massive neck is wrinkled in large
folds, as he turns his head backward in his efforts to escape from their
grasp. The cause of the struggle becomes apparent, when we glance at a
fine female form recumbent, and see that her abundant tresses are
interwoven with the strands of a rope which is noosed around the horns
of the bull, and it flashes at once on the mind, that should the
maddened animal escape from his keepers, she will be quickly torn in
pieces. Her noble sons have, in a critical moment, sprung forward to her
rescue, and are just able to arrest her impending fate. Filial love
proves to be stronger than disapprobation of an imputed fault, for which
their mother was to have been immolated by this horrible death. In such
a crisis we are not careful to balance the moral question: we
instinctively applaud the filial piety, and do not ask for the spirit of
Brutus. This wonderful group was sculptured out of a single block of
marble of nine feet eight inches by thirteen feet, by Appollonius and
Tauriscus, two artists in Greece, from which country it was brought, to
grace the baths of Caracalla. It is truly wonderful that such a
ponderous mass, embracing so many figures, could be brought over seas,
from a distant country, to Rome, and again be transported from that city
to Naples, without injury, after being buried for fifteen centuries in
the baths of Caracalla.