First, let the visitor notice, placed in front of the third pilaster,
a celebrated copy of the statue of Praxiteles, of Cupid bending his
bow. This celebrated copy is four feet, three and a half inches, in
height. It arrived in this country originally as a present to Edmund
Burke, from Rome, by Barry, the painter. Numerous copies of this Cupid
exist, and the one before the visitor is not the best.
In this compartment or division, the visitor should also remark
several sepulchral urns with figures in relief. Amid other sepulchral
monuments are, an altar inscribed by Annia Augustalis, to the manes of
M. Clodius, his brother Felix, and to Tyrannus; and a bas-relief
discovered near the mausoleum of Augustus, representing a Muse
standing before a dramatic poet. Hereabouts also the visitor should
notice an altar, ornamented with bas-reliefs, dedicated by Aurelius
Timotheus to Diana; a small figure of Neptune from Athens; a veiled
Ceres bearing a torch, from Athens; a draped Muse in terra cotta
holding a lyre; and a cippus, with a representation of Silenus riding
a panther. On turning to the lower shelf, the visitor will at once be
struck with the sarcophagi. Here are three Etruscan sarcophagi, two of
alabaster, and one in peperino. On all three are recumbent female
figures, and in front of the first the hunt of the Calydonian boar; of
the second, Scylla; and of the third, a bas-relief representing
Achilles dragging Penthesilea from her chariot. On this shelf also
are, a bas-relief showing Luna encompassed by the signs of the Zodiac,
and a sun-dial supported by the claws and heads of lions. Turning now
to the upper shelf, the visitor should examine the bas-reliefs
deposited thereon. Upon the first, the visitor will notice a funeral
car, shaped like a temple drawn by four horses, with Jupiter and the
Dioscuri on the sides of the car; upon the second, the bas-relief
represents Ulysses and Diomedes detecting Achilles disguised as a
female among the daughters of Lycomedes; and the subject of the third
relief is a marriage in the presence of Juno Pronuba, showing the
bridegroom taking the bride's hand, and holding the marriage contract.
Having glanced at these objects, the visitor's way lies forward to the