Τόν ὁ ἐπὶ πήχει ἑλὼν εἶλκεν νευρὴν γλυφίδας τε Ἰὸς χαλκοβαρής. Homer's Odyssey, B. xxx. in calce. Now is this the unpropitious morning come which will force me from the palace of Ulysses, now therefore I will propose a contest: for (as I well remember) he standing at a great distance shot his arrow through the battleaxes, which he had arranged in order by sixes in their standing holes, all twelve as firm as if fixed in oak. Now, therefore, I will propose this contest to the suitors, and he who shall draw the bow most easily with his hands, and shall send the arrow through [i. e. between] all the twelve axes, I will follow together with him, having left this house of my youth, very beautiful, replete with all manner of provision, which I hope haply I may remember sometimes in my dreams. But prudent Ulysses answering, said, O venerated wife of Ulysses, the son of Laërtes, now no longer defer this contest in the palace; for prudent Ulysses shall come hither before ever these [suitors] bending this wellstringed bow, shall both draw the string and send the arrow through [between] the iron [heads].-B. XIX. the end. And taking this in his arm he drew the cord to the notch, and thence having displaced it from its seat, he shot the arrow, having taken a direct aim, and missed not any of the axes at the first discharge, but the brazen arrow went right between and through [διὰ δ ̓ ἀμπερὲς] out at the other side.-B. xxx. l. Yours, &c. H. C. HAMILTON. THE PORTLAND VASE, AND THE SARCOPHAGUS IN WHICH IT WAS FOUND. in THE interest which has always been taken by men of taste and learning lear that singular example of ancient art, now known as the Portland Vase, and which has been long fostered by its exhibition, through the favour of its noble owner, in a prominent position amidst the national collections, has been recently more deeply excited by the wanton attack which threatened its total annihilation. From that lamentable condition we are happy to state it is now restored. Perhaps no broken vessel was ever before put together that had been shattered into so many pieces. This of course could never have been effected with certainty, had not the many models and drawings which have been made of it formed a decisive record of all its features in their proper position. Its reconstruction thus became merely a long and laborious puzzle; but the skilful ingenuity with which the task has been accomplished by Mr. Doubleday of the British Museum, and the cleverness with which he has in a great degree contrived to render imGENT. MAG. VOL. XXV. perceptible the innumerable lines of conjunction, would be sufficient to establish his immortality as the prince of restorers, and could not have been surpassed by the most experienced of the antiquaries of Italy. Most ordinary spectators, indeed, whose curiosity may have been raised on the matter, will perhaps be disappointed that they can detect so few traces of the havoc they look for; but a monument of Mr. Doubleday's skill will be preserved in a large water-colour drawing, which shows upon one surface the multitudinous fragments into which the vase was separated, including a small box of minute portions, which have also now been worked up, (together with the cement,) in order to fill the smallest vacuities that would otherwise have been really deficient. The circular bottom, which the best judges now pronounce not to have been a part of the original vase, is alone omitted. It was formerly invisible, from the vase always standing in a fixed position; but will now be set into the front of the pedestalbelowthe vase. G The attention of the gentleman whose publication it is now our intention to notice, and the title of which we have subjoined below,* was not attracted to the investigation of the Portland Vase by the late calamity. His work was at that time ready for the press, having been the subject of his studies from an early period of his life, and the principal object of his literary pursuits during the last five years. It must be a source of much gratification to Mr. Windus to have at length accomplished his favourite undertaking, and to have been enabled, by personal superintendence of the artists employed, to accompany his "New Elucidation" with plates which so faithfully represent the beauties of the original, and so highly embellish his volume. The Portland Vase was first restored to mortal view during the papacy of Urban VIII. a member of the Barberini family, between the years 1623 and 1644. The accidental opening of an artificial hill called the Monte del Grano, three miles from Rome on the road to Frascati, disclosed the existence of a subterranean sepulchre of four several chambers, delineated in a plate of Bartoli's Antiqui Sepolchri, 1704, and of which Mr. Windus has given a copy. In one of the chambers was found a sarcophagus, carved with basreliefs on its sides, and surmounted by reclining effigies in the usual Roman style, resembling those which were brought from Etruria a few years ago, and placed in the British Museum, from the collection of Campanari. Within this sarcophagus was found what is now called the Portland Vase. It contained the ashes of the deceased, which apparently had been inserted * " A new Elucidation of the Subjects on the celebrated Portland Vase, formerly called the Barberini: and the Sarcophagus in which it was discovered. By Thomas Windus, F.S.A." It is accompanied by a corresponding "Reprint of a Description of the Portland Vase, formerly the Barberini; the manner of its formation, and the various opinions hitherto advanced on the subjects of the Bas-reliefs. By Josiah Wedgwood, F.R.S. F.S.A. with the addition of Notes by Thomas Windus, F.S.A. in juxtaposition to the most favoured theories, with his contrary opinions thereon." by its bottom being cut off or broken open. The The sarcophagus on being removed was deposited in the museum of the Capitol, where it still remains; and the vase was placed in the library of the palace of the Barberini. private circumstances of that family, about seventy years ago, induced their parting with some of their treasures, and this vase was purchased by James Byers esquire, an Englishman then resident at Rome. From his hands it passed into those of Sir William Hamilton, who sold it to the Duchess of Portland. At the sale of her Grace's valuable collection in 1786 it was purchased by her son the late Duke, and, by the permission of the present Duke, it has, since the year 1810, been exhibited in the British Museum. as The greatest curiosity of the Portland Vase, ase, perhaps, consists in its material, which for some time divided the opinions of connoisseurs as much as its designs. Many of the best of them believed that it was a natural stone, wrought within, as well without, by the tool of the workman. Breval, in 1738, called it "the famous vase of chalcedony;" Bartoli termed it a sardonyx, De la Chausse an agate, and Montfaucon a precious stone. Count Caylus, better informed, referred to it as being of glass; and Winckelman speaks of it more particularly as the highest of the ancient works in that material. We shall not attempt on the present occasion to go through the various interpretations which have been assigned to the bas-reliefs and other devices which are seen on this beautiful specimen of ancient glass. For them we shall refer to Mr. Windus's volume, and to that of Mr. Wedgwood which he has reprinted. We may content ourselves with repeating (what we before stated when describing the injuries of the Vase, in our Magazine for March last, p. 300,) that the explanations which have been most accepted, since Mr. Wedgwood wrote, are those of Millingen and Thiersch. Mr. Windus's theory is that both the Vase and Sarcophagus are commemorative of the great physician Galen. On one side the Vase exhibits three figures, a male and two females, naked to the waist, each seated on a rock. The central figure is a young female holding an inverted torch. This subject is considered by Millingen to represent the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and by Thiersch that of Jason and Medea. Mr. Windus explains it as follows: " A noble lady was said to lie in a very dangerous state, whose disorder Galen the physician dicovered to be love, the object of which was a rope-dancer, Pylades. Galen valued himself most on this cure, as having rivalled the discovery of the love of An the fillets or bandages for wounds or bleeding, and the two leeches almost dropping from the extremity of the beard of one, complete the allegory without further com ment." Such is Mr. Windus's New Elucidation, on the reality of which we cannot pretend definitively to decide, but must leave it to the judgment of the learned. If we have detailed it more concisely than is due to its merits, we must plead in excuse our limited space, and refer the reader for further satisfaction to Mr. Windus's work, in tiochus for his mother-in-law Stratonice, which many accessory arguments and which gave so much celebrity to Erasistratus. The desponding female in the centre, with an inverted torch, is presumed to represent either Lucilla or Fadilla, daughters of Marcus Aurelius and the Empress Faustina. *** The male and female figures on the right and left of this figure are sympathising relatives. *** These may represent Marcus Aurelius and Faustina." On the other side, "The noble lady appears rapidly restored by the approach of the object of her affection, allegorised by the springing up of the gyrating Hygeian serpent, the emblem of healing. Pylades, the ropedancer, is advancing timidly from the Grecian portico or scena; although encouraged by the lady, who takes him by the arm, he appears to hesitate, and looks to Galen for advice with a very anxious countenance. The beautiful contemplative notice. *** attitude of the great physician, as well as his dignified appearance, is worthy of Cupid soars above with blazing torch (in contrast to the one in the first compartment, nearly extinct,) expressive of the complete restoration of health as well as the torch of Hymen." This last figure, in the judgment of ngure, former critics, decidedly determines the subject to be a marriage, and the figures have been assigned to Peleus, Thetis, and Nereus, the first being conducted to his bride by the flying Eros, or Cupid. However, Mr. Windus finds even the accessory ornaments conducive to the support of his elucidation. The masks under the handles are "face-skins, allegorical of Esculapius, Hippocrates, or Galen, and are gracefully filleted on the handies of the vase, which, scaled as serpents, constitute physical emblems. These visages are hypothetically characteristic of the profession of surgery; illustrations will be found. Nor is he, after all, a bigot to his theory. Even the leeches do not adhere desperately to him; for he admits that many have supposed them to be leaves of the adjoining tree, but, he adds, "on this point I crave a little indulgence to the phantasmagoria of my mind, in making out the novel thesis." With regard to the bottom of the vase, we have been informed that its material and execution are not equal to the vase itself, although of the same description. It appears to have been a portion of another vase of the same kind, fitted on after the original bottom had been destroyed, either at the time when the ashes were inserted and the vase deposited in the sarcophagus, or possibly in the 17th century, when it was restored to the upper world. Restorations and matchings, equally difficult, are common with the ingenious Italians. Its ornament is a hooded bust, which was described in our former article as "Atys or Adonis, raising his hand to his mouth in the attitude of Horus." Mr. Windus considers it to represent Angerona, the secret divinity who presided over the fate of Rome. The first cast of the Sarcophagus that has ever been brought to this country has been imported at the expense of Mr. Windus, and has been recently exhibited at the Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street. Mr. Windus totally dissents from the idea of Bartoli, that the sepulchre was that of the Emperor Severus and Julia Mammæa, because that emperor died when under thirty years of age, and the effigy represents a man upwards of fifty; but he considers the reclining "The principal, or front group, represents many patients, many well authenticated, as having been restored from illness by Galen at different periods. In the centre, of the greatest altitude of the whole, is the princess Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, with her hand on the shoulder of a gladiator, whose fine attitude and characteristic appearance reminds us of Achilles. The next figure in front, a small female, is presumed to be Lucilla, or Fadilla, his daughter. The different braiding of the hair fully warrants, as is well known to antiquaries, the distinctions of mother and daughter. She is looking very earnestly, which is reciprocal, on an athletic character, with a horn in one hand and a pole in the other; this is supposed to be Pylades, the actor, or rope-dancer." Mr. Windus thus pursues throughout the story of Galen, which has won his favourable attention; less partial observers may be able to detect in the bas-reliefs nothing more than some of the best-known scenes of the Homeric poems. That in the front of the Sarcophagus appears to be the claim of Achilles for possession of the captive Briseis, in the presence of Agamemnon and Menelaus, who, as kings, are represented seated, but the former with emblems of greater dignity than the other. The bas-relief on the back of the Sarcophagus, Mr. Windus describes as Galen, personified as Priam, begging the body of Hector; such is evidently the subject, but Priam is surely in propriâ personá. We cannot conclude without the expression of a wish that the cast of pression the Sarcophagus may be admitted into the British Museum, as we think that, though even its original may be of very far inferior curiosity to the Vase itself, still it would be a very interesting addition to the repository in which the vase of which it was formerly the shrine, is now preserved. ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN HERALDRY AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. [We have, on more than one occasion, expressed our regret that Heraldry, as a branch of ornamental design, has been long neglected, and nearly fallen into desuetude. The erection of the new palace of Westminster, which is covered with the devices of regal heraldry, may possibly mark the commencement of a new era in this respect. We are delighted to find the subject now taken up by the Oxford Architectural Society, and would gladly anticipate that the result may be a like revival in this to that which has attended their efforts in other branches of the science of architecture. The following essay by Mr. Parker, read at their meeting of the 3rd Dec. is at once so simple and so satisfactory, as an introduction to the subject, that we are induced to give it this prominent place. It was followed by the remarks of several speakers, which we cannot refrain from saying were merely so many proofs of the very crude ideas that at present diversify the too generally prevailing ignorance on this matter.EDIT. G. M.] A CLOSE connection appears to have always existed between Heraldry and Gothic Architecture; they both were introduced together gradually during the twelfth century, and both formed into a system towards the close of that period, or the beginning of the thirteenth. As in architecture we find occasional instances of the use of the pointed arch before the period of its general introduction, SO in heraldry we find occasional instances of the use of heraldic badges by individuals of note, before they became established as the distinguishing marks of a family. Both continued to flourish together throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and both became corrupted in the fifteenth and sixteenth. The one can hardly be said to have ever existed without the other; the ingenious devices of heraldry formed at all periods the appropriate and convenient ornament of buildings of every kind whether ecclesiastical or civil. It is extraordinary that this should have been so much lost sight of in modern days; but the general destruction of our domestic buildings of the middle ages, and the zealous fanaticism of the Puritans in destroying nearly all traces of colour from our churches, have succeeded in concealing the fact from superficial observers. That our ancestors displayed their usual sagacity in this matter will scarcely be doubted by any one who maturely considers the subject. To take advantage of human vanity, and turn it up to good account in promoting the honour and glory of God, by the more splendid embellishment of His house, was surely not exceeding that wisdom of the serpent which is commanded, and the mode in which the principle was carried out was worthy of the great minds who directed the erection of our magnificent cathedrals. That the practice of using heraldic devices for the ornament of all parts of our old churches was universal at the time those churches were built can scarcely be questioned, since wherever we find any traces of colour there we find heraldry; the brilliant contrast of colours which the emblazonment of arms affords, and the richness of effect thereby produced, were doubtless prominent inducements for the general use of this sort of embellishment, but the historical motive was also an important one. The heraldic bearings now remaining in our parish churches often afford the only clue we can obtain to their history, and the families connected with them, if properly examined. In drawing up a brief account of the churches in this immediate neighbourhood for the purpose of publishing our Society's Guide, this fact has been strongly forced upon our notice. In the History of Dorchester Church lately issued by our society, the heraldry found still remaining in the church itself, and the record of the shields formerly existing in it, preserved by Lee in his Visitation book in the time of Queen Elizabeth, now in the Ashmolean Collection, enables us to fix with tolerable precision the date of the building as the beginning of the reign of Edward the First, perhaps the most glorious era both of architecture and of heraldry-not only in this country but all over Europe. This kind of historical decoration possesses great advantage over any other embellishment, as it was and is a language understood throughout the |