Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 2 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870.Edwards, Edward
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Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 2 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870.
Edwards, Edward
Book collectors -- Great Britain; British Museum
XXVII. _Eighth Greek or Erechtheum Room_, sixty-five feet by
twenty-six, for monuments of the era between Phidias and Scopas, of
which the principal are the remains of the Erechtheum.
[Sidenote: NINTH GREEK ROOM.]
XXVIII. _Ninth Greek, or Mausoleum Room_, one hundred and twenty feet
in length, forty-two in breadth, and eighty across the transept.—Here
would be, 1. The marbles procured by Lord STRATFORD and Mr. NEWTON,
from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; in the west transept, the group
from the _quadriga_, and in the southern part of the room the other
important sculptural and architectural remains of the building,
including the frieze. 2. In the east transept, the colossal lion from
Cnidus, with a few other sculptures of the same school. 3. In the
northern part of the room, the Xanthian Ionic monument, here placed
for comparison with the remains of the Mausoleum. The whole upper
portion of this monument, commencing with the higher of the two
friezes which surrounded the original base, might be reconstructed,
though not restored, and would form a striking termination to the
vista through the galleries. The lower frieze might be arranged
against the adjoining walls of the room.
[Sidenote: TENTH GREEK ROOM.]
XXIX. _Tenth Greek Room._—Having thus passed through the great
monumental series of Greek sculptures in chronological order, the
visitor would return south by the side rooms, containing minor remains
of the same school. The Tenth Greek Room would be forty-two feet by
twenty, and would contain the latest of the smaller sculptures.
[Sidenote: ELEVENTH GREEK ROOM.]
XXX. _Eleventh Greek Room_, thirty-three feet by twenty.—This should
be appropriated to the small fragments from the Mausoleum, which would
thus be in immediate connection with its larger sculptures, without
impairing their grandeur of effect.
[Sidenote: TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH GREEK ROOMS.]
XXXI, XXXII. _Twelfth and Thirteenth Greek Rooms_, together one
hundred and thirty-five feet in length and twenty in breadth.—The
exact position of the wall separating these rooms might be reserved
till the arrangement of their contents was settled. In one might be
architectural fragments, from buildings not represented in the large
galleries; in the other, small tablets, votive offerings, altars, and
other minor sculptures.
[Sidenote: FOURTEENTH GREEK ROOM.]
XXXIII. _Fourteenth Greek or Sepulchral Room_, ninety-three feet by
eighteen.—Here would be all the Greek sepulchral monuments now in the
basement. The casts from the sculptured tomb at Myra, of which the
style is more Greek than Lycian, might also be here placed, as
indicated in the plan, in case it should be thought desirable to
remove them from the Lycian Room, though the expediency of this
transfer may perhaps be doubted. Wherever placed, these casts ought to
be so put together as to explain the true arrangement of the
originals.
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