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
[Then follows a Summary of the Accommodation provided in the Plan for
Greek Sculptures, amounting to a superficial area of twenty-seven
thousand four hundred and ten square feet, and to two thousand one
hundred and ninety-one lineal feet of wall-space.]
[Sidenote: ETRUSCAN ROOM.]
XXXIV. _Etruscan Room._—The next parallel on the ground floor would be
devoted to the monuments of ancient Italy. The earliest are the
Etruscan, which, being altogether taken from tombs, would properly be
placed adjacent, on the one side to the Greek, on the other to the
Roman, sepulchral collections. The principal portion of the Etruscan
Room would be fifty-five feet by forty, with additional recesses at
the south end, the whole about twenty feet high. Two rows of pilasters
would divide the room into three compartments, the central for the
gangway, the other two to be fitted up as a series of tombs, of which
the sides would be formed of the mural restorations, with fac-similes
of paintings from Corneto and Vulci. Within these restored tombs would
be such sarcophagi as we possess, found in the tombs themselves. The
fac-similes of the painted roofs of two of the tombs might be fixed
above them, at such a height as not to obstruct the light. In the
central compartment, which contains six shallow recesses between the
pilasters, might be monuments from various tombs other than those here
restored.
XXXV. _Staircase Room_, forty feet by thirty, and of the same height
as the three united stories of the western galleries.—Four successive
flights of steps would be required to reach each floor. The landings
between the first and second, and between the third and fourth
flights, might each be supported by Caryatid or Atlantic figures,
which would give the whole composition an ornamental effect, as seen
from the east side. Beneath one side of this staircase might be a
private one leading to the western basement.
To the north is another private staircase, conducting to the basement
under the Greek galleries. The adjoining passage leads to—
[Sidenote: FIRST GRÆCO-ROMAN ROOM.]
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