The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
[26] The organ contains 66 stops, viz., 20 on the great organ, 12 on
the choir, 5 on the solo, 17 on the swell, and 12 on the pedals. It
has four separate rows of keys, with couplers, combination pedals, and
complete pedal board. The instrument contains 4568 sounding-pipes.
We must now cross over the Nave and enter the open court, which is close
to the colossal Farnese Hercules, and which corresponds in position to
the Canadian Court, which we examined before entering the Transept. This
Court is filled with specimens of antique sculpture of the Greek and
Roman schools. Among these we would draw attention to the colossal
Velletri Pallas (351), so called from having been discovered at
Velletri, near Rome, and now preserved in the Louvre, at Paris; the
Dying Gladiator (309); a Boy with a Dolphin; a colossal head of Pallas
(328). A Boy extracting a Thorn from his Foot, from the Capitoline
Museum at Rome; and the fine head of Antoninus Pius (381).
A collection of Greek ideal and portrait-busts will also be noticed in
this Court; amongst which the colossal heads of Vespasian (332), Trajan
(354), Pertinax (379), Lucius Verus (361), and Titus (333), are
particularly deserving of notice. The visitor should not quit this
compartment without noticing the collection of antique vases which it
contains, amongst which the Medicean Vase (343) is a peculiarly elegant
example of antique art. The elegant tripod (211), and the antique
fountain (357), are also worthy of attention. Here also we find the
celebrated group known as the Toro Farnese, or Farnese Bull. The
original of this beautiful group, which is now preserved in the Museum
at Naples, was discovered in the Baths of Caracalla at Rome, and derives
its name from having been placed in the Farnese Palace in that city. The
subject is the revenge of Queen Antiope and her two sons, Zethus and
Amphion, on Dirce, for seducing the affections of her husband, Syeres,
King of Thebes. The sons, enraged at the insult offered to their mother,
are represented as about to revenge themselves by tying the unfortunate
Dirce to the horns of a bull, when their mother, moved with womanly
pity, intercedes for her rival, and induces them to forego the intended
punishment. According to Pliny, the Toro Farnese was the work of the
Rhodian artists, Apollonius and Tauriseus.
Conspicuous also in this compartment, from its high position and great
beauty, is the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. This beautiful example
of ancient Greek architecture is usually styled the Lantern of
Demosthenes, on account of a tradition which ascribes its erection to
that celebrated orator. No weight, however, can be attached to this
supposition, although it may be, and in all probability is, due to the
time of Demosthenes.
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