File:The destruction of ancient Rome - a sketch of the history of the monuments (1901) (14593877728).jpg

Identifier: destructionofan00lanc (find matches)
Title: The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Lanciani, Rodolfo Amedeo, 1847-1929
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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Botanico, I was shown a beautiful piece of purplishgranite, with oval spots resembling in shape and colourthose of a leopards skin, which had just been discov-ered under the Hickson Field palace, on the Via Meru-lana. As the block was not entirely shapeless, butbore marks of the chisel on one side, it was given tome with the stipulation that if, in tlie future, otherpieces of the same object should be found, the donationshould be cancelled. Two years later, when the con-vent of the Cluny Sisters was being built, at a distanceof six hundred feet from the Field palace, what shouldbe brought to light but the missing portions of thatvery work of art ! It was a beautiful and nearly per- 44 DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT ROME feet repliea of the sacred cow, Hatlior, — the symbol ofIsis, — seemingly copied from the original, discovered in1884 among the ruins of the temple of Isis in the CampusMartins. After such instances of the destruction anddispersion of statuary, can we wonder at the fate of
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Fig. 11. — A statue, broken into fragments, in process of reconstruction. the Farnese Hercules, the torso of which was found inthe Baths of Caracalla, the head at the bottom cf awell in the Trastevere, and the legs at Bovillae, tenmiles from Rome ? USE OF EARLIER MATERIALS 45 In the accompanying illustration (Fig. 11) we seein process of reconstruction a statue of Victory thathad been broken into 151 pieces. It was discoveredin the house of L. Aurelius Avianius Symmachus onthe Caelian.i My experience in the excavations at Rome has sug-gested the following observation in regard to the con-dition of marble statues when discovered : Those foundin loose earth, among the ruins of the edifices to whichthey belonged, generally lack head and arms; but thosethat have been used as building material in foundationwalls can often be reconstructed in their entirety, headand arms being not far away. These facts show that before the burial of AncientRome, many of the statues had been injured by kno

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