The Study Of Classical Archæology.

obstacle in the way of the complete success of these publications . And yet , when one contemplates the condition of archsological studies , the necessity for a creation of this kind is very evident . Since the day Avhen a charming enthusiast , within tho walls of that Eome which he adored , produced tho "Histoire de l'Art" and the " Monumenti Inediti" foundations of two

, recent studies , ( esthetics and the interpretation of monuments figures , —since that epoch , memorable for ever in literary history , materials for archeology have increased tenfold ; the treasures , heretofore concealed by the ashes of Vesuvius , have not ceased to accumulate Avithin the walls of the Neapolitan Museum ; the exquisite principles of Classic architecture have been displayed in all their beauty . To artistic ancl free

Europe , England has revealed Phidias ; skilful antiquaries have visited every spot of Greece , marking with pious care upon that land thickly strewn with ruins , the site of many a once famous , but now obliterated city ; others have travelled through Asia Minor , recognizing everywhere the Hellenic taste , though uiidor unexpected aspects : in giving to us the the key to Egyptian hieroglyphicsin raising the veil which

, envelopes a civilisation ivhieh seems to have had no infancy , a philologcr of genius has conquered the kingdom of the Pharaohs in the name of French science . Assyria , that other enigma , has permitted us to look upon palaces as ancient as the Bible , and ivhosc walls are covered Avith a writing Avhich still awaits its Chanipollion ; and , lastly , pagan Italy has yielded to us her soul in delivering up to us

the secret of her tombs . It was at the critical moment when this grand scientific movement , inaugurated by Winckchnaim , was in all its force in Borne , between tlie years 1825 and 1 S 2 S , that the creation of the " Anales" was projected byM . Gerhard and his friends . Thanks to them , light for the first time ivas shed over all

portions of monumental antiquity ; thanks to them publicity , so difficult and so confined in this branch of study , has become extended and easy . Scarcely was their project known , than immediately all the high celebrities of learning grouped themselves around this ploiad of antiquaries ; and the formation of the Institute of Rome ivas the speedy result of this noble eagerness .

" Annates ct Bulletin de Correspondence Arelieologiquc , " such ivas the title of this HCAV collection , henceforth directed and supplied by a whole academy , or rather by the entire learning of Europe , whence it daily demanded and received some fresh fact , text , or idea . To register the results of excavations was the primary object ; the secondary was to discuss those ancient monuments already discovered , but ivrong-Iy or

inadequately interpreted , and still more to describe briefly all those which classic soil delivered up , clay by day , to antiquarian criticism , preparatory to their being studied more minutely at leisure . One branch of this study , till then much neglected , archaeological topography , and another study equally interesting , to which M . Boeckh had just given a brilliant start , epigraphy , —in a word , numismatics and glyptics , that is to say , a ivhole host of details and small problems , these found a place in the " Annates . " The lively impulse they received has

not been forgotten . Each month the "Bulletin" comes to inform the reader of the daily movements of the science , and on each anniversary of the birth of Winckelmaim , marks the progress that has been made . Each year , the " Annates " discuss before the learned public , some delicate point , with all that majestic solicitude so perfectly rendered by Gerard Dow , in his " ' Gold-Weigher . " read the

I lately first list of the members of the Institute of Correspondence , —the list ofour former colleagues . At the head appears the name of Frederick William , then Prince of Prussia , and protector of the Institute . Hoiv forcibly this name speaks of the elevated and liberal taste of the reigning families of Germany ! K . Ottfried Mailer and Letronne , Boettigcr , Hirt and Millingen , Sir William Gell , Baoul-Bochette , Thiersch and

Quatromcre de Qtiincy , Dodwcll and Bronsted , Nibby , Schorn and Panofka , and finally , Messieurs Boeckh , Wclcker , and Guigniaut , appear as members of this ultramontane academy . Two artists , large appreciators of the ancients , — Thorwaldsen and M . Hittorff , —also placed their names upon this list , where I rogvet to miss those of so many of their telloAvs . Amongst the honorary members three names have filled me with esteem , —those of William Humboldt , William bchlegel , and Chateaubriand .

Kome , where the breath of antiquity so forcibly stirs our souls , has become the definite abode of the new academy . On the Tarpcian Bock the Archaeological Institute has established its penates , and there have they been saluted hy all tlie lovers of science during thirty years . The same year in which this Society entered upon a path which it has traversed so honourably , and at such enormous

sacrifices , fortune accorded it a marvellous discovery , Avhich has been compared to the excavations of Ilcrculancum and Pompeii . Not for from Cornetto , in a pestiferous plain traversed bj r a torrent which flics with rapidity towards the Thyrenian Sea , near to a venerable bridge shown between two wild banks , Pontc dclla Badia , six thousand Etruscan tombs have been opened from the year 1825 to 1829 . To tell all the

wonders that have been found in the necropolis of Vulci would be impossible . Bronzes and jewels , of exquisite workmanship , Avcrc scattered about in the midst of bones in these funereal retreats , which had been spared as by a miracle . Four thousand vases Avhich attest the ardent desire of the ancients to decorate the dwellings of the dead ; yes , four thousand vases ! as beautiful for the most part as the graceful amphora !

of Nola , have been restored to the light of clay . Fine clay , delicate varnish , elegant and varied form , —nothing Avas wanting to tliese fragile chefs-d ' oeuvre , which are alive with multitudes of figures . These compositions bear the reflex of different epochs and of clivers styles ; but in them the gods and heroes of antiquity play an important and undisputed part . The finer memoir of M . Gerhard the Vidcian vases

upon , " Bapporto intorno i Vasi Volcenti" ( " Annates , " 1831 ) , produced a profound sensation in the scientific world . By what miracle , it was asked , were 4 , 000 vases , covered with Greek inscriptions , buried in in the cemetery of an Etruscan village whoso very name was scarcely known to history ? With the exception of sonic Italian antiquaries , for whom these treasures

of Greek ceramic art represented "the most ancient monuments of Etrttsco-Peksgic ivorsliip , "—for it is thus the Prince of Canino expresses himself , —all the masters of science verified the Hellenic character of the vases of Vulci . Still , upon the question of origin , they Avero far from being of one mind . The presence of these vases , —did it prove the establishment of a Greek population living an Athenian life within the walls

of Vulci ? or even the existence in this town of a colony of Athenian potters ? Or , again , ivas it an indication of a very lively taste for painted vases amongst the Etruscan aristocracy , causing them to send for them from Greece and Southern Italy , thus , as it were , forestalling in the paths of luxury and love of foreign productions our modern amateurs of Chinese and Japanese porcelain ?

K . 0 . Midler , Baoul-Boclictte , Millingen , MM . Gerhard ,. Boeckh , Wclcker , and others , shared in this discussion , Avhich ivas hotly contested in the " Annates et le Bulletin . " Such questions may appear futile to the gay world—to drawingroom loungers , particularly in France , and more especially at the present time ; but the learned perceived in them something more instructive than secondary details . They saw therein curious revelations concerning the economic and social state of the old world , —incomplete divergent revelations , but

precious withal , touching as they do upon questions respecting which the most absolute silence reigns ; but ivhen the science of illustrated monuments shall have made still further progress , who can say that these revelations may not become transfused ivith light ? Truth is willing to be a long time looked for , and criticism has penetrated many other mysteries . By this Avonderful discovery at Vulci , the imagination of all

Avas excited ; and , therefore , the attention of the editors of " Los Annates" ivas directed , through several years , upon painted vases . What an extended field of study is that of ceramic art ! How it has enlarged under the double influence of scientific research and commercial avidity ! Their efforts have combined to excavate all the burial-places of Etruria , of Southern Italy , of Sicily , and of the Greek

continent . " Henceforth , " wrote M . Buiisen , Prussian Ambassador to the Papal scat , and , at the same time , the learned Secretary of the Institute of Homo , and worthy successor of M . Gerhard— " henceforth , no one may hope to study ivith profit this class of monuments , and to speak of them authoritatively , Avithout first consulting our collection . " How few people imagine that upon the 50 , 000 vases found during the last century , and incorrectly called Etruscan ; that upon these water-pots , these cups , these amphora ; , whitened ivith dust iii