who was the sculptor of this incomparable statue. Her ftature, from a written paper communicated to us by the Abbé who fhews the collection, is as follows; Altezza della famofa Venere, detto di Medici, fecondo le mefure di diverfi Paefi:

Braccia Fiorentine 2, foldi 11, denari 8.
Palmi Romani 6, once 8, Minuti 4.
Piedi Inglefi 4, pollici 11, linée 5.
Piedi Parigini 4, pollici 6, linée 6.

The above measurement includes from the top of her hair to her heel; we measured her from the roots of her hair, or top of her forehead to her heel, and found her to be exactly four feet nine inches and three quarters, English measure. After having thus taken her height, we measured her separately, and I fhall here give you some of her dimenfions: from the heel to the extremity of her great toe, eight inches and a half and half quarter; just above her ancle-bone, five inches round; round her leg, immediately beneath her knee, eleven inches and an half; round her wrist, measuring on the top of the round bone, fix inches; the thickeft part of her arm below her elbow, ten inches; round her wafte, two feet ten

inches and an half;

round her fhoulders, paffing

the string under her arms across her breast, three

feet; round her throat, at the thickest part, twelve inches and an half; her face, from her chin-bone (not including her double chin) to the root of her hair, five inches and an half; her mouth (for she

fmiles) is one inch and an half from the extremities; her arms and hands are modern, and her fingers are too long: the reft is antique, and fhe is composed of forty-two pieces, which are fo delicately united that it is fcarce poffible to discover the joinings; her face is the prettiest I ever saw, and she has a sweetness of countenance rarely seen in a living beauty: her hair is beautifully tied up in a knot on the back of the top of her head; she has a great quantity of it, and you may plainly perceive the feven points the French ladies are so ardent to poffefs: her flesh seems flexible, and the softness and tenderness, yet justness of the muscles, is truly admirable: the seems as if speaking in a fmile, her lips being a little divided. I think fhe is placed on too high a pedestal, as it makes her appear shorter than she would otherwise do. This chef d'œuvre, or ftandard for female beauty, was found in the villa Adriana, amongst more than thirty-eight Greek ftatues of admirable workmanship: the infcription on the pedestal importing her to have been formed by Cleomenes an Athenian, fon of Apollodorus, has been evidently inferted at the time her arms were fupplied. supplied. Whether fhe was that Venus sculpted by Praxiteles, and which the inhabitants of Gnidos refused to Nicomedes King of Bythinia, although he offered to pay all their debts in exchange for this marble lady; or whether she was the workmanship of Phidias, and the fame that

in the time of Pliny was placed at Rome under the portico of Octavia; or whether fhe was the . Venus of Alcamenes, and placed near Athens, ftill remains matter for controversy to anxious antiquarians, who have never yet been able to agree upon this subject.

leftial Ve

The next Venus is called Urania, or the Celef- The cetial; fhe appears to have juft quitted her bath; nus. one hand preffes the water out of her hair, while the other is employed in gathering up her drapery, with which he is half-covered. The character of this statue is, no doubt, charming; and The would appear to much greater advantage, had the Venus of Medicis ftill remained undiscovered in the villa of Adrian.

Venus Vitrice, who is in poffeffion of the apple, Venus is much larger than the others, and too haughty Viêtrice. and magnificent to please me. I do not question

her making a fine appearance in a garden, but here she seems to be misplaced.

The Fawn is a statue of merit; he is about The to ftrike the cymbals, or crotoli, together; one Fawn. of his feet is applied to another mufical inftrument, shaped like a bellows; " Quips and cranks and wanton wiles" appear in the mirthful phyfiognomy of this creature. His whole figure feems in movement; yet the head and hands have been fupplied by Michael Angelo.

The Wrestlers are a group I could never fuf- The ficiently admire; I walked round and round them Wrestlers.

Arrotino,

Lion and horfes, group.

Table of
Floren-

until I was quite weary.

Their attitudes are fo amazing, fo regular an entanglement is marvellous; the countenance of the vanquished expreffes the feelings of his foul; his humiliating fituation, disappointment, rage, and shame fit on his brow in the other's face, triumph, courage, a contempt of fatigue, with a commanding expreffion that speaks to the mind of the spectator in a language that no words of mine can poffibly convey to you.

The Arrotino, or as it is here called, the Rotatore, is evidently listening, and struck with horror and difmay at what he overhears; this flave's character is finely expreffed, and his face, though very ugly, feems as if worn by a cruel fervitude into the hard lines that mark his features; his attitude is perfectly natural, and this statue well deferves the great character all connoiffeurs have given it.

A fmall group of a lion devouring a horfe, which is well-known by the many prints, cafts, and copies taken of it; but it has never been well copied, at least all those we have seen fall very far fhort of the original.

In the middle of the tribune ftands a Table of tine work, the most beautiful Florentine work, as it is here called; the defign is admirable; it is a representation of foliage, fruits, rows of pearl, &c. elegantly intermixed. The incrustation, or fineering, is for the moft part formed of the lowest

order

order of precious ftones, fuch as agates, corne-
lians, jafpers, &c. the pearl is fo well imitated,
that at first fight it deceives the eye. The Abbé
told us, that fome few years ago the little daugh-
ter of Lord B- cried to have one of thefe
ftrings of pearl, miftaking them for necklaces
thrown carelessly upon the table. The ftone
which imitates pearl fo well is, I think, the species
of
onyx called chalcedony.

in form of

a taber

Amongst many other curiofities this room con- Cabinet tains (for I am not as yet come to the pictures) is a Cabinet, in the form of a Tabernacle, which macle. is filled with a variety of curious matters, mor rare for their costly materials than workmanship; the nails, on which are fufpended a great variety of these articles, are headed with rubies, emeralds, topazes, fapphires, amethyfts, &c. This Cabinet is ornamented with fourteen pillars of lapis lazuli; their bases and capitals of maffive gold are well wrought, and bas relievos on the pedestals, &c. highly executed.

Here are a great collection of antique gems in intaglio; a canopus of agate, an epimacus of chalcedony; a head of Tiberius of one fingle turquoife as large as a hen's egg, a very great curiofity here is also a pearl as large as a chefnut, but not round; it is what the French call a barroch, and the Italians a Scaramouche; also several goblets and other vafes of rock-crystal, lapis lazuli, &c. with a great number of articles in gold fculpture, &c.