File:Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages (14760215676).jpg

English: Drawing of a bas-relief of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from Pompeii or Herculaneum, 1870. Translated related text: A bas-relief is placed here in the middle of the paintings: we are going to ask why. It is again the story of Perseus and Andromeda, but taken at the moment when the hero, victorious over the monster, brings Cassiopeia's daughter down from the rocks where she was exposed. The ancient artists never tired of reproducing, the amateurs never tired of admitting into the decoration of their galleries, those heroic subjects, in which the Greeks and Latins still saw with interest the history of their ancestors, even then that they felt incapable of looking for models there. Also, with what scruple did art attach itself, in such subjects, to reproducing certain given types and certain symbolic accessories! We can ascertain this by comparing this bas-relief with the paintings to which it is purposely associated. The monster turned to stone; the head of Medusa, calm and beautiful, and not hideous as the moderns imagine it, grimacing when it wishes to be terrible; its head purposely hidden by Perseus, who fears losing the one he has just saved; finally the winged-heels and the formidable harp that Perseus still possessed in this last expedition: these are the emblems which tell the subject of the bas-relief as clearly as if one had written at the bottom: Perseus and Andromeda, Unfortunately all the subjects are unknown [to modern artists so do not offer such an advantage, though modern artists should know it.

As for the design, it has that calm and simplicity that distinguish antique sculpture. Even if we hadn't said a word about it, everyone would have seen that our plate is not a copy of a painting, or especially of a fresco.

The vignette contains three fragments of fresco which probably adorned cornices or paneling: two lions, an eagle with outstretched wings and a griffin.

Identifier: herculanumetpomp18703barr (find matches)
Title: Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Barré, Louis, 1799-1857 Roux, H. (Henri), Sr Bouchet, Adolphe
Subjects: Art, Greco-Roman
Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
l : 2™ Série PEINTURES. 107
Text Appearing After Image:
a. a- il v. s p 107 DEUXIÈME SERIE. 3i Dans une attitude qui est celle de lattention et dusouvenir, les doigts de sa main gauche portés à sonmenton, Ariane semble repasser dans sa mémoire tousses bonheurs perdus, toutes ses douleurs présentes; etlAmour, ou son propre Génie, laide dans cette tristeénumération, en lui montrant du doigt la nef parjure quifuit à lhorizon. Le dessin de ces deux figures est fort bien agencé : ony remarque un contraste de lignes presque parallèles,sans atteindre toutefois le degré où cette dispositionserait un défaut. Le torse de la fille de Minos est dunegrande beauté. Une draperie violette la garantit desaspérités du rivage où elle est assise et dont les caillouxont dû blesser ses beaux pieds nus. On remarque,outre son collier dor et ses pendants doreilles, deuxbandelettes quelle porte en sautoir, et qui se croisentsur sa poitrine. La vignette représente quelques poissons dans leauou à la surface dun étang : la petite corniche du bas

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