New-York tribune., 1873-01-20
dangers or discomforts that may happen to
both in the contact.
THE CRSNOLA COLLECTION.

Cesnola from the Island of Cyprus III IL noI
necessary to await its arrival and exhibition
in this country to congratulate ourselves upon
the Importance of the purchase. The most
careful critics of the English press all agree Id
setting a very high value upon it, and IN re-
GREETING the fact that England has suffered IL
TO cross the Atlantic. The AhenGum says !:
at is a pity this collection has not been
"bought for the British Museum. notwith-
standing that it comprises a large proportion
"of objects in which we are already rich"
The Pail Mall Gdsette expresses the same
regret Mr. r. III. Lang, the distinguished
investigator, writes "Gen. Cesnoa's enter
"prise and exertions deserve the highest
"praise, and it is right to add that the
American Embassy at ConstantinOple merits
"well of arch9ologists for the facilities
(Which it obtained the General to excavate
"and export" The Saturday Reuiep attaches
a high importance to these objects, and says :
"The discoveries in Cyprus have lifted up a
corner of the vail which shrouds from our
"inquistive gaze the Homeric world" Other
journals hold the same language, and the only
ground upon which the authorities of the
British Museum explain their failure to Sc
cure the collection is, that it contains large
number of objects of the same class as those
England, fact which, of course, renders it
all the more valuable for a new Museum like
ours.
OF course any detailed description of the
collection must be deferred until it is
thrown open to inspection. But we know
enough of it already to foresee how i'm
portant an influence it is to exert upon the
study of art and antiquity in this country.
1t contains, in great profusiOn and in re-
markable state of preservation, specimens of
the art and the manufactures of the PhGni-
clan, the Greek, and the Roman civilizations
in the islands of the Asian coast Objects en-
ployed in worship, in domestic life, in mechan-
ical industries, objects of use as well as
ornament, throw a much needed light upon
the dark places of Greek and Phenician history.
Already some interesting questions have arisen
in England, suggested by these antiquities,
as to the beginnings and development of
Cyprian art. Mr. Newton, a competent and
quick -witted arch9olOgist, suggests some of
these in letter TO The academy. Several of
the larger statues found at GOlgos, which ap-
pear to be portraits of kings, are modelled
evidently from Egyptian types, while the cos
tunes are as clearly nOn-Egyptian. The ques-
ton, therefore, arises whether they are Egyp-
tan kings from the time of Amasis, or do
they date from that earlier subjection of
Cyprus which had taken place not later than
the time of Thothmes Ills 1t is a remark
able fact that the Cyprian inscriptions are not
only much more numerous than the Greek, but
come down to a very recent period, probably
as far as the third century of the Christian
era. The question, never yet decided, as to
the origin of the race using the Cyprian al
phabet, may receive some elucidation from a
careful study of these inscriptions. The progress
of art through the archaic and lhieratic stages
is plainly perceptibe i'll these recent dis
coveries, just as it is in the Etrurian remains.
The successive steps of this progress, as shown
in the Cesnola collection, offer peculiar in
terest to both scholars and artists. But the
most important question which is to arise from
the examination of these works, is that OF the
relations Of the PhGnicians to the Greeks, and
how far their arts and industries were inhu-
enced by each other.
We cordially join in the suggestion of The
Evening Post that this collection should be
made the nucleus of an archaeological museum,
which should not attempt to restrict itself to
originals, but should ill with careful and
faithful casts all those missing links in the
history of sculpture which it would be impos
sible for us to procure. We have had an un-
usual piece of good fortune in securing so
large and complete representation of the
art, the mechanical skill, the industrial condi-
ton of most interesting time and region.
Such opportunities do not often recur. There
is still another chance for an enterprising
American to immOrtalize himself and benefit
our Museum by studying the PhGnican re-
mains on the southern coast of Spain, and
making a collection which shall supplement
and complete the present. But it is of
course out of the question that we
should, with our slender resources,
acquire any of the great masterpieces of
sculpture, or any large amount of the more
valuable relics of antiquity. Perhaps the same
luck may come to Mr.. Boxer, in some poetic
pilgrimage, as fell to the thrice-happy Count
Marcellus when he picked up in his vacation
the presiding goddess of the Louvre, Our Lady
of Milo. But it will not be prudent to rely
| upon such remote possibilities. If we want to
allow our students to survey the whole field of
the progress of fictile and industrial art IN one
museum, we must rely to a great extent upon
casts. These will cost but little, and although
they are regarded with scorn by the severe
! critics who have swan in gondolas, they are
very much better than nothing for those who
stay at home.
al, la I'D, fana ,s