Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-20
NEW DISCOVERIES IN POMPEII.
Rare PsIntIngs-AneIent Equal 10
Modern AFt-AbuDdant Cooking
Apparatus-The Richest Part OF
the City Now Coming TO View.
Cor Of III. Phi Non Gazette.

best things would be at once transferred
to the museum at Naples, so Invent there
first. found one room entirely devoted
to the newest frescOes. There are about
five pictures, averaging four feet square.
each full of romantic interest; some OF
these have only been there few weeks
and none of them are vet labeled. The
colors are fresh, the drawing is equal to
most things at the Royal Academy, and
the effect of these buried relics of tho first
century "a. D. 79) so suddenly lifted into
the daylight of 1881 is, confess. little
ghostly.
l should not have been surprised on
turning round to find POmpeiian of the
arrested life of the period looking over
my shoulder at some of his old haunts.
One of the larger pictures gives a sort Of
bird's-eve view of the theati at POmneii
with a wild beast fight going on. You
look down upon the arena from some
height You also command view of
the street with the passers by and a few
booths. from one of which thief has
stolen something and is making off, and
the "velarium," or vast awning, is half
drawn over the top of the theatre. 1t is
as far as know, the only contemporary
representation of the thing ever discov-
cred. We know that sailors were en-
ploved to stretch similar veil support
ed by poles, over the top of the Coliseum,
but exactly how the thing was managed
l believe has puzzled antiquaries. They
NAV get a hint from a closer inspection
of this amazingly vivid bit Of cOntem-
porary history. Two long flights of
steps outside enable the spectators to
reach the top seats without going inside
the theatre. This is surely an admirable
idea, worthy of our imitation. The next
day at POmpeii puzzled over the ruins
of both theatres | could not make out
where these external stairs could have
been placed. In the painting they rise
from a public square, but the temple of
Isis is built close against the big theatre,
and the small theatre is completely
hemmed in by houses. Is it, perchance.
the theatre of Herculaneum, instead of
Pompeii?
A large painting of a sleeping bac-
chante, nude, watched by a satyr, might
have been designed by Etty in drawing,
color and perspective; it is a mastery
study, showing besides a great deal of
feeling for landscape painting, which,
are not supposed to have cared for; but
the more we cOnceited creatures know of
them the more evident it is that they
knew quite as much about color and
drawing as they did about sculpture.
Look at PyTamas and Thisbe on the
other wall, or Mars and Venus, and a
capital study of Europa mounting the
bull, surrounded by her maidens. All
these are highly preserved and show a
perfect ease, vigor and freshness of
handling that many a modern artist
might envy.
The new find in bronze is an exquisite
| seated statuette figure of "Abundantia, "
about foot high, holding a paterG, or
cup; her chair is adorned with horns of
plenty, and the pressure of her body and
the set of her drapery over the cushion
on which she sits is so realistic that one
expects to see her move upon her chair
or rise at any moment. Beside her is a
| slave boy in backward attitude, about a
foot and a half high, pouring wine into
a cup. This is also new.
l visited POmpeii next day and went
straight to the diggings The only won
| der is that anything is ever dug up at all ;
the process is ridiculOusly slow, even for
Italy. The directors sit all day on the
rubbish heaps, smoking, and dozens of
| children file ug and down with their lit
| tie baskets of earth, while few idle
peasants shovel up few lazy spadefuls
at time Still, the first thing l saw
was the side of a dining room, uncover
| ed only few days ago On one side
was a bright picture of a fine cock and
| hens'n a great state of excitement over a
| large basket of grain and red cherries,
| all upset. Landseer could not have done
| it better. The fOndness of the Pom
Deiians for birds, beasts and fishes is very
| apparent, and they always seemed to be
dining. The wealth of cooking apparatus
in the museum is astonishing. You have
| saucepans perforated with countless
| holes in most elaborate patterns; every
| conceivable kind of boiler and caldrOn
| casts for ielies, representing the pros
! trate hare and the sucking pig; ladies,
! spoons, skeweTs, dishes for roasting six
! eggs or a dozen eggs at once; tOasting
! forks, gridirOns, and fancy machines for
pastry and delicate confectionery, what
| in ElZabeth's day were called econ
ceits"
In Pompeli itself the oil pots and wine
amphOrR let into slabs, and of mosaic
work of colored marble, are among the
| quantest features of the ruined shops.
saw in another new part fine dining
room, found three months ago, with some
of the liveliest paintings Imaginable. The
| first section of the walls all around repre-
sented the bOldest scenes under the sea-
conger struggling with an octopus. &
shark pursuing its prey, shOal of fish
flying through the water, all gllttering
and fresh. The middle section dealt with
birds and wild fowl floating, flying
quarreling, diving; and the upper anC
largest section gave fierce hunting scenes
"a horse pursued by a lion, an OK il
desert scenery sprung upon by tiger. anC
all these were set in scenery of gTea
force, variety and character-woOds
rocks, rivers and green hills. The cor
| ridors and ante rooms of this house are
equally rich, the walls copiously vignet
ted with fgures-dwarf on stills, stree
scenes, animals. In one room there is
perfectly white suite of marble step,
IN stu, belonging to a fountain. The
whole thing stands as though finished
yesterday, without soil or chip Of
scratch.
They seem now to be coming to some
Of the richest houses, and have broken
into the cutter court of one in which
stands beautiful fountain cupola anG
niche of elaborate mosaic work, repre-
senting gods and goddesses in the deer
blue heavens half yelled with fleecy
clouds. The house is still imbedded un
der thirty feet of earth but if this is the
ack-yard, what must the halls and cor
ridors be. The plan now adopted is to
leave as much as possible IN stu. Speci-
mems repeated themselves, and it is need.
less to go on removing similar mosaic or
frescOes, of which their are plenty in
the Naples museum. AS a rule, there
fore, all the latter excavations are more
interesting than the old ones, because
they have been left unspoiled of their
treasure. l should like to spend a
week at Pompeii every year, if only to
watch the uncovering and revel in the
new finds.