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246 ' VISIT TO A ROMAN VILLA
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
It -Was At The Season Wlien Hundreds And...
seventeen wide , and to have been divided into two large compartments . Tnese are again subdivided into circleshexagonsand
, , ovals . Some parts are destroyed , probably by the falling in of the : roof and walls—others have escaped with but slight injury , as the
pavement , in which the figures of a bird , a dolphin , and a cornucopia remain .
The letters T R in Roman capitals are introduced in one of the spaces between the figures . Can they be the initials of the Roman
governor of the province for whom we may suppose this villa to have been built ?
One large compartment of this mosaic is divided into octagons , each of which contains a starformed by interlacing squares . In
, the centre of one of them is a representation of the head of Winter , the whole of which , except the face , is wrapped in clothing , and a
leafless branch bends over it . Perhaps the other three divisions contained the heads of Spring , Summer and Autumn .
The mosaics are composed of stones varying in size from half an inch to one-sixth of an inch square , but the pieces used for the
coarse outside work are of baked earth , and are about an inch square . The borders of the several compartments in this pavement
are either braids , or what is often called the key pattern , or such scrolls as were commonly used in Roman works of this kind ; indeed ,
they strongly reminded me of the copies I have seen of the architectural ornaments found in Hereulaneum and Pompeii , both in
design and color . The walls too of some of the apartments had been ornamented with paintings on the stucco , as was evident from
the fragments which overlaid the pavements when they were first discovered ; some of the rooms and galleries appear to have been
painted in whole colors , without any ornament . The third shed covers a pavement of about twenty feet by ten .
It is entire , and contains scrolls of ivy leaves , flowers , interlaced figures forming starsa large goblet with wreathsand black and
, , white borders—the whole is surrounded with coarse red pavement , formed of pieces of pottery about an inch square .
In another room is a very fine mosaic pavement ; the design consists of squareoctagonand oblong compartmentscontaining foliage
fruit , and cornucop , ias . , There are also figures , of cupids dancing , , and of twelve grotesque looking cupids in groupswith wings on
, their shoulders , habited like gladiators , with shields and short swords . In a semicircular recess at one end of this room there is
an elegant scroll surrounding a female head , which is ornamented with a chaplet of flowers . The hair falls over the shoulderswhich
, are naked , and a glory , like that which is often represented in the paintings of Christian saints , surrounds the head . Probably this
may have been intended for the head of Venus . In another roomof about twenty-five feet squareis a mosaic
pavement containing , geometrical figures , flowers , borders , , and a
head of Medusa . The pavement is much broken by pillars , shafts ,
246 ' Visit To A Roman Villa
246 ' VISIT TO A ROMAN VILLA
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1860, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121860/page/30/
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