Pointer, entitled Britannia Romana, or Roman Antiquities in Britain, which bears great relation to the affairs of this country, manifesting how a medal may combine facts, explanatory of Roman and British history, on the same design. Various branches of literature connected with historical inquiries, such as geography and chronology, have also been much elucidated; the shape of ancient letters, and the forms of ancient buildings, been ascertained by medals, these little mysterious vehicles of vast signification for I am inclined to consider them as those ethereal bodies, which, according to the old Chaldaic philosophy, were a kind of vehicles to souls, and partakers of their immortality. Now it having been shown that poetry is naturally connected with all arts and literature, the medallic art, of necessity, forms one link in the same chain; and this will more forcibly be seen in the following chapter. * Called by ancient philosophers dwλa, vel simulachra; “ Animus autem, cum corpore æthereo, quasi cum vehiculo, semper versatur, atque hoc continuo attactu, participem immortalitatis facit." Stanleii Hist. Philosophie Orientalis, lib. 1. sect. 2. cap. ii. CHAPTER XIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. THERE are other and more direct ways, in which poetry derives services from medals. Poetry and painting are called sister arts. There is the same parent to both; they have kindred sympathies, are nourished by the same studies, are propelled and carried to perfection by the same passion-the irresistible love of fame; their very features, so to speak, like those of the Graces, though not exactly the same, yet bearing a strong resemblance facies non omnibus una, m um Nec diversa tamen, quales decet esse sorores. Medals have an influence, too, on both. As the workmanship on ancient coins was of the most exquisite kind, and the devices on them were figurative and impressive, this single circumstance would, of itself, naturally induce both ancient painters and poets to avail themselves of the mint. Nor is this all in Greece and Rome, artists of different orders, painters, poets, statuaries, and medallists, worked from the same designs. Pericles, in his Funeral Oration, enumerating some distinguished excellencies of the Athenians, together with their causes, adds: "Hence it is, that, both in these things and also in others, our city is worthy of admiration. We study elegance with frugality, and we philosophize without weakness *.” This is particularly true with respect to painting. This divine art, as it has been pronounced, was advanced, it is well known, to great perfection among the Greeks. But where are the immediate proofs of its excellence? They are perished. The very few remains of the Grecian painters rather create sorrow and regret, than satisfaction and delight. Even Apelles only lives in reputation. The Venus, which obtained so many admirers; the Alexander with his hunder, that struck terror into his beholders; those prodigies of skill, the productions of Parrhasius, Zeuxis, and Protogenes, are now no more,-so perishable are the most exquisite exhibitions of the art of painting! The beautiful simile of Cicero, comparing the republic of his time to a picture perishing through age, and losing its genuine colours and lines, conveys a serious affecting truth, that one of the most fascinating arts is the most fleeting, and indebted for its remembrance to foreign assistance. We have just now observed, that statuaries, medallists, poets, and painters, worked from the same designs. Here then we see, in addition to the exquisite workmanship on medals, their importance to the arts; for the most beautiful ancient statues extant, the models and studies of modern painters, make their appearance on * Φιλοκαλεμεν τε γας μετ' ευτελείας, και φιλοσοφομεν άνευ μαλακείας. ancient coins, though the figures which represent them on those medals were never conceived to be copies of statues, till the statues themselves were discovered. This is true of the Hercules in the Farnese Palace, the Vepus de Medicis, the Apollo in the Belvidere, and the celebrated Marcus Aurelius on horseback *. It should be recollected with something like gratitude, if not devotion, to these little vehicular powers, that they have been, in some sort, like tutelary deities, to the most perfect of the works of ancient art: nor need it surprise us, that painters have so much contributed to promote the study of medals. Pisani, Bolderi, and other painters first revived the study in the fifteenth century. Raphael studied them, as well as Le Brun, and Rubens had a fine cabinet of medals in his own possession. As to poetry, that sublime, yet modest art can with a chemical skill extract sweets from almost every thing. And here reasons not exactly parallel, yet equally strong,` will be found applicable to poetry as to painting. From the acknowledged fact, that both the medallist and poet worked frequently from the same models, lived at the same period, and were habituated to the same customs, it is as natural a consequence, that the reverse of a medal should often explain a passage in a poet, as that the verses of a poet should unfold the design or the inscription on a medal; and in these reasons we must ground all the significance and weight both of Addison's Dia See Addison's Dialogues on the Usefulness of Ancient Medals, Dial, 1. logues on Ancient Medals, and such books as, like Pine's Horace, illustrate the classics from ancient medals. It would be easy to multiply quotations from the classics on this subject: but there would be a danger of exceeding bounds, and perhaps merely of repeating observations already made so well by Mr. Addison. I shall then content myself, from a survey of the three series of medals brought forward by that writer, to deduce one general observation, which is, that as the medallic art and the art of poetry reflect light, in the practice of the ancient poets, on each other, so modern poetry, by a comparative view of their qualities, may derive to itself considerable embellishments and force; provided, however, it indulges not in unnatural imitations and incongruous imagery, but content itself with imitating rather the manner than the matter of the ancients; otherwise, it will lie exposed to the censure Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam And in conformity to such general observations, I will notice a few natural and poetical devices on Roman medals, (all found in this country, and therefore genuine *), as applicable in English, or any modern poetry, as ancient. Thus the reverse on Otho's medal, which is so rare, is a female form, with a garland in her right hand, and a in her left, a poetical emblem for public security: spear and still more expressive is that of the emperor Commo --- * See Pointer's Britannia Romana. |