But The Attitude And Expression Will
By No Means Admit Of This Interpretation.
Bianchi, [This
antiquarian is now imprisoned for Life, for having robbed the
Gallery and then set it on fire.] who shows the gallery, thinks
the statue represents the augur Attius Navius, who cut a stone
with a knife, at the command of Tarquinius Priscus.
This
conjecture seems to be confirmed by a medallion of Antoninus
Pius, inserted by Vaillant among his Numismata Prestantiora, on
which is delineated nearly such a figure as this in question,
with the following legend. "Attius Navius genuflexus ante
Tarquinium Priscum cotem cultro discidit." He owns indeed that in
the statue, the augur is not distinguished either by his habit or
emblems; and he might have added, neither is the stone a cotes.
For my own part, I think neither of these three opinions is
satisfactory, though the last is very ingenious. Perhaps the
figure allude to a private incident, which never was recorded in
any history. Among the great number of pictures in this Tribuna,
I was most charmed with the Venus by Titian, which has a
sweetness of expression and tenderness of colouring, not to be
described. In this apartment, they reckon three hundred pieces,
the greatest part by the best masters, particularly by Raphael,
in the three manners by which he distinguished himself at
different periods of his life. As for the celebrated statue of
the hermaphrodite, which we find in another room, I give the
sculptor credit for his ingenuity in mingling the sexes in the
composition; but it is, at best, no other than a monster in
nature, which I never had any pleasure in viewing:
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