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EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

might have sat on his throne, and the two half-clad genii, which carry each ofthem a thyrsus in one hand, support with the other, high above his head, awreath ", which is, however, composed of trilobed leaves. The bases and capitalsof the columns, the vases above, transformed into the likeness of the cruets em-ployed for the service of the mass, the pax filled with holy wafers in thetympanum below, and the finial which crowns the pediment, are all Gothic, whilstthe draperies recal the Byzantine or Carlovingian age 0 . Whatever may bethought of these transformations, this drawing is very interesting, for it shewsthat the mediaeval artists had more respect for the works of antiquity than isgenerally supposed, and that its architects attempted to imitate them in theirconstructions as the troubadours did in their poems p .—(L.)

n A Roman basso-relievo, published by Montfaucon,retraces nearly the scene of the upper part of thedrawing. {I’Antiquite expliquee, Supplement, t. iv.pi. 18.)

° The Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Turin give a very interesting example of the singularmanner in which archaeological fidelity was under-stood in the sixteenth century. It is the repro-duction of a drawing executed at that time at Joree,and preserved in a manuscript collection of inscrip-tions, from whence it was taken by M. l’Abbe Gazzera,who has inserted it in his memoirs entitled, Delponderario e delle antiche lapidi Eporediesi. Theinscription, very faithfully copied, is as follows:—AVRELI VITALIS CENTVRIONIS

LEG. IIII ELA QVI VIXIT.

But the Aurelius. Yitalis, centurion of the fourthlegion, to whom it applies, is represented, not as aRoman horseman, but as a knight in complete armourof the sixteenth century, attended by a squire dressed

in the same style. The armour and attitude aresuch as would suit the Chevalier Bayard or the Mare-chal de la Palisse, whilst the inscription itself is veryexact, and leaves nothing to desire. This fact, whichmight furnish a very interesting page for the futurehistory of archaeology, should there ever be found anyone to write it, is recorded in the Memorie della realeAccademia delle scienze di Torino , (t. xiv. p. 26, n°. 12,and pi. 5,) and was pointed out to me by M. Long-perier, a member of the Institute . (A. D.)

p Upon this design M. Quieherat remarks that“ nurs sarrasins” is a mediaeval term always meaningRoman ruins. Wilars de Honecort has given a re-presentation of what he conceived to be a tomb, butlias probably mistaken its object. The subject israther the divine honour paid to an emperor. Above,Romulus and Remus hold up a crown of foliage.The emperor is seated on a “ pulvinar,” and at hisfeet is an altar served by two Augustals. (RevueAreheologique, p. 215).—(W.)