XiV

PREFACE to

A Print from an ancient Painting representing Au-gustus, M. Agrippa, Mæcenas, and not improbablyHorace, could not certainly be more suitably placd thanbefore a Discourse on the Characters of these great Per-sonages, by the Abbe de Vertot. It is already publisti’din my Treatise on Ancient Painting. But every Person ,whether he hath any thing of the Virtuoso Turn or not>will feel a Double SatisjaEHon , when a lively well-drawnPiElure of the Mind is join d with one of the outwardLikeness: A?id many may be fond of having Por-traits of those Great Men ,. who are not vbry curhiuabout ancient Paintings in general. The original Pictureis now in Dr. Mead’r ColleEHon. The other Print representsAncient Masks; {the SubjeSl of Mr.Bom&m s learned Dis-sertation) to render which complete nothing was wantingbut such a Plate } and the Observations on the fame Sub-ject by the Abbe de Bos, in his excellent Tjsay on fipetryand Painting, which I have subjoined. This Print isdone from a Drawing after an ancient Bas-relief ofexquifitely good Taste and Workmanship taken for me atRome by one of the best Hands there for copying^ the Antique , Camillo Paderni. This Bas-relief was,but lately discovered , and was never engrav’d before;and therefore it must be a very acceptable Present to theCurious; and it sets the Observations and ConjeSlures ofof Mejf. Boindin and de Bos on that SubjeEl , beyond alldoubt.

To these Dissertations I have added an elegant De-scription of the famous Gallery ofVt rres by the Abbe deFraguier, because these few Discourses make a small Spe-cimen