anchi looks
upon this as a fable; but owns that Vasari tells such another of a
child cut in marble by the same artist, which being carried to Rome,
and kept for some time under ground, was dug up as an antique, and sold
for a great deal of money. I was likewise attracted by the Morpheus in
touchstone, which is described by Addison, who, by the bye,
notwithstanding all his taste, has been convicted by Bianchi of several
gross blunders in his account of this gallery.

With respect to the famous Venus Pontia, commonly called de Medicis,
which was found at Tivoli, and is kept in a separate apartment called
the Tribuna, I believe I ought to be intirely silent, or at least
conceal my real sentiments, which will otherwise appear equally absurd
and presumptuous. It must be want of taste that prevents my feeling
that enthusiastic admiration with which others are inspired at sight of
this statue: a statue which in reputation equals that of Cupid by
Praxiteles, which brought such a concourse of strangers of old to the
little town of Thespiae. I cannot help thinking that there is no beauty
in the features of Venus; and that the attitude is aukward and out of
character. It is a bad plea to urge that the antients and we differ in
the ideas of beauty. We know the contrary, from their medals, busts,
and historians. Without all doubt, the limbs and proportions of this
statue are elegantly formed, and accurately designed, according to the
nicest rules of symmetry and proportion; and the back parts especially
are executed so happily, as to excite the admiration of the most
indifferent spectator. One cannot help thinking it is the very Venus of
Cnidos by Praxiteles, which Lucian describes. "Hercle quanta dorsi
concinnitas! ut exuberantes lumbi amplexantes manus implent! quam scite
circumductae clunium pulpae in se rotundantur, neque tenues nimis ipsis
ossibus adstrictae, neque in immensam effusae Pinguedinem!" That the
statue thus described was not the Venus de Medicis, would appear from
the Greek inscription on the base, KLEOMENIS APPOLLODOROI ATHINAIOS
EPOESEI. Cleomenes filius Apollodori fecit; did we not know that this
inscription is counted spurious, and that instead of EPOESEI, it should
be EPOIESE. This, however, is but a frivolous objection, as we have
seen many inscriptions undoubtedly antique, in which the orthography is
false, either from the ignorance or carelessness of the sculptor.
Others suppose, not without reason, that thi