The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

seen from the principal entrance of the house. The general colour is white. Dado red and yellow. The three central compartments are copied from the House of the Augustals, or banqueting house commonly known by the name of the _Pantheon_. Beneath, a high canopy, supported by thin and gracefully ornamented columns, stands a lovely female with one foot upon the step of a door. She is in the act of playing the lyre, holding the plectrum with her right hand, and by her song seems to invite strangers to enter the portal. Upon the architrave of this porch is a yellow group of a Winged Victory in a biga driving at full speed, engraved in Zahn, vol. i., pl. 24. The left-hand figure is a priestess with a _prefericulum_, or small pitcher used for sacrifices, in her right hand, and a bunch of corn and poppies in the other. Her hair is bound by a yellow circlet, and the upper garment or mantle is remarkably similar to that in the dress of the celebrated Flora of the Capitol. (See Catalogue of Greek Court, No. 41.) The lower dress is blue and partly covering her yellow shoes. The architecture, seen through the portal of the hall which the priestess seems to be leaving, is admirably painted. The companion picture on the opposite side, is a young man in purple drapery, turned towards the fair lyrist, and seeming to offer a green wreath. The first two of these figures are engraved in the Museo Bor., vol. iii., tavole 5 and 6. The second one also in Malkin’s Pompeii, vol. ii., p. 315. In the dado, beneath the figures just described, are large square stalls or recesses. In the centre one is an elegant figure of a girl holding a lyre, she seems to be sitting on the sill or edge of the opening. This figure is engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 12., and in Raoul Rochette, Choix de Peintures, pl. 4; Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 77. Gell gives it in his second series of Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 14, but surrounded by different groups to the original, although all are to be found within the same building. The group beyond forms a graceful heading to the view from the atrium looking through the right hand fauces, No. 11. It consists of two figures, a Victory with expanded wings holding an incense-burner in her right hand, and a patera in the left. She is crowned with laurel, the leaves of which stand like rays about the head. Behind and above her appears a goddess with a sceptre and tiara, either Venus or Juno, more probably the former; she is in the act of putting some incense into the burner held by the other figure. The patera with offerings like purple fruit on it, has been converted by Gell and Zahn into a painter’s palette and brushes; in the Mus. Bor. the Victory wears sandals; but in Zahn and Gell more correctly only ankle rings. The play of line in this group is very pleasing. This group is taken from the portico of the same building as the other figures, viz., the House of the Augustals, commonly called the Pantheon. The ground of the original is black, here it is rich red. Engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 19; Gell, vol. i., vignette heading to preface; Zahn, vol. i., pl. 2.