Although this beautiful specimen of ancient art was found about the middle of the sixteenth century, inclosed in a marble sarcophagus within a sepulchral chamber under the Monte del Grano, near Rome, and although the date of its production is unknown, yet its being a work of ancient Grecian art is undoubted; and the exquisite beauty of its form has been universally acknowledged, both during the time it remained in the palace of the Barberini family at Rome, and since it was added to the treasures of the British Museum. The forms and proportions of this gem of art appear to me to yield an obedience to the great harmonic law of nature, similar to that which I have instanced in the proportions and contour of the best specimens of ancient Grecian architecture.
Let the line A B ([Plate XII.]) represent the full height of the vase. Through A draw A a, and through B draw B b indefinitely, A a making an angle of (¹⁄₂), and B b an angle of (¹⁄₃), with the vertical. Through the point C, where A a and B b intersect one another, draw D C E vertical. Through A C and B respectively, draw A D, C F, and B E horizontal. Draw similar lines on the other side of A B, and the rectilinear portion of the diagram is complete.
The curvilinear contour may be thus added:—
Take a cut-out ellipse of (¹⁄₄), whose greater axis is equal to the line A B, and
1st. Place it upon the diagram, so that its circumference may be tangential to the lines C E and C F, and its greater axis m n may make an angle of (¹⁄₅) with the vertical, and trace its circumference.
2d. Place it with its circumference tangential to that of the first at the point m, while its greater axis (of which o p is a part) is in the horizontal, and trace the portion of its circumference q o r.
3d. Place it with its circumference tangential to that of the above at v, while its greater axis (of which u v is a part) makes an angle of (³⁄₁₀) with the vertical, and trace the portion of its circumference s v t.
Thus the curvilinear contour of the body and neck are harmonically determined.
The curve of the handle may be determined by the same ellipse placed so that its greater axis (of which i k is a part) makes an angle of (¹⁄₆) with the vertical.