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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1907)
I. !4 ( it m B ' THE OMAHA SUXTUY T.KE; At'OTTST 25, 1007. - 3 " Long Lost Engravings Relating to the Laocoon Still in Existence D I , . -Ttlr copies of V Cravings r.latlna to tne ioooon We recently heen discovered ,, 8om, untort4 br.ry ln Z " . ! Pr.v.t. ,,. V. .-,- 1 ,,fn "Produced - - ' " K II. . VMM a flacelo Bandlnelll was barn In 14 and was the Hon of a goldsmith' who had set tled In Florence from Oejilole about the middle of the fifteenth century, tn Ms youth ho showed taste for srt and was placed In th studio of Giovanni Rusticl, Cn i ..... . . ... . . ... mltted their ki nave ninmy rwr- Jennardo na i met raw mm ana rri . - '"""taiinn tn the Rim Include the -caricature They Titian, a . . "Vwi by wed I to Raphael and a picture of th( ,.,. aa sl.nwlnj discovered In 150. ln" missing Varta e practically unknown Won, their re--t discovery. The caricature of Titian "f great artistic vain-, a, the position of I.'.oroon'a arm. la Inverted, and unlike th i-'-nstructlon In the original and Bandl-r-'llia copy, th right arm instead of the ft In raised on high Pome critics Inrllne to believe that orig inally the raised hand of the old man rested on hla head and they contend that traces of the Junction are clearly vlslhle on Hie statue. Thla opinion aeems to be cor roborated by the evidence of an old gem on which the group la thus engraved. But the engraving by Marco Dente ehows the central figure ln the name position of couraged him to undertake an prtlstlo career. He was one of the manr students who copied Michael Anaelo'a cartoon 6f 'Sol diers Rurprlacd While Bathing." and It it said that hla coplei were among the best. Vasarl asserts that having obtained all the benefits he could himself 'be tore up the cartoon to prevent hla companions from ' profiting equally. Some aay. however, that the deed was done out of a-alousy to Michael Angelo; othera as an act Of cham pionship for Leonardo da Vlnct, who u on thla occasion Buonarroti'! rival. Bandlnelll was of a very Jealotn nature and he had an overweening appreciation of hla own talents. Al tils works wore spoken slightingly of by Ma contempo raries, and even the most celebrated of hla stature met with a hostile reception, owing . to the unpopularity of the artist more than to the Indifference of the works themselvcs Benvenuto Cellini was oho of his bitterest ' enemies, and the Grand tmke Coslmo I, III V 1 ,,N . or,P.,.. group, ana hotn Micnael Angelo who patronlied botft. derived great amuso- and Bandlnelll preferred, the former In hla rnent from letting the two men attack eacli reconstruction of the arm. the latter In his other In hla presence. Bacclo. like many copy, not to apoU the effect of Laocoon other Florentine sculutors, , followed Leo X w .IT' 'IrX. . J 7 T v.. - r 1 V""2L-7 r tf , 4. J ' 4.' . j , i - . '.if I turn to Florence and Interrupt Ms work In Bonie. When Clement VII eiliTenlrd Adrian, Bandlnelll ret imed again tn R'tme and after two yexrs' work he finished hla copy. It Is difficult for modern critics to Judge whether the srimtrntlnn of Vnsarl and of 1'opu Clement VII for Bandluelll s laocoon really corresponded to the merits nf this statue, as the group, which whs considered at the time such a masterpiece that Instead of sending It to the king of France, as orig inally Intended, the pope sent It to his fam ily palace In Florence, wns greatly damaged by flre'ln 172 and Is half ralclnlxed. Handlnelll's vanity and arrogance knew no bounds after his success with the Iao toon'a copy. Benvenuto Cellini had already criticised Banrilnelll's group of Hwrciilea end Cacus In the following terms In the J resence of the grand duke and of Ban dlnelll himself: "If your Hercules had his J:nir cropped he would not have skull nough left to hold his brain. One cannot tell whether his face Is that of a man or a monster, for he la. half Hon and half ox. Ills , heavy ahouldera remind one of the two panniers of a donkey's pack saddle. His chest and muscles are copied, not from human nature, but from a bHg of melona." He la aald to have been ao angry that he told Bandlnelll: "Provide yourself with another world, Bacclo, as I am determined to remove you from this ono very soon." Urcclo retorted. "Let me know Just a day ahead, so that t mav get shriven and maka) my will, as I do not wish to die Itka a beast, the same as you are." Michael Angelo saliU referring to Pan dlnellla I-aocoon, that he who followalt othera can never get ahead of them, and h who doea not know how to work well kjf himself can never expect to use the got" work done by others. m It was st this time that Titian drew hla classic caricature. Maso Flnlguerra, th goldsmith, had then Just discovered tha method to take on paper Impressions In lnki from an engraved plate, and within a short, time beautiful engravings were sold alt over Italy and many famous painters en graved their own works. Nlccolo Boldrlnl engraved Titian's cerU' eature, which represents the Iiocoon anif .his two sons as three monkeys, and many copies were scattered over Rome and Tlnr i ence which deluged Bandlnelll with ridicule. Thla engraving and two others printed here were published at the same time. The two other cngravlnga were the work of Marco Pente. As hrfs been said thay ' represent, one a conception of the Ijaoeoe attributed to Bnphael and the other tha statue aa It appeared when It waa dis covered In 1M8, showing the missing parts. AH three became extinct, and although known to have existed no trace of therm could be found until ther recent dis covery hero. " ' t : -K. 'A - i. i m , ' - " r 2 A liaiSaaaaaWaMilallallllllsil 1 1 1 1 n 7Vfzr z;?ocoor.- m.r';i'.ui had ly the conjunction of one of his hands to It. The wonderful group of the Laocoon now at the Vatican was discovered by Kellce de Fretlls In a vineyard on the Ksijulllnl tn 1506, during the very highest development of Italian renaissance and while Michael Angelo waa In 'Rome. The right arm of the central figure, that of the father, waa missing at the time of the discovery, and It waa restored fn terra cntta by Michael Angelo himself. The Laocoon Is considered as a perfect specimen of antique sculpture, and Pllny'e high estimation of It "a work that may be considered superior to all othera both In painting and atatuary" holds good to thla very . day. Both the grouping and the execution have never beeq surpassed. Uvery limb, every muscle, every vein of Laocoon and his two sona expresses with the fidelity of life the anguish, pain and grief of the unhappy trio. , The group of the Laocoon waa copied In tnarble by the sculptor Bacclo Bandlnelll and modelled In bronie by Jacopo Sanso vino, and It is interesting to follow the atory of Bandinelll'a copy, especially ln view of the finding of the long forgotten to Rome. While there the pope a-kefi htm If he thought he could make a copy of the Laocoon, which it was intended to a'nd as a present to King Francis I of Frante. According to Vasarl, Bandlnelll replied that he not only felt hlmsif capable of equalling the original but of 'surpassing It aa well. Before the blocks of marblo were procured the sculptor set to work and made a model of the Laocoon In wax which, was greatly praised; besides, ' he made a Ufa size cartoon ln black and white or the group, which the pope greatly admired. When the marble arrived Bacclo built a ahed In the Belvedere, and within A short time he made ao excellent a copy of the elder aon of Laocoon that both the pope and all connoisseur of the time remained astonished because between the original and the copy 'no difference couM be found. Bacclo, encouraged by this'' approval, be gan the atatue of the father ahflie other aon, but before long the pope died When Adrian VI was elected pope the original Laocoon narrowly escaped destruc tion, as he turned away from It, shudder-, log, and exclaiming: "Idol of the pagans"' It waa then feared that the barbarian pope would order the burning of all pagan stat- v., i A. J- Ilia . we mmk fa !!(( mis 1AS tXOCHOOH mi -v3 SW.u LOCOQV1'WLCOOIC1TVR 3 S3' mm I'.' if-. r it ipf Quinine Grown on German Plantations W4auJ rerlcature of this unpopular artlst'a work, ues to make lime for the building of Bt, Y eter , ana uanuineiu was advised to re- which is attributed to Titian. ME quinine plantations, or qutnales. as they are called, which have been started in South Germany are usually found on rough and broken mountain sides, and at al titudes of 3.0C0 to 4,000. feet above the sea. The trees will grow at a height of $.000 feet, but they require a great deal of sun, rain and wind, and therefore flourish best at, an elevation of 1.000 feet. Slost of the groves have been raised from the seed, which Is gathered In the early summer months, and planted In hot houses. When the plants are about six Inches high, they are transplanted upon hillsides which have' been cleared of under brush and plowed up beforehand, so that the young roots can secure the benefit of all the moisture and plant food ln the soil and the heat of the sun. For shelter they are partially covered with twigs, straw and other light stuff, which also serves to keep the moisture and heat in the ground. After two years, this shelter Is raked off, the plants are carefully Inspected and those which are not promising are re placed by new ones. The ground around) them Is kept clear of weVds. and the young treea are carefully trimmed twice, a year. In five or six yeara the tree will hav reached the height of twelve or thirteen feet, and its trunk will be straight and slender. It resembles the orange tree In size snd shape, and the peculiar glosa of Its leaves. Two or three times a year, three or four strips of bark, about four Inches wide, from two to eight feet long, are cut from the trunk and thrown upon a paved yard to dry, where, as the moisture evi orates, they curl up like cinnamon. Within a year or so, nature replaces th bark that has thus been stripped off, and the tree Is stripped again In other plates. Aa It grows older, smaller atrlpa aarf ba taken from the atronger branches, and the nature tree will -psoduce an annual average of about four pounds at bark. The mark drlea ln a few days, and, IsJ packed for shipment in rawhide balee ' Most of It la shipped with an eye: tJ dryness ln the holds. Philadelphia Reobrd. i How Archaeologists Are Unearthing Graves Forty Centuries Olcl (Copyright, 1997, by Frank a. Carpenter.) f ' K VURO. Aug. 22. 1907-The most im I f I portant archaeological work now Y I ffotn on In Kivnt im ln the hands of the Americana. Our scientists George Relsner. one of the most effl' lent archaeologlrts of the day, has har;e of the work. Dr. Reisner came to Eypt about eis years ago aa the head of th Hearst expedition. He worked for It sev- aeological territory about the pryamids is together and are bringing new life to the interesting. The govc rnement was anxious .paxes of history. to have the country excavated, and thera were three nations ready to do the work. The throe were Germany, Italy and tie are making exoloratlona In Nubia. years and made valuable explorations rmted riIp ArM,..nin.i.i. . . - V. Vll 1. ,1 T A ,1 .1,. . ... w. ,,C uimuvv.ru ..... u.B eactl' of thcae countries came here aa Us away up the Nile, and they are opening up temples and tombs In the desert near Luxor. There la a rich Yankee named Tavls. who la carrying on a series of In dependent Investigations not far from old Thebes. He has spent -large aums and haa discovered the tombs of several kings who reigned over 4,000 yeara ago. He recently unearthed the mummy of Queen Hath ahepeset, which Is now on vWw In the museum at Cairn, and "he has made many other finds ln the laat year. Right here, under the shadow of the pyramids, two American Institutions have a large force of natlvea at work and have uncovered n cemetery of the time when the greatest of the pyramids waa built. This cemetery Includes the tombs nut only of the rich, but alpo of the poor, and the relics, statues nnd other things found In It enable one to reconstruct the Uvea of those who were buried hero now more than 4,0 s) years ago. I Tk Cemetery of Cfceojta, When I viaited Kgypl. .lust after the as ssssinatfon of President n li ftld, the sanri about the pyramlda were alntost aa smoott aa tnnse of the seashore. I galloped my donkey over them and had no tde-a that 1 waa tramping down Innumerable gravea t mnllted over the same ground yester day, picking my way In and ouy through a vaat network of balf-broken-down tomb- from which the sand had been shovelej, nd climbed across piles of sun-dried brlf It which were made by the Egyptians at tha time old King Cheopa lived and reigned In one place I saw a rang of half-naked broan skinned fellahs shoveling the eartb. Into tha cars in which It Is carried far out In the desert. In order to unearth tha tombs below. When the work Is In ful Play sn'endleas chain, of care of aand move, across tha cemetery. There Is . douMe track with tu.ntablea at each end, and th. arrangement, are such that th, sand can b. taken out at the rate of ha a ton per minute. For a long time seventy, Two men were employed and the reault it som. most ""ToTe haTol rial haa been collected. About -'' J this . now her. In the museum .t . Tain, ant ta. Cher half ba- on. to th. t nlv.s, .!. of California and Harvard. made near th. great to. flint-working camp, of the people cf the prehistoric period, and he explored quarrt s which dale back ' to the tlmea Of the Ptolemies. He also unearthed the slt of a large town which was in existence 1.500 yeara before Christ and excavated. It mii of valuable material therefrom, rila then came nearer Cairo and there.' uncovered cemeteries of ancient times, which give us a new view of Egyptian civilisation. It was In connection' with the Boston museum that he began his work at th. pyramlda, andras it la now carried on, the museum gets all of. the art discoveries, while Harvard receives everything found bearing upon history and ethnology. It ahould be aald that one-half of all that Is unearthed goes to the Rlgyptlan govern ment and tha other half to th. United Etatea. , Cael. Sam's latoufsl Oasakl.. Th. story f tha aUptmaut of th. arch- I came out from Cairo In a comfortable carriage, and today I passed over the same route on an electric trolley, paying 74 cents for the trip. The street cars to the pyramids began at the end cf the bridge, opposite Cairo, and go along the side of a wide avenue, which is shaded by aca'cla trees. The cars are open and one can look out over the Nile valley as ho goes. The trucks run along one of the main roads and we whizzed by caravans of donkeys, loaded with all sorts of farm products, and by camels, ridden by gowned men, who bobbed up and down in the sad dle as they went. There were men, women and children on foot, and veiled women on donkeys. ' The cars were filled with Egyptians. Two dark-faced men In black gowns and white turbans sat on the seat beside me. In front was a yellow-skinned Arab dandy In a red fes cap and long gown, and juat behind me eat a woman with a black veil fastened to her headdresa by a brass spool. As we neared the pyramids we stopped at a cafe where they sold Amer ican drinks and a lltle further on wes a great hotel, containing a telephone, elec- coor. finds thaa both th. other nations put looked at be lltu. on. I thought of tha In 1883 J rod. to them on a donkey. In 1239 trio lights and all modern Improvement. representatives and the whole of the Glx-h pyramid field waa turned over to the n wl:h the understanding that Hgypt waa to have half f the discoveries. Then the question came up as to how the field should be divided. As It was then. It was a great area of sand not far from the banks of the Nile with the big. pyramid of Cheops and the smaller ones of Khefrcn and Mycerlnua rising out of It, each beln quite a distance apart from the others. Each nation wished to do indopondei t work, and the archaeologlrts finally asreel to divide the tract Into three sections and caat lots f.r them. I am told that Mrs. Pr Reisner held the straws. In the draw ing the I'nlted States got the tract just north of the great pyramid and Germany la Desert with American Excavator. I went out to the pyramids today and called upon the chief of 'the American ex cavation works. Dr. Reisner has built him a home under the shadow of old Cheops. He Is beyond that greatest of the pyramids, with the sands reaching for miles away on the north, south and west of him. His house is built of stones, which probably came from the pyramlda. It Is a long, one-story structure, not over twelve feet ln height, but large enough to contain a laboratory, a .holographic establishment and the necessary instruments of au arch aeologist. ' " On1 part of It Is the living 'quarters of Dr. Reisner and his family. He has his wife and baby with him, and as we chatted together hla little daughter, a brlght-tyed Infant not more than a year or so old. played about our feet. The baby was barn and Italy those to the south of It. Our here on the edge of the Libyan desTt, tract was thought to be the best of all and her youth and the age ,of old Cheops, and Uncle Eam's luck has been no better that great tomb of more ttan t.lW years evidenced than right here- W. ar. making ago, were striking In their contrast. Aa I tombs of the babies of more than forty centuriea ago which her father Is now ex cavating. During my stay we examined some pho tographs of Dr. Reisner'a discoveries. One represented three statutes of a well-to-do couple who lived here In those bygone ages. It was Tetl and his wife. The faces were life-like and I doubt not Mr. and Mrs. Tetl sat for them. There were other photographa of ob jects found In the cemetery of the rich and also some found In the cemetery of the poor. The higher classes of that tlm. were burled nearer the pyramid, and be yond them, farther up the desert, were the burial places of the poor. The latter are, I believe, the only gravea of that "class so far discovered. Knelt poor person had a little coffin-like hole ln the ground built round with stones. These holes wer. closs together, making, as It were, a great aerlea of atone boxes, reminding one of the com partments for eggs in a packing case. To the Pyramid, by Trolley. This Is the third time that I have made lengthy visits to tha prjaniids of ES.Tt. Si f . . . ' f 'e-. . . . , '-. , ' . ' V .'': v 7 -x,.: ,r .- . - -, ' X"' ' a -''; X ' '.ni . ' -V-. .w reViv - 1- ft ' A ! it 'll i.:.'fjir:L'rr..ri:X s'--- ,. - iiif'sl i.hfci a. 4 ftWH 4S -v . . -iv -a- , 'X" . irf -V' . RICH MAN'S CEMETERT NOW BB1NQ EXCAVATED BT AFRICANS-CHEOPS IN BACKGROUND, PAUPER FIELD OF FORTT CENTURIES A OO, I took a donkey for my ride to the great1 pyramid of Cheops, and went clear around It, climbing up the stones here an, thera to see how it was made. I have gone ta .' the top and made notes of th. desert as It stretches out for miles on . three sides, and also of the valley of the Nile, which, with Ita teeming millions Is In view not far away. The top of the pyramid la) about thirty feet square. It la aa big as a good alxed parlor and la on. of th. most interesting roof gardens known to man. As I sat there I could see the work golna; on In the sands below me, and I repeopled them with the men now being due up) under the superintendence of our Amer leans. In my mind's eye I could see thent aa they tolled here over 4,ofi0 years aia. I could see them, dragging tha great blocks over the road - of polished atone, which had been made for the purpose and observe th. sweat rolling down their dusty faces under this Hazing sun of F.gypt, as, under the la. he. of their taakmuatrrs, the great pile grew. There was an army of them. One hundred thousand men worked three months . of every year for more than twenty years on this construction, and Herndotua says that the onions, garlic and radishes which tha laborers ate cost $1,760,000. If thst was th. price of relishes, what must the real food have jHt? How much must have been spent on clothing and how much on tools? Millions of atone Blocks. The ''great pyramid waa composed cf 1200.000 separate blocka of atone. It ev ered thirteen acres and still contalna triors than J,00n.0i0 cublo yarda of solid Vnaaonry, taking out the chambers within It. Itg perpendicular height Is now Just about that of a lorty-flve-atory flat, allowing ten feet to each alory; It ia within 100 fet of; the height of the Washington monument, provided you do not count the aluminum tip of the latter. Tlfes. stones of which the pyramid Is built are nf different alxea. Borne are,aa big aa a flat -topped office desk and som. are so high that you require two men. ta pull you onward as you climb from terrace to terrace. I am told that ' old Chuops weighs something like s.000,000 tons;, so much that if the blocks were torn apart and loaded on wagons It would take soma-, thing like 10,ono.(V horses, or more than half of all the horfcea In the United Htatcs, to drag It off to the sea. For such an undertakllng the atones would have to be broken to pieces. There. ar. few of them which do not weigh at least two tona and aome of the large blook. which cover the king's chamber Inside th. structur. weigh sixty tons. As measured (Continued on Pag TourJt , v ' 4