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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
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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,
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. 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
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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. " '
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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-
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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.
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... 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.
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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 ,
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