Note 153 — NO. XXI.—ROME.

“The public colossal statues of Castor and Pollux, said to be by Phidias and Praxiteles, on Monte Cavallo,” says Mr. Williams, “are superior to all the statues of that description which I have seen in Italy. Both of the figures are in the act of guiding their horses, and are remarkable for lightness and manly beauty; suggesting no idea of huge blocks of marble, as most of the colossal statues do. The proportions of these figures are exquisite, and from certain points appear little inferior to the finest statues in the world. The horses, however, are not so well proportioned. That the sculptors might give dignity to the figures, they have made the horses comparatively small—a liberty which will not be condemned by the judicious critic.”