THE GALLERY OF CASTS.
To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.*] SIR,—When the new Gallery of Casts was opened at South Kensington in August last, a critical notice appeared in the Spectator upon such examples as were then present for exhibition. Since that time there have been several additions to the col- lection, and quite lately there has arrived the Vatican copy of the Venus of Knidos.
In publishing the cast as the original exists—that is, with the arms restored in all the vulgarity of motive and execution peculiar to the Bernini School—Mr. Perry has let slip the oppor- tunity of giving to the public a type of excellence that is not enjoyed by the other copies of the same work, notably the Venus from Munich, placed next to it. Without the arms, this statue belongs to the class of "unconscious nudities "—a singularly small one. With them, it is only one more of those decorations for Roman bath-houses whose monotony of style is so familiar to us.
The collection is intended to be a popular one ; and it is only students who can perform the subjective operation of lopping off from the Venus the offending members, and so appreciating the original conception of the artist. Why not perform the same
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