their children and their servants. Here is the monument of
Aphrodisius and Atilia, a Roman gentleman and his wife, who died in
Britain many centuries ago, and whose tombstone was found in the
Thames; and close by it stands a stele from Rome with the busts of
an old married couple who are certainly marvellously ill-favoured.
The contrast between the abstract Greek treatment of the idea of
death and the Roman concrete realization of the individuals who
have died is extremely curious.

Besides the tombstones, the new Sculpture Room contains some most
fascinating examples of Roman decorative art under the Emperors.
The most wonderful of all, and this alone is worth a trip to
Bloomsbury, is a bas-relief representing a marriage scene, Juno
Pronuba is joining the hands of a handsome young noble and a very
stately lady. There is all the grace of Perugino in this marble,
all the grace of Raphael even. The date of it is uncertain, but
the particular cut of the bridegroom's beard seems to point to the
time of the Emperor Hadrian. It is clearly the work of Greek
artists and is one of the most beautiful bas-reliefs in the whole
Museum. There is something in it which reminds one of the music
and the sweetness of Propertian verse. Then we have delightful
friezes of children. One representing children playing on musical
instruments might have suggested much of the plastic art of
Florence. Indeed, as we view these marbles it is not difficult to
see whence the Renaissance sprang and to what we owe the various
forms of Renaissance art. The frieze of the Muses, each of whom
wears in her hair a feather plucked from the wings of the
vanquished sirens, is extremely fine; there is a lovely little bas-
relief of two cupids racing in chariots; and the frieze of
recumbent Amazons has some splendid qualities of design. A frieze