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l6o ROMAN DAYS.
went to the Louvre and there obtained an opportunity
to draw the statue, long before it was ready for exhibi-
tion to the public. In this way, Messieurs Debay were
lucky enough to see something that the public never
looked upon. There was, namely, a Greek inscription
on the pedestal. This pedestal was composed of two
pieces of marble joined together, one somewhat higher
than the other. The higher piece had on its face three
rows of Greek letters, which young Debay drew with all
the greater accuracy that he did not know how to read a
single one of them. The inscription read in translation,
as follows
:
[Alex ?] Andros, Menides Son, from Antioch
ON THE Meander, made the work.
A copy of the work was sent to Louis David. The
drawing itself remained in the elder Debay’s hands ; but
was lent by him to the Count de Clarac, when to his essay
on " la Venus de Milo," he wished to add a sketch of the
statue.
Here was a troublesome secret disclosed. But the
parties concerned, who had determined that the Louvre
should possess a masterpiece of Praxiteles—above all the
superintendents of the museum, Messrs. Percier and Fon-
taine—did not lose courage on that account. What oc-
curred behind the closed doors of the workshop of the
gallery, is not hard to make out ; for when the statue
had taken its place in the gallery and the public had free
access to it, the inscription was gone, and those concerned
professed to be wholly ignorant of the fact that anything
of the kind had ever been found. They shook their heads
at Mr. de Clarac and Mr. Debay, and were of opinion
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