Finally we entered the Hall of the Throne.  Here the encaustic decoration so plentifully employed in the other rooms is dropt, and an effect even more brilliant obtained by the united use of marble and gold.  Picture a long hall with a floor of polished marble, on each side twelve columns of white marble with gilded capitals, between which stand colossal statues of gold.  At the other end is the throne of gold and crimson, with gorgeous hangings of crimson velvet.  The twelve statues in the hall are called the “Wittelsbach Ancestors” and represent renowned members of the house of Wittelsbach from which the present family of Bavaria is descended.  They were cast in bronze by Stiglmaier after the models of Schwanthaler, and then completely covered with a coating of gold; so that they resemble solid golden statues.  The value of the precious metal on each one is about three thousand dollars, as they are nine feet in height.  We visited yesterday morning the Glyptothek, the finest collection of ancient sculpture except that in the British Museum I have yet seen, and perhaps elsewhere unsurpassed north of the Alps.  The building, which was finished by Klenze in 1830, has an Ionic portico of white marble, with a group of allegorical figures representing Sculpture and the kindred arts.  On each side of the portico there are three niches in the front, containing on one side Pericles, Phidias and Vulcan; on the other, Hadrian, Prometheus and Daedalus.  The whole building forms a hollow square and is lighted entirely from the inner side.  There are in all twelve halls, each containing the remains of a particular era in the art, and arranged according to time; so that, beginning with the clumsy productions of the ancient Egyptians, one passes through the different stages of Grecian art, afterward that of Rome, and finally ends with the works of our own times—­the almost Grecian perfection of Thorwaldsen and Canova.  These halls are worthy to hold such treasures, and what more could be said of them?  The floors are of marble mosaic, the sides of green or purple scagliola and the vaulted ceilings covered with raised ornaments on a ground of gold.  No two are alike in color and decoration, and yet there is a unity of taste and design in the whole which renders the variety delightful.

From the Egyptian Hall we enter one containing the oldest remains of Grecian sculpture, before the artists won power to mold the marble to their conceptions.  Then follow the celebrated Aegina marbles, from the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, on the island of Aegina.  They formerly stood in the two porticoes, the one group representing the fight for the body of Laomedon, the other the struggle for the dead Patroclus.  The parts wanting have been admirably restored by Thorwaldsen.  They form almost the only existing specimens of the Aeginetan school.  Passing through the Apollo Hall, we enter the large Hall of Bacchus, in which the progress of the art is distinctly apparent.  A satyr lying asleep on a goatskin which he has thrown over a rock is believed to be the work of Praxiteles.  The relaxation of the figure and perfect repose of every limb is wonderful.  The countenance has traits of individuality which led me to think it might have been a portrait, perhaps of some rude country swain.