DOI Artikel:
Brownson, Carleton L.: The relation of the archaic pediment-reliefs from the Acropolis to vase-painting
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8681#0316
304 ARCHAIC PEDIMENT-RELIEFS FROM THE ACROPOLIS.
Olympia and confirmed by later researches in Sicily and Magna
Graecia, are of the utmost importance.9 In the Byzantine west
wall at Olympia were found great numbers of painted terracotta
plates10 which examination proved to have covered the cornices of
the Geloan Treasury. They were fastened to the stone by iron
nails, the distance between the nail-holes in terracottas and cor-
nice blocks corresponding exactly. The fact that the stone, where
covered, was only roughly worked made the connection still more
sure. These plates were used on the cornice of the long side, and
bounded the pediment space above and below. The correspond-
ing cyma was of the the same material and similarly decorated.
It seems surprising that such a terracotta sheathing should be
applied on a structure of stone. For a wooden building, on the
other hand, it would be altogether natural. It was possible to
protect wooden columns, architraves and triglyphs from the weather
by means of a wide cornice. But the cornice itself could not but
be exposed, and so this means of protection was devised. Of
course no visible proof of all this is at hand in the shape of wooden
temples yet remaining. But Dr. D rpfeld's demonstration11 re-
moves all possible doubt. Pausanias12 tells us that in the Heneum
at Olympia there was still preserved in his day an old wooden
column. £Tow from the same temple no trace of architrave, tri-
glyph or cornice has been found; a fact that is true of no other
building in Olympia and seems to make it certain that here wood
never was replaced by stone. When temples came to be built of
stone, it seems that this plan of terracotta covering was retained
for a time, partly from habit, partly because of its fine decorative
effect. But it was soon found that marble was capable of with-
standing the wear of weather and that the ornament could be ap-
plied to it directly by painting.
0 I follow closely Dr. Dorpfeld's account and explanation of these discoveries in
Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, v, 30 seq. See also Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste,
Berlin, 1881 ; Ueber die Verwendung Terracotien, by Messrs. Dorpfeld, Gr'aber,
borrmann, and SlEBOLD.
10 Reproduced in Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, V, Taf. xxxiv; BaumbISTKR, Donk-
maler des klassischen Altertums, Taf. xlv ; Raykt et Colliqnon, Hisioire de
la Ceramique Grecque, pi. xv.
11 Historische und philologische Aufsdlze, Ernst Curtius gewidmet, Berlin, 1884,
p. 137 seq. 13 v, 20. 6.
Olympia and confirmed by later researches in Sicily and Magna
Graecia, are of the utmost importance.9 In the Byzantine west
wall at Olympia were found great numbers of painted terracotta
plates10 which examination proved to have covered the cornices of
the Geloan Treasury. They were fastened to the stone by iron
nails, the distance between the nail-holes in terracottas and cor-
nice blocks corresponding exactly. The fact that the stone, where
covered, was only roughly worked made the connection still more
sure. These plates were used on the cornice of the long side, and
bounded the pediment space above and below. The correspond-
ing cyma was of the the same material and similarly decorated.
It seems surprising that such a terracotta sheathing should be
applied on a structure of stone. For a wooden building, on the
other hand, it would be altogether natural. It was possible to
protect wooden columns, architraves and triglyphs from the weather
by means of a wide cornice. But the cornice itself could not but
be exposed, and so this means of protection was devised. Of
course no visible proof of all this is at hand in the shape of wooden
temples yet remaining. But Dr. D rpfeld's demonstration11 re-
moves all possible doubt. Pausanias12 tells us that in the Heneum
at Olympia there was still preserved in his day an old wooden
column. £Tow from the same temple no trace of architrave, tri-
glyph or cornice has been found; a fact that is true of no other
building in Olympia and seems to make it certain that here wood
never was replaced by stone. When temples came to be built of
stone, it seems that this plan of terracotta covering was retained
for a time, partly from habit, partly because of its fine decorative
effect. But it was soon found that marble was capable of with-
standing the wear of weather and that the ornament could be ap-
plied to it directly by painting.
0 I follow closely Dr. Dorpfeld's account and explanation of these discoveries in
Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, v, 30 seq. See also Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste,
Berlin, 1881 ; Ueber die Verwendung Terracotien, by Messrs. Dorpfeld, Gr'aber,
borrmann, and SlEBOLD.
10 Reproduced in Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, V, Taf. xxxiv; BaumbISTKR, Donk-
maler des klassischen Altertums, Taf. xlv ; Raykt et Colliqnon, Hisioire de
la Ceramique Grecque, pi. xv.
11 Historische und philologische Aufsdlze, Ernst Curtius gewidmet, Berlin, 1884,
p. 137 seq. 13 v, 20. 6.