DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14135#0034
26
of Victory were found two fragments of figures representing
Athene seated. In one of these fragments (Kekule, pi. I.
c.) the Goddess is seated on the prow of a vessel, from
the introduction of which symbol it may be reasonably
inferred that a naval victory is here commemorated.
Nearly all the archaeologists who have written on the
sculptures of this temple assume that both in the smaller
and the larger frieze particular victories gained by the
Athenians are commemorated. If this be admitted, the
next question is, what is the probable date of the sculptures
themselves. On this question there is no direct evidence
except the fact that the temple could not have been erected
till after the building of the South wall of the Akropolis by
Kimon. The style of its architecture is certainly not later
than, if as late as, that of the Erechtheion, which we know
to have been in course of building B.C. 409. The sculpture
again of the smaller frieze, though more skilfully composed
and executed than the frieze of the Erechtheion, presents
some curious coincidences with it in certain groups which
are almost identical in design. It is probable that the
smaller frieze of the Temple of Victory was, like the
frieze of the Erechtheion, the work of an inferior class of
artists, who had received their training in the schools of
Pheidias and his contemporaries. On the other hand, in
the larger frieze from the temple of Nike, there is a marked
superiority both in the design and execution. The Victory
stooping to adjust her sandal is one of the most beautiful
fragments of Athenian art which has come down to us.
In the elaborate treatment of the drapery, and richness of
form, some have discerned traces of that later Athenian
style which we are accustomed to associate with the school
of Praxiteles, and have consequently assigned to this frieze
a date as late as the early part or middle of the 4th century
B.C., but, till we know more of the style of Alkamenes and
the other great contemporaries of Pheidias, it cannot be
of Victory were found two fragments of figures representing
Athene seated. In one of these fragments (Kekule, pi. I.
c.) the Goddess is seated on the prow of a vessel, from
the introduction of which symbol it may be reasonably
inferred that a naval victory is here commemorated.
Nearly all the archaeologists who have written on the
sculptures of this temple assume that both in the smaller
and the larger frieze particular victories gained by the
Athenians are commemorated. If this be admitted, the
next question is, what is the probable date of the sculptures
themselves. On this question there is no direct evidence
except the fact that the temple could not have been erected
till after the building of the South wall of the Akropolis by
Kimon. The style of its architecture is certainly not later
than, if as late as, that of the Erechtheion, which we know
to have been in course of building B.C. 409. The sculpture
again of the smaller frieze, though more skilfully composed
and executed than the frieze of the Erechtheion, presents
some curious coincidences with it in certain groups which
are almost identical in design. It is probable that the
smaller frieze of the Temple of Victory was, like the
frieze of the Erechtheion, the work of an inferior class of
artists, who had received their training in the schools of
Pheidias and his contemporaries. On the other hand, in
the larger frieze from the temple of Nike, there is a marked
superiority both in the design and execution. The Victory
stooping to adjust her sandal is one of the most beautiful
fragments of Athenian art which has come down to us.
In the elaborate treatment of the drapery, and richness of
form, some have discerned traces of that later Athenian
style which we are accustomed to associate with the school
of Praxiteles, and have consequently assigned to this frieze
a date as late as the early part or middle of the 4th century
B.C., but, till we know more of the style of Alkamenes and
the other great contemporaries of Pheidias, it cannot be