DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15096#0036
19
of art to posterity, so as to leave little or no doubt both as to the
combination of the whole group, and the intention of each individual
figure. But the researches, which connected ancient art under its
noblest form with the modern world, and brought the school of
Phidias in immediate contact with our own, were not attended with
all those fortunate circumstances, which we should so ardently have
desired; for neither was the time bestowed sufficient to give a re-
presentation of the subject with tolerable accuracy, nor was the
artist fully competent to the task. Still is our obligation to the
Marquis de Nointel infinite, for to the enlightened zeal of this
Embassador, in the first instance, and of the Earl of Elgin, in a
similar office subsequently, we owe the only memorials existing of
the sculptures of this important monument; which at the present
period might perhaps have been completely destroyed. These
drawings, though slight and imperfect, are invaluable, as affording
us authority for the proper disposition of the fragments preserved
to our time, and indicating the general effect and composition of
the only azroQ or pediment of antiquity which time had spared, or
which could convey to us any just conception of the noblest pro-
ductions of the Greeks in sculptural composition.
In this plate, as in that of the Eastern pediment, the fragments of
the group have been measured and examined with the utmost
diligence; whatever is deficient has been supplied from Carrey's
drawings, or from conjecture founded on evidence of these and
other authorities. A comparison will show the use that has been
made of that imperfect work in this attempt to restore the original
state of the Western pediment. A few observations upon Carrey's
drawing will first be necessary.
It is very evident that the right of the centre of the composition
had suffered considerably at an early period, for when visited by the
Marquis de Nointel, a large group near the Neptune had already
fallen. That and the statues immediately surrounding it probably
of art to posterity, so as to leave little or no doubt both as to the
combination of the whole group, and the intention of each individual
figure. But the researches, which connected ancient art under its
noblest form with the modern world, and brought the school of
Phidias in immediate contact with our own, were not attended with
all those fortunate circumstances, which we should so ardently have
desired; for neither was the time bestowed sufficient to give a re-
presentation of the subject with tolerable accuracy, nor was the
artist fully competent to the task. Still is our obligation to the
Marquis de Nointel infinite, for to the enlightened zeal of this
Embassador, in the first instance, and of the Earl of Elgin, in a
similar office subsequently, we owe the only memorials existing of
the sculptures of this important monument; which at the present
period might perhaps have been completely destroyed. These
drawings, though slight and imperfect, are invaluable, as affording
us authority for the proper disposition of the fragments preserved
to our time, and indicating the general effect and composition of
the only azroQ or pediment of antiquity which time had spared, or
which could convey to us any just conception of the noblest pro-
ductions of the Greeks in sculptural composition.
In this plate, as in that of the Eastern pediment, the fragments of
the group have been measured and examined with the utmost
diligence; whatever is deficient has been supplied from Carrey's
drawings, or from conjecture founded on evidence of these and
other authorities. A comparison will show the use that has been
made of that imperfect work in this attempt to restore the original
state of the Western pediment. A few observations upon Carrey's
drawing will first be necessary.
It is very evident that the right of the centre of the composition
had suffered considerably at an early period, for when visited by the
Marquis de Nointel, a large group near the Neptune had already
fallen. That and the statues immediately surrounding it probably