DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15096#0037
20
threatened the same disaster; a mass of masonry composed of
small stones was therefore raised to secure them, in which the
lower part of the legs of both the principal figures, as well as of the
female to the right, were immured, a precaution the more necessary
as none of them were in any way attached to the tympanum, but each
by the most admirable art, poised upon its own separate base wholly
independent of external support/2)
All the writers upon this subject have remarked the vacancy and
have been at a loss to supply the deficiency :(3> and the more accu-
rate graphical investigation of the subject, which this Plate affords,
renders it still more obvious.
The nature of these sculptural compositions requires that they
should partake of that symmetry and regularity which were essen-
tials in the architecture they were designed to adorn—among the
Greeks at least this was a principle most rigidly adhered to/4) The
necessity of some object of sufficient weight and importance in the
group to counterbalance the horses of the car of Victory is appa-
rent ; and the vacant space indicated in the drawing of Carrey clearly
shows that such a one existed. The description of the Amphitrite
proves that she was by no means seated, but appeared to be wholly
suspended by the arms, which are in the attitude of holding reins,
in exact correspondence with the Victoria Apteros on the opposite
2 The large stones composing the tympanum, most of which in the west front are
still in their places, afford unquestionable evidence of this remarkable fact.
3 See M. Quatremere de Quincy, Restitution des deux frontons du Temple de
Minerve, p. 40. " J'ai deja dit que le dessin de Nointel fait presumer, par le grand
vide a gauche de Neptune, qu'un ohjet quelconque devoit l'avoir rempli."
And Col. Leake, in his Topography of Athens, p. 250. " There is a vacancy which
" indicates that one statue at least was wanting in this part of the composition."
And Mr. Wilkins (see Walpole's Travels in Turkey) remarks this void, and
suggests that the car may have been drawn by dolphins.
4 See the description by Pausanias, lib. v. c. x. of the Temple of Jupiter at
Olympia, in which the figures are in exact equilibrium in either frontispiece.
Also that of the compositions adorning the frontispieces of the Temple of Jupiter
Panhellenius at /Egina, in the Journal of Science, No. 12.
threatened the same disaster; a mass of masonry composed of
small stones was therefore raised to secure them, in which the
lower part of the legs of both the principal figures, as well as of the
female to the right, were immured, a precaution the more necessary
as none of them were in any way attached to the tympanum, but each
by the most admirable art, poised upon its own separate base wholly
independent of external support/2)
All the writers upon this subject have remarked the vacancy and
have been at a loss to supply the deficiency :(3> and the more accu-
rate graphical investigation of the subject, which this Plate affords,
renders it still more obvious.
The nature of these sculptural compositions requires that they
should partake of that symmetry and regularity which were essen-
tials in the architecture they were designed to adorn—among the
Greeks at least this was a principle most rigidly adhered to/4) The
necessity of some object of sufficient weight and importance in the
group to counterbalance the horses of the car of Victory is appa-
rent ; and the vacant space indicated in the drawing of Carrey clearly
shows that such a one existed. The description of the Amphitrite
proves that she was by no means seated, but appeared to be wholly
suspended by the arms, which are in the attitude of holding reins,
in exact correspondence with the Victoria Apteros on the opposite
2 The large stones composing the tympanum, most of which in the west front are
still in their places, afford unquestionable evidence of this remarkable fact.
3 See M. Quatremere de Quincy, Restitution des deux frontons du Temple de
Minerve, p. 40. " J'ai deja dit que le dessin de Nointel fait presumer, par le grand
vide a gauche de Neptune, qu'un ohjet quelconque devoit l'avoir rempli."
And Col. Leake, in his Topography of Athens, p. 250. " There is a vacancy which
" indicates that one statue at least was wanting in this part of the composition."
And Mr. Wilkins (see Walpole's Travels in Turkey) remarks this void, and
suggests that the car may have been drawn by dolphins.
4 See the description by Pausanias, lib. v. c. x. of the Temple of Jupiter at
Olympia, in which the figures are in exact equilibrium in either frontispiece.
Also that of the compositions adorning the frontispieces of the Temple of Jupiter
Panhellenius at /Egina, in the Journal of Science, No. 12.