DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15096#0042
25
its effect, for in this respect the Grecian temple is inferior; but
it was in the solidity and regularity of the parts, the exquisite
workmanship, and the superiority of art;—the eye could trace each
ornament minutely, and every portion of the work was within its
reach.
The form of the temple, as exhibited under Pericles, had been
employed by the Greeks with little variation for several centuries
previously; and during a period of unexampled general prosperity
and splendor amongst that gifted people, the vast number of mag-
nificent works, and the great practice of the able artists occupied
in them, had reduced the art of composition, in statuary adapted
to pediments, to fixed and certain principles.
The number of figures introduced into the aerbg depended on
the style or number of columns of which the front was composed,
and was proportioned to the size of the order: thus in the Par-
thenon, which was octastyle, from twenty to twenty-five figures
appear to have been employed; in the temple of Jupiter at Olympia,
which was hexastyle, from eleven to fifteen; in the hexastyle temple
of Jupiter Panhellenius at iEgina, erected probably one hundred
years before either of these examples, the same number, from eleven
to fifteen, were used.
An exact symmetry of the masses or groups, in correspondence
with the architectural arrangement, was essential in the decoration
of an edifice, in which order and regularity were the chief sources of
effect/5) To these groups the sculptor's art was to give every variety
consistent with this principle, and the nature of the work contributed
to this important result, for entire statues could not fail to pro-
duce new combinations from every point of view, and a constant
change of effect in the light and shade with every hour of the day.
Their relief was encreased by an additional depth in the tympanum,
5 See Aristotle, Poet. c. viii. to yap koXov tv fxcytOu xai raSet ivt,
E
its effect, for in this respect the Grecian temple is inferior; but
it was in the solidity and regularity of the parts, the exquisite
workmanship, and the superiority of art;—the eye could trace each
ornament minutely, and every portion of the work was within its
reach.
The form of the temple, as exhibited under Pericles, had been
employed by the Greeks with little variation for several centuries
previously; and during a period of unexampled general prosperity
and splendor amongst that gifted people, the vast number of mag-
nificent works, and the great practice of the able artists occupied
in them, had reduced the art of composition, in statuary adapted
to pediments, to fixed and certain principles.
The number of figures introduced into the aerbg depended on
the style or number of columns of which the front was composed,
and was proportioned to the size of the order: thus in the Par-
thenon, which was octastyle, from twenty to twenty-five figures
appear to have been employed; in the temple of Jupiter at Olympia,
which was hexastyle, from eleven to fifteen; in the hexastyle temple
of Jupiter Panhellenius at iEgina, erected probably one hundred
years before either of these examples, the same number, from eleven
to fifteen, were used.
An exact symmetry of the masses or groups, in correspondence
with the architectural arrangement, was essential in the decoration
of an edifice, in which order and regularity were the chief sources of
effect/5) To these groups the sculptor's art was to give every variety
consistent with this principle, and the nature of the work contributed
to this important result, for entire statues could not fail to pro-
duce new combinations from every point of view, and a constant
change of effect in the light and shade with every hour of the day.
Their relief was encreased by an additional depth in the tympanum,
5 See Aristotle, Poet. c. viii. to yap koXov tv fxcytOu xai raSet ivt,
E