DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15097#0033
31
rank otherwise than as Roman work." Under such
circumstances, his Lordship resolved to lay his collec-
tion open to public observation ; in confident reliance
that frequent inspection, accurate examination, and
continued reflexion would establish their claim to the
highest estimation as works of art, and their authen-
ticity as the productions of the ablest artists of the age
of Pericles. So slow, however, is the mind in divesting
itself of error, and in abandoning any pre-conceived
idea, that even after these works had been for some
time exhibited, they were pronounced in a publication
issuing from a Society, who were considered as pri-
mary authority in questions of Art and Classical Anti-
quity as " merely architectural sculptures, throwing
but little light upon the more important details of the
art of Phidias;" and the Metopes are stated " to be
evidently the works of many different persons, some of
whom would not have been entitled to the rank of
artists in a much less cultivated and fastidious age."
Notwithstanding this denunciation, pronounced as it
were ex cathedra, a different and more correct estimate
of their value at length was formed in the public mind,
and the wish became universal that they should be
purchased by the nation. In consequence of the pre-
valence of this opinion, steps were taken to bring the
rank otherwise than as Roman work." Under such
circumstances, his Lordship resolved to lay his collec-
tion open to public observation ; in confident reliance
that frequent inspection, accurate examination, and
continued reflexion would establish their claim to the
highest estimation as works of art, and their authen-
ticity as the productions of the ablest artists of the age
of Pericles. So slow, however, is the mind in divesting
itself of error, and in abandoning any pre-conceived
idea, that even after these works had been for some
time exhibited, they were pronounced in a publication
issuing from a Society, who were considered as pri-
mary authority in questions of Art and Classical Anti-
quity as " merely architectural sculptures, throwing
but little light upon the more important details of the
art of Phidias;" and the Metopes are stated " to be
evidently the works of many different persons, some of
whom would not have been entitled to the rank of
artists in a much less cultivated and fastidious age."
Notwithstanding this denunciation, pronounced as it
were ex cathedra, a different and more correct estimate
of their value at length was formed in the public mind,
and the wish became universal that they should be
purchased by the nation. In consequence of the pre-
valence of this opinion, steps were taken to bring the