DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15097#0048
43
METOPE III.
In the group represented upon this Metope, the Centaur is
victorious. This Metope has suffered considerably since the
drawings of Carrey were executed; and it is, therefore, only by
reference to them that some part of the action of the figures can
be clearly ascertained. Half the off fore-leg, the whole of the
near-leg, the greater part of the off hind-leg, and a portion of the
left arm of the Centaur, the right leg and arm of the Greek, and
the heads of both figures have since disappeared, and had already
done so in Stuart's time. The heads have been fortunately dis-
covered at Copenhagen, whither they were sent from Athens in
1688, by Captain Hartmand, and were said to have once belonged
to the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. This latter assertion we know
to have been a mistake, but it is useless to conjecture where it
originated. They were lying in the Royal Museum, without attract-
ing any observation, until they were drawn from their obscurity by
the taste and discernment of the Chevalier Bronstedt, whose per-
fect knowledge of art, and familiar acquaintance with the sculptures
of the Parthenon, enabled him at once to recognize their style
and estimate their value. The Chevalier supposed them to belong
to our Seventh Metope, and, in his elegant and learned work
upon the Antiquities of Greece, has ventured so to describe
them. At that time he had not had the opportunity of seeing
the original Metope in the same room with the casts of the heads
which he had the kindness to present to the Museum. The officers
of the Museum, having this advantage, hesitated to assent to
the Chevalier's opinion; and having removed the pedestals on
which the casts were placed, and which fortunately did not
approach the extreme edges of the fractures, it was found that the
METOPE III.
In the group represented upon this Metope, the Centaur is
victorious. This Metope has suffered considerably since the
drawings of Carrey were executed; and it is, therefore, only by
reference to them that some part of the action of the figures can
be clearly ascertained. Half the off fore-leg, the whole of the
near-leg, the greater part of the off hind-leg, and a portion of the
left arm of the Centaur, the right leg and arm of the Greek, and
the heads of both figures have since disappeared, and had already
done so in Stuart's time. The heads have been fortunately dis-
covered at Copenhagen, whither they were sent from Athens in
1688, by Captain Hartmand, and were said to have once belonged
to the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. This latter assertion we know
to have been a mistake, but it is useless to conjecture where it
originated. They were lying in the Royal Museum, without attract-
ing any observation, until they were drawn from their obscurity by
the taste and discernment of the Chevalier Bronstedt, whose per-
fect knowledge of art, and familiar acquaintance with the sculptures
of the Parthenon, enabled him at once to recognize their style
and estimate their value. The Chevalier supposed them to belong
to our Seventh Metope, and, in his elegant and learned work
upon the Antiquities of Greece, has ventured so to describe
them. At that time he had not had the opportunity of seeing
the original Metope in the same room with the casts of the heads
which he had the kindness to present to the Museum. The officers
of the Museum, having this advantage, hesitated to assent to
the Chevalier's opinion; and having removed the pedestals on
which the casts were placed, and which fortunately did not
approach the extreme edges of the fractures, it was found that the