DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15098#0108
84
driven by a personification of Victory. This is without doubt
the biga which has obtained one of the prizes in the race. The
Victory has no wings; but two straps which descend from her
shoulders, and cross on her breast, induce us to imagine them
present; these are the attachments of the wings, as if those instru-
ments of flying could be put on and taken off at pleasure by the
celestial beings. It is thus that we sometimes find Mercury
fixing the talaria on his feet. I have remarked this mode of ex-
pressing wings in several other instances; and the same straps
are seen on two statues, representing Victory, which were found
at Rome, and are now among the antiques of the king of
Prussia.2 The Victory of the frieze of the Parthenon has her
tunic confined by a broad belt, like that which we remarked on
the statue of the same goddess driving the car of Minerva, in
the western tympan of this temple." On an examination of the
marbles it will, we think, be admitted that the figure here repre-
sented can scarcely have been a Victory; there are no indica-
tions of the female form, and a similar figure is in every other
chariot, though it must be admitted that this is the only one
which has the straps crossing over the breast, which Visconti
considers an indication of wings ; but on the other hand it must be
recollected that this mode of confining the draperies occurs in
other instances, especially where they are of very ample dimen-
sions, and where there cannot be any reason for supposing them
to have any reference to wings. This description of belt is pro-
bably that to which the name redimiculum is applied, and one mode
of arranging it, though not exactly the same as in the figure before
us, may be seen upon the statue of one of the daughters of Niobe.
It appears that there are always in this frieze three persons
attached to each chariot; one on foot, a magistrate or officer
whose business was probably to keep it under control during the
2 Cavaceppi, Raccolta di Antiche Statue, vol. iii. p. 3, 4. Mus. Pio-Clement.
vol. iv. p. 89.
driven by a personification of Victory. This is without doubt
the biga which has obtained one of the prizes in the race. The
Victory has no wings; but two straps which descend from her
shoulders, and cross on her breast, induce us to imagine them
present; these are the attachments of the wings, as if those instru-
ments of flying could be put on and taken off at pleasure by the
celestial beings. It is thus that we sometimes find Mercury
fixing the talaria on his feet. I have remarked this mode of ex-
pressing wings in several other instances; and the same straps
are seen on two statues, representing Victory, which were found
at Rome, and are now among the antiques of the king of
Prussia.2 The Victory of the frieze of the Parthenon has her
tunic confined by a broad belt, like that which we remarked on
the statue of the same goddess driving the car of Minerva, in
the western tympan of this temple." On an examination of the
marbles it will, we think, be admitted that the figure here repre-
sented can scarcely have been a Victory; there are no indica-
tions of the female form, and a similar figure is in every other
chariot, though it must be admitted that this is the only one
which has the straps crossing over the breast, which Visconti
considers an indication of wings ; but on the other hand it must be
recollected that this mode of confining the draperies occurs in
other instances, especially where they are of very ample dimen-
sions, and where there cannot be any reason for supposing them
to have any reference to wings. This description of belt is pro-
bably that to which the name redimiculum is applied, and one mode
of arranging it, though not exactly the same as in the figure before
us, may be seen upon the statue of one of the daughters of Niobe.
It appears that there are always in this frieze three persons
attached to each chariot; one on foot, a magistrate or officer
whose business was probably to keep it under control during the
2 Cavaceppi, Raccolta di Antiche Statue, vol. iii. p. 3, 4. Mus. Pio-Clement.
vol. iv. p. 89.