DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0081
56 THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
the monster that is preserved there is held an object which
may be intended to represent a kind of thunderbolt, a naive
allusion to the streams of fire which Typhon belches forth.
The third bust, that nearest the angle of the pediment, is
equipped with a wing spread out, which the sculptor has
carefully chiselled so as to indicate the veins of the feathers.
A corresponding wing is, doubtless, to be supplied at the left
of the figure, the entire group forming in the conception of
the artist only one monstrous body. Heads of serpents,
apparently springing from the shoulder-blades, increase the
confusion and heighten the impression of the grotesqueness
Fig. 16.—Typhon.
of this group. Upon this monstrous body are placed three
heads which, with all their resemblance to one another,
have each a marked individuality. Their large open eyes,
smiling mouths, serene expression and carefully worked locks
of hair, present a curious contrast to the formidable and
furious character with which the sculptor wished to invest
the genius of the tempest. As already intimated, these
sculptures were highly colored, the work of the painter
supplementing that of the sculptor. Brilliant tints of red,
blue, yellow and black, with an occasional dash of green
and brown were employed. The third head of the group
when reproduced in its original colors has very naturally
suggested the popular name of Blue-Beard.
The Triton and Typhon groups are believed by Bruckner
(53) to have belonged to one and the same building. This
building may possibly have been the old Athena temple in its
earliest stage, before it had been adorned with the colonnade
added by Pisistratus. But the composition of these groups,
as well as of those described below, is not free from doubt,
and the question to what buildings they belonged is not yet
the monster that is preserved there is held an object which
may be intended to represent a kind of thunderbolt, a naive
allusion to the streams of fire which Typhon belches forth.
The third bust, that nearest the angle of the pediment, is
equipped with a wing spread out, which the sculptor has
carefully chiselled so as to indicate the veins of the feathers.
A corresponding wing is, doubtless, to be supplied at the left
of the figure, the entire group forming in the conception of
the artist only one monstrous body. Heads of serpents,
apparently springing from the shoulder-blades, increase the
confusion and heighten the impression of the grotesqueness
Fig. 16.—Typhon.
of this group. Upon this monstrous body are placed three
heads which, with all their resemblance to one another,
have each a marked individuality. Their large open eyes,
smiling mouths, serene expression and carefully worked locks
of hair, present a curious contrast to the formidable and
furious character with which the sculptor wished to invest
the genius of the tempest. As already intimated, these
sculptures were highly colored, the work of the painter
supplementing that of the sculptor. Brilliant tints of red,
blue, yellow and black, with an occasional dash of green
and brown were employed. The third head of the group
when reproduced in its original colors has very naturally
suggested the popular name of Blue-Beard.
The Triton and Typhon groups are believed by Bruckner
(53) to have belonged to one and the same building. This
building may possibly have been the old Athena temple in its
earliest stage, before it had been adorned with the colonnade
added by Pisistratus. But the composition of these groups,
as well as of those described below, is not free from doubt,
and the question to what buildings they belonged is not yet