DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0191
THE AGE OF PERICLES 157
as those of Aegina and Olympia. While there are manifest
correspondences between the figures on either side of the
pediment, these figures themselves break up into groups which
vary the monotony, while the movement in each pediment
is towards the centre of the composition where lies the climax.
This climacteric movement goes on in a succession of undula-
tions, now rising, now falling, but ever growing higher and more
intense. All the difficulties inherent in pedimental composi-
tion are handled with extraordinary skill, as Gardner remarks.
The alternation of kneeling and standing figures in the west
pediment is so appropriate that its necessity is not observed,
while the difference of size between the figures in the middle
and those at the ends is so clearly dealt with that it partly
adds to the effect, partly escapes notice. In the east pediment
the well-known convention of Greek relief called isocephaly,
by which the heads of seated figures are represented as about
on a level with those of the standing figures next to them,
was applied to make the change almost imperceptible from
standing to seated figures and to give variety to the composi-
tion. When we add to all this beauty of form and grace
of outline and harmony of arrangement, the decoration of
varied and harmonious coloring, we can in some measure,
though not by any means adequately, bring before our
imagination the splendid lustre of all those gods and heroes,
bathed in the brilliant light of an Athenian sky.
The next series of decorative sculpture to be discussed are
the metopes. Set in between the triglyphs of the later Doric
frieze, the metopes were originally ninety-two in number, thirty-
two on each of the long sides and fourteen at each end.
Many of these are now lost, having been utterly destroyed
in the great explosion of 1687. Those on the south side
were fortunately drawn by Carrey. Forty-one still remain
on the temple, but are for the most part so much shattered
and decayed that it is difficult to make them out. Fifteen
of the original metopes are in the British Museum, and one
is in the Louvre. These sixteen are all from the south side
of the temple and portray the contest between the Centaurs
and Lapiths at the marriage feast of Peirithoos. On the same
side but in the middle there were other metopes which had
different subjects, not surely interpreted. Similarly on the
A.A. L
as those of Aegina and Olympia. While there are manifest
correspondences between the figures on either side of the
pediment, these figures themselves break up into groups which
vary the monotony, while the movement in each pediment
is towards the centre of the composition where lies the climax.
This climacteric movement goes on in a succession of undula-
tions, now rising, now falling, but ever growing higher and more
intense. All the difficulties inherent in pedimental composi-
tion are handled with extraordinary skill, as Gardner remarks.
The alternation of kneeling and standing figures in the west
pediment is so appropriate that its necessity is not observed,
while the difference of size between the figures in the middle
and those at the ends is so clearly dealt with that it partly
adds to the effect, partly escapes notice. In the east pediment
the well-known convention of Greek relief called isocephaly,
by which the heads of seated figures are represented as about
on a level with those of the standing figures next to them,
was applied to make the change almost imperceptible from
standing to seated figures and to give variety to the composi-
tion. When we add to all this beauty of form and grace
of outline and harmony of arrangement, the decoration of
varied and harmonious coloring, we can in some measure,
though not by any means adequately, bring before our
imagination the splendid lustre of all those gods and heroes,
bathed in the brilliant light of an Athenian sky.
The next series of decorative sculpture to be discussed are
the metopes. Set in between the triglyphs of the later Doric
frieze, the metopes were originally ninety-two in number, thirty-
two on each of the long sides and fourteen at each end.
Many of these are now lost, having been utterly destroyed
in the great explosion of 1687. Those on the south side
were fortunately drawn by Carrey. Forty-one still remain
on the temple, but are for the most part so much shattered
and decayed that it is difficult to make them out. Fifteen
of the original metopes are in the British Museum, and one
is in the Louvre. These sixteen are all from the south side
of the temple and portray the contest between the Centaurs
and Lapiths at the marriage feast of Peirithoos. On the same
side but in the middle there were other metopes which had
different subjects, not surely interpreted. Similarly on the
A.A. L