DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0212
178 THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
to this chamber. Pausanias gives a list of these paintings,
and Polemon is said to have written a whole treatise upon
them. The subjects seem to have been taken chiefly from
heroic legend, and two pictures are named as the work
of Polygnotus. Just what these paintings were is a matter
of doubt. The walls show no trace of having been prepared
to receive stucco nor of any contrivance for hanging pictures,
hence the conjecture that the paintings were easel-pieces or
tablets. Bursian (107), however, thinks, as the walls show
rather careless finish, that the probability is in favor of some
kind of wall painting, possibly a fresco decoration. Dorpfeld
believes that the paintings were wall frescos, and that the
band of Eleusinian stone favors the view that the entire wall
above the dado was thus decorated.
The original design of the architect was to build two
wings to the central structure which should exactly corre-
spond in dimensions, and which should span the entire
breadth of the rock, which measures here about 55 metres
(nearly 180 ft.). On the north side there was nothing to
hinder the execution of this plan so far as dimensions were
concerned, but on the south side a wing of the same dimen-
sions, as we see from a glance at the plan of the Acropolis,
would entrench upon the precinct of Athena Nike and of
Artemis Brauronia. The plan of this wing, accordingly, had
to be modified. Independently of this, however, the design
of the two wings must have been dissimilar on the west
front owing to the difference in the level of the Acropolis
at each side. For on the north side the rock falls preci-
pitously away and a high substructure was required to support
this wing at the west side. Hence this west wall would
naturally be solid. But on the south side the Nike bastion
projected to the west, and here was located the shrine of
Athena Nike. Access to this platform and its shrine might
not be cut off; accordingly a passageway running through
the south wing of the Propylaea had to be provided.
Furthermore, had the south wing been made as deep as the
north wing, it would have encroached on the precinct of
Artemis Brauronia which lay adjacent to the southeast. Now
the south wing, as modified from its original plan and actu-
ally built, consists simply of a rectangular hall facing north
to this chamber. Pausanias gives a list of these paintings,
and Polemon is said to have written a whole treatise upon
them. The subjects seem to have been taken chiefly from
heroic legend, and two pictures are named as the work
of Polygnotus. Just what these paintings were is a matter
of doubt. The walls show no trace of having been prepared
to receive stucco nor of any contrivance for hanging pictures,
hence the conjecture that the paintings were easel-pieces or
tablets. Bursian (107), however, thinks, as the walls show
rather careless finish, that the probability is in favor of some
kind of wall painting, possibly a fresco decoration. Dorpfeld
believes that the paintings were wall frescos, and that the
band of Eleusinian stone favors the view that the entire wall
above the dado was thus decorated.
The original design of the architect was to build two
wings to the central structure which should exactly corre-
spond in dimensions, and which should span the entire
breadth of the rock, which measures here about 55 metres
(nearly 180 ft.). On the north side there was nothing to
hinder the execution of this plan so far as dimensions were
concerned, but on the south side a wing of the same dimen-
sions, as we see from a glance at the plan of the Acropolis,
would entrench upon the precinct of Athena Nike and of
Artemis Brauronia. The plan of this wing, accordingly, had
to be modified. Independently of this, however, the design
of the two wings must have been dissimilar on the west
front owing to the difference in the level of the Acropolis
at each side. For on the north side the rock falls preci-
pitously away and a high substructure was required to support
this wing at the west side. Hence this west wall would
naturally be solid. But on the south side the Nike bastion
projected to the west, and here was located the shrine of
Athena Nike. Access to this platform and its shrine might
not be cut off; accordingly a passageway running through
the south wing of the Propylaea had to be provided.
Furthermore, had the south wing been made as deep as the
north wing, it would have encroached on the precinct of
Artemis Brauronia which lay adjacent to the southeast. Now
the south wing, as modified from its original plan and actu-
ally built, consists simply of a rectangular hall facing north