DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0423
400
ANCIENT ATHENS.
was that the two figures near the left angle were those of Hadrian and
Sabina. They were too well informed to commit so gross an ana-
chronism as to suppose that the Parthenon was a work of that reign;
but they conceived that Ictinus only built the cella of the temple, that
the portico was added by Attalus, and that Hadrian repaired the
building and added the sculptures in both pediments, including among
them a statue of himself and of his empress! Considering the age in
which they lived, they may, perhaps, be pardoned for thinking that the
works of Pheidias and his school could have been executed in the time
of Hadrian, as Stuart, in an age much more advanced in the knowledge
of art, held it possible that at least the two statues in question might
have been of Hadrian's time, grounding himself upon the statue of
Antinoiis at Eome.1 He also considered them portraits of that emperor
and his wife, but suggested that the heads might have been added to
ancient statues.
Ottfried Miiller attempted a restoration of this pediment at the end
of his life of Pheidias; but he has made a great mistake in the figure
of Athena, in representing her head turned away from Poseidon,
whereas the position of the figure, and the fragment of the upper part
of the head preserved in the British Museum, show that she was
looking almost straight forwards, but with a slight inclination towards
Poseidon. He has also mistaken several of the figures in Poseidon's
train, and inserted among them Artemis, Latona, Apollo, and Ceres. It
is plain that the principal figures on this side are all connected with
the sea, as Mr. Watkiss Lloyd has well pointed out in a paper in the
' Classical Museum;'2 and the same view has been adopted, with more
or less variation, by several other writers. Not only does the subject
represented lead to such a conclusion, but it is also confirmed by the
unmistakable character of several of the figures. Thus, the second
figure on Poseidon's left, with a eetus at her feet, who, like the corre-
sponding one on the opposite side, appears to be in the act of driving a
1 See his ' Antiquities of Athens,'vol. ii. here find, in a tabular form, a synopsis of
p. 4, and plate ix. the views of nine different antiquaries
2 vol. v. p. 396 sqq. The reader will respecting this pediment.
ANCIENT ATHENS.
was that the two figures near the left angle were those of Hadrian and
Sabina. They were too well informed to commit so gross an ana-
chronism as to suppose that the Parthenon was a work of that reign;
but they conceived that Ictinus only built the cella of the temple, that
the portico was added by Attalus, and that Hadrian repaired the
building and added the sculptures in both pediments, including among
them a statue of himself and of his empress! Considering the age in
which they lived, they may, perhaps, be pardoned for thinking that the
works of Pheidias and his school could have been executed in the time
of Hadrian, as Stuart, in an age much more advanced in the knowledge
of art, held it possible that at least the two statues in question might
have been of Hadrian's time, grounding himself upon the statue of
Antinoiis at Eome.1 He also considered them portraits of that emperor
and his wife, but suggested that the heads might have been added to
ancient statues.
Ottfried Miiller attempted a restoration of this pediment at the end
of his life of Pheidias; but he has made a great mistake in the figure
of Athena, in representing her head turned away from Poseidon,
whereas the position of the figure, and the fragment of the upper part
of the head preserved in the British Museum, show that she was
looking almost straight forwards, but with a slight inclination towards
Poseidon. He has also mistaken several of the figures in Poseidon's
train, and inserted among them Artemis, Latona, Apollo, and Ceres. It
is plain that the principal figures on this side are all connected with
the sea, as Mr. Watkiss Lloyd has well pointed out in a paper in the
' Classical Museum;'2 and the same view has been adopted, with more
or less variation, by several other writers. Not only does the subject
represented lead to such a conclusion, but it is also confirmed by the
unmistakable character of several of the figures. Thus, the second
figure on Poseidon's left, with a eetus at her feet, who, like the corre-
sponding one on the opposite side, appears to be in the act of driving a
1 See his ' Antiquities of Athens,'vol. ii. here find, in a tabular form, a synopsis of
p. 4, and plate ix. the views of nine different antiquaries
2 vol. v. p. 396 sqq. The reader will respecting this pediment.