DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.801#0043
" SO
More difficulty occurred in forming a
plan, for deriving the utmost advantage
from the marbles and casts. Lord El-
gin's first attempt was to have the statues
and bas-reliefs restored; and in that view
he went to Rome, to consult and to
employ Canova. The decision of that
most eminent artist was conclusive. On
examining the specimens produced to
him, and making himself acquainted with
the whole collection, and particularly with
what came from the Parthenon, by means
of the persons who had been carrying on
Lord Elgin's operations at Athens, and
who had returned with him to Rome,
Canova declared, That however greatly it
was to be lamented that these statues
should have suffered so much from time
and barbarism, yet it was undeniable,
that they had never been retouched ; that
they were the work of the ablest artists
the world had ever seen ; executed under
More difficulty occurred in forming a
plan, for deriving the utmost advantage
from the marbles and casts. Lord El-
gin's first attempt was to have the statues
and bas-reliefs restored; and in that view
he went to Rome, to consult and to
employ Canova. The decision of that
most eminent artist was conclusive. On
examining the specimens produced to
him, and making himself acquainted with
the whole collection, and particularly with
what came from the Parthenon, by means
of the persons who had been carrying on
Lord Elgin's operations at Athens, and
who had returned with him to Rome,
Canova declared, That however greatly it
was to be lamented that these statues
should have suffered so much from time
and barbarism, yet it was undeniable,
that they had never been retouched ; that
they were the work of the ablest artists
the world had ever seen ; executed under