DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0128
122 THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
to this city; and the most famous work ofAlcamenes*
the Venus of the Gardens, had only, as it was said,
acquired so high a degree of perfection, because Phi-
dias, his master, had himself taken pleasure in finishing
with his own hand* this beautiful statue of marblef-"
In addition to this, when we know that the Parthe-
non was built under the control of the sculptor him-
self |, and that its exterior decoration consisted of the
only three varieties of which sculpture is capable, the
perfect statue of the pediment, the high and half-
detaehed relief of the metopes, and the low relief of the
frieze, each justly and beautifully appropriated, W
what other conclusion can we come than that the
compositions which adorned the edifice were de-
signed and directed, if not in part executed, by the
sculptor himself. Pliny expressly says, that Phidias
was reputed to have worked in marble §; Seneca
* Plin. Nat. His!, lib. xxxvi. c. 4: " In the Augustan age, and in
that immediately subsequent to it, it was generally believed, not
only that Phidias frequently caused the names of his pupils to be
inscribed on his own statues, but that he had given instances of the
greatest skill in finishing the works of other artists. Amongst
these last was the above-mentioned statue of Aphrodite h zywh
by Alcamenes. To this extraordinary talent, which we must sup-
pose was chiefly exercised in works of marble, Cicero alludes in
the fourth book de Finibus Bon. et Mai. " Ut Phidias potest a
principio instituere signum, idque perftcere: potest ab alio '"*
choatum accipere et absolvere." Memorandum on the subject of
the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece, 2d. edit. 8vo. p. 62.
f Visconti, Memoir on the Sculpt, of the Parthenon, pp. 3, *
| Plutarch, Pericl. 13. tfavraTz S/S^s -a&i vrdyrav t#fe*asw *'
cuitm $Sid&5 za'iretpiyaXtw; ag%iTizrevas 1%oitoiv jsa/Ti^wrSj **'
§ " Et ipsum Pbidiam tradunt sculpsisse rnarmora, Veneremqne
ejus esse Romas in Octaviee operibus eximee pulchritudnu*
Plin. ut supr. edit. Hardouin, p. 725. C. Odofr. Mueller, in W
.Commentary on the Life of Phidias, Comment. Societ. Beg«
Scientiar. Gottingensis recentiores, torn. vt. 4to. Gotling. l^'i
p. 156, note, considers Phidias to have been the sculptor of the
marble in the Tosvnley collection, Koom vi. No. 23, which is de-
signated as the tomb of Xanthippus, the father of Pefides,
to this city; and the most famous work ofAlcamenes*
the Venus of the Gardens, had only, as it was said,
acquired so high a degree of perfection, because Phi-
dias, his master, had himself taken pleasure in finishing
with his own hand* this beautiful statue of marblef-"
In addition to this, when we know that the Parthe-
non was built under the control of the sculptor him-
self |, and that its exterior decoration consisted of the
only three varieties of which sculpture is capable, the
perfect statue of the pediment, the high and half-
detaehed relief of the metopes, and the low relief of the
frieze, each justly and beautifully appropriated, W
what other conclusion can we come than that the
compositions which adorned the edifice were de-
signed and directed, if not in part executed, by the
sculptor himself. Pliny expressly says, that Phidias
was reputed to have worked in marble §; Seneca
* Plin. Nat. His!, lib. xxxvi. c. 4: " In the Augustan age, and in
that immediately subsequent to it, it was generally believed, not
only that Phidias frequently caused the names of his pupils to be
inscribed on his own statues, but that he had given instances of the
greatest skill in finishing the works of other artists. Amongst
these last was the above-mentioned statue of Aphrodite h zywh
by Alcamenes. To this extraordinary talent, which we must sup-
pose was chiefly exercised in works of marble, Cicero alludes in
the fourth book de Finibus Bon. et Mai. " Ut Phidias potest a
principio instituere signum, idque perftcere: potest ab alio '"*
choatum accipere et absolvere." Memorandum on the subject of
the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece, 2d. edit. 8vo. p. 62.
f Visconti, Memoir on the Sculpt, of the Parthenon, pp. 3, *
| Plutarch, Pericl. 13. tfavraTz S/S^s -a&i vrdyrav t#fe*asw *'
cuitm $Sid&5 za'iretpiyaXtw; ag%iTizrevas 1%oitoiv jsa/Ti^wrSj **'
§ " Et ipsum Pbidiam tradunt sculpsisse rnarmora, Veneremqne
ejus esse Romas in Octaviee operibus eximee pulchritudnu*
Plin. ut supr. edit. Hardouin, p. 725. C. Odofr. Mueller, in W
.Commentary on the Life of Phidias, Comment. Societ. Beg«
Scientiar. Gottingensis recentiores, torn. vt. 4to. Gotling. l^'i
p. 156, note, considers Phidias to have been the sculptor of the
marble in the Tosvnley collection, Koom vi. No. 23, which is de-
signated as the tomb of Xanthippus, the father of Pefides,