DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0143
136 THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
columns of the peristyle on the north side; six on
the south side also were thrown down. The shell
appears to have exploded near the middle of the cella,
spreading destruction in a circle around it, and
forcing huge masses to a considerable distance be-
yond the circuit of the building. The eastern portico
seems to have been just without the range of its
destructive influence; but the pediment and the
sculptures it contained suffered from the shock, and
were almost wholly destroyed *.
The chryselephantine statue of Minerva, which
adorned the interior of the Parthenon, and was in
fact its most splendid ornament, has been already
described from Pausanias. Plato says, the eyes of
this statue were of precious stones, approaching the
colour of ivory t, probably of chalcedony or agate.
M. Quatremere de Quincy, in a work of considerable
splendour and extent, which has been already quoted,
entitled ' Le Jupiter Olympien, ou I/Art de la
Sculpture antique consideVe sous un nouveau point
de vue,' fol. Par. 1815, p. 226, has given a pre-
sumed representation of this statue restored, accord-
ing to the antient authorities $. In page 229, and
in several others which follow, he has explained the
manner in which the interior wooden figure, for such
he considers it to have been§, was incrusted with the
* Wilkins, Atheniensia, p. 114.
f Plat. Hipp.maj. p. 99.
t See also his Monuments et Ouvrages d'Art antiques restitu&i
4to. Par. 1829, torn. i. p. 123, pi. i. ii. iii. It has been re-engrave"
in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Menageries, vol. "*
p. 329. ■ •
§ Pausanias mentions some statues of this period, in whicn
the ivory was laid upon stone. See also If. Quatremere de
Quincy's Jupiter Olympien. Aristotle, in his Book de Mundo,
says, that Phidias's two most celebrated statues, his Minerva at
Athens, and his Jupiter at Olympia, were made of stone, covered
with plates of ivory. See Flaxm. Lect, p. 225.
columns of the peristyle on the north side; six on
the south side also were thrown down. The shell
appears to have exploded near the middle of the cella,
spreading destruction in a circle around it, and
forcing huge masses to a considerable distance be-
yond the circuit of the building. The eastern portico
seems to have been just without the range of its
destructive influence; but the pediment and the
sculptures it contained suffered from the shock, and
were almost wholly destroyed *.
The chryselephantine statue of Minerva, which
adorned the interior of the Parthenon, and was in
fact its most splendid ornament, has been already
described from Pausanias. Plato says, the eyes of
this statue were of precious stones, approaching the
colour of ivory t, probably of chalcedony or agate.
M. Quatremere de Quincy, in a work of considerable
splendour and extent, which has been already quoted,
entitled ' Le Jupiter Olympien, ou I/Art de la
Sculpture antique consideVe sous un nouveau point
de vue,' fol. Par. 1815, p. 226, has given a pre-
sumed representation of this statue restored, accord-
ing to the antient authorities $. In page 229, and
in several others which follow, he has explained the
manner in which the interior wooden figure, for such
he considers it to have been§, was incrusted with the
* Wilkins, Atheniensia, p. 114.
f Plat. Hipp.maj. p. 99.
t See also his Monuments et Ouvrages d'Art antiques restitu&i
4to. Par. 1829, torn. i. p. 123, pi. i. ii. iii. It has been re-engrave"
in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Menageries, vol. "*
p. 329. ■ •
§ Pausanias mentions some statues of this period, in whicn
the ivory was laid upon stone. See also If. Quatremere de
Quincy's Jupiter Olympien. Aristotle, in his Book de Mundo,
says, that Phidias's two most celebrated statues, his Minerva at
Athens, and his Jupiter at Olympia, were made of stone, covered
with plates of ivory. See Flaxm. Lect, p. 225.