DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0171
164 THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
ture which were not brought away, including the
single slab which belonged to the Duke de Choiseul,
now in the gallery of the Louvre : all forming a total
of representation from the frieze, of very near three
hundred and twenty-six feet.
Over the extent as we now see it, a life, an activity,
a grace is expanded which is not to be found in any
work of similar character. The pleasing variety
which pervades the costume throughout is' particularly
observable. Every artist, says Dodwell, who was
employed upon this work, seems to have managed tiie
drapery according to his own notions of taste and
elegance. Some of the figures are completely clothed
from head to feet, others have naked feet, and others
have boots of various kinds. Some have hats, or
helmets, and others are uncovered. But it is from
this seeming confusion, this variety of attitudes, of
dress and preparation, of precipitancy and care, of
busy movement and relaxed effort, that the compo-
sition derives so much of its effect. An animated
reality is thus diffused throughout the subject, adding
interest to every figure, and epic grandeur to the
whole*.
The horses in this frieze are of exquisite beauty.
Of a hundred and ten which are introduced, no two
are in the same attitude; each is characterized by a
marked difference of expression. Plaxman, in Ins
lectures at the Royal Academy, used to speak of these
horses with enthusiasm. He considered them as the
most precious examples of Grecian power in the
sculpture of animals. ■ " The horses in the frieze in
the Elgin collection," he said, "appear to live and
move, to roll their eyes, to gallop, prance, and curvet;
the veins of their faces and legs seem distended with
circulation; in them are distinguished the hardness
and decision of bony forms, from the elasticity of
* Dodwell, vol. i. p. 337.
ture which were not brought away, including the
single slab which belonged to the Duke de Choiseul,
now in the gallery of the Louvre : all forming a total
of representation from the frieze, of very near three
hundred and twenty-six feet.
Over the extent as we now see it, a life, an activity,
a grace is expanded which is not to be found in any
work of similar character. The pleasing variety
which pervades the costume throughout is' particularly
observable. Every artist, says Dodwell, who was
employed upon this work, seems to have managed tiie
drapery according to his own notions of taste and
elegance. Some of the figures are completely clothed
from head to feet, others have naked feet, and others
have boots of various kinds. Some have hats, or
helmets, and others are uncovered. But it is from
this seeming confusion, this variety of attitudes, of
dress and preparation, of precipitancy and care, of
busy movement and relaxed effort, that the compo-
sition derives so much of its effect. An animated
reality is thus diffused throughout the subject, adding
interest to every figure, and epic grandeur to the
whole*.
The horses in this frieze are of exquisite beauty.
Of a hundred and ten which are introduced, no two
are in the same attitude; each is characterized by a
marked difference of expression. Plaxman, in Ins
lectures at the Royal Academy, used to speak of these
horses with enthusiasm. He considered them as the
most precious examples of Grecian power in the
sculpture of animals. ■ " The horses in the frieze in
the Elgin collection," he said, "appear to live and
move, to roll their eyes, to gallop, prance, and curvet;
the veins of their faces and legs seem distended with
circulation; in them are distinguished the hardness
and decision of bony forms, from the elasticity of
* Dodwell, vol. i. p. 337.