DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5596#0291
258
MODERN ART.
how the waving lines of the sculpture should con-
trast happily with the geometric lines of the archi-
tecture ; how the gradually-increasing sizes of his
figures should be in an harmonious ratio, without
violating the laws of reason ; the subject partaking
of a perspective character, as though the ends of
the pediment were farther removed than the centre;
how the fulness and roundness of the sculpture
should unite the whole in one composition ; how his
composition should tell, whether viewed from a
distance, immediately underneath, or from either
extremity; but above all he took care, by increased
size to his principal figures, to concentrate his
subject, and thus make these figures tell the story,
even at a glance; for unless attention is paid to this
unity of design, all is confusion. On considering the
western pediment of the Parthenon, which contains
the most beautiful group left us from antiquity,1
we feel convinced that a still more transcendent
grandeur and beauty must have been displayed
in the eastern pediment, so unhappily destroyed
at the time of the Venetian bombardment. But
instead of finding in the restorations of this pedi-
ment by the various critics who have written on
the subject, that blending of the lines, and weld-
1 So wonderful is this sculpture, that no artist should com-
mence the sculpture of a modern pediment without making himself
master of the principles of design employed by Phidias.
MODERN ART.
how the waving lines of the sculpture should con-
trast happily with the geometric lines of the archi-
tecture ; how the gradually-increasing sizes of his
figures should be in an harmonious ratio, without
violating the laws of reason ; the subject partaking
of a perspective character, as though the ends of
the pediment were farther removed than the centre;
how the fulness and roundness of the sculpture
should unite the whole in one composition ; how his
composition should tell, whether viewed from a
distance, immediately underneath, or from either
extremity; but above all he took care, by increased
size to his principal figures, to concentrate his
subject, and thus make these figures tell the story,
even at a glance; for unless attention is paid to this
unity of design, all is confusion. On considering the
western pediment of the Parthenon, which contains
the most beautiful group left us from antiquity,1
we feel convinced that a still more transcendent
grandeur and beauty must have been displayed
in the eastern pediment, so unhappily destroyed
at the time of the Venetian bombardment. But
instead of finding in the restorations of this pedi-
ment by the various critics who have written on
the subject, that blending of the lines, and weld-
1 So wonderful is this sculpture, that no artist should com-
mence the sculpture of a modern pediment without making himself
master of the principles of design employed by Phidias.