DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0268
246
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. VIII.
many vases, Athena is represented as overthrowing and
slaying.
• So far, however, we have only proved a group, not a
pediment. But fragments of corresponding Giants, in the
store-rooms of the Museum, soon showed that the com-
position was extensive; and the fact that one side of
them was fully worked showed that they stood against
some background as in a pediment, and did not make
up a free-standing group. Lastly, the lines of breakage
of the figures, and the wide dispersion of the fragments,
proved that they had fallen from a height. They could
thus only belong to a pediment; and the dimensions
of a pediment to which they must have belonged
being carefully calculated from the height of the central
figures, it is asserted that a pediment of exactly that
size would suit the temple of Athena. Thus, by an
admirable chain of reasoning, Dr. Studniczka has en-
abled us to restore to the pediment of Peisistratus'
temple a representation of a battle of Gods and Giants
in which Athena occupied the central position. And
we can further tell exactly what was the condition of
sculpture, and what the principles of pedimental com-
position at the time.
The temple of Athena, though the most important of
the shrines of the Acropolis in the sixth century, cer-
tainly did not stand alone. For we have recovered the
whole or part of five or six other pediments of small
size, and executed in rough local stone. These com-
positions now form one of the most conspicuous features
of the Acropolis Museum, and arouse the wonder, far
more than the admiration, of visitors. To those who are
accustomed to consider Greek Art as a thing dropped
from the skies, calm, colourless and faultless, they must
come with a shock. For both in form and in colour
these interesting memorials of the early art of Greece
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. VIII.
many vases, Athena is represented as overthrowing and
slaying.
• So far, however, we have only proved a group, not a
pediment. But fragments of corresponding Giants, in the
store-rooms of the Museum, soon showed that the com-
position was extensive; and the fact that one side of
them was fully worked showed that they stood against
some background as in a pediment, and did not make
up a free-standing group. Lastly, the lines of breakage
of the figures, and the wide dispersion of the fragments,
proved that they had fallen from a height. They could
thus only belong to a pediment; and the dimensions
of a pediment to which they must have belonged
being carefully calculated from the height of the central
figures, it is asserted that a pediment of exactly that
size would suit the temple of Athena. Thus, by an
admirable chain of reasoning, Dr. Studniczka has en-
abled us to restore to the pediment of Peisistratus'
temple a representation of a battle of Gods and Giants
in which Athena occupied the central position. And
we can further tell exactly what was the condition of
sculpture, and what the principles of pedimental com-
position at the time.
The temple of Athena, though the most important of
the shrines of the Acropolis in the sixth century, cer-
tainly did not stand alone. For we have recovered the
whole or part of five or six other pediments of small
size, and executed in rough local stone. These com-
positions now form one of the most conspicuous features
of the Acropolis Museum, and arouse the wonder, far
more than the admiration, of visitors. To those who are
accustomed to consider Greek Art as a thing dropped
from the skies, calm, colourless and faultless, they must
come with a shock. For both in form and in colour
these interesting memorials of the early art of Greece