DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0139
via SCULPTURE: MATERIAL, SPACE, COLOURING 119
the Centaurs invited to the wedding, and the fashion in which
the bridegroom and his friend Theseus punished them. In the
midst of the pediment (Fig. 24), like the tongue of a balance
between two evenly poised scales, stands the dignified figure
of Apollo, who, present invisibly, is really controlling the course
of events. We must suppose the door of the guest chamber
to be behind him; out of it issue forth on either side Theseus
and Peirithous, armed with any weapons they could grasp, in
hot pursuit of the Centaurs, who have seized upon the bride
and her companions and are trying to make their escape with
them. To each of the heroes is opposed a Centaur, in the
very act of trying to lift his prey. And on either side of these
central groups are other groups, or symplegmata, carefully
balanced one against another on either side of the middle,
representing the struggle of Centaur and Lapith, the balance
of victory clearly inclining in favour of the latter. Beyond lie
aged women reclining on cushions, evidently slaves who are
crouching in terror; and outside these again, to mark the
locality, the young and beauteous forms of Thessalian nymphs,
who look on with that divine calm with which nature watches
the struggles and crimes of mankind.
The spatial adaptations of this pediment deserve a closer
consideration. Omitting the two nymphs, which are a mere
framing to the scene, and examining the groups from left to
right, we shall see that the numbers of figures in them pro-
ceed in a regular rhythm, 1 3 23132 3 1; and we shall ob-
serve not only how each group balances its match in the other
half of the pediment, but also how the lines of each group are
precisely adapted to its position. And further, it is possible
to take a point a little above the centre of the pediment, and
thence to draw lines which shall pass as it were through the
centre of gravity of each group, following the lines of its general
direction (Fig. 25). In fact, the composition of a pediment
is as exactly regulated as that of a sonnet or a Spenserian stanza :
the Centaurs invited to the wedding, and the fashion in which
the bridegroom and his friend Theseus punished them. In the
midst of the pediment (Fig. 24), like the tongue of a balance
between two evenly poised scales, stands the dignified figure
of Apollo, who, present invisibly, is really controlling the course
of events. We must suppose the door of the guest chamber
to be behind him; out of it issue forth on either side Theseus
and Peirithous, armed with any weapons they could grasp, in
hot pursuit of the Centaurs, who have seized upon the bride
and her companions and are trying to make their escape with
them. To each of the heroes is opposed a Centaur, in the
very act of trying to lift his prey. And on either side of these
central groups are other groups, or symplegmata, carefully
balanced one against another on either side of the middle,
representing the struggle of Centaur and Lapith, the balance
of victory clearly inclining in favour of the latter. Beyond lie
aged women reclining on cushions, evidently slaves who are
crouching in terror; and outside these again, to mark the
locality, the young and beauteous forms of Thessalian nymphs,
who look on with that divine calm with which nature watches
the struggles and crimes of mankind.
The spatial adaptations of this pediment deserve a closer
consideration. Omitting the two nymphs, which are a mere
framing to the scene, and examining the groups from left to
right, we shall see that the numbers of figures in them pro-
ceed in a regular rhythm, 1 3 23132 3 1; and we shall ob-
serve not only how each group balances its match in the other
half of the pediment, but also how the lines of each group are
precisely adapted to its position. And further, it is possible
to take a point a little above the centre of the pediment, and
thence to draw lines which shall pass as it were through the
centre of gravity of each group, following the lines of its general
direction (Fig. 25). In fact, the composition of a pediment
is as exactly regulated as that of a sonnet or a Spenserian stanza :