DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.863#0020
16 FRAGMENTS OF
and small circular sinkings are introduced near the rim as additional ornaments. In the centre is
perforated, apparently for one of its fastenings to have passed through it, which if ornamented and
projecting, taking about the size of the dotted circle, would have formed a centre to the rose. At
the bottom of the Plate is the back of the same; the perforation is here also seen of the centre
fastening, shewing also at each of its four centres near the rim four small spikes of bronze cast in
one piece with the circle, to be driven into the wood or other substance the ornament was
placed on.
PLATE XXI. OF THE TEMPLE OF VICTORY.
This fragment, consisting of one of the volutes of an Ionic capital, was found not far from the
south wall of the Acropolis, and near the propylaeum. Its dimensions (nearly similar to those of
the example of the little temple, drawn by Stuart and Revett, that stood on the banks of the Ilissus)
accord with the remains of ante, and with the beautiful sculptured frieze of the temple of Victory,
many of the fragments and the substructure of which remain at no great distance from where the
present fragment was found. The peculiar character of the sculpture of that frieze, which is now
among the national marbles collected by Lord Elgin, is its astonishing boldness of design and great
relief in execution, and the same feeling seems to have been preserved in the execution of this
capital, the projections and sinkings surpassing in boldness any other examples of the Ionic order,
which seem to add to the circumstance of its locality in aid of the supposition of its having
belonged to the temple of Victory, the only Ionic temple on the Acropolis with the Erechtheion of
which any remains have been hitherto discovered; its dimensions not permitting an idea of its
having been brought from the propylseum : and there is no reason to suppose it was brought from
the Parthenon, as its style does not accord with any of the ornaments of the architecture of Ictinus
seen either in that temple, or the temple of Apollo near Phigalia.
The elevation of the volute the same size as the marble chiefly occupies the Plate; under it, at
the bottom, is the lateral section through the centre of the spiral, with which a comparison might
be formed with the section through the volute of an Ionic colonnade at Athens, given near the end
of Stuart and Revett's third volume, and with the sections of the two Ionic examples at Eleusis,
published by the Dilettanti. The centre of the volute in the present fragment projects out in a
semi-globular form; the canal in its wider spaces is sunk a half circle, and in the narrower near
two-thirds of a circle, the other known examples being all sunk elliptically. The fillet dividing
the revolutions of the spiral has its surface enriched by a small fluting, of two-sided angular form.
The outer edge of part of the volute being broken away, the following method is applied to
obtain it, which is perfectly simple of adoption on all occasions for the common purposes of
drawing, or in the workmen executing any spiral. The horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines,
are drawn as dotted across, and the centre or eye of the spiral struck. The extent of 3.45 being
one of the widths from the outer diameter of the eye to the exterior edge of the spiral is divided
into thirty parts, or the larger vertical dimension of 5.575 divided into forty-eight and a half. At
the first line, being the diagonal, i of one part is placed, the second i, the third 1, to which simply
an additional one is added at every dotted or division line, the next being two parts, the following
and small circular sinkings are introduced near the rim as additional ornaments. In the centre is
perforated, apparently for one of its fastenings to have passed through it, which if ornamented and
projecting, taking about the size of the dotted circle, would have formed a centre to the rose. At
the bottom of the Plate is the back of the same; the perforation is here also seen of the centre
fastening, shewing also at each of its four centres near the rim four small spikes of bronze cast in
one piece with the circle, to be driven into the wood or other substance the ornament was
placed on.
PLATE XXI. OF THE TEMPLE OF VICTORY.
This fragment, consisting of one of the volutes of an Ionic capital, was found not far from the
south wall of the Acropolis, and near the propylaeum. Its dimensions (nearly similar to those of
the example of the little temple, drawn by Stuart and Revett, that stood on the banks of the Ilissus)
accord with the remains of ante, and with the beautiful sculptured frieze of the temple of Victory,
many of the fragments and the substructure of which remain at no great distance from where the
present fragment was found. The peculiar character of the sculpture of that frieze, which is now
among the national marbles collected by Lord Elgin, is its astonishing boldness of design and great
relief in execution, and the same feeling seems to have been preserved in the execution of this
capital, the projections and sinkings surpassing in boldness any other examples of the Ionic order,
which seem to add to the circumstance of its locality in aid of the supposition of its having
belonged to the temple of Victory, the only Ionic temple on the Acropolis with the Erechtheion of
which any remains have been hitherto discovered; its dimensions not permitting an idea of its
having been brought from the propylseum : and there is no reason to suppose it was brought from
the Parthenon, as its style does not accord with any of the ornaments of the architecture of Ictinus
seen either in that temple, or the temple of Apollo near Phigalia.
The elevation of the volute the same size as the marble chiefly occupies the Plate; under it, at
the bottom, is the lateral section through the centre of the spiral, with which a comparison might
be formed with the section through the volute of an Ionic colonnade at Athens, given near the end
of Stuart and Revett's third volume, and with the sections of the two Ionic examples at Eleusis,
published by the Dilettanti. The centre of the volute in the present fragment projects out in a
semi-globular form; the canal in its wider spaces is sunk a half circle, and in the narrower near
two-thirds of a circle, the other known examples being all sunk elliptically. The fillet dividing
the revolutions of the spiral has its surface enriched by a small fluting, of two-sided angular form.
The outer edge of part of the volute being broken away, the following method is applied to
obtain it, which is perfectly simple of adoption on all occasions for the common purposes of
drawing, or in the workmen executing any spiral. The horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines,
are drawn as dotted across, and the centre or eye of the spiral struck. The extent of 3.45 being
one of the widths from the outer diameter of the eye to the exterior edge of the spiral is divided
into thirty parts, or the larger vertical dimension of 5.575 divided into forty-eight and a half. At
the first line, being the diagonal, i of one part is placed, the second i, the third 1, to which simply
an additional one is added at every dotted or division line, the next being two parts, the following