DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0367
METOPES OF THE PARTHENON. 333
over a rock, and his muscles relaxed in death. Would that the face had been
preserved, for it might have revealed to us how the Attic artists then expressed
the pangs of death ! Comparing this body with other fallen warriors, such as
those from the friezes of the Theseus temple, from Phigaleia and Xanthos, or
with the fallen sons of Niobe, we shall feel at once its simple boldness and
ideal truth.
With few exceptions, these metopes, representing the battles of the cen-
taurs, as we have seen, not only in their composition, but also in their very
mode of treatment, seem to be de-
pendent upon the older sculptures at
Olympia. As Furtwangler well ex-
presses it, these sculptures in Attica
are evidently a current from the great
art-stream which flowed in Olympia.
But what seemed like a mighty river
there, here flows in a narrower
bed, and is quieter and more clear.
The fulness and broadness there, is
here reduced to meagreness ; the ex-
aggerated, to moderation, — showing
improvements being made by the
later Attic masters upon what we
believe to be their Ionian models.
How admirably sculptural the old
motives have become, appears on considering the relationship of these metopes
to the architecture ; their bold, horizontal lines, strongly contrasted with the
perpendiculars of the triglyphs ; the strong lights and deep shadows of their
high relief, sometimes jutting over the edge; and the dark background of color,
traces of which are still left, — giving a solidity of effect eminently suited to
the massive Doric entablature of the imposing temple-exterior.
Fig. 150.
Metope from Parthenon. Triumph of Centaur
ouer Dead Lapith. British Museum.
THE FRIEZE.
Turning from the metopes (Fig. 113 a), on the exterior of the building we
may contemplate the unbroken frieze (Fig. 113 d) which encircled the top of
the wall of the cello, or body of the temple. Here, within the massive columns,
under the roof of the colonnade, this frieze, 128.60 meters (520 feet) in length,
and about one meter in height, ran along the entablature of the pronaos and
opistJiodomos, as well as the north and south walls of the liecatompcdos and
Parthenon (see temple-plan, Fig. 112). This long, unbroken frieze here most
beautifully takes the place occupied by metopes and triglyphs in the older
Doric temple at Olympia, but shows its Doric affinities by retaining the tri-
over a rock, and his muscles relaxed in death. Would that the face had been
preserved, for it might have revealed to us how the Attic artists then expressed
the pangs of death ! Comparing this body with other fallen warriors, such as
those from the friezes of the Theseus temple, from Phigaleia and Xanthos, or
with the fallen sons of Niobe, we shall feel at once its simple boldness and
ideal truth.
With few exceptions, these metopes, representing the battles of the cen-
taurs, as we have seen, not only in their composition, but also in their very
mode of treatment, seem to be de-
pendent upon the older sculptures at
Olympia. As Furtwangler well ex-
presses it, these sculptures in Attica
are evidently a current from the great
art-stream which flowed in Olympia.
But what seemed like a mighty river
there, here flows in a narrower
bed, and is quieter and more clear.
The fulness and broadness there, is
here reduced to meagreness ; the ex-
aggerated, to moderation, — showing
improvements being made by the
later Attic masters upon what we
believe to be their Ionian models.
How admirably sculptural the old
motives have become, appears on considering the relationship of these metopes
to the architecture ; their bold, horizontal lines, strongly contrasted with the
perpendiculars of the triglyphs ; the strong lights and deep shadows of their
high relief, sometimes jutting over the edge; and the dark background of color,
traces of which are still left, — giving a solidity of effect eminently suited to
the massive Doric entablature of the imposing temple-exterior.
Fig. 150.
Metope from Parthenon. Triumph of Centaur
ouer Dead Lapith. British Museum.
THE FRIEZE.
Turning from the metopes (Fig. 113 a), on the exterior of the building we
may contemplate the unbroken frieze (Fig. 113 d) which encircled the top of
the wall of the cello, or body of the temple. Here, within the massive columns,
under the roof of the colonnade, this frieze, 128.60 meters (520 feet) in length,
and about one meter in height, ran along the entablature of the pronaos and
opistJiodomos, as well as the north and south walls of the liecatompcdos and
Parthenon (see temple-plan, Fig. 112). This long, unbroken frieze here most
beautifully takes the place occupied by metopes and triglyphs in the older
Doric temple at Olympia, but shows its Doric affinities by retaining the tri-