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Perry, Walter Copland
Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture — London, 1882

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0221

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A TIIEXE PAR THENOS.

and several works of ancient art. De Ouincy relied chiefly on the
Gem of Aspasios 1 for the helmet, and on the Athene Farnese for the
robe ; but his theory that her apparel could not be made too elaborate
and costly has not been generally approved. The restoration pro-
posed by Flaxman,2 which, in the main, we have adopted in the fore-
going description, is far more in accordance with the literary notices,
and with the spirit of Pheidias. We are greatly assisted in forming
an idea of the general character of the F[G 7,

work by some Attic coins, and by one
of king Antiochus Euergetes. There

are also some Attic reliefs on votive

tablets, in which the Parthenos is

pourtrayed, and which illustrate in a

remarkable manner the words of Pau-

sanias and Pliny.3 Of still greater

importance in this enquiry is the dis-
covery of a Statuette of Pentelican

marble, found by Lenormant near the

Pnyx at Athens, in 1859, and now in

the Theseion (fig. 72). This figure,

which is rather more than a foot high,

is undoubtedly a copy by some rude

hand of the familiar form of Pheidias'

Parthenos ; and though utterly worth-
less as a work of art, gives us a clearer

idea of its general character than any

. . STATUETTE FROM THE PARTHENON.

coin or relief could do. As might be

expected in so rude a copy, it is deficient in many of the details of
the work of Pheidias as described by ancient authors—the sphinx
and griffins of the helmet, the figure of Nike, &c. But it settles
the vexed question of the position of the serpent—a position
entirely in accordance with the habits of the animal, and the well-
known Laocoon episode in Virgil's yEneid. The very formal type

Millin. Gall. Myth. 37, 132. * Lectures on Sc. pi. 49.

* These will l>e fourui in Michaelis, Dcr Parthenon.
 
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