DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0354
318 SCULPTURES OF THE ERECIITHEIUM.
character. On their heads is the soft pad (tv\t]), on which the basket-like
architectural decoration takes the place of the customary Ionic capital,
and is adorned with the ecliinns and astragal. The long tresses at the
back of the head fill up the curve, and give the necessary appearance of
strength to the neck. Although the laws of architecture require that
all these figures should be alike in design—the only difference being
that the three on the right hand of the spectator rest on the left leg,
and the three on the left hand on the right leg—yet there is a con-
siderable difference of merit in the execution. The well-known figure
in the British Museum is greatly superior to the others, especially in
the treatment of the drapery, and is evidently by a different hand.1
The Frieze of the Erechtheium in Athens.
The reliefs of the Erechtheium were not, as was usual, carved on the
surface of the frieze, but each figure was made separately of Pcntclican
marble, and fixed on a background of black Elcusinian stone, which
was probably coloured. The remains of this work are so insignificant
that we are obliged to have recourse to the bill mentioned above to get
an idea of the scene represented. In this interesting inscription we only
find mention of human beings—men, women and children—and among
the figures preserved are two similar groups of a woman with a boy
on her lap? But there are fragments of a Biga with a driver in it,
and of a Quadriga. Some writers think that indications of mytholo-
gical subjects are to be found, and that both gods and men were repre-
sented, as on the Parthenon.3 The style of these remains resembles
that of the sculptures of the Temple of Nike Aptcros ; in both we
find the soft and graceful characteristics of Attic art with a tendency,
as compared with the grand epic simplicity of the Parthenon, to the
more agitated, individual, lyric manner of a later school.
1 We see in them what Caryatids ought
to be. We need only look at a house in
Park Lane to see exactly what they ought
not to be.
2 Demeter and Iacchus ? Wc'ckcr, Got-
ttrtOre, ii. 252.
3 Friedertohs, Bans/, p. 186. Brand,
Kunstler-Geseh. i. 248. Bergk has attempted
to reconstruct the frieze from the materials
furnished by this inscription.
character. On their heads is the soft pad (tv\t]), on which the basket-like
architectural decoration takes the place of the customary Ionic capital,
and is adorned with the ecliinns and astragal. The long tresses at the
back of the head fill up the curve, and give the necessary appearance of
strength to the neck. Although the laws of architecture require that
all these figures should be alike in design—the only difference being
that the three on the right hand of the spectator rest on the left leg,
and the three on the left hand on the right leg—yet there is a con-
siderable difference of merit in the execution. The well-known figure
in the British Museum is greatly superior to the others, especially in
the treatment of the drapery, and is evidently by a different hand.1
The Frieze of the Erechtheium in Athens.
The reliefs of the Erechtheium were not, as was usual, carved on the
surface of the frieze, but each figure was made separately of Pcntclican
marble, and fixed on a background of black Elcusinian stone, which
was probably coloured. The remains of this work are so insignificant
that we are obliged to have recourse to the bill mentioned above to get
an idea of the scene represented. In this interesting inscription we only
find mention of human beings—men, women and children—and among
the figures preserved are two similar groups of a woman with a boy
on her lap? But there are fragments of a Biga with a driver in it,
and of a Quadriga. Some writers think that indications of mytholo-
gical subjects are to be found, and that both gods and men were repre-
sented, as on the Parthenon.3 The style of these remains resembles
that of the sculptures of the Temple of Nike Aptcros ; in both we
find the soft and graceful characteristics of Attic art with a tendency,
as compared with the grand epic simplicity of the Parthenon, to the
more agitated, individual, lyric manner of a later school.
1 We see in them what Caryatids ought
to be. We need only look at a house in
Park Lane to see exactly what they ought
not to be.
2 Demeter and Iacchus ? Wc'ckcr, Got-
ttrtOre, ii. 252.
3 Friedertohs, Bans/, p. 186. Brand,
Kunstler-Geseh. i. 248. Bergk has attempted
to reconstruct the frieze from the materials
furnished by this inscription.