DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0443
FRIEZES OF THE MAUSOLEUM.
407
probably Theseus, and a male head, beardless, probably representing
Apollo ;
tlie Head of an Asiatic (Carian) prince, wearing the tiara ; and
the Head of a youth (Ganymede ?) in a Phrygian cap, very small,
and perhaps belonging to a relief.1
RELIEFS OF THE .MAUSOLEUM.
Of the three distinct friezes of the Mausoleum mentioned above,
there are seventeen slabs in the Brit. Museum.'- Twelve of these,
which had been built into the wall of the Castle of Budrun by
the knights of St. John, were sent to England by Lord Stratford
de Redcliffe in 1846; four more, probably by Scopas, from the E.
side of the Mausoleum, were discovered by Newton in 1857;
and another, formerly in the possession of the Serra family in
Genoa, was purchased for the British Museum in 1865. Most of
these slabs belong to 'the Frieze of the order', on the outside of
the pteron above the Ionic columns. At the time of their dis-
covery they bore evident traces of colour, the ground being dark
blue, the nude of the figures dark red, and the dress of scarlet
and other colours. The bridles of the horses were of metal, for
the insertion of which holes are still visible. The subject is the
Battle of the Greeks and Amazons, the same as that on one side of
the Temple of Phigalcia, with which it forms an object of interest-
ing and instructive comparison.
The most striking characteristics of the frieze before us are the
exuberance of life, the energy and even violence of movement, the end-
less variety of action, posture and dress, and the hurry, heat, and passion
which reign in every part of the composition. The extraordinary
richness of inventive fancy, in which the artist yields to none of his
predecessors, shows itself in effective contrasts between male and female
figures, mounted and on foot, draped and nude, erect, oblique, and
prostrate. Nor is it only by the attitude and motion of the body that
intensity of feeling is indicated. The varying emotions roused by the
1 Newton, /. c.
' They were first seen fit situ 1
.st century, and sketched by him.
407
probably Theseus, and a male head, beardless, probably representing
Apollo ;
tlie Head of an Asiatic (Carian) prince, wearing the tiara ; and
the Head of a youth (Ganymede ?) in a Phrygian cap, very small,
and perhaps belonging to a relief.1
RELIEFS OF THE .MAUSOLEUM.
Of the three distinct friezes of the Mausoleum mentioned above,
there are seventeen slabs in the Brit. Museum.'- Twelve of these,
which had been built into the wall of the Castle of Budrun by
the knights of St. John, were sent to England by Lord Stratford
de Redcliffe in 1846; four more, probably by Scopas, from the E.
side of the Mausoleum, were discovered by Newton in 1857;
and another, formerly in the possession of the Serra family in
Genoa, was purchased for the British Museum in 1865. Most of
these slabs belong to 'the Frieze of the order', on the outside of
the pteron above the Ionic columns. At the time of their dis-
covery they bore evident traces of colour, the ground being dark
blue, the nude of the figures dark red, and the dress of scarlet
and other colours. The bridles of the horses were of metal, for
the insertion of which holes are still visible. The subject is the
Battle of the Greeks and Amazons, the same as that on one side of
the Temple of Phigalcia, with which it forms an object of interest-
ing and instructive comparison.
The most striking characteristics of the frieze before us are the
exuberance of life, the energy and even violence of movement, the end-
less variety of action, posture and dress, and the hurry, heat, and passion
which reign in every part of the composition. The extraordinary
richness of inventive fancy, in which the artist yields to none of his
predecessors, shows itself in effective contrasts between male and female
figures, mounted and on foot, draped and nude, erect, oblique, and
prostrate. Nor is it only by the attitude and motion of the body that
intensity of feeling is indicated. The varying emotions roused by the
1 Newton, /. c.
' They were first seen fit situ 1
.st century, and sketched by him.