Smith, Arthur H. [Hrsg.]; British Museum <London> / Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities [Hrsg.]: Catalogue of sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Band 1) (London, 1892)

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CASTS OF SCULPTURES FROM AEGINA.

The temple of Athene at Aegina stands on a com-
manding plateau in the north-east of the island. It is of
the kind known as Doric peripteral hexastyle; that is to
say, it is of the Doric order, surrounded by a colonnade,
which has six columns at the ends and thirteen columns
at the sides. Tho site was excavated in 1811 by a party
of English and German explorers, and the sculptures
discovered were purchased in 1812 by the Crown Prince
of Bavaria. The principal figures were restored at Eome
by Thorwaldsen and J. M. Wagner. In 1817 the col-
lection was placed in the Glyptothek at Munich.

With the exception of an ivory eye (Cockerell, pi. 12)
attributed by the discoverers to tho image inside the
temple, the only sculptures found were those which
oiiginally were contained in or surmounted the pediments
of the temple.

The Aeginetan sculptures belong to the latest stage of
archaic Greek art, and are the most important extant
works of that period. For determining the date of the
sculptures, political history is only so fai of use that we
may assume that they are not later than 45G B.C., in
which year Aegiua was subdued by Athens. From their
style they appear to be considerably older than that date.

A minute analysis of the sculptures (Brunn, Das Alter
der Aegin. Bildw. p. 9) shows that the east pediment is
distinctly more advanced than the west in the expression
of emotion, in the rendering of drapery, of the features,
the beards, the veins; and in the general proportions.
Brunn assigns the groups to the period immediately
following the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.) and suggests
that the sculptor of the east pediment belonged to a
younger generation than his colleague.