DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4264#0028
28
OF THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA,
Thucydides says, the gold about it weighed 40 talents3, which, according to the value of gold
at that time, was worth above 120,000/. sterling. Lachares stript it off about 130 years after the
death of Pericles b, and we do not read that it was ever replaced c.
The eastern front of this temple hath suffered more than the western ; all the walls and five of
the columns of the pronaos are down; but the eight columns in front, with their entablature, remain
pretty entire in their original situation, though much the greater part of the pediment is wanting.
The metopes on the south side were adorned with sculptures in alto-relievo of Centaurs and
Lapithte, several of which are not yet entirely defaced d.
The outside of the cell was surrounded at the top with a continued freeze of about three feet
four inches deep, representing the Panathenaic pomp or procession, in basso-relievo; part of which
was copied by a young French painter, employed by the Marquis de Nointel in the year 1G74; two
or three of whose drawings are represented in Montfaucon's Antiquitiese.
Pausanias "ives but a transient account of this temple; nor does he say whether Adrian re-
paired it; though his statue, and that of his empress Sabinaf in the western pediment, have occa-
sioned a doubt whether the sculptures in both were not put up by him. Wheler and Spon were of
this opinion, and say they were whiter than the rest of the building ; the statue of Antinous, now re-
maining at Rome, may be thought a proof, that there were artists in his time capable of executing
if
^
,■■!»"
chiefly applied to the drapery; but it is probable according to our
author, that the ivory was also stained or painted in accordance
with the taste of that age, when the beauty of statues and edifices
of the most brilliant marble and the most delicate execution, was
thought to be enhanced, as existing monuments testify, by a dis-
play of positive colour.
The statue is supposed to have been constructed on a frame of
iron, or more probably of copper, forming a sort of metallic tree
inserted within a model executed in wood shaped to receive the
veneers of ivory applied to the naked parts of the figure, and
the highly chased plates of gold, forming the drapery, helmet,
part of the victory, shield, and the other decorations. Pausanias
relates, El. c. xi. that the Acropolis being so arid a spot, the ivory
of the Minerva was preserved by being moistened with water, as
that of the Jupiter at Olympia by the application of oil. M.
Quatremere, who has united all the chief information on the sub-
ject of chryselephantine sculpture, has estimated the value
of the gold employed on this statue, from the following data:
the magnitude of the Colossus; the quantity of surface of
the gold deduced from the supposed design of the figure; and
the plates of gold valued of the substance of a double Louis,
the lightest thickness considered practicable for the execution of
the plates of metal supposed to have been cast in compartments
applicable to the model, and removable, as they were known to
have been, at pleasure, for the service of the state. The result of
his calculation is, that the quantity of gold required for the
statue, exclusive of the ornaments of the pedestal, valued in
money of the present day would amount to 2,046,767 francs;
a sum not far short of .£130,000 sterling, the present
value given by Col. Leake of the forty talents of gold stated
by ancient authors as devoted to the decoration of this idol.
The practice of the Greeks of constructing colossi within their
temples of a magnitude out of all relation to the edifices en-
shrining them, as attested by the dimensions quoted of this figure,
and the remark of Strabo, that if the statue of the Olympian Ju-
piter could rise from its seat it would endanger the roof, are facts
in relation to the taste of the ancients which could not at present
be reconciled with our own. It has been observed that with
them their rules of art resulted from their sensations, and that
all the effects produced were derived from a power anterior to
calculation. They endeavoured to express the most exalted
idea of moral grandeur, by engrafting the divine feelings of their
great artists and poets on the colossal taste of the Egyptians and
Asiatics formed in the most costly products of nature ; and un-
der the guidance of Phidias, called " diis artifex", the result
may have justified the attempt, and have established a system
of proportion in works of that class, from the successful impres-
sion only of his productions. It is the observation of Quatremere
de Quincy, (from whose great work we have in this note much pro-
fited,) on the productions of that superior artist, that " ses ou-
vrages servirent puissamment la religion. L'on pourroit dire
que, selon l'esprit des Grecs et de leur culte, une statue comme
celle du Parthenon, etait ce qu'aurait ete dans certains temps chez
nous (ou les livres ont acquis un empire d'un autre genre) quelque
nouveau traite de theologie, de dogme ou d'histoire sainte"; or as
the elegant Quintilian equally applied to this monument " cujus
pulchritudo adjecisse aliquid etiam receptae religioni videtur,
adeo majestas operis deum asquavit."
The statue of the Parthenon as well as that of the Jupiter at
Olympia, are supposed from their magnificence to have escaped
the first proscription of the heathen idols, by Constantine. From
an existing letter of the apostate Julian, it would appear that they
were in existence at his time, having been eight hundred years
the admiration of the heathen world, after which the fate of them
is unknown.
The great sculptor of these splendid figures was the friend and
companion of Pericles and the sages and heroes of his age, and, in a
subsequent era among the Romans, the idea of him was also asso-
ciated with those of the worthies of his country. Amid the ruins
of the villa of Cassius near Tivoli, in one of the most productive of
the recent excavations near Rome, with the fine Greek statues
of the Muses, and terminal portraits of the poets and sages of
Greece, now the ornament of the Vatican, a Hermes was found,
unfortunately headless indeed, but inscribed with the name of
tfEIAIAX. [ED.]
a Thucydides, 1. II. c. 13.
b Pausan. in Attic, c. xxv. p. 61.
c Pausanias describes the statue as perfect in his time. Ha-
drian having dedicated the chryselephantine statue in the Athe-
nian Temple of Jupiter Olympius may have restored this; but it
is more probable that the heathen piety of the Athenians who were
free and rich subsequent to the time of the despoiler, would have
speedily reinstated it themselves. [ed.]
d From the designs of Carrey, it appears that nine of the me-
topa: on the south side did not represent Centaurs, but other
groups of two figures in each. Subjects from the Ceutauroma-
chia we may almost assert, were only introduced on that side of
the structure. The beautiful metope shewn at Plate IV. Fig. 3.
is still in its place at the south-west angle. CED0
c LAntiquite Expliquee. Vol. III. Plate I. Fig. 3, 4.
f This group so misnamed by Wheler, and which has been
successively called Venus and Vulcan, Peleus and Thetis, Ce-
crops and Agraulos, is still in its place on the horizontal cornice
of the western pediment: it certainly formed part of the original
composition. The heads are now destroyed, but it appears that
they were carved out of the same blocks as the bodies of the
figures, and were never replaced. See description of Fig. 2.
Plate IV. [ei).]
-
OF THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA,
Thucydides says, the gold about it weighed 40 talents3, which, according to the value of gold
at that time, was worth above 120,000/. sterling. Lachares stript it off about 130 years after the
death of Pericles b, and we do not read that it was ever replaced c.
The eastern front of this temple hath suffered more than the western ; all the walls and five of
the columns of the pronaos are down; but the eight columns in front, with their entablature, remain
pretty entire in their original situation, though much the greater part of the pediment is wanting.
The metopes on the south side were adorned with sculptures in alto-relievo of Centaurs and
Lapithte, several of which are not yet entirely defaced d.
The outside of the cell was surrounded at the top with a continued freeze of about three feet
four inches deep, representing the Panathenaic pomp or procession, in basso-relievo; part of which
was copied by a young French painter, employed by the Marquis de Nointel in the year 1G74; two
or three of whose drawings are represented in Montfaucon's Antiquitiese.
Pausanias "ives but a transient account of this temple; nor does he say whether Adrian re-
paired it; though his statue, and that of his empress Sabinaf in the western pediment, have occa-
sioned a doubt whether the sculptures in both were not put up by him. Wheler and Spon were of
this opinion, and say they were whiter than the rest of the building ; the statue of Antinous, now re-
maining at Rome, may be thought a proof, that there were artists in his time capable of executing
if
^
,■■!»"
chiefly applied to the drapery; but it is probable according to our
author, that the ivory was also stained or painted in accordance
with the taste of that age, when the beauty of statues and edifices
of the most brilliant marble and the most delicate execution, was
thought to be enhanced, as existing monuments testify, by a dis-
play of positive colour.
The statue is supposed to have been constructed on a frame of
iron, or more probably of copper, forming a sort of metallic tree
inserted within a model executed in wood shaped to receive the
veneers of ivory applied to the naked parts of the figure, and
the highly chased plates of gold, forming the drapery, helmet,
part of the victory, shield, and the other decorations. Pausanias
relates, El. c. xi. that the Acropolis being so arid a spot, the ivory
of the Minerva was preserved by being moistened with water, as
that of the Jupiter at Olympia by the application of oil. M.
Quatremere, who has united all the chief information on the sub-
ject of chryselephantine sculpture, has estimated the value
of the gold employed on this statue, from the following data:
the magnitude of the Colossus; the quantity of surface of
the gold deduced from the supposed design of the figure; and
the plates of gold valued of the substance of a double Louis,
the lightest thickness considered practicable for the execution of
the plates of metal supposed to have been cast in compartments
applicable to the model, and removable, as they were known to
have been, at pleasure, for the service of the state. The result of
his calculation is, that the quantity of gold required for the
statue, exclusive of the ornaments of the pedestal, valued in
money of the present day would amount to 2,046,767 francs;
a sum not far short of .£130,000 sterling, the present
value given by Col. Leake of the forty talents of gold stated
by ancient authors as devoted to the decoration of this idol.
The practice of the Greeks of constructing colossi within their
temples of a magnitude out of all relation to the edifices en-
shrining them, as attested by the dimensions quoted of this figure,
and the remark of Strabo, that if the statue of the Olympian Ju-
piter could rise from its seat it would endanger the roof, are facts
in relation to the taste of the ancients which could not at present
be reconciled with our own. It has been observed that with
them their rules of art resulted from their sensations, and that
all the effects produced were derived from a power anterior to
calculation. They endeavoured to express the most exalted
idea of moral grandeur, by engrafting the divine feelings of their
great artists and poets on the colossal taste of the Egyptians and
Asiatics formed in the most costly products of nature ; and un-
der the guidance of Phidias, called " diis artifex", the result
may have justified the attempt, and have established a system
of proportion in works of that class, from the successful impres-
sion only of his productions. It is the observation of Quatremere
de Quincy, (from whose great work we have in this note much pro-
fited,) on the productions of that superior artist, that " ses ou-
vrages servirent puissamment la religion. L'on pourroit dire
que, selon l'esprit des Grecs et de leur culte, une statue comme
celle du Parthenon, etait ce qu'aurait ete dans certains temps chez
nous (ou les livres ont acquis un empire d'un autre genre) quelque
nouveau traite de theologie, de dogme ou d'histoire sainte"; or as
the elegant Quintilian equally applied to this monument " cujus
pulchritudo adjecisse aliquid etiam receptae religioni videtur,
adeo majestas operis deum asquavit."
The statue of the Parthenon as well as that of the Jupiter at
Olympia, are supposed from their magnificence to have escaped
the first proscription of the heathen idols, by Constantine. From
an existing letter of the apostate Julian, it would appear that they
were in existence at his time, having been eight hundred years
the admiration of the heathen world, after which the fate of them
is unknown.
The great sculptor of these splendid figures was the friend and
companion of Pericles and the sages and heroes of his age, and, in a
subsequent era among the Romans, the idea of him was also asso-
ciated with those of the worthies of his country. Amid the ruins
of the villa of Cassius near Tivoli, in one of the most productive of
the recent excavations near Rome, with the fine Greek statues
of the Muses, and terminal portraits of the poets and sages of
Greece, now the ornament of the Vatican, a Hermes was found,
unfortunately headless indeed, but inscribed with the name of
tfEIAIAX. [ED.]
a Thucydides, 1. II. c. 13.
b Pausan. in Attic, c. xxv. p. 61.
c Pausanias describes the statue as perfect in his time. Ha-
drian having dedicated the chryselephantine statue in the Athe-
nian Temple of Jupiter Olympius may have restored this; but it
is more probable that the heathen piety of the Athenians who were
free and rich subsequent to the time of the despoiler, would have
speedily reinstated it themselves. [ed.]
d From the designs of Carrey, it appears that nine of the me-
topa: on the south side did not represent Centaurs, but other
groups of two figures in each. Subjects from the Ceutauroma-
chia we may almost assert, were only introduced on that side of
the structure. The beautiful metope shewn at Plate IV. Fig. 3.
is still in its place at the south-west angle. CED0
c LAntiquite Expliquee. Vol. III. Plate I. Fig. 3, 4.
f This group so misnamed by Wheler, and which has been
successively called Venus and Vulcan, Peleus and Thetis, Ce-
crops and Agraulos, is still in its place on the horizontal cornice
of the western pediment: it certainly formed part of the original
composition. The heads are now destroyed, but it appears that
they were carved out of the same blocks as the bodies of the
figures, and were never replaced. See description of Fig. 2.
Plate IV. [ei).]
-