DOI article:
Essay IV: The western pediment of the Parthenon, and the Venice fragment
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0130
ioS
ESSAYS ON THE ART OE PHEIDIAS.
[IV.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century it was converted
from a Greek Orthodox into a Roman Catholic Church, and
in 1458 it was turned into a Turkish mosque. The alterations in
this case were again chiefly in the interior, the Turks contenting
themselves with building on the outside the slender minaret
on the western portion of the southern wall, which can be
seen in several drawings that have come down to us1.
Thus it remained in comparatively perfect preservation until
the latter part of the seventeenth century, when all nationalities
seemed to combine in destroying it. It was in September of the
year 1687, during the war between the Republic of Venice and
Turkey, that the Venetian general, subsequently Doge, Francesco
Morosinij after having conquered the whole of the Morea, ad -
vanced northwards and resolved to invest Athens, whither the
Turkish forces had retreated. His army consisted chiefly of
mercenary troops of all nationalities under the immediate
command of Count Koenigsmark, a Swedish General, born in
Westphalia. In the night of the 21st of September Koenigsmark
landed 10,000 men at the Piraeus, and finding that the Turks
had deserted the town and had withdrawn to the Acropolis,
he entered the town, laid siege to and began to bombard the
Acropolis. The firing was without much effect until, upon
hearing that the Turks had stored powder in the Parthenon,
on the 26th of September 1687, at seven o'clock in the evening,
a German lieutenant under the command of De Vannis suc-
ceeded in sending a shell through the roof of the Parthenon
which ignited the powder and rent the great temple asunder,
heaping fragments on either side.
Then and subsequently it was naturally the western pedi-
ment which suffered most among the great sculptured work of
the Parthenon. For, facing the entrance to the Acropolis, it
was naturally to a greater extent the butt of the enemy's
artillery than was the case with the eastern pediment, and
furthermore it subsequently readily presented itself to the eye of
the despoiler, who saw it first upon entering the Acropolis
1 See Comte de Laborde, Athcncs an xv', xvi' et xvii' sticks; Papayannaki,
and F. Lenormant, Gazette Archiologique, 1875, p. 26, seq. PI. 8 ; von Duhn,
Mittheilungen d. deutsch. arch. Inst, in Athen, 1877, p. 38, Taf. 2 ; C. Waldstein,
Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. iv. No. I, p. 86, seq.
ESSAYS ON THE ART OE PHEIDIAS.
[IV.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century it was converted
from a Greek Orthodox into a Roman Catholic Church, and
in 1458 it was turned into a Turkish mosque. The alterations in
this case were again chiefly in the interior, the Turks contenting
themselves with building on the outside the slender minaret
on the western portion of the southern wall, which can be
seen in several drawings that have come down to us1.
Thus it remained in comparatively perfect preservation until
the latter part of the seventeenth century, when all nationalities
seemed to combine in destroying it. It was in September of the
year 1687, during the war between the Republic of Venice and
Turkey, that the Venetian general, subsequently Doge, Francesco
Morosinij after having conquered the whole of the Morea, ad -
vanced northwards and resolved to invest Athens, whither the
Turkish forces had retreated. His army consisted chiefly of
mercenary troops of all nationalities under the immediate
command of Count Koenigsmark, a Swedish General, born in
Westphalia. In the night of the 21st of September Koenigsmark
landed 10,000 men at the Piraeus, and finding that the Turks
had deserted the town and had withdrawn to the Acropolis,
he entered the town, laid siege to and began to bombard the
Acropolis. The firing was without much effect until, upon
hearing that the Turks had stored powder in the Parthenon,
on the 26th of September 1687, at seven o'clock in the evening,
a German lieutenant under the command of De Vannis suc-
ceeded in sending a shell through the roof of the Parthenon
which ignited the powder and rent the great temple asunder,
heaping fragments on either side.
Then and subsequently it was naturally the western pedi-
ment which suffered most among the great sculptured work of
the Parthenon. For, facing the entrance to the Acropolis, it
was naturally to a greater extent the butt of the enemy's
artillery than was the case with the eastern pediment, and
furthermore it subsequently readily presented itself to the eye of
the despoiler, who saw it first upon entering the Acropolis
1 See Comte de Laborde, Athcncs an xv', xvi' et xvii' sticks; Papayannaki,
and F. Lenormant, Gazette Archiologique, 1875, p. 26, seq. PI. 8 ; von Duhn,
Mittheilungen d. deutsch. arch. Inst, in Athen, 1877, p. 38, Taf. 2 ; C. Waldstein,
Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. iv. No. I, p. 86, seq.