DOI article:
Essay V: The eastern pediment of the Parthenon, and Thalassa and Gaia
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0167
142
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[v.
into the modelling of the surface1, this vitality and action is
never gained at the expense of largeness of treatment. The
outline is no restless one though it be bold, the arms and
shoulder though strong and muscular do not present a small
succession of lines as in a Farnese Herakles, the horses though
they are real and living, and as it were foaming, arc not over-
individualised by small lines and wrinkles, but present relatively
large, restful surfaces within the movement of the whole. No
amount of action robs them of that monumental breadth of
treatment and firmness of modelling which we have seen2 to be
the characteristic of the style of Phcidias.
The next figure towards the centre is that of a nude youthful
male figure (Plate VI.) half reclining half seated upon the skin of
some animal spread over a rock. It is a perfect type of youthful
strength without any exaggeration, in which each part and limb
of the body stands in harmonious proportion to the other parts
and to the whole of the figure, and all give the picture of
harmonious physical life. This we have called the Type8. The
skin upon which he is seated cannot be considered in the light
of an attribute, it is not the nebris, nor is it the lion's skin of
Herakles; for, as Brunn has remarked4, the head of the animal
would have been added if there had been any attributive meaning
attached to the skin.
Among the interpretations of this figure there are two dis-
tinct groups: (a) those that consider the youth to be a divine
personage, whether god or demigod ; and (b) those who see in
him a personification of nature of the class of Helios. Class {a)
again subdivides itself into two groups : those who see in him a
god (Pan6 and Dionysos6), and those who see in him a hero or
1 A small portion of the neck of Helios though browned by age still retains the
original surface (a similar portion is to be seen in the back of the thigh of Kephissos
from the western pediment), and these portions, small though they be, convey an idea
of the exquisite finish of these statues and of the "love" with which they were
worked, independent of the effect they would produce upon the spectator. For these
preserved portions of the original surface were not seen, being on the back of the
figures towards the tympanum, and it is thus that they were preserved from corrosion.
2 See Essay II. pp. 78—80. 3 See Essay II. p. 51.
4 Ibid. pp. 4 and 5. 5 Reuvens, Classical Journal, [823, p. 175.
6 Wilkins, A'. Walpole's Travels in various Countries of the East, Lond. 1820,
p. 409; Lloyd; Michaelis; Petersen.
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[v.
into the modelling of the surface1, this vitality and action is
never gained at the expense of largeness of treatment. The
outline is no restless one though it be bold, the arms and
shoulder though strong and muscular do not present a small
succession of lines as in a Farnese Herakles, the horses though
they are real and living, and as it were foaming, arc not over-
individualised by small lines and wrinkles, but present relatively
large, restful surfaces within the movement of the whole. No
amount of action robs them of that monumental breadth of
treatment and firmness of modelling which we have seen2 to be
the characteristic of the style of Phcidias.
The next figure towards the centre is that of a nude youthful
male figure (Plate VI.) half reclining half seated upon the skin of
some animal spread over a rock. It is a perfect type of youthful
strength without any exaggeration, in which each part and limb
of the body stands in harmonious proportion to the other parts
and to the whole of the figure, and all give the picture of
harmonious physical life. This we have called the Type8. The
skin upon which he is seated cannot be considered in the light
of an attribute, it is not the nebris, nor is it the lion's skin of
Herakles; for, as Brunn has remarked4, the head of the animal
would have been added if there had been any attributive meaning
attached to the skin.
Among the interpretations of this figure there are two dis-
tinct groups: (a) those that consider the youth to be a divine
personage, whether god or demigod ; and (b) those who see in
him a personification of nature of the class of Helios. Class {a)
again subdivides itself into two groups : those who see in him a
god (Pan6 and Dionysos6), and those who see in him a hero or
1 A small portion of the neck of Helios though browned by age still retains the
original surface (a similar portion is to be seen in the back of the thigh of Kephissos
from the western pediment), and these portions, small though they be, convey an idea
of the exquisite finish of these statues and of the "love" with which they were
worked, independent of the effect they would produce upon the spectator. For these
preserved portions of the original surface were not seen, being on the back of the
figures towards the tympanum, and it is thus that they were preserved from corrosion.
2 See Essay II. pp. 78—80. 3 See Essay II. p. 51.
4 Ibid. pp. 4 and 5. 5 Reuvens, Classical Journal, [823, p. 175.
6 Wilkins, A'. Walpole's Travels in various Countries of the East, Lond. 1820,
p. 409; Lloyd; Michaelis; Petersen.