DOI Artikel:
Essay V: The eastern pediment of the Parthenon, and Thalassa and Gaia
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0175
148
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[V-
closely as we proceed, has the greatest convincing power
over me.
The pose of these figures is again large, broad and monu-
mental. The outline is massive and the width of the lower part
of the group gives it a character of solid restfulness and stability.
This is attained in keeping the knees apart and in allowing the
drapery to hang down at either side1. Within the variedness of
pose in the two figures the two together have a certain sym-
metry which adds to the feeling of stability2. For if, for instance,
the projecting outline of the knee on the one side were not
counterbalanced by a similar line on the corresponding side of
the other figure, the two figures as a whole would be one-sided
and suggest a speedy falling over. And still the symmetry is
not such as to make it an absolutely complete composition in
itself, for the turn and erectness as well as the upraised arm of
the upper figure drive the composition on towards the centre3.
And though, as has just been pointed out, movement and
attention are suggested in the forward and erect movement of
the upper figure, still the whole attitude and composition are in
the artistic treatment of the figure above all suggestive of rest
and stability. This character is also maintained in the modelling
of the draped figures. The lines of the folds, though far from
straight or angular, are not rippling, but present large quiet
curves. So in the lower figure the cross folds from the right
ankle over the left knee present one long sweep from side to side.
This is also the case in the perpendicular, the quiet fall of the
folds over the right knee of the upper figure beginning on the side
of the thigh and passing over the knee downwards between the
legs. And notwithstanding this largeness the natural texture of
the drapery in the smaller folds of the thinner under-garment
and the larger system of lines in the thicker texture of the outer
garment, as well as the change of texture between drapery and
nude are rendered with perfect truth. Never has truth to
nature as well in the modelling of the texture of the surface as
in the proportion and interdependence of the parts of the body,
in the pose and the individual action, been united with such
1 See Essay IV. p. 125. - See Appendix 1. (Pythagoras of Rhegion &c).
3 See Essay II. p. 77.
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[V-
closely as we proceed, has the greatest convincing power
over me.
The pose of these figures is again large, broad and monu-
mental. The outline is massive and the width of the lower part
of the group gives it a character of solid restfulness and stability.
This is attained in keeping the knees apart and in allowing the
drapery to hang down at either side1. Within the variedness of
pose in the two figures the two together have a certain sym-
metry which adds to the feeling of stability2. For if, for instance,
the projecting outline of the knee on the one side were not
counterbalanced by a similar line on the corresponding side of
the other figure, the two figures as a whole would be one-sided
and suggest a speedy falling over. And still the symmetry is
not such as to make it an absolutely complete composition in
itself, for the turn and erectness as well as the upraised arm of
the upper figure drive the composition on towards the centre3.
And though, as has just been pointed out, movement and
attention are suggested in the forward and erect movement of
the upper figure, still the whole attitude and composition are in
the artistic treatment of the figure above all suggestive of rest
and stability. This character is also maintained in the modelling
of the draped figures. The lines of the folds, though far from
straight or angular, are not rippling, but present large quiet
curves. So in the lower figure the cross folds from the right
ankle over the left knee present one long sweep from side to side.
This is also the case in the perpendicular, the quiet fall of the
folds over the right knee of the upper figure beginning on the side
of the thigh and passing over the knee downwards between the
legs. And notwithstanding this largeness the natural texture of
the drapery in the smaller folds of the thinner under-garment
and the larger system of lines in the thicker texture of the outer
garment, as well as the change of texture between drapery and
nude are rendered with perfect truth. Never has truth to
nature as well in the modelling of the texture of the surface as
in the proportion and interdependence of the parts of the body,
in the pose and the individual action, been united with such
1 See Essay IV. p. 125. - See Appendix 1. (Pythagoras of Rhegion &c).
3 See Essay II. p. 77.