3o6
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[IX.
headings, as well as from the fact of their calling for very
close inspection as surmounting an inscription, they are in very
low relief. The outline of the figures was evidently traced upon
FlG. 15. Heading of Inscription, 398 D.c. (Athens.)
the flat surface of the stone and thereupon incised; but, differing
from the Parthenon frieze, the ground was not worked away, so
as to leave a strongly marked perpendicular edge, but the
sculptor drove his chisel obliquely all round the figures, thus
gaining for them a limited depth from which they could to some
degree stand out. This peculiar modification of the technique
in instances of this kind is to be attributed to the peculiar class
of individual workers. The monument in question is not in the
first place a work of art, but a stone inscription recording a
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[IX.
headings, as well as from the fact of their calling for very
close inspection as surmounting an inscription, they are in very
low relief. The outline of the figures was evidently traced upon
FlG. 15. Heading of Inscription, 398 D.c. (Athens.)
the flat surface of the stone and thereupon incised; but, differing
from the Parthenon frieze, the ground was not worked away, so
as to leave a strongly marked perpendicular edge, but the
sculptor drove his chisel obliquely all round the figures, thus
gaining for them a limited depth from which they could to some
degree stand out. This peculiar modification of the technique
in instances of this kind is to be attributed to the peculiar class
of individual workers. The monument in question is not in the
first place a work of art, but a stone inscription recording a