DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5310#0064
THE TEMPLE OF THE PARTHENON RESTORED.
The temple of the Parthenon, as it appeared when visited by Sir George Wheeler
and Dr. Spon, previous to its destruction by the Venetians in the year 1687, when a
bomb fell on the roof, which setting fire to some powder, destroyed it, and did consi-
derable damage to the remaining fabric. The outside of the cell of the temple of
Minerva was surrounded at the top with a frieze of about three feet four inches high,
in basso-relievo, representing the Panathenaic procession. The battle of the Centaurs
and Lapithse was sculptured in alto-relievo in the metopes, not engraved in this Plate
on account of the smallness of the scale. The original building was burnt by the
Persians ; but the zeal of Pericles, warmly incited by his countrymen, was exerted in
erecting a far more magnificent temple for their favourite goddess. It was built by
the architects Ictinus and Callicrates, under the direction of Phidias; and a treatise
on the building was written by the former and Carpion. The whole was of white
marble, of the Doric order; the columns fluted, without bases: in the pediments, the
birth of Minerva, and her contest with Neptune, were finely sculptured. The temple
was ascended by five steps on each side, appearing as a basis to the portico. It con-
sisted of forty-six columns, forty-two feet high, and seventeen and a half in circumfer-
ence near the bottom. The space between the columns is seven feet four inches; the
length of the temple and pronaos, without the corridors, is one hundred and fifty-
eight feet, the breadth sixty-seven; and the length of the body, or nave of the temple,
ihcluding the pronaos, ninety feet.
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The temple of the Parthenon, as it appeared when visited by Sir George Wheeler
and Dr. Spon, previous to its destruction by the Venetians in the year 1687, when a
bomb fell on the roof, which setting fire to some powder, destroyed it, and did consi-
derable damage to the remaining fabric. The outside of the cell of the temple of
Minerva was surrounded at the top with a frieze of about three feet four inches high,
in basso-relievo, representing the Panathenaic procession. The battle of the Centaurs
and Lapithse was sculptured in alto-relievo in the metopes, not engraved in this Plate
on account of the smallness of the scale. The original building was burnt by the
Persians ; but the zeal of Pericles, warmly incited by his countrymen, was exerted in
erecting a far more magnificent temple for their favourite goddess. It was built by
the architects Ictinus and Callicrates, under the direction of Phidias; and a treatise
on the building was written by the former and Carpion. The whole was of white
marble, of the Doric order; the columns fluted, without bases: in the pediments, the
birth of Minerva, and her contest with Neptune, were finely sculptured. The temple
was ascended by five steps on each side, appearing as a basis to the portico. It con-
sisted of forty-six columns, forty-two feet high, and seventeen and a half in circumfer-
ence near the bottom. The space between the columns is seven feet four inches; the
length of the temple and pronaos, without the corridors, is one hundred and fifty-
eight feet, the breadth sixty-seven; and the length of the body, or nave of the temple,
ihcluding the pronaos, ninety feet.
19