[88] An improvement almost equivalent to that made by Dædalus in sculpture. He, it is said, first detached the arms from the sides, varied the positions of the limbs, and gave true relief to the features. Hence the fable that he endowed his figures with motion. There are some curious Mexican figures in the possession of Capt. Veitch, they are in high relief upon slabs; holes are drilled for the arm-pits, the fore arms are crossed upon the stomach, the legs only indicated, and to give the appearance of relief to the nose, the cheeks are hollowed on each side. [89] “On the walls of the temple is painted, by ancient artists, the whole history as engraved on the pillar. There you see Orestes sailing with his friend, his ship split on the rock, himself taken, and Iphigenia preparing to sacrifice him: in another part he is represented freed from his chains, slaying Thoas and several other Scythians; they are setting sail with Iphigenia and the goddess; the Scythians attempting to board the ship, and hanging on the rudder; some wounded and repulsed, others frightened and swimming back to the shore. On the opposite side of the wall is pourtrayed the mutual affection of the two friends in their battle with the Scythians; the painter has drawn one of them driving away the enemies who attacked the other, without regarding those who fell on himself, as if careless of his own life, if he could but preserve that of his friend, covering him on every side, and receiving the strokes that were aimed at him.” FRANKLIN’S LUCIAN. [90] Pliny, b. xxxv. ch. 8, says “it is for certain reported that Phidias himself was a painter at the beginning.” [91] Before Christ, 465. _Leake’s Topography of Athens._ [92] The architect of the Parthenon was Ictinus, who wrote a treatise, now lost, upon its construction. [93] There are casts in the British Museum. [94] I am not aware that any _pictures_ adorned this temple, though the statues were painted. The Egina marbles, which might have been, but which, alas! are not in England, form an interesting link between the free finished works of Phidias, and the stiffer and more conventional figures of early Corinth and Etruria. _See Mr. Cockerell’s interesting Essay, with the etchings, in the 6th Vol. of the Quarterly Journal of Science and Art._ [95] Topography of Athens. [96] The approach to common life in the German compositions, renders their colour less offensive perhaps to our feelings, than colour applied to the ideal forms of Greek sculpture would be. [97] _And painted Stœa next._--MILTON. It was from this portico that the stoics derived their name. Colonel Leake quotes Synesius to show that the pictures of Polygnotus, in the Pæcile, were painted on pannels, and that they were not removed till the 4th century.