Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present ConditionBucke, Charles
History
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition
Bucke, Charles
Cities and towns, Ancient
Lusieri classes the architecture of the temple of the Panhellenian
Jupiter at Ægina with that of Pæstum in Lucania:--"In their buildings,"
says he, "the Doric order attained a pre-eminence which it never passed;
not a stone has been there placed without some evident and important
design; every part of the structure bespeaks its own essential utility.
Of such a nature were works in architecture, when the whole aim of the
architect was to unite grandeur with utility; the former being founded
on the latter. All then was truth, strength, and sublimity."
In 1811, several statues of Parian marble were discovered by two English
gentlemen and two Germans[5], the rivals in the style of which are said
nowhere to be found. They were excavated from the two extremities of the
temple below the tympana, from which they had fallen at some unknown
period. Mr. Dodwell has given the following account of them:--"I shall
not attempt," says he, "a minute description of these precious remains
of the Æginetic school; the discovery of which, in its importance, has
not been surpassed by any of the kind in modern times. They are supposed
by some to represent the principal heroes of the Iliad contending with
the Trojans for the body of Patroclus. Minerva, armed with her helmet,
is the principal figure; and from its superior size, is conjectured to
have stood in the centre of the tympanum, below which it was found. The
other figures are combatants in various costumes and attitudes; their
shields are circular, and their helmets crowned with the lophos. The
bodies of some are naked, while others are covered with armour or
leather; their attitudes are judiciously adapted to the four tympana,
and the places which they occupied. They were evidently made prior to
the introduction of the beautiful ideal in Grecian sculpture. The
muscles and the veins, which are anatomically correct, exhibit the soft
flexibility of life, and every motion of the body is in scientific
harmony with that of nature. The limbs are strong, though not Herculean,
and elegant without effeminacy; no preposterous muscular protuberance,
no unnatural feminine delicacy offends the eye. They are noble without
being harsh or rigid, and are composed with Doric severity mingled with
the airy grace of youthful forms; the perfection of the finish is quite
wonderful; every part being in a style worthy of the most beautiful
cameo. The extremities of the hands and feet merit more particular
admiration. Indeed, the ancients thought that elegant fingers and nails
were essential ingredients in the composition of the beautiful. The most
extraordinary circumstance, however, in these statues, is the want of
expression, and the sameness of countenance, which is to be observed in
all the heads. This approximation to identity is certainly not
fortuitous; for the artists, who were able to throw so much varied
beauty into the forms of the bodies, were, no doubt, fully able to
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