Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present ConditionBucke, Charles
History
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition
Bucke, Charles
Cities and towns, Ancient
“They are probably of as early a date as any that have reached our
times, and are of different styles of art; those which belonged to the
temple called Eastern, whence the sculpture of the head of the dying
warrior, and the chariot drawn by horses, were taken, possess much of
the Æginitan character; those of the Western are of a ruder age. In most
of the figures the anatomy resembles that of the earliest coins, but
differs in many respects from the Greek sculptures; and there is a short
and full character in the faces approaching the Egyptian. From the short
proportions, the fleshy part of the thigh overcharged, and the peculiar
manner in which the hair is arranged, they might be taken for specimens
of Æginitan art; but on a close inspection it will be found, that they
are the work of artists educated on different principles. At a much
later period it is known that the artists of Ægina were employed by the
kings of Sicily; and these, therefore, are not unlikely to have been the
work of Carthaginian sculptors brought to decorate a city in alliance
and newly founded, which will account for the Egyptian character given
to the whole.
“The cast, which consists of the body and head of a dying soldier, a
part of a female figure behind, formed the third metope of the Eastern
Temple, and is a most valuable and curious fragment, and determines the
style and character of the sculpture of the temple. It bears a marked
resemblance to some of the heads in the Ægina marbles, but it has much
more expression; the artist has evidently intended to mark the agonies
of death, by the closed eyes, the mouth slightly opened, and the tongue
appearing between the teeth; the hair and beard are most carefully and
symmetrically arranged and most elaborately finished; the helmet is
thrown back, and is of the kind called ‘γεῖσον’—part of the crest
‘λόφος’ is visible under the left shoulder of the figure. The fragment
of the female is very spirited, and evidently in strong action. Those
metopes, like those of the Parthenon, are in high relief, and in some
parts detached. Thorwaldsen has pronounced them equal in execution to
the Ægina. The next, which consists of three figures, one of which has a
horse under the arm, is particularly interesting, from the illustration
it presents of the death of the Gorgon Medusa. Perseus, emboldened by
the presence of Minerva, is represented in the act of slaying Medusa;
his eyes are averted from the object of his honour, while his right arm,
guided by the goddess, thrusts his sword into the throat of the monster.
Pegasus, a winged foal, springs from her blood, and Medusa presses him
to her side with apparent solicitude. The monstrous face of the Gorgon
is finely represented; the large round head and hideous face rise from
the shoulders without the intervention of a neck; all the features are
frightfully distorted, the nose is flat and spreading, and the mouth is
nearly the whole width of the face, and is armed on each side with two
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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