Chap. 4.] ARTISTS WHO EXCELLED IN SCULPTUEE. 31 1 



the Temple of the Great Mother, in the same city, another 

 work'^^ by Agoracritus. 



Among all nations which the fame of the Olympian Jupiter 

 lias reached, Phidias is looked upon, beyond all doubt, as 

 the most famous of artists : but to let those who have never 

 even seen his works, know how deservedly he is esteemed, 

 we will take this opportunity of adducing a few slight proofs 

 of the genius which he displayed. In doing this, we shall 

 not appeal to the beauty of his Olympian Jupiter, nor yet to 

 the vast proportions of his Athenian Minerva, six and twenty 

 cubits in height, and composed of ivory and gold ; but it is to 

 the shield of this last statue that we shall draw attention ; 

 upon the convex face of which he has chased a combat of the 

 Amazons, while, upon the concave side of it, he has repre- 

 sented the battle between the Gods and the Giants. Upon 

 the sandals again, we see the wars of the Lapithae and 

 Centaurs, so careful has he been to fill every smallest portion 

 of his work with some proof or other of his artistic skill. To 

 the story chased upon the pedestal of the statue, the name of 

 the *' Birth of Pandora"^'' has been given; and the figures 

 of new-born^° gods to be seen upon it are no less than twenty 

 in number. The figure of Victory, in particular, is most 

 admirable, and connoisseurs are greatly struck with the ser- 

 pent and the sphinx in bronze lying beneath the point of 

 the spear. Let thus much be said incidentally in reference to 

 an artist who can never be sufficiently praised ; if only to let 

 it be understood that the richness of his genius was always 

 equal to itself, even in the very smallest details. 



"When speaking^^ of the statuaries, we have already given 

 the period at which Praxiteles flourished ; an artist, who, in 

 the glory which he acquired by his works in marble, sur- 

 passed even himself. There are some works of his in the 

 Ceramicus^^ at Athens ; but, superior to all the statues, not 

 only of Praxiteles, but of any other artist that ever existed, 

 is his Cnidian Venus ; for the inspection of which, many per- 

 sons before now have purposely undertaken a voyage to 



28 A statue, SilHg supposes, of the goddess Cybele. 



29 u Pandoras Genesis," 



^'^ Sillig is of opinion that this passage is corrupt, and is inclined to 

 think, with Panotka, that the reading should be "nascenti adstantes,"— 

 gods "standing by the new-born" Pandora. 



2^ In B. xxxiv. c. 19. 32 gee B. xxxv. c. 45. 



