182].] 



Museum Account of the Pkigaleian Marhles. 



Henry Corbould, and the two views, 

 which were talven ou the spot, by Mr. 

 John Foster, and liberally presented 

 by him to the trustees of the British 

 Miisenui. 



The descriptions are by Mr. Taylor 

 Combe, the keeper of the antiquities, 

 and may be considered as a model for 

 archaiological writers ; for, unlike the 

 French, and some of our own antiqua- 

 rian prosers, Mr. Combe has admit(ed 

 into his work no vague conjecture, no.ab- 

 surd or unsupported theory, no attempt 

 at long descriptions, or affectation of 

 fine writing. The short essays wliicli 

 accompany every print are brief and 

 learned abstracts of deep study and 

 laborious investigations ; not a fact is 

 stated without its original authority 

 being quoted in a note, and the solid 

 matter of each single page could, in 

 the French style, easily be spun out to 

 a chapter as long as any of those of Le 

 Roy, Visconti, or Millin. 



How the Phigaleian Marbles came 

 to be preferred, out of their turn, to the 

 Elgin, is rather mysterious, but it is 

 hoped the]/ will also appear in due 

 time. The same power behind the 

 curtain which attempted to depreciate 

 their value when they were on their 

 trial before the committee of the House 

 of Commons, has, 1 fear, occasioned 

 this preference in issuing fine engrav- 

 ings of their inferiors and would-be 

 rivals to the world. But the supre- 

 macy of the Elgin marbles is irrevoca- 

 bly fixed, and the fiat of Canova, who 

 declared ' that thej"^ alone were worth a 

 journey from Rome to London to see, 

 makes one easy for their fate. The El- 

 gin marbles are of infinitely more im- 

 portance in every point of view, and 

 exhibit perfection attained, while the 

 Phigal^ian show only a high step to- 

 wards it. 



Mr. Combe gives due and proper 

 thanks in his preface to Mr. C. R. 

 Cockerell, for much useful information 

 given by him with respect to the ad- 

 measurements of the temple. He has 

 not entered minutely into the architec- 

 tural details of the structure, nor is it 

 necessary ; hut has confined his views 

 to the mention of those measurements 

 only, which are necessai-y to convey an 

 idea of the general size and proportions 

 of the building, and which might be 

 requisite to assist his readers in forming 

 a correct understanding of the sculp- 

 tures engraved in his work. 



The engraving in the title page is a 

 viguctte representation of a marble 



13 



fragment of one of the tiles M-hich sur- 

 mounted the pediments, and formed 

 the upper moulding of the temple. 

 The others consist of eleven plates of 

 hassi-ritievi, of the combat between the 

 Centaurs and Lapithse ; twelve of the 

 combats between the Greeks and the 

 Amazons ; one of fragments of Metopes ; 

 one of fragments of columns and tiles ; 

 two views in aquatinta, of the temple, 

 and an architectural plan and section 

 of the temple. 



The sen 1 pt u res wh ich are represented 

 in this volume were discovered by 

 Messrs. C. R. Cockerell, John Foster, 

 English architects, J. Linckh, of Stut- 

 gard, and Baron Haller,' in the year 

 1812, among the ruins of a temple de- 

 dicated to Apollo Epicuros (auxiliator) 

 or the deliverer, in a spot supposed to 

 have been the ancient town of Phiga- 

 leia, in Arcadia. This splendid ruin is 

 situated between two high summits of 

 a mountain, ou a ridge covered with 

 oak trees, from which there is a mag- 

 nificent view of Mount Ithome, and of 

 the Gulf of Arcadia. 



Besides the inferiority of the sculp- 

 tures to those of Athens, there are se- 

 veral such essential differences, between 

 this temple and those of the purest 

 style of Greek workmanship, that, io 

 spite ofPausaniast giving its execu- 

 tion to Ictinus, one of the architects of 

 the Parthenon : I conceive, as I will 

 piesently endeavoui- to shew, that it 

 must have been built by inferior ar- 

 tists to those of the Parthenon : — Be- 

 fore the time of that exquisite structure, 

 where the genius of Phidias shines the 

 meridian sun of architectonic sjilendour, 

 or partly in imitation of it by persons 

 of less taste and knowledge. 



These variations are as follow : — 

 1st. Although the ancient artists did 

 not always follow the rules collected 

 and embodied by Vitruvius, as in the 

 Parthenon, which, although of the pe- 

 ripteral order of temples, and should 

 have only six columns in front, has 

 eight ; in the temple of Minerva Polias, 

 which, being prostyle, should have but 

 four, has six columns in front ; and in 

 the temple of Jupiter Olympus, at 

 Athens, which, being hypaitheal, should 

 have ten columns in front, has but 

 eight. Yet this temple agrees in none, 



• This gentleman, who is highly spoken 

 of by his friend and fellow traveller, Mr- 

 Cockerell, died at Athens in 1818, after a 

 short illness brought on by exposure to the 

 malaria of the country. 



t Pans. Arcad. c. xli. 



particularly 



