222 Royal Academy. 



'•Feb. 26. Mr. Flaxman commenced his discourse of this even- 

 ing by stating that his inquiry would be directed to the origin 

 of sculpture in Greece. This was at first said to be confined^ to 

 the rude representation in stone and wood of the twelve di- 

 vinities then worshipped. Examples of these figures would be 

 found in ancient bronze, in their best finished state ; they had a 

 diadem round the head, on which there was a sort of engraving 

 like that on the tomb of Agamemnon ; the arms were fixed 

 downwards, close to the side of the body, and the legs close to- 

 gether. About 1300 years before the Christian aera, sculpture 

 began to attract universal attention ; and Danlalus, the friend of 

 Theseus, is described by Diotlorus Sicuhis, by Pausanias, and 

 others, as a distinguished artist. Of his style, some idea may 

 be formed from the small bronze figures in the British Museum, 

 representing the naked Hercules advancing uith the right arm 

 ready to strike, and on the left the shield of the lion's skin. This 

 showed that energy and strong feeling were studied in those earlv 

 ages in the statues of which these figures must be copies. The 

 early Greeks employed the arts in the representation of their 

 choruses. Pausanias saw the celebrated statue of Minerva, by 

 Daedalus, from which the Greek coins are taken ; but it must be 

 observed, that though they gave energy to their figures at thi? 

 period, they wanted distinctive and characteristic expression; 

 their figures had all the same faces, and were only distinguish- 

 able from each other, their Jupiter by his thunderbolt, the Nep- 

 tune by the trident, and the Hercules by the bow and palm. 

 After the burning of Athens by Xerxes, Pericles emplojed Phi- 

 dias to work at and superintend the re-edifying the city. The 

 superior genius of this great artist as a painter before he prac- 

 tised sculpture, gave a softness and delicacy to his figures, which 

 soon established a style very different from that it preceded, and 

 which was stiff rather than dieinficd, and the drapery arranged 

 rather in geometric lines than in the simple form and beauty of 

 nature. The Professor here quoted the splendid testimony borne 

 to Phidias and his works by Pliny, Quintillian, and other writers. 

 The magnificent temple dedicated to Minerva, at Athens, frorn 

 which the Elgin Marbles were taken, would immortalize his 

 fame. Here the Professor described the dimensions of the pedi* 

 ments, and the different allegorical subjects of which the has- 

 relievos consisted; such as the mythological processions, the 

 contests between the Lapitliae and Centaurs, and concluded his 

 discourse by observing, that it took ages entirely to destroy the 

 genius of grace in the arts — it did not lose its graces until the 

 time of the Autonines— it preserved much of its character in the 

 fifth and sixth cen:uries, when the breaking of images obliterated 

 its works ; and even until the overthrow of Constantinople, the 



little 



