278 Report of the Select Committee on 
front is the contest of Minerva and Neptune for the land ;—but 
the statue itself is formed of ivory and gold.’”’ The state of di- 
Japidation into which this temple was fallen when Stuart visited 
it in 1751, and made most correct drawings for his valuable. 
work, left little opportunity of examining aud comparing what 
remained upon that part of the temple with the passage referred 
to: but an account is preserved by travellers, who about eighty 
years earlier found one of these pediments in tolerable preserva- 
tion, before the war between the Turks and Venetians, in 1687, 
had done so much damage to this admirable structure. The 
observations of one of these (Dr. Spon a French physician) may 
be literally translated thus : 
* The highest part of the front which the Greeks called ‘ the 
Eagle,’ and our architects ‘the Fronton,’ is enriched with a 
group of beautiful figures in marble, which appear from below 
as large as life. They are of entire relief, and wonderfully well 
worked. Pausanias says nothing more, than that this sculpture 
related to the birth of Minerva. The general design is this: 
“ Jupiter, who is under the highest angle of the pediment 
(fronton) has the right arm broken, in which, probably, he held 
his thunderbolt ; his legs are thrown wide from each other, with- 
out doubt to make room for his eagle. Although these two 
characteristics are wanting, one cannot avoid recognising him 
by his beard, and by the majesty with which the sculptor has 
invested him. He is naked, as they usually represented him, 
aud particularly the Greeks, who for the most part made their 
figures naked; on his right is a statue which has its head and 
arms mutilated, draped to about half the leg, which one may 
judge to be a Victory, which precedes the car of Minerva, whose 
horses she leads. They are the work of some hand as bold 
as it was delicate, which would not perhaps have yielded ,to 
Phidias, or Praxiteles, so renowned for (representing) horses. 
Minerva is sitting upon the ear, rather in the habit of goddess 
of the sciences, than of war; for she is not dressed as a warrior, 
having neither helmet, nor shield, nor head of Medusa upon 
her breast: she has the air of youth, and her head-dress is not 
different from that of Venus. Another female figure without a 
head is sitting behind her with a child, which she holds upon 
her knees. } cannot say who she is; but I had no trouble in 
making out or recognising the two next, which are the last on 
that side; it is the emperor Hadrian sitting, and half naked, 
and, next to him, his wife Sabina. It seems that they are both 
looking on with pleasure at the triumph of the goddess. I do 
not believe that before me any person observed this particularity, 
which deserves to be remarked: ‘On the left of Jupiter are five 
or six figures, of which some have lost the heads ; it is probably 
the 
