462 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[December, 



exhibited l)ofli in Ijritish and con(inenl;d c;itliodnds : still less, imy ai 

 those fantastic and superabundant adornments whieh distinguish the 

 Palladian, the Elizabethan, and the Tndorian styles ; and yet, devoid 

 of all these adventitious embellishments, destitute of all or any of these 

 factitious aids, the sacred Arcliitectuve of Greece stands forth in all 

 tlie consummate perfection of its harmoniuus beauty, compelling the 

 respect and atlniiration of all succeeding ages. 



Yes I — to this day, their magniticent temples still remain unrivalled, 

 though in ruins — unequalled, though in desolation — standing alone, in 

 the unapproachable majesty of simple and classic dignity, the ac- 

 knowledged models of all tliat is perfect and expressive in Art. 



Nor was Sculpture backward in the rapid strides made by the Fine 

 Arts at this period. The Acropolis, with its hundred temples dedi- 

 cateil to the gods — with its multitude of sanctuaries and monumental 

 structures — contained also hundreds of statues, representing, for the 

 most part, those persons to whom the tem|)les were inscribed. 



The range of Grecian Polytheism was most wide and extensive. 

 Every temple had its tit and appropriate deity — every niche — every 

 recess. — everv cell, its proper occupant: and whether, it were the 

 lofty Propyl<ca — the revered temple of the Parthenon — the Erectlieium 

 . — the cell of Panilrosus — the magnificent temple dedicated to the 

 Olympian Jove at Elis — or that sacred edifice at Elcusis, within whose 

 walls were performed those celebrated religious mysteries and sacrifi- 

 cial rites, regarded by the Athenian people with the utmost solemnity 

 and veneration ; whether we look at each, or all of these, we shall find 

 that they united to the beauty of external form and architectural grace, 

 all that additional charm which creations of sculpture could convey, 

 wrajiped as they were, in the expressive elegance of exalted art, and 

 the consummate perfection of ideal beauty. 



Among the celebrated sculptors of the Periclean Age, Phidias, 

 without doubt, must be reckoned the greatest and the most illustrious. 

 During the administration of Pericles, he had the imcontrolled com- 

 mand and supervision of all the pidjlic works of Athens ; and by the 

 exercise of superior genius — profound and varied knowledge — and 

 peculiar stedftistuess of purpose, was a great instrument iu carrying 

 the arts to the perfection they then attained. 



Progressing far beyond the rude and homely style of Dffidalus and 

 his successors, in him, it w'as first seen, how wondious are the powers 

 of sculjjture, under the hand of commanding genius, in the personifica- 

 tion of the creations of poetry. To him first belonged the power of 

 prod.ucing deep and lasting emotions of sublimity and beauty by the 

 expressive and the finely moulded marble ; and, in f ict, in the almost 

 breathing forms of his inimitable creations— 



" Are exprest 

 All that ideal beauty ever bless'd 

 The miiul with, iu its most uuearthly mood ; 

 When each conceirtiou was a heavenly guest, 

 A ray of immortality : and stood, 

 Star-like, around, until they gatiiered to a God." 

 "The superior genius of Phidias," says Mr. Flaxman, the late 

 lamented Professor of Sculpture, in the Royal Academy, "in addition 

 to his knowledge of jjainting, w hich he practised previous to sculp- 

 ture, gave a grandeur to his compositions — a grace to his groups — a 

 softness to ttcsh, and fiow to draperies unknown to his predecessors : 

 the character of whose figures was stitF, rather than dignified : their 

 forms turgid- — the folds of their drapery, parallel, poor, and resem- 

 bling geometrical lines, rather thiui the simple but ever-varying ap- 

 pearances of nature. The discoveries of cotemporary philosophers 

 on mental and personal perfection, assisted him in selecting and com- 

 bining ideas, which stami)ed his works with the sublime and beautiful 

 of Homer's verse."* 



Among the many works which sprung from the hand of this extra- 

 ordinary man, there are two, which, to this day remain unrivalled. 

 Had they been the only two lie had ever executed ; — had the extent, 

 the capacity, the calibn of his genius, depen<led solely upon them, — 

 still, they are so magnificent in themselves : so absolutely perfect as a 

 work of art as alone to warrant ovu' ranking him far above all ancient 

 or modern sculptors. 



I allude to the colossal statue of Jupiter Olympius at Elis, and that 

 of the goddess Minerva, in the sacred temple of the Parthenon : the 

 former, upwards of sixty, and the latter, forty feet in height : both of 

 which are regarded (the former especially) as among the wonders of 

 the world, and will never fail to excite the praise and astonishment of 

 future ages till all appreciation of the beautiful, the expressive, and 

 the sublime — shall have departed from amongst mankind. 



It is in the representation of the Attic divinities — more particularly 

 the deities of Homer's verse, that we mark, in an especial manner, 



* riaxman's Lectures on Sculpture. 



the commanding genius of the Grecian artists. The religion of 

 Greece, not indigenous but exotic; springing orignally from Egypt, 

 but at the same time purified, idealijed, and essentially changed by its 

 transmission, was iu all respects, a sensuous worship : sources of the 

 sublime were sought for in objects of sense and sight, and through the 

 material and the visible, were the mass of the people led to perceive, 

 and taught to adore, the unseen and the spiritual. The Egyptian 

 theology was cmhkmaUc : the sublime was attempted by the personi- 

 fication of monsters in external form ; and in proportion as there was 

 reached, what was falsely deemed, the height of sublimity, was there 

 an equally proportionate recession made from the attainment and tlie 

 embodying of the expressively beautiful. 



But as civilization advanced, and the Ionian character became fully 

 developed ; it was justl}' considered that the really beautiful and sul;- 

 lime was most easily attained by that department and species of 

 sculpture, which delineated the human form in all the perfection of its 

 ideal beauty, and physical excellence. In the personification, there- 

 fore, of their Homeric divinities (for, as you are aware, they existed 

 in the metres of the poet, long before they were embodied in the ma- 

 terial excellence of sculpture.) this rule is foUow'ed, and in the general, 

 strictly adhered to : and consequently the statues of Phidias, Praxi- 

 teles, and their contemporaries, possess this jieculiar charm, that they 

 stand out the most expressive personification of the essential charac- 

 teristics of humanity : the most perfect exponents of the very passions 

 which agitate — the thoughts which controul — and the will that go- 

 verns the minds of men. They are not forms wdnch convey to us no 

 mental im])ression, which rouse no hidden emotions, or which call 

 into action none of the sympathies of our nature ; but they are forms 

 which speak to us in all the silent eloquence of expressive beauty, — ■ 

 linked intimately in their outward proportions with the peculiarities of 

 our own physical, moral, ani.1 intellectual structures, and conveying to 

 us most clear and tangible ideas of all the varied evolutions of intelli- 

 gence, of mind, and will. 



Thus, in the Jupiter Olympius of Phidias, to which I have already 

 referred, there was developed in all the expressiveness which material 

 forms could bestow, the power of absolute will, subjected to no con- 

 troul, and accustomed to wield the sceptre of undivided command. 



Conscious however, as he is of being in the possession of this un- 

 disputed authority, " The father of the gods and men," is here repre- 

 sented by the unrivalled hand of Phidias, as relaxing m some measure 

 the sternness of his character, and from his regal throne awarding 

 with one hand the ehaplet of victory to the Olympian conquerors, 

 while, with his other, he grasps the royal sceptre, and round his ample 

 brows there circles the sacred olive wreath. 



luimediately before the throne, forming indeed one magnificent 

 group, were various emblematic representations of the fabulous ad- 

 ventures of the heroic age : containing among others, the destruction 

 of Niobe's children, the labours of Hercules, and the garden of Hes- 

 perides : while, on the base, might be seen the battles of Theseus with 

 the Amazons : and, on the pedestal, an assembly of the gods — the sun 

 and moon in their cars, and the birth of Venus. 



Such was this master piece of Phidian genius and skill. And it 

 would be impossible for imagination to conceive a more splendid per- 

 sonification of that — 



" Olympian Jove, 

 Who rolls his tlnmders o'er the vaulted skies." 



Sitting, as he might be supposed to do, upon that hill of dread Olym- 

 pus, which— 



" Shrouds 

 Its hundred heads in heaven, and props the cloud." 



and giving to the august assembly — 



" The nod that ratifies the will divine 

 The faillifid, fixed, iirevocable sign." 



The artist has happily combined the benignant expression of bene- 

 volence with the awful majesty of the Honreric god, as delineated in 

 the following passage : — 



" Me spoke ; and awful bends his sable brows 

 Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod 

 The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god : 

 High heaven, with trembling, the dread signal took 

 And all Olympus to the centre shook." 



But it is not only in this magnificent conception of the genius of 

 Phidias, that we mark the pervading expressiveness and consummate 

 beauty of form to whiidi I have alluded. In all the statues and groups 

 executed in that age. from those of Phidias, which emanated in the 

 Periclean, to those of Praxiteles, which were produced near the 

 Alexandrian era,^ we perceive the shades iind the varieties of the 



