PHIOALIAN MARBLRS. 



PHIGALIAX MARBLEa 



bat the eomixmtioa, xpreation. and style of art prove that they cune 

 from a Sn lebool ol desig:.. The evidence of this in the work* them- 

 atvee h eonirmed by the history (which hu fortunately reached our 



time.) of the temple, which they decorated. The name of the archi- 

 tect wu Ictinut, the same who, when Phidias wa appointed to 

 tuperintend the various public work* carried on at Athens dunng the 



administration of Pericles, wa associated with Callicrates to erect the 

 Parthenon on* of the most splendid monuments of the golden age of 

 art This gives us the proximate date of the execution of the sculp- 

 ture* under ooanderation. The Parthenon was finished about 437 B.c 

 The temple of Apollo at Vtmm may therefore be attributed to about 

 & same period. 



The quality of the design of these rilievi warrant* the assumption 

 /hat the eminent sculptor who directed the decoration of the former 

 great work of ictinus may have contributed the advantage of his skill 

 oy lusjesllim the fine componitions of the sculptures for his present 



undertaking. It in nut diflicult tu <liccru in thorn the game sentiment 

 and character which pervade the marbles of the Parthenon. Thi* 

 correspondence is particularly observable in comparing portions of the 

 Phigalian frieze with the metopes of that building (see /;;. 1 and 2 

 [Phigalian Marbles]; the third cut in the article CENT AUK, which is 

 one of the Phigalian sries ; and fy. I under ELGIN MARBLES), where 

 the same subject, the battle of the Centaurs and Lnpithic, is repre- 

 sented. The same may be remarked with reapect to other porta of 

 this fine series, whether it be considered for the energy displayed in 

 violent action (fgi. 1, 2, and 4; and the cut in the article CENTAUU), 



