OF THE FINE ARTS. 



xix 



latter Minervas caught their sh.ape and sentimeiit. 

 There is, however, no little monotony of action 

 and expression in the old divinities of Greece. 

 Jupiter, Neptune, and others, have the selfsame 

 form and action of the Hercules by Daedalus ; the 

 difference lay only in the accessaries : Jupiter 

 held a thunderbolt, Neptune a trident, and Her- 

 cules a bow. But this monotony is accounted for 

 when we think of the religion of the land. The 

 shape and action first bestowed on the gods be- 

 came the precedent for all succeeding sculptors. 

 A nobler expression, and more scientific beauty 

 of form, were bestowed ; but the old attitude was 

 adopted in all single statues. It is supposed 

 that the colossal busts of Apollo and Hercules 

 in the British Museum are very early works ; 

 indeed, Flaxman says, they were probably sculp- 

 tured by Depaenis and Scyllis for the Sicyonians. 



The harmony of outline seems to have been 

 little studied by the first artists. Cleanthes the 

 Corinthian is said to have discovered or practised 

 it : Telephanes of Sicyon used other lines within 

 the outline to express the workings of the body 

 and limbs : Gimon Cleoneus invented the oblique 

 representation of forms ; and added the veins, 

 and multiplied the folds in the draperies. These 

 discoveries ushered in Phidias, who performed 

 for marble all that Apelles did for colour. 

 That illustrious artist gave to sculpture the 

 ease and dignity of poetry. He found his art 

 stiff in its sublimity, ungraceful in its simple 

 beauty, and deficient in natural freedom, though 

 not in loftiness. " His superior genius," says 

 Flaxman, " in addition to his knowledge of 

 painting, gave a grandeur to his compositions, 

 a grace to his groupes, a softness to flesh, and a 

 flow to draperies unknown to his predecessors ; 

 the character of whose figures were stiff" rather 

 than dignified : their forms either meagre or tur- 

 gid, the folds of drapery parallel, poor, and 

 resembling geometrical lines, rather than the 

 simple but ever varying appearances of nature." 

 He kindled his genius at the fire of Homer ; and 

 thought it his best praise to imbody the poet's 

 sentiments and give form to his verse. 



Of the works of Phidias we have very full and 

 clear accounts. " His Athenian Minerva, and 

 Olympian Jupiter at Elis," says Quintilian, 

 " possessed beauty which seemed to have added 

 something to religion the majesty of the work 

 was so worthy of the divinity." He adorned the 

 Temple of Minerva on the outside with his com- 

 positions, executed by hands little inferior to his 

 own : but he employed his own genius in the in- 

 terior, in conceiving and executing that wondrous 

 r.tatue of the goddess which Greeks and Romans 

 a'ike united in admiring. It was a standing- 



figure, thirty -nine feet high, composed of ivory 

 and gold, holding a Victory six feet high in her 

 right hand, with a spear in b?r left, and a simple 

 tunic reaching to her sandalled feet. She had 

 her helmet on, and Medusa's head on her 

 asgis : her shield was adorned with the battle of 

 the gods and giants, the pedestal with the birth 

 of Pandora. Plato tells us that the eyes of the 

 goddess were of precious stones. The sculptures 

 all around the temple related the history, true or 

 fabulous, of Greece. The classic ground of 

 Phidias was the land he lived in : he sought in 

 no far country for subjects for his chisel : our 

 ideas of classicality seem different ; when a 

 British artist imbodies a Latin song or a Grecian 

 fable, a hundred tongues exclaim classical : they 

 are silent when beauty, and elegance, and dignity, 

 are found in British song or British history. 

 Phidias held all to be classical which was poetic. 

 The Jupiter of Elis was still more celebrated 

 than the Minerva. " He was seated on a throne," 

 says Flaxman, " his left hand holding a sceptre, 

 his right extending over the Olympian conquerors, 

 his head crowned with olive, and his pallium 

 decorated with beasts, birds, and flowers. The 

 four corners of the throne were dancing Victorys, 

 each supported by a nymph tearing a Theban 

 youth. At the back of the throne, above his 

 head, were the three Hours or seasons on one 

 side, and on the other the three Graces. On the 

 bar between the legs of the throne, and the pan- 

 nels or spaces between them, were represented 

 many stories : the destruction of Niobe's chil- 

 dren, the labours of Hercules : the delivery of 

 Prometheus : the garden of the Hesperides, with 

 the different adventures of the heroic ages. On 

 the base, the battle of Theseus with the Amazons : 

 on the pedestal, an assembly of the gods, the 

 sun and moon in their cars, and the birth of 

 Venus. The height of the work was sixty feet ; 

 the statue was ivory enriched with the radiance 

 of golden ornaments and precious stones, and 

 was justly esteemed one of the seven wonders of 

 the world." Other statues of astonishing beauty 

 are mentioned among the works of Phidias : a 

 Venus, placed by the Romans in the forum of 

 Octavia ; a statue of an Amazon, called Eukne- 

 mon, from the beauty of her leg ; and two 

 Minervas, besides her of the Parthenon, one 

 named Callimorphus, from the beauty of its 

 form. Flaxman conjectures that the fine statue 

 in marble of that goddess in Hope's gallery has 

 been copied by some skilful hand from the bronze 

 statue by Phidias ; it resembles closely the re- 

 verse of an Athenian coin, and has the graceful 

 and majestic air observed in the other works of 

 the illustrious sculptor. 



