MEMORANDUM 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 THE EARL OF ELGIN'S PURSUITS 
 
 Greece. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 BY JAMES MOYES, GREVILI.E STREET, HATTON GARDEN. 
 
 1811. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Research Library, The Getty Research Institute 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/memorandumonsubjOOhami 
 
MEMORANDUM, Sec 
 
 In the year 1799, when Lord Elgin was 
 appointed his Majesty's Ambassador Ex- 
 traordinary to the Ottoman Porte, he 
 happened to be in habits of frequent 
 intercourse with Mr. Harrison, an archi- 
 tect of great eminence in the west of 
 England, who hod there given varkms verr 
 
2 
 
 splendid proofs of his professional talents, 
 especially in a public building of Grecian 
 architecture at Chester. Mr. Harrison 
 had besides studied many years, and to 
 great purpose, at Rome. Lord Elgin 
 consulted him, therefore, on the benefits 
 that might possibly be derived to the arts 
 in this country, in case an opportunity 
 could be found for studying minutely the 
 architecture and sculpture of ancient 
 Greece ; and his opinion very decidedly 
 was, that although we might possess exact 
 measurements of the buildings at Athens, 
 yet a young artist could never form to 
 himself an adequate conception of their 
 minute details, combinations, and general 
 effect, without having before him some 
 such sensible representation of them as 
 might be conveyed by casts. This advice, 
 which laid the groundwork of Lord El- 
 gin s pursuits in Greece, led to the further 
 consideration, that, since any knowledge 
 which was possessed of these buildings 
 
3 
 
 had been obtained under the peculiar 
 disadvantages which the prejudices and 
 jealousies of the Turks had ever thrown 
 in the way of such attempts, any favour- 
 able circumstances which Lord Elgin's 
 embassy might offer should be improved 
 fundamentally ; and not only modellers, 
 but architects and draftsmen, might be 
 employed, to rescue from oblivion, with 
 the most accurate detail, whatever speci- 
 mens of architecture and sculpture in 
 Greece had still escaped the ravages of 
 time, and the barbarism of conquerors. 
 
 On this suggestion, Lord Elgin pro- 
 posed to his Majesty's Government, that 
 they should send out English artists of 
 known eminence, capable of collecting 
 this information in the most perfect man- 
 ner; but the prospect appeared of too 
 doubtful an issue for ministers to engage 
 in the expense attending it. Lord Elgin 
 then endeavoured to engage some of these 
 artists at his own charge; but the value 
 
 B 
 
of their time was far beyond his means. 
 When, however, he reached Sicily, on the 
 recommendation of Sir William Hamilton, 
 he was so fortunate as to prevail on Don 
 Tita Lusieri, one of the best general 
 painters in Europe, of great knowledge in 
 the arts, infinite taste, and most scrupu- 
 lously exact in copying any subject he is 
 to represent, to undertake the execution 
 of this plan ; and Mr. Hamilton, who was 
 then accompanying Lord Elgin to Con- 
 stantinople, immediately went with M. 
 Lusieri to Rome ; where, in consequence 
 of the late revolutions in Italy, they were 
 enabled to engage two of the most emi- 
 nent formatori to make the madreformi 
 for the casts : Signior Balestra, the first 
 architect there, along with Ittar, a young 
 man of great talent, to undertake the 
 architectural part of the plan ; and one 
 Theodore, a Calmouk, who had distin- 
 guished himself during several years at 
 Rome, in the capacity of figure painter. 
 
After much difficult}', Lord Elgin ob- 
 tained permission from the Turkish Go- 
 vernment to establish these six artists at 
 Athens ; where they prosecuted the busi- 
 ness of their several departments during 
 three years, acting on one general system, 
 with the advantage of mutual control, 
 and under the general superintendance 
 of M. Lusieri. They at length completed 
 Lord Elgin's plan in all its parts. 
 
 Accordingly, every monument, of which 
 there are any remains in Athens, has been 
 thus most carefully and minutely mea- 
 sured ; and, from the rough draughts of 
 the architects, (all of which are preserved,) 
 finished drawings have been made of the 
 plans, elevations, and details of the most 
 remarkable objects ; in which the Cal- 
 mouk has restored and inserted all the 
 sculpture, with exquisite taste and ability. 
 He has besides drawn, with astonishing 
 accuracy, all the bas-reliefs on the several 
 temples, in the precise state of decay 
 
and mutilation in which they at present 
 exist. 
 
 Most of the fos-reliefs, and nearly all 
 the characteristic features of architecture, 
 in the various monuments at Athens, have 
 been moulded, and the moulds of them 
 have been brought to London. 
 
 Besides the architecture and sculpture 
 at Athens, all remains of them which 
 could be traced through several other parts 
 of Greece, have been measured and deli- 
 neated, with the most scrupulous exact- 
 ness, by the second architect, Ittar. 
 
 And picturesque views of Athens, of 
 Constantinople, of various parts of Greece, 
 and of the Islands of the Archipelago, 
 have been executed by Don Tita Lusieri. 
 
 In the prosecution of this undertaking, 
 the artists had the mortification of wit- 
 nessing the very wilful devastation, to 
 which all the sculpture, and even the 
 architecture, were daily exposed, on the 
 part of the Turks and travellers. The 
 
Ionic Temple, on the Uyssus, which, in 
 Stuart's time, (about the year 1759,) was 
 in tolerable preservation, had so com- 
 pletely disappeared, that its foundation 
 can no longer be ascertained. Another 
 temple, near Olympia, had shared a simi- 
 lar fate, within the recollection of man. 
 The Temple of Minerva had been con- 
 verted into a powder magazine, and been 
 completely destroyed, from a shell falling 
 upon it, during the bombardment of 
 Athens by the Venetians towards the end 
 of the seventeenth century ; and even this 
 accident had not deterred the Turks from 
 applying the beautiful Temple of Nep- 
 tune and Erectheus to the same use, 
 whereby it is constantly exposed to a 
 similar fate. Many of the statues on the 
 posticum of the Temple of Minerva, (Par- 
 thenon.) which had been thrown down 
 by the explosion, had been absolutely 
 pounded for mortar, because they fur- 
 nished the whitest marble within reach; 
 
and the parts of the modern fortification, 
 and the miserable houses where this mortar 
 was so applied, were discovered. Besides, 
 it is well known that the Turks will fre- 
 quently climb up the ruined walls, and 
 amuse themselves in defacing any sculp- 
 ture they can reach ; or in breaking co- 
 lumns, statues, or other remains of anti- 
 quity, in the fond expectation of finding 
 within them some hidden treasures. 
 
 Under these circumstances, Lord Elgin 
 felt himself impelled, by a stronger motive 
 than personal gratification, to endeavour 
 to preserve any specimens of sculpture, 
 he could, without injury, rescue from such 
 impending ruin. He had, besides, an- 
 other inducement, and an example before 
 him, in the conduct of the last French 
 embassy sent to Turkey before the Revo- 
 lution. French artists did then remove 
 several of the sculptured ornaments from 
 several edifices in the Acropolis, and par- 
 ticularly from the Parthenon. In lower- 
 
9 
 
 ing one of the metopes, the tackle failed, 
 and it was dashed to pieces; but other 
 objects from the same temple were con- 
 veyed to France, where they are held in 
 the very highest estimation, and some of 
 them occupy conspicuous places in the 
 gallery of the Louvre * And the same 
 agents were remaining at Athens during 
 Lord Elgin's embassy, waiting only the 
 return of French influence at the Porte 
 to renew their operations. Actuated by 
 these inducements, Lord Elgin made use 
 of all his means, and ultimately with such 
 success, that he has brought to England, 
 from the ruined temples at Athens, from 
 the modern walls and fortifications, in 
 which many fragments had been used as 
 
 * Vide Dictionnaire des Beaux Arts, par A. L. Millin, 
 1806, article Parthenon; and the Memoir, on the subject 
 of a fragment of the frize of that temple, brought by M. De 
 Choiseuil Gouffier from Athens, and constituted national 
 property during the French Revolution. The Memoir is 
 published in M. Millin's Monumens Antiques ineditt. 
 
10 
 
 so many blocks of stone, and from exca- 
 vations made on purpose, a greater quan- 
 tity of original Athenian sculpture, in 
 statues, alti and bassi relievi, capitals, 
 cornices, frizes, and columns, than exists 
 in any other part of Europe. 
 
 Lord Elgin is in possession of several 
 of the original metopes from the Temple 
 of Minerva. These represent the battles 
 between the Centaurs and Lapithae, at 
 the nuptials of Pirithous. Each metope 
 contains two figures, grouped in various 
 attitudes; sometimes the Lapithae victo- 
 rious, sometimes the Centaurs. The figure 
 of one of the Lapithae, who is lying dead 
 and trampled on by a Centaur, is one of 
 the finest productions of the art ; as well 
 as the groupe adjoining to it, of Hippo- 
 damia, the bride, carried off by the Cen- 
 taur Eury tion ; the furious style of whose 
 galloping, in order to secure his prize, and 
 his shrinking from the spear that has been 
 hurled after him, are expressed with pro- 
 
11 
 
 digious animation. They are all in such 
 high relief, as to seem groupes of statues; 
 and they are in general finished with as 
 much attention behind as before. They 
 were originally continued round the enta- 
 blature of the Parthenon, and formed 
 ninety-two groupes. The zeal of the early 
 Christians, the barbarism of the Turks, 
 and the explosions which took place when 
 the temple was used as a gun-powder 
 magazine, have demolished a very large 
 portion of them ; so that, with the excep- 
 tion of those preserved by Lord Elgin, 
 it is in general difficult to trace even the 
 outline of the original subject. 
 
 The frize, which was carried along the 
 top of the walls of the cell, offered a con- 
 tinuation of sculptures in low relief, and 
 of the most interesting kind. This frize 
 being unbroken by triglyphs, had pre- 
 sented much more unily of subject than 
 the detached and insulated groupes on 
 the metopes of the peristyle. It repre- 
 
12 
 
 sented the whole of the solemn proces- 
 sion to the Temple of Minerva during the 
 Panathenaic festival : many of the figures 
 are on horseback ; others are about to 
 mount : some are in chariots ; others on 
 foot : oxen, and other victims, are leading 
 to sacrifice : the nymphs called Cane- 
 phorse, Skiophorae, &c. are carrying the 
 sacred offerings in baskets and vases ; 
 priests, magistrates, warriors, &c. &c. 
 forming altogether a series of most inte- 
 resting figures, in great variety of cos- 
 tume, armour, and attitude. Some anti- 
 quaries, who have examined this frize 
 with minute attention, seem to think it 
 contained portraits of many of the lead- 
 ing characters at Athens, during the Pelo- 
 ponnesian war, particularly of Pericles, 
 Phidias, Socrates, Alcibiades, &c. The 
 whole frize, which originally was six hun- 
 dred feet in length, is, like the temple 
 itself, of Pentelic marble, from the quar- 
 ries in the neighbourhood of Athens. 
 
13 
 
 The tympanum over each of the porti- 
 coes of the Parthenon, was adorned with 
 statues. That over the grand entrance of 
 the temple from the west, contained the 
 mythological history of Minerva's birth 
 from the brain of Jove. In the centre of 
 the groupe was seated Jupiter, in all the 
 majesty of the sovereign of the Gods. 
 On his left, were the principal divinities 
 of Olympus; among whom Vulcan came 
 prominently forward, with the axe in his 
 hand which had cleft a passage for the 
 goddess. On the right was Victory, in 
 loose floating robes, holding the horses of 
 the chariot which introduced the new 
 divinity to Olympus. One of the bombs 
 fired by Morosini, the Venetian, from 
 the opposite hill of the Museum, in- 
 jured man}' of the figures in this tym- 
 panum ; and the attempt of General 
 Koenigsmark, in 1687, to take down the 
 figure of Minerva, ruined the whole. By 
 purchasing the house of one of the Turk- 
 
14 
 
 ish janizaries, built immediately under 
 and against the columns of the portico, 
 and by demolishing it in order to exca- 
 vate, Lord Elgin has had the satisfaction 
 of recovering the greatest part of the 
 statue of Victory, in a drapery which 
 discovers the fine form of the figure, with 
 exquisite delicacy and taste. Lord Elgin 
 also found there the torsi of Jupiter and 
 Vulcan, the breast of the Minerva, toge- 
 ther witib other fragments. 
 
 On the opposite tympanum had been 
 represented the contest between Minerva 
 and Neptune for the honour of giving a 
 name to the city. One or two of the 
 figures remained on this tympanum, and 
 others were on the top of the wall, thrown 
 back by the explosion which destroyed 
 the temple ; but the far greater part had 
 fallen : and a house being built imme- 
 diately below the space they had occu- 
 pied, Lord Elgin, encouraged by the suc- 
 cess of his former excavations, obtained. 
 
15 
 
 leave, after much difficulty, to pull down 
 this house also, and continue his re- 
 searches. But no fragments were here 
 discovered ; and the Turk, who had been 
 induced, though most reluctantly, to give 
 up his house to be demolished, then exult- 
 ingly pointed out the places in the modern 
 fortification, and in his own buildings, 
 where the cement employed had been 
 formed from the very statues which Lord 
 Elgin had been in hopes of finding. And 
 it was afterwards ascertained, on incon- 
 trovertible evidence, that these statues had 
 been reduced to powder, and so used. 
 Then, and then only, did Lord Elgin 
 employ means to rescue what still re- 
 mained from a similar fate. Among these 
 objects is a horse's head, which far sur- 
 passes any thing of the kind, both in the 
 truth and spirit of the execution. The 
 nostrils are distended, the ears erect ; the 
 .veins swollen, one might almost say throb- 
 bing : his mouth is open, and he seems to 
 
16 
 
 neigh with the conscious pride of belong- 
 ing to the Ruler of the Waves. Besides 
 this inimitable head, Lord Elgiu has pro- 
 cured, from the same pediment, two co- 
 lossal groupes, each consisting of two 
 female figures. They are formed of single 
 massive blocks of Pentelic marble : their 
 attitudes are most graceful ; and the light- 
 ness and elegance of the drapery exqui- 
 site. From the same pediment has also 
 been procured, a male statue, in a reclin- 
 ing posture, supposed to represent Nep- 
 tune. And, above all, the figure denomi- 
 nated the Theseus, which is universally 
 admitted to be superior to any piece 
 of statuary ever brought into England. 
 Each of these statues is worked with such 
 care, and the finishing even carried so far, 
 that every part, and the very plinth itself 
 in which they rest, are equally polished 
 on every side. 
 
 From the Opisthodomos of the Parthe- 
 non, Lord Elgin also procured some va- 
 
17 
 
 luable inscriptions, written in the manner 
 called Kioncdon or Columnar, next in 
 antiquity to the Boustrophedon. The 
 greatest care is taken to preserve an equal 
 number of letters in each line ; even mo- 
 nosyllables are separated occasionally into 
 two parts, if the line has had its com- 
 plement, and the next line then begins 
 with the end of the broken word. The 
 letters range perpendicularly, as well as 
 horizontally, so as to render it almost 
 impossible to make any interpolation or 
 erasure of the original text. The subjects 
 of these monuments are public decrees of 
 the people ; accounts of the riches con- 
 tained in the treasury, and delivered by 
 the administrators to their successors in 
 office ; enumerations of the statues ; the 
 silver, gold, and precious stones, deposited 
 in the temples ; estimates for the public 
 works, &c. 
 
 The Parthenon itself, independently of 
 its decorative sculpture, is so chaste and 
 
18 
 
 perfect a model of Doric architecture, 
 that Lord Elgin conceived it to be of the 
 highest importance to the arts, to secure 
 original specimens of each member of 
 that edifice. These consist of a capital ; 
 assizes of the columns themselves, to show 
 the exact form of the curve used in chan- 
 nelling ; a Triglyph, and motules from 
 the cornice, and even some of the marble 
 tiles with which the ambulatory was 
 roofed : so that, not only the sculptor may 
 be gratified by studying every specimen 
 of his art, from the colossal statue to the 
 basso-relievo, executed in the golden age 
 of Pericles, by Phidias himself, or under 
 his immediate direction ; but the practical 
 architect may examine into every detail 
 of the building, even to the mode of 
 uniting the tambours of the columns, with- 
 out the aid of mortar, so as to give to the 
 shafts the appearance of single blocks. 
 
 Equal attention has been paid to the 
 Temple of Theseus ; but as the walls, and 
 
19 
 
 columns, and sculpture of this monument, 
 are in their original position, no part of 
 l lie sculpture has been displaced, nor the 
 minutest fragment of any kind separated 
 from the building. The metopes in mezzo- 
 rclievo, containing a mixture of the labours 
 of Hercules and Theseus, have been mo- 
 delled and drawn, as well as the frize 
 representing the battle between the Cen- 
 taurs and Lapitha?, some incidents of the 
 battle of Marathon, and some mytho- 
 logical subjects. The temple itself is very 
 inferior in size and decorative sculpture 
 to the Parthenon ; having been built by 
 Cimon, the son of Miltiades, before Peri- 
 cles had given to his countrymen a taste 
 for such magnificence and expense, as he 
 displayed on the edifices of the Acropolis. 
 The original approach to the Acropolis, 
 from the plain of Athens, was by a long 
 flight of steps, commencing near the foot 
 of the Areopagus, and terminating at the 
 Propykva. The Propykea was a hexa- 
 c 
 
20 
 
 style colonnade, with two wings, and sur- 
 mounted by a pediment. Whether the 
 metopes and tympanum were adorned 
 with sculpture, cannot now be ascer- 
 tained ; as the pediment and entablature 
 have been destroyed, and the intercolum- 
 niations built up with rubbish, in order to 
 raise a battery of cannon on the top. 
 Although the plan of this edifice contain 
 some deviations from the pure taste that 
 reigns in the other structures of the Acro- 
 polis, yet each member is so perfect in 
 the details of its execution, that Lord 
 Elgin was at great pains to obtain a Doric 
 and an Ionic capital from its ruins. On 
 the right hand of the Propylaea, was a 
 temple dedicated to Victory without 
 wings ; an epithet to which many expla- 
 nations have been given. This temple 
 was built from the sale of the spoils won 
 in the glorious struggles for freedom at 
 Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. On its 
 frize were sculptured many incidents of 
 
21 
 
 these memorable battles ; in a style that 
 has been thought by no means inferior to 
 the metopes of the Parthenon. The only 
 fragments of it that had escaped the 
 ravages of barbarians, were built into the 
 wall of a gunpowder magazine near it, 
 and the finest block was inserted upside 
 downwards. It required the whole of 
 Lord Elgin's influence at the Porte, very 
 great sacrifices, and much perseverance, 
 to remove them ; but he at length sue- 
 ceeded. They represent the Athenians 
 in close combat with the Persians, and 
 the sculptor has marked the different 
 dresses and armour of the various forces 
 serving under the great king. The long 
 garments and zones of the Persians, had 
 induced former travellers, from the hasty 
 and imperfect view they had of them, to 
 suppose the subject was the battle be- 
 tween Theseus and the Amazons, who 
 invaded Attica, under the command of 
 Antiope ; but the Persian tiaras, the 
 
22 
 
 Phrygian bonnets, and many other par- 
 ticulars, prove them to be mistaken. The 
 spirit with which the groupes of combat- 
 ants are pourtrayed, is wonderful; — one 
 remarks, in particular, the contest of four 
 warriors to rescue the dead body of one 
 of their comrades, which is expressed 
 with uncommon animation. These bas- 
 reliefs, and some of the most valuable 
 sculpture, especially the representation 
 of a marriage, taken from the parapet 
 of the modern fortification, were embark- 
 ed in the Mentor, a vessel belonging to 
 Lord Elgin, which was unfortunately 
 wrecked off the island of Cerigo : but 
 Mr. Hamilton, who was at the time on 
 board, and most providentially saved, 
 immediately directed his whole energies 
 to discover some means of rescuing so 
 valuable a cargo ; and, in the course of 
 several months devoted to that endeavour, 
 he succeeded in procuring some very 
 expert divers from the islands of Syme 
 
23 
 
 and Calymno, near Rhodes ; who were 
 able, with immense labour and perseve- 
 rance, to extricate a few of the cases from 
 the hold of the ship, while she lay in 
 twelve fathoms water. It was impossible 
 to recover the remainder, before the 
 storms of two winters had effectually 
 destroyed the timbers of the vessel. 
 
 Near the Parthenon are three temples, 
 so connected by their structure, and by 
 the rites which were celebrated in them, 
 that they might be almost considered as a 
 triple temple. They are of small dimen- 
 sions, and of the Ionic order : one of them 
 dedicated to Neptune and Erectheus ; the 
 second to Minerva Polias, the protectress 
 of citadels ; the third to the nymph Pan- 
 drosos. It was on the spot where these 
 temples stand, that Minerva and Nep- 
 tune were said to have contended for the 
 honour of naming the city. Athenian 
 superstition long showed the mark of Nep- 
 tune's trident, and a brinv fountain, which 
 
24 
 
 attested his having there opened a pas- 
 sage for his horse ; and the original olive 
 tree produced by Minerva was venerated 
 in the temple of Pandiosos, as late as the 
 time of the Antonines. 
 
 This temple of Minerva Polias is of the 
 most delicate and elegant proportions of 
 the Ionic order : the capitals and bases of 
 the columns are ornamented with con- 
 summate taste ; and the sculpture of the 
 frize and cornice is exquisitely rich. It 
 is difficult to conceive how marble has 
 been wrought to such a depth, and brought 
 to so sharp an edge : the palmetti, ovetti, 
 &c. have all the delicacy of works in 
 metal. The vestibule of the temple of 
 Neptune, is of more masculine propor- 
 tions ; but its Ionic capitals have great 
 merit. This beautiful vestibule is now 
 used as a powder magazine ; and no 
 other access to it could be had but 
 by creeping through an opening in a 
 wall which had been recently built be- 
 
25 
 
 tween the columns. Lord Elgin was 
 enabled to keep it open during his opera- 
 tions within ; but it was then closed, so 
 that future travellers will be prevented 
 from seeing the inner door of the temple, 
 which is, perhaps, the most perfect speci- 
 men in existence of Ionic architecture. 
 Both these temples have been measured ; 
 and their plans, elevations, and views, 
 made with the utmost accuracy. All the 
 ornaments have been moulded ; some ori- 
 ginal blocks of the frize and cornice have 
 been obtained from the ruins, as well as 
 a capital and a base. 
 
 The little adjoining chapel of Pandrosos 
 is a most singular specimen of Athenian 
 architecture : instead of Ionic columns to 
 support the architrave, it had seven sta- 
 tues of Caryan women, or Caryatides. 
 The Athenians endeavoured, by this de- 
 vice, to perpetuate the infamy of the 
 inhabitants of Carya, who were the only 
 Peloponnesians who sided with Xerxes in 
 
26 
 
 his invasion of Greece. The men had 
 been reduced to the deplorable state of 
 Helotes ; and the women not only con- 
 demned to the most servile employments, 
 but those of rank and family forced, in 
 this abject condition, to wear their ancient 
 dresses and ornaments. In this state they 
 are here exhibited. The drapery is fine, 
 the hair of each figure is braided in a dif- 
 ferent manner, and a kind of diadem 
 they wear on their head forms the capital. 
 Besides drawings and mouldings of all 
 these particulars, Lord Elgin has brought 
 to England one of the original statues. 
 The Lacedaemonians had used a species 
 of vengeance similar to that above men- 
 tioned in constructing the Persian Por- 
 tico, which they had erected at Sparta, in 
 honour of their victory over the forces of 
 Mardonius at Plataea : placing statues of 
 Persians in their rich oriental dresses, 
 instead of columns, to support the entab- 
 lature. 
 
27 
 
 The architects have also made a ground 
 plan of the Acropolis, in which they have 
 not only inserted all the existing monu- 
 ments, but have likewise added those, the 
 position of which could be ascertained 
 from traces of their foundations. Among 
 these are the Temple and Cave of Pan ; 
 to whom the Athenians thought them- 
 selves ^so much indebted for the success 
 of the battle of Marathon, as to vow him 
 a temple. All traces of it are now nearly 
 obliterated ; as well as of that of Aglau- 
 ros, who devoted herself to death to save 
 her country. Here the young citizens of 
 Athens received their first armour, enrolled 
 their names, and swore to fight to the last 
 for the liberties of their country. Near 
 this spot the Persians scaled the wall of 
 the citadel, when Themistocles had retired 
 with the remains of the army, and the 
 whole Athenian navy, to Salamis. The 
 remains of the original walls may still be 
 traced in the midst of the Turkish and 
 
28 
 
 Venetian additions, and they are distin- 
 guishable by three modes of construction 
 at very remarkable epochs, — the Pelasgic, 
 the Cecropian, and that of the age of 
 Cimon and Pericles. It was at this last 
 brilliant period, that the Acropolis, in its 
 whole extent, was contemplated with the 
 same veneration as a consecrated temple ; 
 consistent with which sublime conception, 
 the Athenians crowned its lofty walls with 
 an entablature of grand proportions, sur- 
 mounted by a cornice. Some of the 
 massy triglyphs and motules still remain 
 in their original position, and produce a 
 most imposing effect. 
 
 The ancient walls of the city of Athens, 
 as they existed in the Peloponnesian war, 
 have been traced by Lord Elgin's artists 
 in their whole extent, as well as the long 
 walls that led to the Munychia and the 
 Piraeus. The gates, mentioned in ancient 
 authors, have been ascertained : and every 
 public monument, that could be recog- 
 
29 
 
 nised, has been inserted in a general map ; 
 as well as detailed plans given of each. 
 Extensive excavations were necessary for 
 this purpose, particularly at the Great 
 Theatre of Bacchus ; at the Pnyx, where 
 the assemblies of the people were held, 
 where Pericles, Alcibiades, Demosthenes, 
 and iEschines, delivered their orations, 
 and at the theatre built by Herodes At- 
 ticus, to the memory of his wife Regilla. 
 The supposed Tumuli of Antiope, Euri- 
 pides, and others, have also been opened ; 
 and from these excavations, and various 
 others in the environs of Athens, has 
 been procured a complete and valuable 
 collection of Greek vases. The colonies 
 sent from Athens, Corinth, &c. into Magna 
 Gra?cia, Sicily, and Etruria, carried with 
 them this art of making vases, from their 
 mother country ; and, as the earliest mo- 
 dern collections of vases were made in 
 those colonies, they have improperly 
 acquired the name of Etruscan. Those 
 
30 
 
 found by Lord Elgin at Athens, iEginae, 
 Argos, and Corinth, will prove the indu- 
 bitable claim of the Greeks to the inven- 
 tion and perfection of this art : Few of 
 those in the collections of the Kins of 
 Naples at Portici, or in that of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton, excel some which Lord 
 Elgin has procured, with respect to the 
 elegance of the form, the fineness of the 
 materials, the delicacy of the execution, 
 or the beauty of the subjects delineated 
 on them ; and they are, for the most 
 part, in very high preservation. A tumu- 
 lus, into which an excavation was com- 
 menced under Lord Elgin's eye during 
 his residence at Athens, has furnished a 
 most valuable treasure of this kind. It 
 consists of a large marble vase, five feet 
 in circumference, enclosing one of bronze 
 thirteen inches in diameter, of beautiful 
 sculpture, in which was a deposit of burnt 
 bones, and a lachrymatory of alabaster, 
 of exquisite form ; and on the bones lay 
 
31 
 
 a wreath of myrtle in gold, having, be- 
 sides leaves, bolh buds and flowers. This 
 tumulus is situated on the road which 
 leads from Port Piraeus to the Salaminian 
 Ferry and Eleusis. May it not be the 
 tomb of Aspasia ? 
 
 From the Theatre of Bacchus, Lord 
 Elgin has obtained the very ancient sun- 
 dial, which existed there during the time 
 of /Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides ; 
 and a large statue of the Indian, or 
 bearded Bacchus,* dedicated by Thra- 
 syllus in gratitude for his having obtained 
 the prize of tragedy at the Panathenaic 
 festival. A beautiful little Corinthian 
 temple near it, raised for a similar prize 
 gained by Lysicrates, and commonly 
 called the Lantern of Demosthenes, has 
 also been drawn and modelled with mi- 
 nute attention. It is one of the most 
 
 * This statue is represented by Stuart with a female's 
 head, and was called by him the personification of the 
 Demos of Athens. 
 
exquisite productions of Greek architec- 
 ture. The elevation, ground-plan, and 
 other details of the octagonal temple, 
 raised by Andronicus Cyrrhestes to the 
 winds, have also been executed with care ; 
 but the sculpture on its frize is in so 
 heavy a style, that it was not judged 
 worthy of being modelled in plaster. 
 
 Permission was obtained from the arch- 
 bishop of Athens, to examine the interior 
 of all the churches and convents in Athens 
 and its neighbourhood, in search of anti- 
 quities ; and his authority was frequently 
 employed, to permit Lord Elgin to carry 
 away several curious fragments of anti- 
 quity. This search furnished many va- 
 luable bas-reliefs, inscriptions, ancient 
 dials, a Gymnasiarch's chair in marble, 
 on the back of which are figures of Har- 
 modius and Aristogiton, with daggers in 
 their hands, and the death of Leama, who 
 bit out her tongue during the torture, 
 rather than confess what she knew of the 
 
33 
 
 conspiracy against the Pisistratidae. The 
 fountain in the court-yard of the English 
 consul Logotheti's house was decorated 
 with a bas-relief of Bacchantes, in the 
 style called Grreco-Etruscan : Lord Elgin 
 obtained this, as well as a quadriga in 
 bas-relief, with a Victory hovering over 
 the charioteer, probably an ex voto, for 
 some victory at the Olympic games. 
 Amongst the Funeral Cippi found in dif- 
 ferent places, are some remarkable names, 
 particularly that of Socrates ; and in the 
 Ceramicus itself, Lord Elgin discovered 
 an inscription in elegiac verse, on the 
 Athenians who fell at Potida^a, and 
 whose eulogy was delivered with pathe- 
 tic eloquence in the funeral oration of 
 Pericles. 
 
 The peasants at Athens generally put 
 into a niche over the door of their cot- 
 tages, any fragment they discover, in 
 ploughing the fields. Out of these, were 
 selected and purchased many curious an- 
 
34 
 
 tique votive tablets, with sculpture and 
 inscriptions. A complete series has also 
 been formed of capitals, of the only three 
 orders known in Greece, the Doric, the 
 Ionic, and the Corinthian ; from the ear- 
 liest dawn of art in Athens, to its zenith 
 under Pericles ; and, from thence, through 
 all its degradations, to the dark ages of 
 the lower empire. 
 
 At a convent called Daphne, about 
 half way between Athens and Eleusis, 
 were the remains of an Ionic temple of 
 Venus, equally remarkable for the bril- 
 liancy of the marble, the bold style of the 
 ornaments, the delicacy with which they 
 are finished, and their high preservation. 
 Lord Elgin procured from thence two 
 of the capitals, a whole fluted column, 
 and a base. 
 
 Lord Elgin was indebted chiefly to the 
 friendship of the Captain Pacha, for the 
 good fortune of procuring, while at the 
 Dardanelles, in his way to Constanti- 
 
35 
 
 nople, the celebrated Boustrophedon in^- 
 scription, from the promontory of Sigacum, 
 a monument which several ambassadors 
 from Christian Powers to the Porte, and 
 even Louis XIV. in the height of his 
 power, had ineffectually endeavoured to 
 obtain. Lord Elgin found it forming a 
 seat or couch at the door of a Greek 
 chapel, and habitually resorted to by 
 persons afflicted with ague ; who, deriving 
 great relief from remaining reclined upon 
 it, attributed their recovery to the marble, 
 and not to the elevated situation and sea 
 air, of which it procured them the ad- 
 vantage. This ill-fated superstition had 
 already obliterated more than one half 
 of the inscription, and in a few years 
 more it would have become perfectly 
 illegible. 
 
 By the aid of this valuable acquisition, 
 Lord Elgin's collection of inscriptions 
 comprehends specimens of every remark- 
 able peculiarity in the variations of the 
 
 D 
 
36 
 
 Greek alphabet, throughout the most in- 
 teresting period of Grecian histo^. 
 
 A few bronzes, cameos, and intaglios, 
 were also procured : in particular, a cameo 
 of very exquisite beauty, in perfect pre- 
 servation, and of a peculiarly fine stone : 
 it represents a female centaur suckling a 
 young one Lord Elgin was equally for- 
 tunate in forming a collection of Greek 
 medals, among which are several that are 
 very rare ; others of much historical merit ; 
 and many most admirable specimens of art. 
 
 The late Dr. Carlyle, Professor of Ara- 
 bic at Cambridge, had accompanied Lord 
 Elgin to Turkey, in the hopes of discover- 
 ing any hidden treasures of Grecian or 
 Arabic literature. Accordingly, Lord 
 Elgin obtained for him access to some 
 deposits of MSS. in the Seraglio : and, in 
 company with another gentleman of the 
 embassy, amply qualified also for the 
 research, he examined many collections 
 in Constantinople, and in the neighbour- 
 
37 
 
 ing islands ; more than thirty monasteries 
 on Mount Athos ; and various other reli- 
 gious establishments throughout Greece, 
 and the islands of the Archipelago. From 
 these, they brought home a great many 
 MSS. which to them appeared valuable ; 
 as well as a particular catalogue and 
 description of such as they were obliged 
 to leave behind them. ' 
 
 In proportion as Lord Elgin's plan 
 advanced, and the means accumulated in 
 his hands towards affording an accurate 
 knowledge of the works of architecture 
 and sculpture in Athens and in Greece, it 
 became a subject of anxious inquiry with 
 him, in what way the greatest degree of 
 benefit could be derived to the arts from 
 what he had been so fortunate as to 
 procure. 
 
 In regard to the works of the architects 
 employed by him, he had naturally, from 
 the beginning, looked forward to their 
 being engraved : and accordingly all such 
 
38 
 
 plans, elevations, and details, as to those 
 persons appeared desirable for that object, 
 were by them, and on the spot, extended 
 with the greatest possible care, and they 
 are now in a state of complete prepa- 
 ration. Besides these, all the working 
 sketches and measurements have been 
 preserved, and offer ample materials for 
 further drawings, should they be required. 
 It was then Lord Elgin's wish, both out 
 of respect for the subjects themselves, and 
 in a view to their future utility, that the 
 whole of the drawings might be executed 
 in the highest perfection of the art of 
 engraving : and for this purpose, he con- 
 ceived it not impossible, and certainly 
 very much to be desired, that a fund 
 should be procured by subscription, exhi- 
 bition, or otherwise; by aid of which, 
 these engravings might still be distri- 
 butable, for the benefit of artists, at a rate 
 of expense within the means of profes- 
 sional men. 
 
39 
 
 More difficulty occurred in forming a, 
 plan, for deriving the utmost advantage 
 from the marbles and casts. Lord El- 
 gin's first attempt was to have the statues 
 and bas-reliefs restored ; and in that view 
 he went to Rome, to consult and to 
 employ Canova. The decision of that 
 most eminent artist was conclusive. On 
 examining the specimens produced to 
 him, and making himself acquainted with 
 the whole collection, and particularly with 
 what came from the Parthenon, by means 
 of the persons who had been carrying on 
 Lord Elgin's operations at Athens, and 
 who had returned with him to Rome, 
 Canova declared, That however greatly it 
 was to be lamented that these statues 
 should have suffered so much from time 
 and barbarism, yet it was undeniable, 
 that they had never been retouched ; that 
 they were the work of the ablest artists 
 the world had ever seen ; executed under 
 
40 
 
 the most enlightened patron of the arts, 
 and at a period when genius enjoyed the 
 most liberal encouragement, and had at- 
 tained the highest degree of perfection ; 
 and that they had been found worthy 
 of forming the decoration of the most 
 admired edifice ever erected in Greece : 
 That he should have had the greatest 
 delight, and derived the greatest benefit, 
 from the opportunity Lord Elgin offered 
 him of having in his possession, and con- 
 templating, these inestimable marbles : 
 But, (his expression was,) it would be 
 sacrilege in him, or any man, to presume 
 to touch them with a chisel. Since their 
 arrival in this country, they have been 
 thrown open to the inspection of the 
 public; and the opinions and impres- 
 sions, not only of artists, but of men of 
 taste in general, have thus been formed 
 and collected. From these, the judgment 
 pronounced by Canova has been univer- 
 
41 
 
 sally sanctioned : and all idea of restoring 
 the marbles has been deprecated. Mean- 
 while, the most distinguished painters and 
 sculptors have assiduously attended this 
 museum, and evinced the most enthu- 
 siastic admiration of the perfection, to 
 which these marbles now prove to them 
 that Phidias had brought the art of sculp- 
 ture, and which had hitherto only been 
 known through the medium of ancient 
 authors. They have attentively examined 
 them, and they have ascertained, that 
 they were executed with the most scru- 
 pulous anatomical truth, not only in the 
 human figure, but in the various animals 
 to be found in this collection. They have 
 been struck with the wonderful accuracy, 
 and, at the same time, the great effect of 
 the minutest detail ; and with the life, and 
 expression, so distinctly produced in every 
 variety of attitude and action. Those 
 more advanced in years, have testified the 
 
42- 
 
 liveliest concern, at not having had the : 
 advantage of studying these models. And 
 many, who have had the opportunity of 
 forming the comparison, (among these 
 are the most eminent sculptors and 
 painters in this metropolis,) have publicly 
 and unequivocally declared, that, in the 
 view of professional men, this collection 
 must be far more valuable than any other 
 collection in existence. It may be added, 
 on the subject of these impressions and 
 opinions, that one of the groups of fe- 
 male statues so rivetted and agitated the 
 feelings of Mrs. Siddons, the pride of 
 theatrical representation, as actually to 
 draw tears from her eyes : and the Presi- 
 dent of the Royal Academy, no less 
 eminent as an artist, than as the zealous 
 patron and encourager of the arts in this 
 country, after passing some months in 
 the daily study of these marbles, and 
 having ascertained the advantage to be 
 
43 
 
 derived from them, to painting as well 
 as to sculpture, communicated to Lord 
 Elgin the annexed report of his opera- 
 tions.* 
 
 Two suggestions have, however, met 
 with much approbation, in a view to the 
 improvement to be obtained to sculpture, 
 from these marbles and casts — The first, 
 that casts of all such as were ornaments 
 on the temples, should be placed in an' 
 elevation, and in a situation, similar to 
 that which they actually had occupied ; 
 that the originals should be disposed, in 
 a view to the more easy inspection and 
 study of them ; and that particular sub- 
 jects should occasionally be selected, and 
 premiums given for the restoration of them. 
 This restoration to be executed on casts, 
 but by no means on the originals; and 
 in the museum itself, where the character 
 of the sculpture might be the more readily 
 studied. 
 
 * Vide Mr. West's Letter subjoined. Appendix [A]. 
 
44 
 
 Secondly : From trials which Lord El- 
 gin was induced to make, at the request 
 of professional gentlemen, a strong im- 
 pression has been created, that the science 
 of sculpture, and the taste and judgment 
 by which it is to be carried forward and 
 appreciated, cannot so effectually be pro- 
 moted, as by athletic exercises practised 
 in the presence of similar works ; the dis- 
 tinguishing merit of which, is an able, 
 scientific, ingenious, but exact imitation of 
 Nature. By no other way could the 
 variety of attitude, the articulation of the 
 muscles, the description of the passions ; 
 in short, every thing a sculptor has to 
 represent, be so accurately or so bene- 
 ficially understood and represented. 
 
 Under similar advantages, and with 
 an enlightened and encouraging protec- 
 tion bestowed on genius and the arts, 
 it may not be too sanguine to indulge 
 a hope, that, prodigal as Nature is in 
 the perfections of the human figure in 
 
45 
 
 this country, animating as are the in- 
 stances of patriotism, heroic actions, and 
 private virtues, deserving commemora- 
 tion, sculpture may soon be raised in 
 England to rival the ablest productions 
 of the best times of Greece. 
 
 .//. u, 
 
APPENDIX [A]. 
 
 BENJAMIN WEST, Esq. 
 
 THE EARL OF ELGIN. 
 
 London, Newman Street, Feb. 6, 1809. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I have to acknowledge the receipt 
 of your Lordship's obliging letter from your residence 
 in Scotland; and have to thank you for the indul- 
 gence you afforded me, to study, and draw from, the 
 sculptures by Phidias,* in your Lordship's house in 
 Piccadilly. 
 
 I have found in this collection of sculpture so 
 much excellence in art, (which is as applicable to 
 painting and architecture, as to sculpture,) and a 
 variety so magnificent and boundless, that every 
 branch of science connected with the fine arts, can- 
 not fail to acquire something from this collection. 
 
 * Vide Appendix [B]. 
 
48 
 
 Your Lordship, by bringing these treasures of the 
 first and best age of sculpture and architecture into 
 London, has founded a new Athens for the emula- 
 tion and example of the British student. Esteem- 
 ing this collection as I do, my Lord, I flatter myself 
 it will not be unacceptable for your Lordship to 
 know, what are the studies I have made from it. 
 
 I must premise to your Lordship, that I considered 
 loose and detached sketches from these reliques, of 
 little use to me, or value to the arts in general. To 
 improve myself, therefore, and to contribute to the 
 improvement of others, I have deemed it more 
 important to select and combine whatever was most 
 excellent from them, into subject and composition. 
 
 From the Centaurs in alto relievo, I have taken 
 the figures of most distinguished eminence, and 
 formed them into groups for painting ; from which 
 selection, by adding female figures of my own, I 
 have composed the Battle of the Centaurs. I 
 have drawn the figures the size of the originals, 
 on a canvass five feet six inches high, by ten feet 
 long. 
 
 From the equestrian figures in relievo, I have 
 formed the composition of Theseus and Hercules in 
 triumph over the Amazons, having made their Queen 
 Hippolita a prisoner. In continuation, and as a 
 companion to this subject, I have formed a compo- 
 sition, in which Hercules besiows Hippolita in mar- 
 
49 
 
 riage upon Theseus. Those two are on the same 
 size with the Centaurs. 
 
 From the large figure of Theseus, I have drawn a 
 figure of that hero, of the same size with the sculp- 
 ture. Before him, on the ground, I have laid the 
 dead body of the Minotaur which he slew. As, by 
 this enterprise, he was extricated from the Laby- 
 rinth by the aid of Ariadne, I have represented that 
 Princess sitting by his side, gazing on him with 
 affection. In the back-ground, are the Athenian 
 youths, whom he delivered from bondage; and near 
 them, the ship " with black sails," (in the poetic 
 fancy of Pindar,) which brought him to Crete. The 
 size of this canvass is six feet high, by nine feet 
 long. 
 
 From the figure of Neptune, I have formed a 
 companion to the Theseus. In this composition, I 
 have shown Neptune reclining, with his left arm 
 upon the knees of Amphitrite, while with his right 
 he strikes the earth with his trident, and creates the 
 horse. Around him, is Triton, with his train of 
 marine gods ; in the back-ground, are equestrian 
 exhibitions; and in the distance, ships at anchor. 
 
 From the casts in plaster of Paris, taken from the 
 moulds which your Lordship had made at Athens, I 
 selected such figures as I was enabled to form into 
 a composition; the subject of which is, Alexander, 
 
50 
 
 and his horse Bucephalus : it is on a canvass smaller 
 than those before mentioned. 
 
 In order to render the subjects which I selected, 
 with perspicuity, and the effect, which arises from 
 combined parts and the order of arrangements, com- 
 prehensive, I have ventured to unite figures of my 
 own invention with those of Phidias; but as I have 
 endeavoured to preserve, with the best force of my 
 abilities, the style of Phidias, I flatter myself, the 
 union will not be deemed incongruous or presump- 
 tuous. Your Lordship may perhaps be inclined to 
 think with me, that a point, and, if I may so 
 express it, a kind of climax, is thus given to those 
 works; by the union of those detached figures, with 
 the incorporation of the parts of individual gran- 
 deur, and abstracted excellence of Phidias. For 
 what I have done, my Lord, I had the example of 
 Raphael, and most of the Italian masters of the 
 greatest celebrity. Is it not, moreover, this combi- 
 nation of parts which comes the nearest to perfec- 
 tion in refined and ideal art? For, thus combining 
 what is excellent in art with what possesses character 
 in nature, the most distinguished works have been 
 produced, in painting, poetry, and sculpture. 
 
 In following this system of combination, I had 
 the singular good fortune, by your Lordship's libe- 
 rality, to select from the first productions of sculp- 
 
51 
 
 turc which ever adorned the world in that depart- 
 ment in art; which neither Raphael, nor any of the 
 distinguished masters, had the advantage to see, 
 much less to study, since the revival of art. I may, 
 therefore, declare with truth, my Lord, that I am the 
 first in modern times who have enjoyed the much 
 coveted opportunity, and availed myself of the rare 
 advantage of forming compositions from them, by 
 adapting their excellencies to poetic fictions and 
 historical facts. I sincerely hope that those ex- 
 amples of art, with which your Lordship has en- 
 riched your country, and which has made London, 
 if not the first, one of the most desirable points in 
 Europe to study them — will not only afford to the 
 British people the frequent opportunity of contem- 
 plating their excellencies ; but will be the means of 
 enlightening the public mind, and correcting the 
 national taste, to a true estimation of what is really 
 valuable and dignified in art. The influence of 
 these works will, I trust, encourage the men of taste 
 and opulence in this country, to bestow a liberal 
 patronage on genius to pursue this dignified style in 
 art, for the honour of genius, themselves, and the 
 country. I need not impress on your Lordship's 
 mind a truth, of which the experience of the pro- 
 gress of art, through all ages, is the best confirma- 
 tion, that without such refinement in this higher 
 department of poetic or historical subjects, England 
 
 E 
 
52 
 
 will never acquire the glory of possessing the arts, 
 in any but a subordinate degree. It is my wish, 
 therefore, as it has been my endeavour, that the 
 supreme excellence of those works of sculpture 
 should become the means, and act as an incentive 
 to that improvement amongst us, by which we may 
 gratify the ambition of all honourable minds, and 
 be remembered amongst the lovers of art and our 
 country in a distant posterity, as those who have 
 opened the avenues of excellence, and have rightly 
 known and valued them. Let us, my Lord, justify 
 ourselves, at least, by our intentions. In whatever 
 estimation the arts of the present day shall be held 
 by those of future ages, your Lordship must be 
 remembered by the present, and be recorded by 
 those to come, as a benefactor, who has conferred 
 obligations, not only on a profession, but upon 
 a nation ; and as having rescued from the devasta- 
 tion of ignorance, and the unholy rapine of bar- 
 barism, those unrivalled works of genius, to be 
 preserved in the bosom of your country, which 
 a few centuries more might have consigned to 
 oblivion. 
 
 To your Lordship I have to return my sincere 
 thanks, for the means you have afforded me of 
 adding my name to that of Phidias, by arranging 
 his figures in my own compositions, and adapting 
 them to subjects, by which my sketches may be 
 
53 
 
 rendered more acceptable, as well as more improv- 
 ing to myself in the higher point of my profession. 
 And may the materials from which those sublime 
 sculptures have been produced, be preserved from 
 accident, that men of taste and genius, yet unborn, 
 may be gratified with a sight of them ; and that the 
 admiring world may revere the Author of all things, 
 for having bestowed on man those peculiar powers 
 of his mind and hand! With these sentiments, and 
 with profound respect for your Lordship, I have the 
 honour to be, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 Your Lordship's most 
 
 Obedient and obliged, 
 
 BENJ. WEST. 
 
 To the Earl of Elgin. 
 
 Newman Street, March 20, 1811. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 Learning that your Lordship is in 
 town, I avail myself of the opportunity to request 
 you would do me the honour of a visit, to see the 
 last Historical Picture I have painted. — The subject 
 is our Saviour receiving the Blind and Sick, in the 
 Temple, to heal them. — This Picture I am the more 
 desirous of showing to your Lordship, as I have 
 
54 
 
 conducted it on those dignified principles of refined 
 art, which I found so superior in the Athenian 
 sculpture, with which you have enriched your 
 country. 
 
 In the former letter, which I had the honour of 
 writing to your Lordship, I mentioned, that I per- 
 ceived in your marbles, points of excellence as 
 appropriate to painting as to sculpture. The points 
 to which I alluded, are the visible signs of that 
 internal life, with which the animal creation is 
 endowed, for the attainment of the various purposes 
 for which they were created. It was the repre- 
 sentation of these emotions of life which the philo- 
 sophers among the Greeks recommended to their 
 sculptors, at a period when their figures were but 
 little removed from Egyptian statues. And, accord- 
 ingly, the influence of this advice was perceptible 
 in the subsequent works of their artists. Who, in 
 fact, can look on the Horse's Head in your Lord- 
 ship's Collection of Athenian Sculpture, without 
 observing the animation and expression of real life ? 
 Would one not almost suppose, that some magic 
 power, rather than a human hand, had turned the 
 head into stone, at the moment when the horse was 
 in all the energies of its nature ? — We feel the same, 
 when we view the young equestrian Athenians ; and, 
 in observing them, we are insensibly carried on 
 with the impression, that they and their horses 
 
55 
 
 actually existed, as we see them, at the instant when 
 they were converted into marble. 
 
 In the last production of my pencil, which I 
 now invite your Lordship to see, it has been my 
 ambition, (though at a very advanced period of life,) 
 to introduce those refinements in art, which are so 
 distinguished in your Collection. And if I have 
 achieved this, the obligation is to your Lordship, 
 for bringing those marbles to London, and giving 
 me the opportunity of studying them. Had I been 
 blessed with seeing and studying these emanations 
 of genius at an earlier period of life, the sentiment 
 of their pre-eminence would have animated all my 
 exertions ; and more character, and expression, and 
 life, would have pervaded all my humble attempts in 
 Historical Painting. Let us suppose a young man 
 at this time in London endowed with powers such 
 as enabled Michael Angelo to advance the arts, as 
 he did, by the aid of one mutilated specimen of 
 Grecian excellence in sculpture; to what an emi- 
 nence might not such a genius carry art, by the 
 opportunity of studying those sculptures in the 
 aggregate, which adorned the Temple of Minerva 
 at Athens? It is therefore my devout wish, that 
 they should rest in the Capital of this Empire : and 
 that their resting-place should be as accessible as 
 possible to public inspection, in order to impart, 
 generally, a true notion of what is classical in art. 
 Such a deposit would not only be of infinite ad- 
 
56 
 
 vantage to young artists, by rendering them familiar 
 with such excellence; but it would be the means of 
 diffusing a correct knowledge of art, whereby real 
 merit in it might be appreciated, and judiciously 
 rewarded. 
 
 In painting, sculpture, and architecture, it is the 
 same as in letters. Without the opportunity of 
 knowing what is classical in art, neither of these 
 branches can be refined by their professors, nor 
 adequately encouraged by their patrons. 
 
 You may be assured, my Lord, that unless Eng- 
 land establishes the means of cultivating the exalted 
 class of art within herself, she will never be entitled 
 to participate with Greece and Rome in the honour 
 they acquired in the fine arts. Yet I know no 
 people, since the Greeks, so capable, as the inhabit- 
 ants of this island, of emulating them in art, if 
 rightly directed and patronised — For the British 
 are a scientific and reasoning people in all matters 
 which they undertake to investigate: and I hope 
 the time is not far distant, when a right direction in 
 the fine arts will not only be attained, but conso- 
 lidated on true and permanent principles. 
 1 With profound respect I have the honour to be, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 Your Lordship's 
 
 Most obedient servant, 
 
 BENJ. WEST. 
 
 To the Right Hon. the Earl of Elgin. 
 
APPENDIX [B]. 
 NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 PHIDIAS AND HIS SCHOOL: 
 
 COLLECTED FROM ANCIENT AUTHORS. 
 
 Phidias, the son of Charmidas, was born about 500 
 years before Christ. He was originally a painter,* 
 and he carried the arts of painting and sculpture to 
 a greater perfection than they had ever before 
 attained. His brother, Panaenus, also painted the 
 celebrated Marathon in the Pcecile.f In the art of 
 making statues of bronze, both for the number and 
 excellence of his works, Phidias was without a 
 rival. His Amazon,^ but especially his Lemnian 
 Minerva, || were for many ages the admiration of the 
 
 • Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxv. c. 34. 
 
 t Pausan. lib. i. Eliac. p. 402. Kulinii. 
 
 X Plin. xxxiv. c. 5. 
 
 || Pausan. in Att. p. 67. ed. Kuhn. Plin. xxxiv. c. 8. 
 
58 
 
 world for their faultless symmetry. In works of 
 ivory also, Phidias stands alone.* The enthusiasm 
 with which Cicero,t Strabo,J Pliny, || and Pausa- 
 nias,§ speak of his colossal statues of Jupiter and 
 Minerva, which he executed in ivory and gold, can 
 best be learned b} r consulting those writers : but 
 there is reason to believe that Phidias himself did 
 not approve of the application of this material to 
 works of art; at least not to works of that size, 
 however it may have suited the capricious taste of 
 the Athenian people.^! In an assembly of the 
 people, he is said to have earnestly recommended a 
 different substance for the statue of Minerva, which 
 was to be placed in her temple in the Acropolis : 
 but on the Athenians being informed that it would 
 be cheaper than ivory, they rejected the proposal. 
 
 Besides these two colossal statues in ivory and 
 gold, we do not hear of above one or two more 
 executed in these materials by the same artist. 
 The far greater number of his statues, which are 
 expressly mentioned by the ancient writers, are in 
 bronze. 
 
 Phidias, however, did not disdain efforts of an 
 humbler sort : for, not to dwell on his statues in 
 
 * Quintil. lib. xii. c. 10. t Passim in Philos. 
 
 $ Lib. viii. p. 253. Casaub. || Lib. xxxvi. c. 5. 
 
 $ In Eliac. p. 306. ed. Xyland. f Val. Max. lib. i. 11. 
 
59 
 
 wood,* plaster, and clay,f nor on certain pieces of 
 minute mechanism, as fish and flies,;}: ascribed to the 
 same master; he was the first who discovered the 
 true principles of carving in relievo ;|| and, in the 
 smallest productions of his art, he preserved, accord- 
 ing to Pliny, the same grandeur of execution, 
 which characterized his greatest works. The same 
 author mentions, in terms of high praise, the Lapi- 
 thae and Centaurs, carved on the sandals of Minerva, 
 and the workmanship of her shield; on the convex 
 side of which, was represented the battle of the 
 Amazons, and on the concave, that of the Gods and 
 Giants. The shield, moreover, contained a likeness 
 of Pericles, fighting with an Amazon,§ and was put 
 together so artfully, that if a figure of Phidias 
 himself (representing him as an old bald man, hold- 
 ing up a large stone in his hands, to denote his 
 being the architect of the temple) were by any 
 means removed, the whole shield must inevitably 
 have fallen to pieces, ^f 
 
 The masters of the greatest eminence which the 
 School of Phidias produced, were, Agoracritus, Al- 
 camenes, and Colotes. Of these, Alcamenes was 
 the most distinguished : he is mentioned by the 
 
 * Pausan. in Ba?ot. p. 718. ed. Kulinii. 
 
 t Ibid, in Att. 97. J Acad, des Ins. Gedoyn,(v. ix.) 
 
 || Plin. x\xiv. c. 8. $ Plut. in Pericle. 
 
 f Pint, in Pericle. Cic. Tusc. lib. i. c. 1.5. et Orat. c. 71. 
 
60 
 
 ancients, as an artist of the greatest merit. We 
 praise, says Cicero, that Vulcan at Athens, which 
 Alcamenes made; in which, though standing, and 
 covered over with drapery, there is an appearance 
 of lameness without deformity.* Valerius Maximus 
 gives a similar description of it at greater length.f 
 Pausanias makes mention of a beautiful Bacchus J 
 from the hands of this master, in ivory and gold ; 
 and two colossal statues of Minerva and Hercules, 
 erected at Thebes, of Pentelic marble. || 
 
 But the master-piece of Alcamenes was the group 
 of statues on the pediment of the back front of the 
 Temple of Jupiter§ at Olympia: the description of 
 which, in the Eliacs of Pausanias, affords so many 
 singular coincidences with the statues upon the 
 pediments of the Parthenon at Athens, that it is 
 scarcely possible to entertain a doubt that both 
 were erected nearly at the same period. It is not 
 improbable that Alcamenes had attempted to imitate 
 the latter, encouraged by the success of his master 
 Phidias in a similar undertaking. 
 
 Of the same Alcamenes, we read in Pliny that he 
 was a statuary of the highest merit, that many of 
 his works still adorned the temples, and that he had 
 
 • De Nat. Deor. lib. i. c. 30. t Lib. viii. c. 9. 
 
 J Paus. in,Att. p. 46. ed. Kubnii. 
 
 || Id. in Bseot. p. 733. ed. Kuhn. $ Id. in Eliac. lib. i. p. 597. 
 
61 
 
 produced the incomparable Venus without the walls, 
 called the acppoo^ it xWoi?.* 
 
 Another of Phidias' scholars — his favourite pupil 
 Agoracritus, is chiefly celebrated, as connected with 
 the famous statue of Nemesis, the Goddess of Ven- 
 geance, at Rhamnus near Marathon, in memory of 
 the result of that battle. The history of this statue, 
 and its allegorical accessories, one of the depart- 
 ments of the art peculiar to Phidias, are too well 
 known, to be repeated here. To this statue was 
 appended a label, stating that it was the work of 
 Agoracritus : but all the ancient writers who men- 
 tion it, and particularly Pausanias, speak of it as 
 the work of Phidias — and it appears to have been 
 one of the most extraordinary productions in marble 
 sculpture which the art has ever produced.f 
 
 Of the other marble statues attributed to Phidias, 
 were : 
 
 1. The Mercury Pronaos in the Temple of Isme- 
 nian Apollo at Thebes. J 
 
 2. A beautiful Venus in the Octavian Museum 
 at Rome. || 
 
 3. The face, hands, and feet, of the Minerva Bel- 
 lica of the Plataeans, from the spoils at Marathon.§ 
 The rest of the statue was of wood and gold. 
 
 * Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 4. t Pausanias, Pliny, &c. 
 
 $ Paus. in Baeot. p. 357. ed. Xyland. || Plin. xxxvi. 4. 
 $ Paus. in Baeot. p. 718. Kuunii ed. 
 
62 
 
 4. The Venus Urania, in Parian marble, in the 
 temple of that Goddess in Attica. 
 
 5. One of the colossal statues on the Esquiline 
 Hill — The inscription is of later date; and there- 
 fore, exclusive of the merit of the sculpture, carries 
 with it no other testimony than that of the noto- 
 riety of Phidias as a sculptor in marble.* 
 
 In the Augustan age, and in that immediately 
 subsequent to it, it was generally believed, not only 
 that Phidias frequently caused the names of his 
 pupils to be inscribed on his own statues, but that 
 he had given instances of the greatest skill in finish- 
 ing the works of other artists. Amongst these last 
 was the above-mentioned statue of Aprodite i* wwi? 
 by Alcamenes. To this extraordinary talent, which 
 we must suppose was chiefly exercised in works in 
 marble, Cicero alludes in the 4th book de Fin For. 
 et Mai. " Ut Phidias potest a principio instituere 
 " signum, idque perficere : potest ab alio inchoatum 
 " accipere, et absolvere." 
 
 With respect to the particular character of the 
 sculpture of Phidias, we may gather from the lan- 
 guage of the ancients respecting him, that he had 
 
 • The same inference may be drawn from the following passage 
 in Aristotle. Eudem. lib. v. c. 7. — TV £e o-o^iav i» t«»5 te%i«»? 
 Tot? ax§»j5£r«T0»$ t«? T£p£>a? ccito SlSofAtv oto y 4><7id»a» Xi6i?^yo» 
 
63 
 
 no competitor, at least for posthumous fame. That 
 his excellence in his own art became a proverbial 
 term, of comparison by which to illustrate that of all 
 other persons whatsoever in their particular depart- 
 ments. 
 
 As an elegant modern French writer has ob- 
 served,* " The sculptors who preceded Phidias 
 could not divest their statues of a certain stiff and 
 dry formality. Phidias was the first who gave 
 to his style, according to the expressions of the 
 ancients, grandeur, majesty, gravity, breadth, and 
 magnificence." 
 
 Dionysius Halicarnassensis, in his essay on the 
 oratory of Isocrates, compares it, in the following 
 terms, with the sculpture of Phidias : 
 
 Quvpccrlov ya.% $ii xai psyx to t>k Ic-OKgala? xxrucry.^v^ 
 tnj/o?, vgwi'xifc pccMov »j avSguiriviK (pvfftuq cnxuov. froxst $s pot pi) 
 ic7ro axoTrti tk a.\i hxocaoa tw ptv l<7oxgd.TX<; prflopmiw t»5 tto^w 
 xXsjth x«i (pej^ia TiX vr >> xaTa T ° cepvov xxi piyoLho-riyjiov, 
 
 x«» ai-iUjjLXTHtov. And in his chapter on Dinarchus, 
 where he is dilating on the advantages possessed by 
 original writers or artists, and the impossibility of 
 those who come after them, imitating their life, and 
 spirit, and real beauties, he adds (speaking of Phi- 
 dias, and other great masters), Sri <rrS,at ph rw$ «^ £ " 
 
 TVTrois, ccvloipvrit; th; iiriTr^nrn P£«§K> xa» u^x. 
 * Essai sur 1'Art Statuaire. 
 
64 
 
 Quintilian, with more critical acumen, distin- 
 guishes, by strong lines, the different merits of Phi- 
 dias and Polycletus. Lib. xii. c. 10. " Diligentia 
 " ac decor Polycleti supra ceteros, cui quanquam k 
 " plerisque tribuitur palma, tamen, ne nihil detra- 
 " hatur, deesse pondus putant. Nam ut humanae 
 " forma? decorem addiderit supra, verum, ita non 
 " explevisse Deorum auctoritatem videtur. Quin 
 " aetatem quoque graviorem dicitur refugisse, nihil 
 " ausus ultra leves genas. At quae Polycleto* defue- 
 " runt, Phidiae atquae Alcameni dantur. Phidias 
 " tamen diis quam hominibus efficiendis melior arti- 
 " fex traditur, in Ebore vero longe citra aemulum, 
 " vel si nihil, nisi Minervam Athenis, aut Olympium 
 " in Elide Jovem fecisset: cujus pulchritudo adje- 
 '* cisse aliquid recepta religioni vicletur, adeo ma- 
 " jestas operis Deum aequavit." 
 
 * Quintilian must be here supposed to compare the different 
 excellencies of Polycletus, Alcamenes, and Phidias, with respect 
 to their works in marble, as Alcamenes only worked in that 
 material. The same may be said of Ep. xiii. and vi. of Martial : 
 
 " Quis te Phidiaco formatam, Julia, coelo 
 
 Velquis Palladiae non putet artis opus < 
 Candida non tacita respondet imagine Lygdost 
 
 Et placido fulget vivus in ore decor.'' 
 
 1 Lygdos was a part of Mouut Taurus, famous for its white marble. 
 
65 
 
 But words were inadequate to express with suffi- 
 cient energy the admiration which the ancients felt 
 for the style and character of the works of this 
 celebrated artist. They compared them to the style 
 of Thucydides and of Demosthenes. Yet the mascu- 
 line beauty pourtrayed by the hand of Phidias was 
 combined with sweetness, with elegance, and with 
 grace. Equally ingenious as he was sublime, he 
 executed great works with energy ; those the more 
 inferior, with simplicity and truth. 
 
 u Artis Phidiacae torcuma clarum 
 
 " Pisces adspicis : adde aquam natabunt." 
 
 His style, which varied with his subject, was at 
 the same time grand and refined * If Phidias had 
 not applied all his powers to pourtray the slightest 
 shades, and the most delicate lines, he never would 
 have reached that expression of life, peculiarly his 
 own. His style was truly admirable, because it 
 " united the three characters of truth, grandeur, 
 and minute refinement." 
 
 Plutarch, in his Life of Pericles, tells us, that that 
 munificent and enlightened patron of the arts ap- 
 pointed Phidias the sole director of all his public 
 works. All the other artists, however eminent, 
 
 * Ep/a<r« Tt y.ai fj/.%yu"Kuov y.cti a*gife£? ccjj.cc. — Deniet. Plant. 
 tit Eleveut. cap. 14. 
 
66 
 
 received his orders. Of these, Callicrates and Icti- 
 nus were particularly employed upon the Par- 
 thenon. 
 
 The two distinguished men above mentioned, 
 who seemed to live for each other's glory, and to 
 combine their joint exertions in order to embellish 
 Athens, were frequently the objects of jealousy to 
 the Athenian people ; and Phidias fell a victim to 
 their animosity, for attempting to give to his own 
 name the immortality which it was not doubted 
 would be the inheritance of his works. 
 
 Plutarch, in speaking of their works, describes 
 them in the following terms : 
 
 After observing, in general, that those which were 
 slowly executed were likely to be the most durable, 
 he adds — " Hence we have the more reason to 
 " wonder, that the structures raised by Pericles 
 " should be built so quickly, and yet built for 
 " ages ; for as each of them, when finished, had the 
 " venerable air of antiquity, so, even now, they 
 " retain the strength and freshness of a modern 
 " building. A bloom is diffused over them, which 
 " preserves their aspect untarnished by time, as if 
 " they were animated with a spirit of perpetual 
 " youth, and unfading elegance." 
 
 Pausanias, a cotemporary of Plutarch, says very 
 little on the subject of the Temple of Minerva at 
 Athens. He merely remarks, that on the western 
 
67 
 
 facade was represented the Birth of Minerra; and 
 on that to the east, the Contest between Minerva 
 and Neptune for naming the city. After describing 
 the statue of the Goddess, which was of ivory and 
 gold, he adds* — " The only statue of a man which 
 " I saw here [IvrxvBa] was one of Hadrian." f 
 
 A few words may be necessary, upon the sub- 
 ject of the sculptures on the exterior of the 
 Parthenon. 
 
 The practice had obtained among the sculptors 
 and architects of Greece, in a very early period of 
 the art, of introducing groups of statues to occupy 
 the ailov, or triangular space above the porticoes of 
 the temples. 
 
 The description in Diodorus Siculus of the 
 sculptures on the pediment of the Temple of Ju- 
 piter at Agrigentum, representing at one extremity 
 the Battle of the Giants, and at the other the 
 Taking of Troy — the Twelve Labours of Hercules, 
 
 T^'.v ot % yivivvcu 5ra»L^an, ay. r,v tcu yovumuv yevoi; — 
 ivTot.i>§x iixovct iffSi oi^a 'A^iava $a,<7\hiu$ poix." 
 
 To this passage it may probably be attributed, that some 
 modern tiavellers, who had no means of viewing the statues but 
 from the ground, and, of course, from a considerable distance, 
 have imagined that two of them, on the western pediment, were 
 whiter and fresher than the rest, and bore a resemblance to 
 Hadrian and Sabina. 
 
 t Vide Pausan. in Att. 
 
 I 
 
68 
 
 on the fronton of the Temple of Hercules at Thebes, 
 by the hand of Praxiteles — the Calydonian Boar 
 Hunt, described with so much detail in the 8th 
 book of Pausanias on the Temple of Minerva Alea 
 at Tegaea — those in honour of Bacchus and Apollo 
 on the two frontons of the Temple of Apollo at 
 Delphi, by the hands of Praxias, the pupil of 
 Calarnis, and Androsthenes, the pupil of Eucadmus, 
 both of them Athenian artists ; — but, above all, the 
 magnificent Temple of Jupiter at Olympia. — All 
 these instances present a strong body of evidence, 
 that a building, of the character of the Temple of 
 Minerva at Athens, would not have been left by 
 Pericles with a bare pediment : and, if Phidias did 
 place any sculptures upon them, it can hardly 
 be doubted that they were amongst the most distin- 
 guished works of that artist, and of his pupils. 
 
 No subjects of ancient fable are more frequently 
 alluded to in the poets and historians of Greece and 
 Rome, than the contest between Minerva and Nep- 
 tune ; the birth of the former ; and the battle of the 
 Centaurs and Lapithae. One instance of this nature, 
 bearing an immediate allusion to the present subject, 
 may be adduced from the 6th book of Ovid's Meta- 
 morphoses. The poet is relating the contest between 
 Minerva and Arachne for the honours of the loom. 
 The Goddess is appropriately described as tracing 
 upon her tapestry her former contest with Neptune 
 
69 
 
 for the honour of naming the capital of Greece. 
 The poet's words are so strikingly descriptive of 
 the sculptures on one of the pediments of the Par- 
 thenon, that the reader will readily pardon their 
 being quoted at length. 
 
 " Cecropia Pallas Scopulum Mavortis in arcc 
 Pingit, ct antiquam terra? de nomine litem. 
 Bis sex ccelestes, medio Jove, sedibus altis 
 Augusta gravitate sedent, sua quemque Deorum 
 Inscribit facics : Jovis est regalis imago. 
 Stare Deum pelagi, longoque ferire tridente 
 Aspera saxa facit, Medioque, e vulnere saxi 
 Exsiluisse ferum ; quo pignore vindicet urbem. 
 At sibi dat clypeum, dat acuta? cuspidis hastam, 
 Dat galeam capiti ; defenditur cegide pectus ; 
 Percussamque sua simulat de cuspide terram 
 Prodere cum baccis foetum canentis Oliva?; 
 Mirarique Deos; operi victoria finis."* 
 
 A more elegant compliment to the genius and 
 arts of Athens can scarcely be imagined, than is 
 contained in these lines. 
 
 The subject of the tapestry is the same with that 
 upon the temple. 
 
 The Goddess herself is represented producing, 
 as the utmost effort of an imitative art, the same 
 
 * Ovid. Met. lib. vi. Fab. 1. 
 
70 
 
 picture which already adorned her own temple in 
 her own city. 
 
 The twelve Deities seated, with Jupiter in the 
 midst, exactly correspond with the remains which 
 have been preserved. Neptune produces the horse, 
 and Minerva the olive tree :* and the Arx Cecropia 
 seems to fix, beyond a doubt, the spot to which the 
 poet attaches the scenes which he describes. 
 
 An objection might possibly be started, that 
 " Scopulum Mavortis" would allude to the Areo- 
 pagus ; but it does not readily appear that the 
 Areopagus was ever so called : whereas, on a 
 reference to Pausanias, one is struck with the 
 peculiar propriety of applying, in the present in- 
 stance, this denomination to the ground on which 
 the Temple of Minerva stands. 
 
 Pausanias begins the fifth chapter of his Attics 
 with a description of the Tholus or Prytaneum, 
 which was to the east and north of the Acropolis. 
 He then mentions the statues of several heroes who 
 gave their names to the Athenian tribes. He enters 
 into details of the history of Athens under Pandion, 
 
 * Traces of the accessory ornaments, alluded to by the poet, 
 are to be found in several of the mutilated statues on the pedi- 
 ments : but, as they were of bronze, or some more precious 
 material, they have long since disappeared, as well as those of 
 which some remains are still to be discovered on the metopes, and 
 on the frize of the cell. 
 
71 
 
 and during the reigns of Ptolemy, Antigonus, and 
 Attalus. Returning to the statues, he enumerates, 
 among others, that of Demosthenes, and close to it a 
 Temple dedicated to Mars. He then describes several 
 other statues ; and at length arrives at the Theatre 
 of Bacchus and Odeon. This statement would seem 
 to fix the Temple of Mars in some spot under the 
 craggy cliffs which terminate the Acropolis to the 
 east, (/'. e. in the line of the street of the Tripods ;) 
 and gives a rational ground for supposing, that those 
 cliffs were the Scopulum Mavortis of the poet. — 
 Now the eastern facade of the Parthenon appears 
 to rise immediately above these craggy cliffs, and 
 certainly presents to the spectator below one of the 
 grandest scenes which can be imagined, even in 
 Greece. 
 
APPENDIX [C]. 
 
 DESCRIPTION 
 
 d'un 
 
 BAS-RELIEF DU PARTHENON, 
 
 ACTUELLEMENT AU 
 
 MUSEE NAPOLEON. 
 
 Par A. L. Millin, Conservateur des Medailles, des Pierres 
 gravies, et des Antiques de la Bibliuthtque Nationale de 
 Trance : Professcur d'Histoire et d'Antlquites. 
 
 Le magnifique bas-relief dont je vais dormer la 
 description, est deja. tres-connu, quoiqu'il n'ait ja- 
 mais ete grave. II ornoit la frise exterieure qui 
 regnoit autour de la cellu du Temple de Minerve a 
 Athenes. II en a ete detache par M. de Choiseul- 
 Gouffier, que sa noble passion pour les arts a autant 
 illustre que ses qualites eminentes, sa grande for- 
 tune, et ses ambassades. II est actuellement au 
 
73 
 
 Musee Napoleon ; et on l'appelle en general, parmi 
 les artistes, le bas-relief & Athtnes. 
 
 Ce beau monument est en marbre pentelique. 
 On y distingue buit personnages, deux homines et 
 six femmes, partages en trois groupes. Cette frise 
 representoit la pompe ou procession des Panathe- 
 nees. Cette portion de ce grand bas-relief nous 
 offre le moment ou la pompe de cette grande fete 
 va s'arranger. Les jeunes filles rec,oivent des mains 
 des directeurs de la ceremonie les vases et les uten- 
 siles qu'elles doivent porter. 
 
 Les Panathenees, ainsi que leur nom l'indique, 
 etoient des fetes etablies en memoire de la reunion 
 de tous les peuples de l'Attique dans la ville d'A- 
 thenes. Celles-ci etoient les petites Panathenees, 
 qui se celebroient tous les ans le 14 du mois heca- 
 tombeon, et qui avoient etc instituees par Thesee, 
 en memoire de cette reunion. Les grandes Pana- 
 thenees se celebroient dans la troisieme an nee de 
 chaque olympiade, le 27 du mois hecatombeon. 
 . Les grandes Panathenees etoient celles qui se 
 celebroient avec le plus de pompe et d'eclat. II est 
 probable que ce sont celles dont la superbe frise du 
 Parthenon nous offre la representation. On y fai- 
 soit des courses de chevaux ; on y disputoit le prix 
 de la lutte et des differens exercices du corps, celui 
 de la flute et de la cithare ; on y chantoit les eloges 
 d'Harmodius, d'Aristogiton, ^t de Thrasybule, Jibe- 
 
74 
 
 rateurs de leur patrie. La pompe ou procession 
 etoit une des principales parties de cette fete ; elle 
 etoit accompagnee de plusieurs classes de citoyens. 
 J'en decrirai les details lorsque je publierai toute la 
 frise de la cella du Parthenon ; je ne dois m'attacher 
 ici qu'a ceux que nous ofFre notre bas-relief. 
 
 II est, comme je l'ai dit, partage en plusieurs 
 groupes. Le premier nous fait voir un vieillard 
 qui presente un vase a deux jeunes filles placees sur 
 la meme ligne, et dont l'attitude severe et decente 
 annonce le respect religieux avec lequel elles rem- 
 plissent leurs fonctions. Xenophon nous apprend 
 en effet, que, dans cette fete, il y avoit des vieillards 
 dont la figure etoit venerable, et des filles des meil- 
 leures maisons d'Athenes, dont les traits, la taille, et 
 la demarche, attiroient tous les regards. Le vieillard 
 presente un vase aux deux jeunes filles; et malgre 
 le peu de capacite de ce vase, il le soutient des 
 deux mains; ce qui annonce qu'il est rempli de lait 
 ou d'huile, dont on faisoit des libations. Quatre 
 trous faits sur ce vase etoient destines sans doute a 
 y fixer des ornemens de bronze, peut-etre dores. 
 Les jeunes filles ecoutent avec recueillement ses 
 instructions. 
 
 Dans le second groupe, un vieillard vetu comme 
 le precedent semble regler la marche : il a le bras 
 gauche eleve a. la hauteur de la ceinture ; tous ses 
 doigts sont fermes, a, Texception de l'index, avec 
 
75 
 
 lequel il a l'air de leur prescrire quelque chose. Les 
 deux trous places au-dessus et au-dessous de sa 
 main droite etoient probablement destines a fixer 
 un sceptre ou un baton qu'il tenoit. Les deux 
 jeunes filles sont a-peu-pres dans la m£me attitude 
 que les premieres ; ce qui convient a la gravite et a 
 l'cnseinble d'une marche. Derriere elles sont deux 
 autres jeunes filles, qui se suivent: celle qui vient 
 immediatement apres les deux precedentes, porte 
 dans la main droite une patere. 
 
 Les vieillards sont vetus de cet ample manteau 
 appele par les Grecs himation, et chez les Romains 
 pallium, dont sont ordinairement vetus tous les per- 
 sonnages qui doivent avoir un maintien grave et 
 imposant, tels que Jupiter, Serapis, iEsculape, Si- 
 lene, les philosophes et les magistrats. Les jeunes 
 filles out de longues tuniques Ioniennes sans 
 manches, et un ample peplus. 
 
 Ce bas-relief est precieux pour la beaute des 
 draperies. 11 est curieux de les comparer avec 
 celles des temps precedens : on y voit par quels 
 degres les artistes Grecs sont parvenus a devenir les 
 maitres de toutes les nations pour l'invention et le 
 jet des draperies ; ce qui est d'autant plus etonnant, 
 qu'ils representoient plusieurs dieux et les heros nus 
 ou presque nus. Mais e'est la connoissance parfaite 
 du nu qui les a conduits a cette superiorite dans 
 l'execution des draperies, parce qu'elles sont faites 
 
76 
 
 pour couvrir le nu, raais non pas pour le cacher 
 entierement; il doit se faire sentir a travels les 
 vetemens. Les figures singulierement habillees du 
 vase de M. Hope, les unes comme dans un sac, les 
 autres de tuniques et de peplus sans aucun pli, nous 
 ont fait voir comment les premiers artistes execute- 
 rent les draperies, sans leur dormer aucun mouve- 
 ment; ceux qui imaginerent de figurer les plis que 
 font faire aux draperies la situation des membres, 
 les mouvemens du corps, l'effet de la course et du 
 vent, les representerent d'abord longs, ondules, uni- 
 formes, et enfin avec une rudesse qu'on a regardee 
 d'abord comme particuliere au style Etrusque, mais 
 qui, comme on le sait aujourd'hui, est le caractere 
 de l'ancien style Grec : on en trouve des exemples 
 dans les bas-reliefs du musee Capitolin et de la villa 
 Albani. Ce magnifique bas-relief nous fait voir 
 comment les Grecs ont abandonne cette maniere 
 trop dure, et ont porte l'art des draperies a sa per- 
 fection, ainsi qu'on le remarque sur plusieurs vases 
 peints, et sur les monumens de la sculpture Grecque. 
 Personne ensuite n'a surpasse les Grecs dans l'art 
 des draperies : ils ont excelle principalement dans 
 celles des femmes ; mais ce beau bas-relief prouve 
 qu'ils ne drapoient pas moins habilement les figures 
 d'hommes. Les Romains ornoient leurs figures de 
 draperies assez belles, mais trop amples et trop 
 lourdes, et qui etoient bien loin de reunir la grace 
 
77 
 
 et la noblesse des draperies Grecques. Cela venoit 
 probablement de ce que les Romains avoient moins 
 d'occasions detudier le nu ; ce qui prouvc combien 
 la connoissance du nu estnecessaire pour la parfaite 
 execution des draperies. L'art des draperies avoit 
 disparu avec le gout des arts ; les vetemens lourds 
 des princes de l'empire Grec etoient sans grace et 
 sans mouvement. Raphael decouvrit dans les bas- 
 reliefs, dans les pierres gravees, et les divers monu- 
 mens de l'antiquite, le grand gout du jet des dra- 
 peries, et ne tarda pas a l'introduire; il est reste le 
 premier maitre dans Tart de jeter les draperies et de 
 donner aux plis le plus bel arrangement. 
 
 Ce bas-relief est encore precieux par la severite 
 du style, et par son utilite dans l'histoire des arts. 
 C'est Phidias lui-meme qui doit en avoir fourni le 
 dessin et surveille l'execution. 
 
 Avant que ce marbre precieux eut ete nettoye, il 
 conservoit des traces, non-seulement de la couleur 
 encaustique dont, suivant l'usage des Grecs, on 
 enduisoit la sculpture, mais encore d'une veritable 
 peinture dont quelques parties etoient couvertes ; 
 usage qui tient aux procedes de l'enfance de l'art, 
 dont il ne s'etoit pas encore debarrasse. Le fond 
 etoitbleu; les cheveux et quelques parties du corps 
 etoient dores. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
J. MOVES, PRINTER, 
 
 Greville Street, lialton Garden, London. 
 
"lAL 
 
 Q