posal, for the reasons stated by seum, consider the Earl of Elgin him in his evidence : and until (and his heirs being Earls of the month of June 1815, no fur- Elgin) as equally entitled to the ther step was taken on either same distinction, and recommend side ; but at that time a petition that a clause should be inserted was presented, on the part of to that effect, if it should be neLord Elgin, to the House, which cessary that an act should pass owing to the late period of the for transferring his collection to session, was not proceeded upon. the public. Eighty additional cases have been It may not be deemed foreign received since 1811, the contents to this subject, if your committee of which, enumerated in Mr. venture to extend their observaHamilton's evidence, now form tions somewhat beyond the striet a part of the collection. The limit of their immediate inquiry, medals also, of which the value and lay before the House what is more easily defined, were not occurs to them as not unimportincluded in the proposal made to ant with regard to the age and Mr. Perceval.

authenticity of these sculptures. Against these augmentations The great works with which Pe. must be set the rise in the value ricles adorned, and strengthened of money, which is unquestionably Athens, were all carried on under not inconsiderable, between the the direction and superintendence present time and the year 1811; of Phidias; for this there is the a cause or consequence of which authority of various ancient wriis the depreciation of every com- ters, and particularly of Plutarch; modity, either of necessity, or but he distinctly asserts in the fancy, which is brought to sale. same passage, that Callicrates

Your committee, therefore, do and Ictinus executed the work of not think that they should be the Parthenon; which is confirmjustified, in behalf of the public, ed also by Pausanias, so far as if they were to recommend to the relates to Ictinus, who likewise House any extension of Mr. Per- ornamented or constructed the ceval's offer to a greater amount temple of Apollo at Phigalia ;* than 50001.: and, under all the from whence, by a singular coiucircumstances that they have en- cidence, the sculptures in high deavoured to bring under the relief, lately purchased for the view of the House, they judge British Museum, and frequently thirty-five thousand pounds to be referred to in the evidence, were a reasonable and sufficient price transported. for this collection.

The style of this work in the Your committee observing, that opinion of the artists, indicates, by the act 45 Geo. III., c. 127, that it belongs to the same period, for vesting the Townleyan col

:

though the execution is rated as tence: but Plutarch places his inferior to that of the Elgin mar- death at Athens, and in prison, bles. In the fabulous stories either by disease or by poison. which are represented upon both, It has been doubted whether there is a very striking similarity; Phidias himself ever wrought in and it may be remarked in passing marble ; but although, when he that the subjects of the metopes, did not use ivory, his chief maand of the smaller frize, which is terial was unquestionably bronze ; sculptured with the battle of the there are authorities sufficient to Amazons, correspond with two establish, beyond all controversy, out of the four subjects mention- that he sometimes applied his od by Pliny, as adorning the hand to marble. Pliny, for inshield and dress of the Minerva; stance, asserts that he did so, and so that there was a general uni- mentions a Venus ascribed to him, formity of design in the stories existing in his own time in the which were selected for the in- collection (or in the portico) of ternal and external decoration of Octavia. Phidias is called by the Parthenon. The taste of the Aristotle, a skilful worker in same artist, Ictinus, probably led stone ; and Pausanias enumerates him to repeat the same ideas, a celestial Venus of Parian marble which abound in graceful forms, undoubtedly of his hand : and and variety of composition, when the Rhamnusian Nemesis, also of he was employed upon the temple the same material. Some of his of another divinity, at a distance statues in bronze were brought from Athens.

to Rome by Paulus Æmilius, and The statue of Minerva within by Catulus. the temple, was the work of Phi- His great reputation, however, dias himself, and with the ex- was founded upon his represenception of the Jupiter which he tations of the Gods, in which he made at Elis, the most celebrated was supposed more excellent than of his productions. It was com- in human forms, and especially posed of ivory and gold: with upon his works in ivory, in which regard to which, some very cu- he stood unrivalled. rious anecdotes relating to the Elidas the Argive is mentioned political history of that time, are as the master of Phidias : which to be found in the same writers: honour is also shared by Hippias. the earliest of which, from a pas- His two most celebrated scholars sage in a cotemporary poet, Aris- were Alcamenes an Athenian of tophanes, proves that the value of noble birth, and Agoracritus of these materials involved both Pe- Paros ; the latter of whom was ricles and the director of his his favourite; and it was reportworks in great trouble and jeo- ed, that out of affection to him, parily; upon which account the Phidias put his scholar's name latter is said to have withdrawn upon several of his own works ; to Elis, and to have ended his among which the statue called days there, leaving it doubtful Rhannusian Nemesis is partieuwhether his death was natural, or larized by Pliny and Suidas. in consequence of a judicial sen- In another passage of Pliny,

Alcamenes

66

Alcamenes is classed with Critias, groupe of beautiful figures in Nestocles, and Hegias, who are marble, which appear from below called the rivals of Phidias. The as large as life. They are of enname of Colotes is preserved as tire relief, and wonderfully well another of his scholars.

worked. Pausanias says nothing The other great sculptors, who more, than that this sculpture rewere living at the same time with lated to the birth of Minerva. Phidias, and flourished very soon The general design is this : after him, were Agelades, Callon, Jupiter, who is under the Polycletus, Phragmon, Gorgias, highest angle of the pediment Lacon, Myron, Pythagoras, Sco- (fronton) has the right arm brokpas, and Perelius.

en, in which, probably, he held The passage in which Pausani- his thunderbolt ; his legs are as mentions the sculptures on the 'thrown wide from each other, pediments is extremely short, and without doubt to make room for to this effect : “ As you enter the his eagle. Although these two temple, which they call Parthenon, characteristics are wanting, one all that is contained in what is cannot avoid recognizing him by termed the (eagles) pediments, his beard, and by the majesty relates in every particular to the with which the sculptor has inbirth of Minerva; but on the op- vested him. He is naked, as they posite or back front is the contest usually represented him, and parof Minerva and Neptune for the ticularly the Greeks, who for the land; but the statue itself is most part made their figures formed of ivory and gold.” The naked ; on his right is a statue, state of dilapidation into which which has its head and arms muthis temple was fallen, when tilated, draped to about half the Stuart visited it in 1751, and leg, which one may judge to be a made most correct drawings for victory, which preceries the car of his valuable work, left little op- Minerva, whose horses she leads. portunity of examining and com. They are the work of some hand paring what remained upon that as buld as it was delicate, which part of the temple with the pas. would not perhaps have yielded sage referred to : but an account to Phidias, or Praxiteles, so reis preserved by travellers, who nowned for (representing) horses. about 60 years earlier found one Minerva is sitting upon the car, of these pediments in tolerable rather in the habit of a goddess preservation, before the war be- of the sciences, than of war; for tween the Turks and Venetians, she is not dressed as a warrior, in 1687, had done so much da- having neither helmet, nur shield, mage to this admirable structure. nur head of Medusa upon her The observations of one of these breast: she has the air of youth, (Dr. Spon, a French physician) and her head-dress is not difmay be literally translated thus : ferent from that of Venus. Ano

“ The highest part of the front ther female figure without a head which the Greeks called 'the is sitting behind her with a child, Eagle, and our architects the which she holds upon her knees, Fronton, is enriched with a I cannot say who she is; but I

had

had no trouble in making out or says, “But my companion made recognising the two next, which me observe the next two figures are the last on that side ; it is the sitting in the corner to be of the Emperor Hadrian sitting, and Emperor Hadrian and his Emhalf naked, and, next to him, his press Sabina, whom I easily knew wife Sabina. It seems that they to be so, by the many dals and are both looking on with plea- statues I have seen of them." sure at the triumph of the god- And again, “But the Emperor

, dess. I do not believe that be- Hadrian most probably repaired fore me, any person observed this it, and adorned it with those particularity, which deserves to figures at each front. For the be remarked.” “ On the left of whiteness of the marble, and his Jupiter are five or six figures, of own statue joined with them, apwhich some have lost the heads; parently show them to be of a it is probably the circle of the later

age than the first, and done gods, where Jupiter is about to by that Emperor's command. introduce Minerva, and to make Within the portico on high, and her be acknowledged for his on the outside of the cella of the daughter. The pediment behind the temple itself, is another borrepresented, according to the der of basso relievo round about same author, the dispute which it, or at least on the north and Minerva and Neptune had for south sides, which, without doubt, naming the city, but all the is as antient as the temple, and figures are fallen from them, ex- of admirable work, but not so cept one head of a sea-horse, higlia relievo as the other. Therewhich was the usual accompani- on are represented sacrifices, proment of this god; these figures cessions, and other ceremonies of of the two pediments were not the heathens' worship.; most of so ancient as the body of the them were designed by the Marquis temple built by Pericles, for de Nointel, who employed a painter which there wants no other argu- to do it two months together, and ment than that of the statue of showed them to us when Hadrian, which is to be seen waited on him at Constantinople.” there, and the marble which is Another French author, who pubwhiter than the rest. All the rest lished three years earlier thanSpon, has not been touched The Mar- a work called “ Athenes Ancienne quis de Nointel had designs made & Nouvelle, par le si de la Guilof the whole, when he went to letiere ; à Paris, 1675,"-says, Athens; his painter worked there Pericles employed upon the for two months, and almost lost Parthenon the celebrated archihis eyes, because he was obliged tects Callicrates and Ictinus. The to draw every thing from below, last, who had more reputation without a scaffold."-Voyage par than the former, wrote a descripJacob Spon; Lyons, 1678; 2 tion of it in a book,* which he tom. p. 144.) Wheler, who travelled with

* Ictinus and Carpion were jointly conSpon, and published his work at

cerned in this work, for which we have the London (four years later) in 1682, authority of Vitruvius, lib. 7. præfat.

composed

we a

composed on purpose, and which his second visit to Athens, "going has been lost; and we should to the East he made his journey probably not now have the op- through Athens, and dedicated portunity of admiring the build- the works which he had begun ing itself, if the Emperor Hadrian there: and particularly a temple had not preserved it to us, by the to Olympian Jupiter, and an altar repairs which he caused to be to himself.” done. It is to his care that we The account given by Dion owe the few remains of antiquity Cassius, is nearly to the same which are still entire at Athens.” effect, adding that he placed his

In the Antiquities of Athens by own statue within the temple Stuart, vol. ii. p. 4, it is said, of Olympian Jupiter, which he " Pausanias gives but a transient erected.* account of this temple, nor does He called some other cities he say whether Hadrian repaired after his own name, and directed it, though his statue, and that of

a part of Athens to be styled Hathe Empress Sabina in the western drianopolis :t but no mention is pediment, have occasioned a doubt made by any ancient author, of whether the sculptures, in both, his touching or repairing the were not put up by him. Wheler Parthenon. Pausanias, who wrote and Spon were of this opinion, in his reign, says, that “ the and say they were whiter than temples which Hadrian either the rest of the building. The erected from the foundation, or statue of Antinous, now remain- adorned with dedicated gifts and ing at Rome, may be thought a decorations, or whatever donaproof that there were artists in tions he made to the cities of the his time capable of executing Greeks, and of the Barbarians them, but this whiteness is no also, who made application to proof that they were more mo- him, were all recorded at Athens dern than the temple, for they in the temple common to all the might be made of a whiter mar- gods.”+

and the heads of Hadrian It is not unlikely, that a conand Sabina might be put on two fused recollection of the statue of the ancient figures, which was which Hadrian actually placed at

uncommon practice among Athens, may have led one of the the Romans ; and if we may give earliest travellers into a mistake, credit to Plutarch, the buildings which has been repeated, and of Pericles were not in the least countenanced by subsequent wriimpaired by age in his time; ters; but M. Fauvel, who will therefore this temple could not be quoted presently, speaks as want any material repairs in the from his own examination and reign of Hadrian."

observation, when he mentions With regard to the works of the two statues in question ; Hadrian at Athens, Spartian says, which, it is to be observed, still “ that he did much for the Athe- remain (without their heads) upnians ;'* and a little after', on

* B. 69, c. 16. + Spartian, p. 10. * Folio Edit. Paris, 1620. p. 6.

| Paus. Att. p. 5. Ed. Xyl.

ble;

no

on