CHAPTER II THE WEST PEDIMENT [PLATES II.-V.] ROM its very nature, the triangular shape of a pedi in the earliest times, if we may judge from the archaic remains now to be seen on the Acropolis of Athens. Apparently the first successful solution of the problemhow to utilise such a space for a sculptured composition. with figures in the round-was the pediments of Aegina, particularly the west pediment, where the incidents of a battlefield are ingeniously adapted to the given triangular space. In the acute angles are wounded men lying with their feet towards the narrowest part, and raising themselves on their elbows so far as space would allow; next come bowmen in their proper attitude of kneeling; then a warrior hurrying to the front half bent; and finally, towards the centre, the protagonists, men of larger mould than the others, like Homeric heroes; and lastly, in the very centre, an invisible goddess interfering to stay the combat. What we see is by no means a realistic battle. Such incidents only are chosen as are best suited to the space; nor is that the sole justification of the sculptor in this instance. In every multifarious scene of life the artist must exercise selection. Even an epic poet is not exempt. The next advance was in the east pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (Pl. II., Fig. 1). There we have still the protagonists in the centre, with an invisible deity between them; but the two flanks of the pediment are now occupied by obviously secondary persons in the character of attendants and onlookers. In each of the two acute angles a river god reclines, raising himself to watch the scene. Thus in the presence of onlookers in the flanks we have a new element of artistic composition-a great central group of commanding importance, whose action is being watched by persons who represent the locality and are interested in the result. Next, in order of time, came the Parthenon pediments. There also we find the new principle of composition-a great central group flanked on each side by secondary beings. But there is this momentous difference, that, instead of a single deity appearing in the very centre like a ghost to stay the combat, we have in each pediment of the Parthenon a central group of deities acting and reacting on each other. The deities themselves are now the protagonists; that was a vast change on the older order of ideas. No wonder if, previous to the discovery of the Olympia sculptures, there were students who strove hard to convince themselves that in each pediment of the Parthenon the whole scene was filled by deities alone. In those days it was easy to defend an interpretation of this kind; but even then it found few adherents, and now such views can only be maintained in defiance of the east pediment of Olympia, with its secondary beings in the flanks. So far as we know, no one cherishes these views any longer. It would have been more appropriate to begin here with the east pediment of the Parthenon, which was the first act of the drama. But amid the accidents of time it has happened that the west pediment, though now a greater wreck, is in reality better known to us, thanks to the drawings of it made by Carrey1 in the seventeenth century (Pl. III.), previous to its destruction by the Venetians (1687). Besides Carrey's drawings and the few sculptures still left, most of them fragmentary, we have only the simple words of Pausanias that the subject was the strife between Athenè and Poseidon for divine sovereignty over the land of Attica. From these combined sources we see at once that the centre of the pediment had been occupied by Athenè and Poseidon as the two great protagonists. The goddess had arrived in a chariot (biga), and, as we shall see presently, Poseidon must have come on the scene in the same manner, though his chariot was destroyed before Carrey's time. Each chariot had a driver, with an attendant on foot, and thus It is usual to ascribe the drawings of the Parthenon sculptures now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris to a French artist, Carrey, who had been employed in Athens by a famous French ambassador, the Marquis de Nointel. But in recent years it has been argued that Carrey's services did not begin till after these drawings had been completed by previous draughtsmen who had accompanied de Nointel. It may be an injustice to these artists if we continue to speak of the drawings as the work of Carrey. But as the matter is not yet altogether beyond dispute, we shall still use Carrey's name for convenience. See Omont, Dessins des Sculptures du Parthénon, 1898, p. 4, and Babelon, Compte-rendu de l'Académie des Inscr., 1900, p. 262, both of whom rely on the researches of M. le Comte Albert Vandal among the papers of the Marquis de Nointel in his L'Odyssée d'un Ambassadeur: Les Voyages du Marquis de Nointel, 1673-1675 (Paris, 1900). the whole centre of the pediment was occupied by one great group, closed in on each side by the two chariots. Within this group there was a further division, consisting of the two deities themselves, represented at that stage of the contention between them when Athenè had produced her olive tree on the Acropolis and Poseidon had made his spring of water flow. Thus the moment of greatest intensity had just been reached; and this is amply reflected in the action of the two contending deities, to say nothing of the rearing horses of Athenè. That a similar degree of excitement had been shown by the horses of Poseidon is clear from the bearing of his charioteer, which we possess, O, and in a measure also from the heads of his two horses, which have been preserved (Pl. V.). At this stage it is important to bear in mind that the east pediment of Olympia presents under a somewhat older type this same principle of a great middle group closed in by two chariots facing the centre, and serving to isolate as well as to magnify the protagonists. At Olympia the figures in the two wings of the pediment are obviously local and secondary beings-in a word, interested spectators. That, as we have already remarked, was a striking advance on the older methods of composition. It introduced a new touch of nature, which must have appealed to the poetic instincts of a great sculptor coming immediately after. But even apart from considerations of a poetic kind, we see at once from Carrey's drawing of the west pediment of the Parthenon that the figures in the two wings are markedly dissociated from the central group, except as interested spectators. It seems inconceivable that these figures so ostentatiously cut off from the central group can be deities. By their presence they indicate the permanent effects of the momentary dispute of the deities on the district in question-that is, Attica. The produce of the land, especially olive-growing, was to be supreme over sea-faring. It was what would now be called a "Little Athens" policy. We need say no more concerning the general composition of this pediment. Our troubles will begin when we have to decide each for himself how far the figures in the angles are local heroes or local personifications. The one thing to bear in mind is that local heroes may after all be only local personifications crystallised into more popular forms, in which case a river-god, of whom we know only the name, may reasonably appear side by side with Cecrops, who, though equally a personification to begin with, had passed over into the legendary history of Athens. To take the figures one by one, we begin as of right with the central group. And first it will be of interest to notice a Greek vase in St. Petersburg on which is painted the contest of Athene and Poseidon (Pl. II., Fig. 2). In the centre between them is an olive tree with the serpent of Athenè twined round its stem and Niké among the branches. On the left is Athenè in recoil from her final act, and at the same time turning towards her chariot to leave the scene. On the right Poseidon seizes by the bridle a horse, below which are the brackish pool of water and the dolphins. Doubtless this one horse is a sufficient attribute of Poseidon, but comparing the vase, so far as it goes, with the west pediment, we must conclude that the one horse in effect represents the two horses of his chariot. As a result of this com |