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himself most. Slab xxviii. is an example which is more than usually interesting because of the exceeding lowness of the relief in the nearest plane, the modelling of the horse being surpassingly delicate and refined. At the same time there are occasional exceptions where both types of action are combined, as in slab ii. of the west frieze. This habit of making the nearest plane of the relief very thin and the modelling of the surface necessarily refined to the last degree, recalls to our mind a pellucid stream, where the water is shallow, showing every feature of the shelving rock beneath. The surface is apparently a smooth expanse, yet it is infinitely modulated, as we soon perceive. The surface of a relief is like that of a stream. It may be smooth or turbulent. If smooth, we see into the depths; if turbulent, we cannot see below. As a rule the sense of what was monumental in sculpture impelled the Greeks to broaden the nearest plane, and thus to approach as nearly as possible the idea of stability and permanency.

The ears of the horses may or may not be too small, but in any case the sculptor has been quick to perceive how the finely marked bone above the eye of a horse may be made to combine with the ear close above it, so as almost to suggest a decorative pattern, and yet be true to nature.

The manes are usually hogged, now carefully, now carelessly rendered. The one striking exception is the mare on the west frieze rubbing her nose against her fore leg (slab xii.). There the mane is uncut, is parted along the ridge of the neck, and falls on each side more formally than naturally. But on the west frieze, which was a scene of preparation and start, we expect greater finish in such details

than on the long sides with their more excited movement. Negligence in this, as in other respects, is most apparent on the south side, which, as we have said, was the least likely to be inspected by visitors. On slab xiii. of that side the mane of the horse is good and his action spirited, but his head is too big for his body, and altogether he is a diminutive creature.

We are accustomed to think that a long, flowing tail is a beauty in a horse. But on the whole Parthenon frieze we find at most two or three instances of this. The best is on the west frieze (viii.), where we have the incomparable group of a rearing horse and a man vigorously holding it in, his mantle flapping in the wind. The upper part of the tail is modelled in relief, but the lower part is cut into the background, so as to reproduce an aspect of unsubstantiality. But as for most of the horses, it is both curious and instructive to observe with what anxiety the sculptor has studied to hide their tails behind the oncoming horse. He must have seen that with the multitude of legs he was bent on introducing he could not afford to let the tails of the horses sweep downwards without encroaching on the background of the relief, and leaving too little of it for a clear appreciation of the numerous legs of the horses. Hence his efforts to get rid of the tails somehow. That his artistic instinct was perfectly right in the matter may be gathered from the fact that no one notices the discrepancy of tails. When, however, we have once noticed it, this discrepancy becomes not altogether agreeable. It is unnecessary to specify the various instances, but we may remark that on one slab in particular of the south frieze (xxii.) there is a tail which could not be surpassed

for rudeness of execution, and even then it is only a stump, and the same may be said of another (xix.). Be it remembered, however, that gross carelessness of this kind is only to be seen on the south frieze, which, as we have said repeatedly, was the least likely to be visited. That would account for negligence of supervision in many places, almost side by side with some of the finest slabs of the whole frieze. In several instances the young horsemen of the north frieze are nude except for a slight mantle. Observe him on slab xxxvi., who is turning in his seat, with his left arm thrown back easily, the right hand holding the reins. There is here a singular charm in the combination of nude form and slight mantle, the folds of which are made to show just where they are wanted, on the neck and the right fore arm. They are especially fine between the body and the left arm, where they seem to thicken in the wind, and lose all formality. We do not suppose that there had been in the actual procession through the streets of Athens any riders so comparatively nude, but we do assume that the sculptor required these bright nude spots at intervals, as so many restful points for the eye of the spectator. In those days everyone was familiar with nude, or nearly nude, figures in works of art.

We may, indeed must, suppose that in the actual procession there had been a far greater display of ceremonial costume than we now see on the frieze, so far at least as concerned the cavalcade. Here and there we see a cuirass, plain or highly decorated, a helmet, a leather cap, a petasos, a wreath, a bare head, high boots, or bare feet. In all these matters there may have been in the procession through the streets

some settled order of groups of horsemen similarly costumed keeping together, as in fact seems the case in a group of the south frieze, where they all wear the cuirass. But were that so, the sculptor has allowed himself considerable freedom. The uniformity of costume is most marked in the horsemen of the north frieze. It is mainly the ordinary dress of Athenian youth of the well-to-do class, and it suits admirably the rapid movement of the horses. We can understand the greater diversity on the west frieze, which, being more stationary, would better display incidental varieties of

costume.

We pass on to the chariot groups, observing first of all that those of the north frieze have a striking advantage over those on the south in one respect, important from an artistic point of view. Whether on north or south, each chariot has a driver and an apobates or armed youth, who leaps up and down in the manner of a Homeric hero as the chariot advances. Now the position of the apobates was necessarily on the left hand of the driver, from which fact it follows that on the north frieze, where the movement is from right to left, the apobates appears in the nearest plane of the relief, and is thus fully displayed to the spectator, whereas on the south frieze, which moves from left to right, he is necessarily on the farther side of the driver, and would thus in ordinary circumstances be largely hidden from view, notwithstanding that he was the principal person in the chariot. Something could be done by bringing the apobates farther forward than the charioteer, and thus showing the upper part of his figure as we see from the eight chariots of the south frieze still existing in Carrey's time. At the

present day comparatively little exists of that section. But we possess one particularly splendid group (xxx.), in which to intensify the apobates on the farther side the sculptor has carved him deep into the background of the relief. Possibly

this was a solitary exception, for in the group immediately preceding (xxxi.) the apobates is not similarly cut into the background, though he is in the same position in the chariot. Still it is not unreasonable to suppose that the deep cutting of the apobates in the other slab may have been a protest against the difficulties presented by the south as compared with the north frieze. And if this apobates is striking by the forceful manner in which he is sculptured, the horses in front of him are even more fascinating by the beauty of their heads and necks, in which the fiery action of the creatures is concentrated, as it should be, within the smallest possible space, and with the most lovely transitions from one plane to another.

Mr. Ruskin says: "The projection of the heads of the four horses one behind the other is certainly not more altogether than three-quarters of an inch from the flat ground, and the one in front does not in reality project more than the one behind it, yet by mere drawing you see the sculptor has got them to appear to recede in due order, and by the soft rounding of the flesh surfaces and modulation of the veins he has taken away all look of flatness from the necks. He has drawn the eyes and nostrils with dark incision, careful as the finest touches of a painter's pencil; and then at last when he comes to the manes, he has let fly hand and chisel with their full force, and where a base workman (above all if he had

1 Aratra Pentelici, p. 174.

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