Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/113

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THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 9/ Leake was the first to name the six principal figures correctly : I, Hermes; 2, Dionysos ; 3, Demeter ; 4, Ares; 6, Hera; 7, Zeus. Hawkins suggested 8 for Hephaistos. The German Gerhard then named lO Apollo, 11 Artemis, 12 Aphrodite, 13 Eros. Michaelis was the first to name the whole of the second group with substantial accuracy, calling 11 Peitho instead of Artemis. C. Robert was the first who named the whole assembly correctly. The attributions were still argued about when Furtwangler said a ^^%- 83- few words which very much settled dispute, ^ Hand. although no new identifications remained for him to make. Some English writers would still keep the question open in regard to one or two points, but I have no doubt that the names assigned by Robert, Overbeck, and Furtwangler will prevail.* Doubts have been expressed as to how far the immense mass of sculptures, some 50 pedimental figures and horses, 92 metopes, and 524 feet of frieze, can properly be assigned to Phidias at all. On this point we must take into consideration the differ- ence between one man working alone — even though it be Michael Angelo, as is said, on the Sistine — and the master of a school. The metopes in this respect need hardly to be considered ; a few words, a few sketches, and the great traditional technique, would soon settle all but a dozen or so of them. " In certain details of slight importance the assist- ants may have gone beyond the master's orders [or ^■. ^' have dragged behind them], but in all essentials the design is his very own ; that dominant personality which governed the frieze and the pediments, can, on the evidence of style and tradition, be none other than that of Phidias." f Again, it is said that these " mere architectural

  • The new British Museum Catalogue, May 1908, now accepts the identi-

fications fully. t Furtwangler. S. Reinach has also written to this effect. Phidias was chief of a school, like Raphael in the Vatican. Pediments, metopes, and frieze were all works of the same school.