The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21

will ~ WLINMIA NMNh0N IgN eAAAA WV
eastern. and therefore must nave belonged
90 the western pediment. IL to either. But
they could not nave belonged 10 that. no
says. because they were found to the east
Of tho temple. This conclusion il wholly
without warrant. Admitting chat it is pos
sible 70 distinguish between the styles Of
the two pediments so sharply that even a
fragment can be recognized as belonging
to one or the other-an admission which
mlst be nae with some doubt-his argu-
ment could have force only IL we were
certain that these fragments were found
where they fell. whereas il is certain that
they were not. Most Of them were die
covered in q cistern at the eastern end OF
the enclosure and among the ruins Of the
propylon, where they had been thrown
ages ago. and buried under an accumula-
ton Of sand and dirt. Consequently there
had been som moving about OF the sculp-
lures. which he admits for those east Of the
temple but says non could have been
taken from the west to the east. Why not?
How can we assert that in a thousand years.
or whatever may have been the period
that these fragments lay on the ground.
nobody picked any OF them up and carried
them from one point OF the enclosure to
another, there to drop them or throw them
away2 His only reason is that in the long
stretch 100 feet-between the east
em and western ends he found practically
no fragments. which he a how a COM
plete isolation between the two. This is at
best a poor argument, and il b weakened
by the fact that he did fnd one or two mail
bits on the north side. and, moreover, he is
arguing from incomplete evidence, for we
do not know how many Cockerell and Halter
may have found along the two sides, sinoe
they made no record Of the finding place Of
any but the more important pieces which
they removed. In style, however, he finds
these fragments so different from the pedi-
ment figures, in spite Of the points of resem-
blance enumerated above, as TO justify
their exclusion from either group. and there
are a number among those in the Glyptothek
which he excludes on the anne ground. In
all this line Of reasoning | i've done my best
to follow him, but without success. The
two heads which he illustrates for COMPARE
son on page 280, one from the western pedi-
ment and one of a -Nichtgiebelkrieger."
seem to me strikingly alike, and | confess
that i should have had no hesitation in as
signing both to the same composition II left
to myself. Certainly they resemble each
other much more than the two heads Nos. a
and %, on plate OF, which he assigns without
question to the eastern pediment. And
what shall we say when he finds the two
archaic male heads from Olympia %. 34s;
Olympia, atlas iii. pL 81 so much alike that
they must have belonged 70 the same group,
though Treu and others have thought diff
ferently and the heads wereIound far apart7
The answer is that there are times when
Furtwangler merely sees things as he wants
TO see them, and that at such times evidence
to the contrary ounts but little with him..
1t Is then that we must be on our guard
against accepting his conclusions, and this
is the case with the "Nichtgiebelkrieger.'
Taking his evidence as he presents it, a
Scotch verdict Of nc proven" must be
entered against his claim that they did not
belong to the ~pediments, where l venture to
prophesy that places will yet be found for at
least some Of them.
Among these excluded fragments are
the feet and lower part of the drapery Of
the second female figure referred to above,
in a striding attitude. Out of these he
creates another Athena, and puts forth the
theory shat there was a third group, similar
to those Of the pediments, not on the temple,
as that would be obviously impossible,
but erected within the enclosure. This
il, to be sure, a combination unique thus far
in our knowledge OF Greek art. but he ex-
plains II by supposing that there was a com
petition for the decorations Of the temple,
in which the compositions were carried
out completely, the figures full size and Of
marble, and that this third group was a
rejected design, which nevertheless was so
fine that il was erected as an offering to
Aph@a at the expense Of wealthy citizens
10. 273)! We nave now rea ched the region
Of pure Imagination. He finds support
for his theory in the discovery Of fragments
Of a third akroterion, which is supposed
TO indicate at least the intention of putting
this group into an architectural framework
resembling the pediments, akrotcrion and
all. The fact that no fragment o. such a
framework wa found does not disturb bin,
because he assumes that the intention
was never carried out. But is it not equally
reasonable to account for the third akroter-
ion by supposing that one of those intended
for the temple was broken either during
or after its construction, and replaced by
another2 And il the architectural frame
work was not built around the -Nichtgie-
belkrieger," how doe it happen that they
are weathered in the same manner as the
pediment figures, that Ia, Corroded more
on one SIDE Jnan on the OtnerE As 10 the
female figure, OF her sex there can he no
question. That she was an Athena in far
from proved, as this is not a case OF eI pede
HercuIem, and we might ask whether it is
impossible that in the eastern pediment
there should have been two goddesses in
active motion. one in either half, instead
Of one alone in the middle? This is merely
applying TO the present case the argument
of the hand and the stone which he found
so successful in the western pediment.
I have space for only a word about the
restoration of the colors on the two pediment
groups (pls. IO4, 1851, which is both arbitrary
and atrocious, reminding us. in the taste it
displays, Of the old saying that the Ger
mans in Greek are sadly to seek 1t is
arbitrary in that IL takes into account only
the colors that rave survived, red and blue,
and makes no allowance for others which,
not being Of mineral composition, would
have persisted long ago; and surely we are
not compelled 10 believe that the reds and
blues were Of the hard disoordant tone
- l. - - H.