- Museum number
- Hh,13.4.48
- Description
-
Figures in one half of the Western pediment of the Parthenon, showing Hadrian and Sabina sitting on the right at the edge of a group of divinities, women to the right of them, one holding a child by the hand, one seated with raised arms as though driving a chariot, rearing horses in front of her and a man and a woman standing under the apex; illustration to Stuart and Revett's "The Antiquities of Athens" volume IV (London, 1816) chapter 4, plate I. 1810
Etching
- Production date
- 1810
- Dimensions
-
Height: 235 millimetres
-
Width: 513 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Woods reproduces notes on the figures by J G Legrand (see below) who remarked that many of the figures had bronze ornaments, which had since fallen off; he suggested that the group of Hadrian and Sabina was a later addition in honour of that emperor, because the workmanship was different. He also recorded the fate of the figure of the male figure under the apex, which he identifies as Jupiter: it had fallen from its place and buried itself head-first in the ground, leaving the lower parts exposed, so the Turks, who had to pass it on the way to the mosque, broke it up and inserted the fragments into the walls, from which Louis-François Fauvel was attempting to reconstruct it.
Woods identified the woman seated behind the horses as Minerva, whom he thought was then shown again under the apex, greeting Jupiter.
Stuart described the Parthenon in Vol. II, chapter 1 [see Hh,13.16.(2)]. However, he provided plates only as examples of the type of sculpture there and the different styles of dress illustrated in it. Joseph Woods therefore decided to supply a chapter with as much of the remaining sculpture as possible. The first five plates illustrate the Western pediment which Stuart would not have seen, because it was destroyed by a bomb blast when the Parthenon was being used as an arms store during the seige of Athens by the Venetians in 1687. However, Jean-Henri-Francois Olier, marquis de Nointel, French ambassador to Constantinople (1670-1679) obtained permission to have his Flemish draughtsman Jacques Carrey make a record of the Parthenon in 1674. The drawings were acquired by Michael Bégon in 1685 and then passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, where the publisher, Taylor, saw them in 1814 and was allowed copies of them by a French artist. These were engraved full-size for plates I-IV. Plate V was included to show the eastern and western pediments complete, rather than in two halves: it was made at an earlier period from a tracing by J G Legrand, who also copied Carrey's drawings. This was obtained from General Miranda, 'with some difficulty' according to Woods, who did not have the plate re-engraved, although it was slightly inaccurate. He also reproduced the letter Legrand sent the General with the tracings, dated 7 May 1802 which included several observations on the figures.
Some fragments from the eastern pediment were brought to London by Lord Elgin, who gave Woods permission to use them to add some further remarks. Woods reconstructs what he can of the entire frieze of the Cella, noting where the same sculpture had been illustrated already in Vol. II, ch. 1 and using drawings by William Pars and unpublished drawings by Stuart.
Woods also details which pieces of sculpture were acquired by Lord Elgin: several of them had been drawn by Stuart and Pars when they were still in Athens. Woods does not seem to have had full access to Elgin's collection. He concludes 'It would have been extremely desirable to make use of the advantages it [Elgin's collection] afforded, to continue still farther the series of this interesting sculpture; but this was not permitted'.
The plates in the Antiquities which show fragments in Elgin's collection, according to Woods, are as follows:
From the frieze of the Cella: Vol. II, ch. 1, plates XIII [latter part] XIV, XV, XVI [first part], XVII, XVIII [latter part] XIX [latter part] XX
Vol. IV, ch. 4, plates II, III, IV. V, VI, XII [first part] XV.
From the metopes: Vol. II, ch. 1, plates X, XI, XII
Vol. IV, ch. 4, plates XXIX [second part] XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV [first part]
According to Woods, Elgin's collection also contained six other stones of horsemen and five of bulls or oxen, apparently from the south side, including the corner stone between the south and the east sides, with four other unpublished stones. These included two stones between the south-east corner-stone and part of the west end, the series illustrated in plates XXVI-XXIII (of Vol. IV, ch. 4), one of which was the largest continuous piece of frieze in the collection and the other of which was 'a mere fragment'. Fifteen of the metopes illustrated in the Antiquities were also in his collection.
See also Hh,13.8.(4) for more information on the contents and publication of this volume and general information on the Antiquities.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: The Antiquities of Athens
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Hh,13.4.48