Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 14, 2025
The fourth metope has been so mutilated that the figure of the Athenian, which was once upon it, is wholly effaced, and the Centaur has the head, part of two legs, and both arms, wanting. Originally the Centaur was holding an Athenian by his hair. The fifth metope is also much mutilated; but here both figures were evidently represented mutually confident of victory.
But when I turned to the Theseus, and saw that every form was altered by action or repose-when I saw that the two sides of his back varied as he rested on his elbow; and again, when in the figure of the fighting metope, I saw the muscle shown under one armpit in that instantaneous action of darting out, and left out in the other armpits; when I saw, in short, the most heroic style of art, combined with all the essential detail of everyday life, the thing was done at once and for ever.... Here were the principles which the great Greeks in their finest time established, and here was I, the most prominent historical student, perfectly qualified to appreciate all this by my own determined mode of study.
You can't play out your role of pauper; and you don't look a probable outcome of destitution and hard work. Your hands would fit much better in a metope of the Elgin Marbles, than in a wash-tub, or a bake-oven." Drawing away quickly, she put them behind her, and felt her palms tingle.
Again, if we are to suppose that there were open windows where the triglyphs now stand, it will follow, on the same principle, that the dentils of the Ionic order have likewise taken the places of windows. For the term "metope" is used of the intervals between dentils as well as of those between triglyphs.
In case of the metope, the square field is filled with two or three figures balanced about a central line, a scheme self-contained and harmonious, which may be compared to a geometrical diagram, and carries simplicity to the farthest point. Rhythm, balance, symmetry are the translation into sculpture of the spirit of discipline and self-control, which the Greeks learned by hard necessity.
Under each triglyph there is worked upon the face of the architrave, directly below the taenia, a REGULA, shaped like a small cleat, and to the under surface of this regula is attached a row of six cylindrical or conical GUTTAE. Between every two triglyphs, and standing a little farther back, there is a square or nearly square slab or block called a METOPE. This has a flat band across the top; for the rest, its face may be either plain or sculptured in relief.
Only in parts of the building which were from the point of view of construction otiose, such as pediment and metope, was the art of the sculptor allowed to play; and even then it was bound to play appropriately to the nature of the deity within and the festivals of which the temple was to be the focus. There was no room for cross-purposes or disturbing thoughts.
Here, again, is the war of the Athenians, on behalf of the Lapithae, with the Centaurs, the sculptor's subject. The first metope to which the visitor will, in natural order, direct his attention, is that marked 1. The second metope also represents an Athenian subduing a Centaur. The third metope shows an Athenian under very disadvantageous circumstances.
The drapery that falls from the fine form of the Greek is exquisitely folded, and the figure itself is finished with masterly skill. A victorious Centaur holding forth a mantle of lion's skin, is the central figure of the next metope . Below lies the dead body of an Athenian: all the muscles marked and rigid.
That city was founded, according to our best ancient authority, about the year 629 B.C., and the temple from which our metope is taken is certainly one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of the many temples of the place. The material of the metope, as of the whole temple, is a local poros, and the work is executed in high relief. The subject is Perseus cutting off the head of Medusa.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking