Winckelmann, Monumenti Inediti, No. 56; Zoega, Bassirelievi Ant., I., pl. 41; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., p. 175, fig. 38. For further literature, see Wolters, No. 243.
CASTS OF SCULPTURES FROM AEGINA.
The temple of Athenè at Aegina stands on a commanding plateau in the north-east of the island. It is of the kind known as Doric peripteral hexastyle; that is to say, it is of the Doric order, surrounded by a colonnade, which has six columns at the ends and thirteen columns at the sides. The site was excavated in 1811 by a party of English and German explorers, and the sculptures discovered were purchased in 1812 by the Crown Prince of Bavaria. The principal figures were restored at Rome by Thorwaldsen and J. M. Wagner. In 1817 the collection was placed in the Glyptothek at Munich.
With the exception of an ivory eye (Cockerell, pl. 12) attributed by the discoverers to the image inside the temple, the only sculptures found were those which originally were contained in or surmounted the pediments of the temple.
The Aeginetan sculptures belong to the latest stage of archaic Greek art, and are the most important extant works of that period. For determining the date of the sculptures, political history is only so far of use that we may assume that they are not later than 456 b.c., in which year Aegina was subdued by Athens. From their style they appear to be considerably older than that date.
A minute analysis of the sculptures (Brunn, Das Alter der Aegin. Bildw. p. 9) shows that the east pediment is distinctly more advanced than the west in the expression of emotion, in the rendering of drapery, of the features, the beards, the veins; and in the general proportions. Brunn assigns the groups to the period immediately following the battle of Salamis (480 b.c.) and suggests that the sculptor of the east pediment belonged to a younger generation than his colleague.
The statues are made of Parian marble. They are attached to plinths which were let into the upper surface of the cornice, and are cut out of single blocks, a few small pieces of marble being separately attached. They showed clear traces of colour throughout, when first discovered. One shield from the east pediment was painted with a female figure. There were numerous adjuncts of bronze, such as arms and ornaments, which have been minutely enumerated by Brunn (Beschreibung, &c., p. 67). The restored pediments in the British Museum have been partially decorated in accordance with the scheme of Cockerell, who says: "The members of the entablature and pediment were discovered often in all their original vividness, which quickly disappeared on exposure to the atmosphere." (Cockerell, p. 27, pl. 6).
C. R. Cockerell, The Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius at Aegina, &c., 1860; Blouet, Expédition de Morée, III., p. 23; Brunn, Ueber das Alter der Aeginetischen Bildwerke in the Sitzungsber. der k. bayer. Akad., 1867, I., p. 405, and Ueber die Composition der Aeginetischen Giebelgruppen, ibidem, 1868, II., p. 448; Brunn, Beschreibung der Glyptothek König Ludwig's I., 4th ed., 1879; Wolters, Nos. 69-85.