How to See the British Museum in Four Visits eBook

William Blanchard Jerrold
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 237 pages of information about How to See the British Museum in Four Visits.

How to See the British Museum in Four Visits eBook

William Blanchard Jerrold
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 237 pages of information about How to See the British Museum in Four Visits.
should pass at once to the model of a Xanthian Ionic peristyle building, surrounded by fourteen columns and ornamented with statues, made under the direction of Sir Charles Fellows, from the remains found on the site of the original building, which lie about the room, and which the visitor is about to examine.  The original building was thirty-five feet in height, measuring from the pediment to the base.  Its object has been variously stated, but cannot be said to be clearly and satisfactorily known.  Of the conjectures which have obtained certain credit, we may mention that which described it as a trophy raised, in 476 B.C., to celebrate the subjugation of Lycia by the Persians; and that which describes the subject of the decorative sculptures as that of the suppression of the revolt of the Cilicians by the Persian Satrap of Lycia.  The remains of this mysterious building are ranged in groups about the room; and the visitor will observe indications of the flow of the lines, and the artistic grace, which subsequently marked Grecian sculpture from every other on the face of the earth.  Here it is not impossible to recognise the Greek mind:  far below that of the decoration of the Parthenon, it is true; but yet elegant and thoughtful.  The groups of sculpture marked (34-49) are the sculptures of the broader frieze which, it is conjectured, surrounded the base of the building.  Here are represented a series of warlike encounters in which the Greek arms are prominent—­their helmets, crests, and Argolic bucklers; while other soldiers are represented nearly nude, and in some instances wearing the Asiatic pointed cap.  This frieze undoubtedly represents the Greeks at war with Asiatic tribes.  The fragments of the narrow frieze which bordered the upper part of the frieze are marked from 50 to 68.  The first four fragments represent the attack of a town, supposed to be the Lycian town Xanthus.  Here the besiegers may be observed scaling the wall, and the officers cheering on the men.  The five following fragments represent various scenes of warfare between Greeks and Asiatics.  Then a walled city is represented, with the heads of a besieged party looking over the ramparts; then a figure of a Satrap occurs (62), supposed to be that of the Persian conqueror of Lycia, Harpagus, who is screened with an umbrella held by a slave, which is the emblem of his sovereignty, and is in the act of receiving a deputation from the besieged city.  The next two fragments represent a sally from the besieged town; and upon the 67th fragment is some carving supposed to illustrate the retreat of the besieged to their city.  The groups marked (69,70,74) are fragments of the capping-stones of the east front of the base, and columns and fragments of columns from the peristyle.  Those groups, however, marked (75-84), which consist of the statues originally placed in the intercolumniations of the building, are figures of divinities, with various symbols at their feet, as the dolphin, the halcyon,
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How to See the British Museum in Four Visits from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.