London.
_The Island and Temple of AEgina_ (Vol. iv., pp. 255. 412.).--Having
been, some time since, greatly pleased by a fine engraving of the ruined
Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius in AEgina (but unaccompanied by any
description), and having had a well executed water-colour drawing made
therefrom, my interest was aroused on the subject, and I searched among
books within reach for particulars on the subject of what there seems
every reason to regard as the oldest temple in Greece, with the single
exception of that of Corinth. After a patient search I found Fosbroke's
_Foreign Topography_ (4to. edition, 1828, pp. 3, 4, 5.) to contain the
best account of those interesting ruins. The work is not a scarce one
in good libraries: I shall therefore be concise in the extracts from it.
The article entitled "AEgina (Greece)" states that the remains of the
Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius (which are engraved in the _Ionian
Antiquities_) prove it to have been of the Doric order; that it had six
columns in front, but only twelve on the side, in opposition to the
usual custom among Greek architects of adding one column more than
double the number of those in front. The architecture is said closely to
approach that of the hexastyle hypaethral Temple of Paestum. Williams, in
his _Travels_, expresses the opinion that this Temple of Jupiter is
older than that of Theseus or the Parthenon. In Dodwell's _Greece_, too,
there is an ample description of it. He represents it to have been part
of the ruins of an ancient city, perhaps of Oie. Twenty-five columns
were left entire in his day; together with the greater part of the
epistylion, or architrave. The cornice, however, with the metopae and
triglyphs, have all fallen. The view of this gloriously positioned
temple must have been magnificent from the sea; while the details of the
building must have been equally delighting to the near spectator. The
temple was built of soft porous stone, coated with a thin stucco, which
must have given it a marble appearance. The epistylia were painted, and
the cornice elegantly ornamented in a similar manner. The pavement was
also covered with a thick stucco, painted vermilion. Chandler (_Greece_,
12-15.) describes traces of the peribolus of this temple; and Clarke
styles it at once the most ancient and remarkable in Greece. I may add
that the AEginetans were celebrated for their works in bronze, for fine
medals (the art of coining money indeed being first introduced by the
inhabitants of this island), for their terra cotta vases, &c. Fosbroke's
excellent _Cyclopaedia of Antiquities_ may be with advantage consulted in
respect to the Eginetic school of art.