It is now generally held, in consequence of evidence furnished by tombs,
that the 5th century saw the end of the making of vases on a great scale
at Athens for export to Italy and Sicily. And in fact few things in the
history of art are more remarkable than the rapidity with which
vase-painting at Athens reached its highest point and passed it on the
downward road. At the beginning of the century black-figured ware was
scarcely out of fashion, and the masters of the severe red-figured
style, Pamphaeus, Epictetus and their contemporaries, were in vogue.
The schools of Euphronius, Hiero and Duris belong to the age of the
Persian wars. With the middle of the century the works of these makers
are succeeded by unsigned vases of most beautiful design, some of them
showing the influence of Polygnotus. In the later years of the century,
when the empire of Athens was approaching its fall, drawing becomes
laxer and more careless, and in the treatment of drapery we frequently
note the over-elaboration of folds, the want of simplicity, which begin
to mark contemporary sculpture. These changes of style can only be
satisfactorily followed in the vase rooms of the British Museum, or
other treasuries of Greek art (see also A. B. Walters, _History of
Ancient Pottery_; and the article CERAMICS).
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--East Pediment, Olympia. Two Restorations.]
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--West Pediment, Olympia. Two Restorations.]
Olympia: Temple of Zeus.
Among the sculptural works of this period the first place may be given
to the great temple of Zeus at Olympia. The statue by Pheidias which
once occupied the place of honour in that temple, and was regarded as
the noblest monument of Greek religion, has of course disappeared, nor
are we able with confidence to restore it. But the plan of the temple,
its pavement, some of its architectural ornaments, remain. The marbles
which occupied the pediments and the metopes of the temple have been in
large part recovered, having been probably thrown down by earthquakes
and gradually buried in the alluvial soil. The utmost ingenuity and
science of the archaeologists of Germany have been employed in the
recovery of the composition of these groups; and although doubt remains
as to the places of some figures, and their precise attitudes, yet we
may fairly say that we know more about the sculpture of the Olympian
temple of Zeus than about the sculpture of any other great Greek temple.
The exact date of these sculptures is not certain, but we may with some
confidence give them to 470-460 B.C. (In speaking of them we shall
mostly follow the opinion of Dr Treu, whose masterly work in vol. iii.
of the great German publication on Olympia is a model of patience and of
science.) In the eastern pediment (fig. 33), as Pausanias tells us, were
represented the preparations for the chariot-race between Oenomaus and
Pelops, the result of which was to determine whether Pelops should find
death or a bride and a kingdom. In the midst, invisible to the
contending heroes, stood Zeus the supreme arbiter. On one side of him
stood Oenomaus with his wife Sterope, on the other Pelops and
Hippodameia, the daughter of Oenomaus, whose position at once indicates
that she is on the side of the newcomer, whatever her parents may feel.
Next on either side are the four-horse chariots of the two competitors,
that of Oenomaus in the charge of his perfidious groom Myrtilus, who
contrived that it should break down in the running, that of Pelops
tended by his grooms. At either end, where the pediment narrows to a
point, reclines a river god, at one end Alpheus, the chief stream of
Olympia, at the other end his tributary Cladeus. Only one figure
remains, not noticed in the careful description of Pausanias, the figure
of a handmaid kneeling, perhaps one of the attendants of Sterope. Our
engraving gives two conjectural restorations of the pediment, that of
Treu and that of Kekule, which differ principally in the arrangement of
the corners of the composition; the position of the central figures and
of the chariots can scarcely be called in question. The moment chosen is
one, not of action, but of expectancy, perhaps of preparation for
sacrifice. The arrangement is undeniably stiff and formal, and in the
figures we note none of the trained perfection of style which belongs to
the sculptures of the Parthenon, an almost contemporary temple. Faults
abound, alike in the rendering of drapery and in the representation of
the human forms, and the sculptor has evidently trusted to the painter
who was afterwards to colour his work, to remedy some of his clumsiness,
or to make clear the ambiguous. Nevertheless there is in the whole a
dignity, a sobriety, and a simplicity, which reconcile us to the
knowledge that this pediment was certainly regarded in antiquity as a
noble work, fit to adorn even the palace of Zeus. In the other, the
western pediment (fig. 34), the subject is the riot of the Centaurs when
they attended the wedding of Peirithous in Thessaly, and, attempting to
carry off the bride and her comrades, were slain by Peirithous and
Theseus. In the midst of the pediment, invisible like Zeus in the
eastern pediment, stands Apollo, while on either side of him Theseus and
Peirithous attack the Centaurs with weapons hastily snatched. Our
illustration gives two possible arrangements. The monsters are in
various attitudes of attempted violence, of combat and defeat; with
each grapples one of the Lapith heroes in the endeavour to rob them of
their prey. In the corners of the pediment recline female figures,
perhaps attendant slaves, though the farthest pair may best be
identified as local Thessalian nymphs, looking on with the calmness of
divine superiority, yet not wholly unconcerned in what is going forward.
Though the composition of the two pediments differs notably, the one
bearing the impress of a parade-like repose, the other of an
overstrained activity, yet the style and execution are the same in both,
and the shortcomings must be attributed to the inferior skill of a local
school of sculptors compared with those of Athens or of Aegina. It even
appears likely that the designs also belong to a local school.
Pausanias, it is true, tells us that the pediments were the work of
Alcamenes, the pupil of Pheidias, and of Paeonius, a sculptor of Thrace,
respectively; but it is almost certain that he was misled by the local
guides, who would naturally be anxious to connect the sculptures of
their great temple with well-known names.
[Illustration: _Olympia_, iii. 45.