A catalogue of sculpture in the Department of ... - Warburg Institute

WEST PEDIMENT OF PARTHENON. 121whose left thigh receives the main weight of his body,which leans a little to the right, resting on his left hand.With him is grouped a female figure, who has thrownherself in baste on both knees, with one arm round theneck of her companion. Her action expresses surprise atthe event occurring in the centre of the pediment, towardswhich she has looked back. She wears a long chiton,and over it a diploiidion which falls below the girdle,and which has slipped from the left shoulder, leaving theleft breast and side exposed. Her left arm, now entirelywanting, was broken off a little below the shoulder at thedate of Carrey's drawing. The male figure has a mantlecast over his lower limbs. His right arm, which wasbroken off below the elbow in the time of Stuart, is nowreduced to a stump. The right leg and knee and partof the right thigh have also been lost since the time ofStuart. It apj)ears from the statements of travellers (cf.Michaelis, p. 194) that these figures lost their heads in theyears 1802 and 1803. The careful drawing of the groupmade by Pars, and preserved in the British Museum(Stuart, ii., chap. I., pi. 9 Michaelis, pi. ;8, fig. 2), shows thatthe heads of both figures were turned towards the centralgroup, the head of the female figure being, moreover,slightl} inclined over the left shoulder. In this drawingthe right arm of the male figure is bent at a right angle,the upper part being nearly horizontal. On the groundbetween the pair is a convex mass, which has been recognisedto be part of the coil of a large serpent. The remainderof this serpent may be seen at the back of thegroup, passing under the left hand of the male figure. Infront of this hand the body of the serpent terminates ina joint with a rectangular sinking, into which a fragmentfrom the Elgin Collection has been fitted.(^Mus. Marbles,vi., pi. 8, fig. 2.)This group has received various names. Spon and