Introducing Studies in Greek Art (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. THE ALTAR OF EUMENES AT PERGAMOS. ON the Acropolis of Athens we watched the glory and the consummation of Greek art; to the Acropolis of Pergamos we must turn to see its downfall and its ruin, and again the offering is made to the honour of Athene. It is Athene who with her shield on her arm, her aegis on her breast, is grasping the strong-winged giant by the hair, and she is the victress now as before, for near her floats Nike, the victorybringer, and conquest is assured. It is the meaning of this triumph and the manner of its expression that we must seek to understand. The slab (Fig. 9) lies now in the Museum at Berlin, but it came to us from the summit of the hill at Pergamos; we have its history to learn in the present and the past. More than twenty years ago a young German engineer whose name must always claim our reverence--Carl Humann--travelling on the coast of Asia Minor for his health, stayed for a while at Pergamos, now the modern Turkish Bergama (the citadel). He noticed that native workmen, in their customary ruthless manner, were breaking up large fragments of sculptured marble, building them into walls and burning them in lime-kilns. He was at the time engineer, not archaeologist; but educated as he had been in a country which though poor in antique originals is rich in cast-museums, he saw at once the value of the marbles. For a time his exertions stopped the havoc, but he left Pergamos and again the barbarians began their work. Fortunately he returned in 1869 to undertake engineering work and took up his headquarters at Pergamos. He sent fragments of the sculptures home to Germany. Even the German Government cannot excavate everywhere at the same moment. The excavations at Olympia had to be subsidized, and.