On the Composition of the Eastern Pediment of the Zeus Temple at Olympia, and Alcamenes the Lemnian

Hardly ever has an artist been more unjustly treated by posterity than has he who adorned the Eastern pediment at Olympia with the story of Oenomaus and Pelops. Archaeologists have censured, and artists parodied his work for faults of composition that it owed probably entirely to their own reconstructions. The standard of Greek art is so high, even in lesser things, that where a work of this importance seems to fall short, we had better doubt of our own method, or at least suspend our judgment rather than rashly condemn. The more so here, where there does not even exist a general accord as to the arrangement which ought to be preferred. It is true that those peculiarities of style which seemed most to blame were not controverted, but as long as it appears that the truth has not yet been found, the fault will most probably lie where it is least sought for. And in fact material indications are not wanting that all was not right. For example, it is a curious fact that, though the composition was too loosely spread, the detached horses should stand outside the teams of three worked from one block, and this notwithstanding that they show unmistakable marks of having stood close to the wall. I was so strongly impressed by this circumstance during a visit at Olympia in May 1888, that I resolved to try by all means a new solution on this principle. But of course I lighted on the same difficulty which had prevented others from accepting this arrangement, as the five central figures, spellbound by the words of Pausanias, did not leave sufficient space to right and left for two horses in succession, and I already half despaired of coming to any conclusion, when Prof. Brunn spoke the magic word that broke the spell.