The Pergamene Frieze

In the reconstruction of the Pergamene frieze from the fragments which have come to the Berlin Museum much progress has been recently made, and it is now possible to follow—in respect of some of the slabs—a tolerably clear order to which certain mechanical or external signs in the stones themselves would appear to point. And this is a clue more helpful than that which the affinity of style or the natural relations of the figures can afford. It is partly on such grounds as these that the slab on which Dionysos appears has been assigned to the south-east corner of the staircase, and it has been conjectured that near to this, perhaps immediately on its right, was one on which was seen the form of a winged god whose left arm holds a shield, and whose right arm, wielding a sword, is swung over his head against a fallen antagonist.The giant has sunk on his knee, and is raising in supplication or defence his left arm that dimly appears through the shaggy fell that envelopes it. A right hand grasping a stone, the fragments of a knee just lifted from the ground, are placed beneath, and probably belong to him. The drapery of the god is arranged for dramatic effect, as the exomis leaves the right side bare, so that the action gains force and clearness of expression. The composition can make no claim to originality, its forms are highly sculpturesque, and had long been a tradition of sculpture: a metope on the east front of the Parthenon (Michaelis, No. xiii.), on which a scene from the gigantomachy is represented, is the earliest source to which we can directly trace this motive.