Note (return) — THE TEMPLE ON THE ACROPOLIS BURNT BY THE PERSIANS.

But if we assume that the pedimental group could have originated in this way, we must be prepared to explain the course of its development up to the pediments of Aegina and the Parthenon, in which we find an entirely different principle, namely, the filling of these tympana with figures in the round. It is maintained by some scholars, notably by Koepp, 55 that no connection can be established between high relief and low relief, much less between statues entirely in the round and low relief. High relief follows all the principles of sculpture, while low relief may almost be considered as a branch of the painter's art. But this view seems opposed to the evidence of the facts. For there still exists a continuous series of pedimental groups, first in low relief then in high relief, and finally standing altogether free from the background, and becoming sculpture in the round. Examples in low relief are the Hydra pediment from the Acropolis and the pediment of the Megarian Treasury at Olympia, which, on artistic grounds, can be set down as the two earliest now in existence. Then follow, in order of time and development, the Triton and Typhon pediments, in high relief, from the Acropolis; and after these the idea of relief is lost, and the pediment becomes merely a space destined to be adorned with statuary. Can we reasonably believe that the Hydra and Triton pediments, standing side by side on the Acropolis, so close to each other in time and in technic, owe their origin to entirely different motives, merely for the reason that the figures of one stand further out from the background than those of the other? Is it not easier to suppose that the higher reliefs, as they follow the older low reliefs in time, are developed from them, than to assume that just at the dividing-line a new principle came into operation?