Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/196

 l80 THESEUM, ERECHTHEUM, AND OTHER WORKS. ^v ujimuMj ing has never been published. The principal data are : — A, the dimensions of the basement, given as 22 ft. wide and 33 ft. long, by Hawkins and Fellows, and as 22 ft. 3f in. wide and 33 ft. i^ in. long by Benndorff ; B, the size of the pediment as put together at the Museum gives an extent of 25.8 from point to point of the cymatium ; C, the lengths of the epistyle blocks, of which two are about 6.9 long and two about 6.5 ; one other, which is nearly 7.6 long, must have come next the corner, thus overlapping the angle capital. There is some discussion in the Museum Catalogue as to whether the pediment dimension (B) may not be excessive, as the sculptured tympanum may have been set in a rebate. This would, I think, be impossible, except for a small fraction of an inch along the top edge. There is very little room round about the sculpture, and to set the lower part in a rebate would hide it all the more behind the pro- jecting cornice ; moreover, it would " let the wet in." The total projection of the cornice, allowing for the bold dentils, which can just be traced on the under side of the corona, looks about 1.9, and twice this taken from 25.8 leaves 22.2 across the epistyle, which agrees very exactly with the dimension of the basement (A). It is true there seems to have been some plinth or set back in the basement. In one place Hawkins speaks of i| in., in another of s in. This last was only inferred, because the marble slabs of the sculptured band were 1.4 thick, and the top course of the basement as found seemed to allow 1.9 for the casing stones. A space may have been left at the back, or there may have been a course of thicker marble below the sculptured band. Hawkins himself, in a sketch in the Museum, figures the width of the front at the architrave as 22 feet. Fig. 178. — Nereid Monument, Capital.