The Square Pedestals.—In some notes on the sculpture from the Artemision at the British Museum, printed in the last volume of this Journal (p. 87), I suggested that the fragment No. 1201 most probably belonged to a relief representing either Herakles in the Garden of the Hesperides or Herakles and the Hydra. Subsequent examination and the attempt to make a restoration from the given data have made me sure that the former was the subject of the sculpture. Only this would account for the quiet action of the left hand of Herakles and for the closely associated female figure. If this were indeed the subject, how could its normal elements be arranged so as to suit the conditions of the square pedestal having a vertical joint in the centre, and making proper use of the existing fragment of which Fig. 1 is a rough sketch? This question I have tried to answer. The fragment is now fixed in the side of a built-up pedestal close to its left-hand angle, but there is nothing which settles this position and it is a practically impossible one, for there is not room left in which to complete the figure of Herakles. If, however, we shift the piece to the right hand half of the pedestal, and sketch in the completion of the two figures, we at once see how perfectly the tree and serpent would occupy the centre of the composition and leave the left-hand space for the two other watching maidens—the whole making a symmetrical group.
Presenting the Symmetrical Group with Transpositions
