"Is not then a hall so beautiful and admirable
a dangerous adversary to a speaker? But I ,have
not yet mentioned the principal point. You yourselves, gentlemen of the jury, have been regarding
the roof as we spoke, admiring the walls and
examining the pictures, turning toward each of
them. Do not be ashamed! It is excusable if you
have felt a touch of human nature, especially in the
presence of pictures so beautiful and so varied. The
exactness of their technique and the combination of
antiquarian interest and instructiveness in their
subjects are truly seductive and call for a cultivated
‘spectator. That you may not look exclusively in that
direction and leave us in the lurch, I will do my best
to paint you a word-picture of them, for I think you
will be glad to hear about things which you look at
with admiration. Perhaps you will even applaud me
for it and prefer me to my opponent, saying. that I
have displayed my powers as well as he, and that I
have made your pleasure double. But the difficulty of
the task is patent, to represent so many pictures without colour, form or space. Word-painting is but a
bald thing.


 

 
“On the right as you come in, you have a‘ combination of Argolic myth and Ethiopian romance.
Perseus is killing the sea-monster and freeing
Andromeda; in a little while he will marry her and
go away with her. It is an incident to his winged
quest of the Gorgons. The artist has represented
much in little—the maid’s modesty and terror (for
she is looking down on the fight from the cliff
overhead), the lad’s fond courage and the beast’s
unconquerable mien. ‘As he comes on bristling with
spines and inspiring terror with his gaping jaws
Perseus displays the Gorgon in his left hand, and
with his right assails him with the sword: the part
of the monster which has seen the Medusa is already
stone, and the part that is still alive is feeling the
hanger’s edge.
 Cf. Claudian (Gigantom. 113), of a giant slain by Athena:
pars moritur ferro, partes periere videndo. An echo of the
same source? 

 

“Next to this picture is portrayed another righteous deed, for which the painter derived his model,
I suppose, from Euripides or Sophocles, inasmuch as
they have portrayed the subject in the same way.
 In the Electra of each. But tais description is modelled
on Sophocles (1424 ff.). 
The two youthful comrades Pylades of Phocis and
Orestes (supposed to be dead) have secretly entered
the palace and are slaying Aegisthus. Clytemnestra
is already slain and is stretched on a bed half-naked,
and the whole household is stunned by tle deed—
some are shouting, apparently, and others casting
about for a way of escape. It was a noble device on
the painter’s part simply to indicate the impious
element in the undertaking and pass it over as an




 

accomplished fact, and to represent the young men
lingering over the slaying of the adulterer/

 

“Next is a handsome god and a pretty boy, a
scene of fond foolery. Branchus, sitting on a rock,
is holding up a hare and teasing his dog, while the
dog is apparently going to spring up at him; Apollo,
standing near, is smiling in amusement at the tricks
of the lad and the efforts of the dog.

 

“Then comes Perseus again, in the adventure:
which preceded the sea-monster. He is cutting off
the head of Medusa, and Athena is shielding him.
He has done the daring deed, but has not looked,
except at the reflection of the Gorgon in the shield,
for he knows the cost of looking at the reality.