by Jo Woodnutt

Created on: May 08, 2009

Throughout the archaic and classical period, Greek temples became increasingly more decorated, and the sculptural decoration on the temple improved dramatically. The sculptured parts of the temple were the Metopes, which were part of the frieze, and the Pediments. The pediments caused the greatest problems for sculptors for a number of reasons.

The most difficult thing for a sculptor to achieve was filling the space. The pediments, as you can see from the above drawing, were triangular, and this created enormous problems for even the most able sculptors- how could they fill the space and leave as few gaps as possible, yet retain a sense of scale? The Temple of Artemis at Corfu was built around 600BC. It shows very simple, early sculpture, with no unity of scale and no unity of design. The central figure is the gorgon Medusa, and to either side of her are panthers, facing inwards. The design is anachronistic, as we can also see Medusa's sons, who were born from her head when she dies- yet in this depiction she is still alive. In either corner there are men fighting, and dead giants. These depictions are not connected in any way, and the pediment therefore feels strange. It is very symmetrical, but the giants are smaller than the panthers, and this looks odd too. Depth of relief was also a problem for sculptors, and this temple certainly seems to be struggling with this, the carved parts only being slightly raised from the stone. They are also representations of the creatures depicted, and are not particularly realistic or well modelled. The sculptors of the time were reluctant to lose patterns and symmetry for the sake of realism.

By the time the Siphnian Treasury was built in 525BC, a lot of these problems had been solved, although not completely. The Siphnian Treasury had a logic to the placing of the sculptures, putting gods in the centre, as they could be taller than mortals, and females either side, as they were often shorter. Animals also appear on this pediment, in the form of horses. Sculptors found that horses were very useful for pediments, as they fit well into the sloping of the triangular shape- their heads are higher than their rumps. Despite the better unity of scale, and the more complete picture that came with the unity of design, there are still some flaws. The unity of scale is not complete, with horses being smaller than Herakles, and this gives it an odd look. The unity of design is not complete either, as there seem

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