The Elgin marbles from the Temple of Minerva at Athens : on sixty-one plates, selected from "Stuart's and Revett's Antiquities of Athens" : to which are added, The Report from the Select Committee to the House of Commons respecting the Earl of Elgin's collection of sculptured marbles, and an historical account of the temple

Front matter

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Contents

H.

Minutes of Evidence •

The Earl of Elgin

Appendix

No. 2. Letter from Lord Elgin to the Right Honourable N. Vansittart, accompanying his Petition to the House

of Commons .. ^ _

No. 3 — Memorandum, as to Lord Elgin’s exclusive right of Property in the Collection of Marbles ib.

No. 4 Memorandum, as to the delay in transferring Lord Elgin's Collection to the Public 62

No. 5. Copy of a Letter addressed by Lord Elgin to the Right Honourable Charles Long, in 1811 ; with a Postscript

added February 1816, enumerating Expenses, &c g 3 gg

No. 6 — Letter from Lord Elgin to Henry Bankes, Esq. enumerating Expenses 66

No. 7—Copy of a Letter from Charles Townley, Esq. to J. Harrison, Esq. on the Subject of Lord Elgin's Marbles

No. 8.— Translation of a Letter from the Cavalier Canova to the Earl of Elgin g 8

No. s— Extract of a Despatch from his Excellency thd Earl of Elgin to Lord Hawkesbury, dated Constantinople . .

No. 10- Translation of a Fermaun to the Vaivode, or Governor of Athens, in 1801

Catalogue of the Elgin Marbles, Vases, Casts, and Drawings, prepared from the MS. of M. Visconti 70- ib.

ib.

74,

EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

ing foreigners into their country, and of having money spent among them. The Turks showed a total indifference and apathy as to the preservation of these remains, except when in a fit of wanton destruction they sometimes carried their disregard so far as to do mischief by firing at them. The numerous travellers and admirers of the Arts committed greater waste, from a very different motive; for many of those who visited the Acropolis tempted the soldiers, and other people about the fortress, to bring them down heads, legs, or arms, or whatever other pieces they could carry off.

A translation of the fermaun itself has since been forwarded by Dr. Hunt , which is printed in the Appendix.

II

Upon the Second Division, it must be premised, that antecedently to Lord Elgin s departure for Constantinople, he communicated his intentions of bringing home casts and drawings from Athens, for the benefit and advancement of the Fine Arts in this country, to Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, and Mr. Dundas, suggesting to them the propriety of considering it as a national object, fit to be undertaken, and carried into effect at the public expense; but that this recommendation was in no degree encouraged, either at that time or afterwards.

It is evident, from a letter of Lord Elgin to the Secretary of State, 13 January 3803, that he considered himself as having no sort of claim for his disbursements in the prosecution of these pursuits, though he stated, in the same despatch, the heavy expenses in which they had involved him, so as to make it extremely inconvenient for him to forego any of the usual allowances to which Ambassadors at other courts were entitled. It cannot, therefore, be doubted, that he looked upon himself in this respect as acting in a character entirely distinct from his official situation. But whether the Government from whom he obtained permission did, or could so consider him, is a question which can be solved only by conjecture and reasoning, in the absence and deficiency of all positive testimony. The Turkish ministers of that day are, in fact, the only persons in the world capable (if they are still alive) of deciding the doubt ; and it is probable that even they, if it were possible to consult them, might be unable to form any very distinct discrimination as to the character in consideration of which they acceded to Lord Elgin s request. The occasion made them, beyond all precedent, propitious to whatever was desired in behalf of the English nation : they readily, therefore, complied with all that was asked by Lord Elgin. He was an Englishman of high rank; he was also Ambassador from our Court: they granted the same per-* mission to no other individual : but then, as Lord Elgin observes, no other individual applied for it to the same extent, nor had indeed the same unlimited means for carrying such an undertaking into execution. The expression of one of the most intelligent and distinguished of the British travellers, who visited Athens about the same periodappears to your Committee to convey as correct a judgment as can be formed upon this question, which is incapable of being satisfactorily separated, and must be taken in the aggregate.

The Earl of Aberdeen, in answer to an inquiry, whether the authority and influence of a public situation was in his opinion necessary for accomplishing the removal of

REPORT PROM SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE

The other five artists were withdrawn from Athens in January 1803, but Lusieri has continued there ever since, excepting during the short period of our hostilities with the Ottoman Porte.

During the year 1800, Egypt was in the power of the French : and that sort of contempt and dislike which has always characterized the Turkish government and people in their behaviour towards every denomination of Christians, prevailed in full force.

The success of the British arms in Egypt, and the expected restitution of that province to the Porte, wrought a wonderful and instantaneous change in the disposition of all ranks and descriptions of people towards our Nation. Universal benevolence and good-will appeared to take place of suspicion and aversion. Nothing was refused which was asked ; and Lord Elgin, availing himself of this favourable and unexpected alteration, obtained, in the summer of 1801, access to the Acropolis for general purposes, with permission to draw, model, and remove; to which was added, a special license to excavate in a particular place. Lord Elgin mentions in his evidence, that he was obliged to send from Athens to Constantinople for leave to remove a house : at the same time remarking, that, in point of fact, all permissions issuing from the Porte to any distant provinces, are little better than authorities to make the best bargain that can be made with the local magistracies. The applications upon this subject passed in verbal conversations ; but the warrants or fermauns were granted in writing, addressed to the chief authorities resident at Athens, to whom they were delivered, and in whose hands they remained : so that your Committee had no opportunity of learning from Lord Elgin himself their exact tenor, or of ascertaining in what terms they noticed, or allowed the displacing, or carrying away of these Marbles. But Dr. Hunt, who accompanied Lord Elgin as chaplain to the embassy, has preserved, and has now in his possession, a translation of the second fermaun, Which extended the powers of the first ; but as he had it not with him in London, to produce before your Committee, he stated the substance, according to his recollection, which was, “ That, in order to show their particular respect to the Ambassador of “ Great Britain, the august Ally of the Porte, with whom they were now and had Ion<?

“ been in the strictest alliance, they gave to his Excellency and to his Secretary” “ and the Artists employed by him, the most extensive permission to view, draw, and model, the ancient Temples of the Idols, and the Sculptures upon them, and to make excavations, and to take away any stones that might appear interesting to “them.” He stated further, that no remonstrance was at anytime made, nor any displeasure shown, by the Turkish government, either at Constantinople or at Athens, against the extensive interpretation which was put upon this fermaun ; and although the work of taking down and removing was going on for months, and even years, and was conducted m the most public manner, numbers of native labourers, to the amount of some hundreds, being frequently employed, not the least obstruction was ever interposed, nor the smallest uneasiness shown, after the granting of this second fermaun Among the Greek population and inhabitants of Athens it occasioned no sort of dissatisfaction; but, as Mr. Hamilton, an eye-witness, expresses it, so far from exciting any unpleasant sensation, the people seemed to feel it as the means of bring-

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EARL OF ELGIN'S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

close imitation of nature is combined with grandeur of Style, while the exact details of the former in no degree detract from the etfect and predominance of the latter.

The two finest single figures of this Collection differ materially in this respect from the Apollo Belvidere, which may be selected as the highest and most sublime representation of ideal form, and beauty, which Sculpture has ever embodied, and turned into shape.

The evidence upon this part of the inquiry will be read with satisfaction and interest, both where it is immediately connected with these Marbles, and where it branches out into extraneous observations, but all of them relating to the study of the Antique. A reference is made by one of the witnesses to a sculptor, eminent throughout Europe for his works, who lately left this Metropolis highly gratified by the view of these treasures of that branch of Art, which he has cultivated with so much success. His own letter to the Earl of Elgin upon this subject is inserted in the Appendix.

In the judgment of Mr. Payne Knight, whose valuation will be referred to m a subsequent page, the first class is not assigned to the two principal statues of this Collection ; but he rates the Metopes in the first class of works in High Relief, and knows of nothing so fine in that kind. He places also the Frize in the first class of Low Relief; and considering a general Museum of Art to be very desirable, he looks upon such an addition to our National Collection as likely to contribute to the improvement of the Arts, and to become a very valuable acquisition ; for the importation of which Lord Elgin is entitled to the gratitude of his Country.