Pediments of the Parthenon

Last updated
Statue of Dionysus, east pediment. Dionysos pediment Parthenon BM.jpg
Statue of Dionysus, east pediment.

The pediments of the Parthenon are the two sets of statues (around fifty) in Pentelic marble originally located as the pedimental sculpture on the east and west facades of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. They were probably made by several artists, including Agoracritos. The master builder was probably Phidias. They were probably lifted into place by 432 BC, having been carved on the ground.

Contents

Pausanias, a Greek geographer, described their subjects: to the east, the birth of Athena, and to the west the quarrel between her and Poseidon to become the tutelary deity of Athens.

The pediments were very damaged by time and military conflicts. Considered the archetype of classical sculpture, or even the embodiment of ideal beauty, several of the statues were removed from the building by Lord Elgin's agents in the early nineteenth century and transported to the British Museum in London. Some statues and many fragments are kept at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Other groups of sculpture, both reliefs at a smaller scale, from the Parthenon are the Metopes of the Parthenon and the Parthenon Frieze.

Construction

A modern quarry on Mt. Pentelikon. Underground Marble Quarry.jpg
A modern quarry on Mt. Pentelikon.

The accounts of the construction of the Parthenon make it possible to know that the marble intended for the pediments began to be extracted from the quarries of Mount Pentelikon in 439–438 BC.; sculpture work starting the following year. [1] [2] The accounts also show that excavation and transportation expenses were annual. This could mean that different quarries would have been used each year to obtain the highest possible quality marble. [1] The last marble purchases in the quarries are recorded in 434 BC. [2] In the logic of the construction of the building, the sculptures of the pediments had to be installed almost at the very end (before the installation of the roof), probably in 432 BC. [1] [3]

Since Adolf Michaelis in 1871, [N 1] the statues are designated from left to right by a letter: from A to W for the western pediment and from A to P for the eastern pediment. [1]

Pausanias regularly informs about the authors of the works he describes. [N 2] However, he gives no information on the "author" of the Parthenon pediments. [4] A master builder for each of the pediments may even be possible. [5] Due to the size of the construction site (about fifty carved statues in half a dozen years), many artists must have worked there, as the differences of style and techniques show. Thus, the western pediment seems more refined, more "artificial" (almost mannerist) than the eastern pediment. It is possible that there was one artist per statue or group of statues. [5] [6] The accounts of 434–433 indicate that the sculptors were paid 16,392 drachmas. It is difficult to know, however, whether this is the total wage or the salary for that year alone. For comparison, the total cost of each of the (much smaller) pediments of Asclepius Temple in Epidaurus was 3,010 drachmas. Robert Spenser Stanier proposed in 1953 an estimate of 17 talents for pediments and acroterions. [1] [7]

Annotated sectional view of the Parthenon with parts in the British Museum shaded Parthenon section annotated.svg
Annotated sectional view of the Parthenon with parts in the British Museum shaded

The statues are the largest pediment statues made in classical Greece and they are almost all in one piece. [1] In addition, they were sculpted in the round. [1] [3] [8] [9] [10] The same care was accorded to the front and the back, though the latter is hidden. [3] [9] [10] It is possible that they were "exposed" on the site while waiting to be mounted on the Parthenon. The artists would then have chosen to finish them in their entirety. Nevertheless, the finish depends on the statues, and therefore the sculptors. On some, details, invisible from the ground were left unfinished, while on others, this was not the case. [3] In addition, it was necessary to plane the back of some (west A for example) to make them fit their designated place. [3] [9]

Deep rectangular grooves at the corners of pediments could indicate the presence in these places of a lift-type mechanism for mounting statues. [3]

Triglyphs and metopes on the west pediment West Pediments of the Parthenon.jpg
Triglyphs and metopes on the west pediment

Above the Doric frieze (triglyphs and metopes) was an overhanging horizontal cornice of twenty-five blocks of marble. The ranking cornices were surmounted by a painted sima (palmettes and golden lotus flowers). Thus, was delimited a long space of 28.35 m and high (in its center) of 3.428 m or 3.47 m to a depth of 0.90 m. All the statues were installed on the horizontal cornice which exceeded in overhanging of 70 cm, placed either on a plinth or on a laying bed. To install the statue is G, the cornice had to be dug out. [9] [11]

The pediments of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, about twenty years older, and seem to have been a major influence for the realization of the pediments of the Parthenon. The dimensions are relatively equivalent: 3.44 meters high to a depth of 1 meter at Olympia. In order to make them more visible, because of the angle of vision, some of the statues were inclined outwards, as in Olympia, and sometimes up to 30 cm above the void. Even the sitting statues had their feet protruding from the edge. The fixing systems (dowels and spikes) of the statues at the horizontal cornice were nearly the same in Athens and Olympia. However, for the heaviest (in the center), the Parthenon sculptors had to innovate. They were held by iron props that sank to one side in the plinth of the statue and the other deep in the horizontal cornice and tympanum. These "L" props made the weight of the statue cantilevered on the cornice. [3] [8] [9] [11]

Description

The pediments of the Parthenon included many statues. The one to the west had a little more than the one to the east. [8] In the description of the Acropolis of Athens by Pausanias, a sentence informs about the chosen themes: the quarrel between Athena and Poseidon for Attica in the west and the birth of Athena in the east. [N 3] This is the only evocation in the ancient literature of the Parthenon's decoration. [5] [12] In addition, the traveler gives no detail outside the general theme while he describes in a very precise way the pediments of the temple of Zeus in Olympia. Perhaps he considered the Panhellenic sanctuary of the Peloponnese to be more important than the Parthenon, the latter perhaps being too "local", or simply Athenian. [5]

The number of statues and the very precise myths evoked makes Bernard Ashmole [N 4] wonder if the contemporaries themselves were really capable of identifying all the characters. [13]

West Pediment

Proposed reconstruction of the west pediment at the Acropolis Museum, Athens. Reconstruction of the west pediment of the Parthenon 1.jpg
Proposed reconstruction of the west pediment at the Acropolis Museum, Athens.

To the west, on the "minor" facade, was the quarrel between Athena and Poseidon for Athens and Attica and the victory of the Virgin Goddess, one of the great local myths. [8] [14] [15] The two divinities disputed sovereignty over the region. They decided to offer the most beautiful gifts to win. With one blow of his trident, the god of the seas caused a spring (or a lake) of salty water to spring up on the acropolis. The virgin goddess with a spearhead made the first olive tree appear. The sources do not agree on the identity of the referees. They chose Athena and her olive tree. [16] [17] This story is first recounted by Herodotus (VIII, 55). This myth had hitherto been little represented: the artist who conceived the ensemble, as well as the sculptors, had a complete freedom. [18]

In the central space, the two gods (Athena on the left, West L, Poseidon on the right, West M) were perhaps separated by the olive tree of Athena or even the lightning of Zeus. [8] [17] The representation on this pediment of an intervention of Zeus in the quarrel could be the first occurrence of this theme. It is then found on a vase from the end of the fifth century BC. preserved in the archaeological museum of Pella and in literature. [19]

Iris (west N). Iris Parthenon BM.jpg
Iris (west N).

It is difficult to determine where the gift of the two gods could be represented: emerging from the ground at the end of their weapon (lance for Athena and trident for Poseidon) or the olive tree well in the center of the pediment, with the sacred serpent of Athena wrapped around. [20] It seems that Poseidon's torso was used as a model for the Triton that adorn the Odeon of Agrippa in the ancient agora. [21] The violence of the divine confrontation can be read in the tension of the tense bodies which are recoiling backward, as in the famous group Athena and Marsyas of Myron, dedicated on the acropolis a few years earlier. [21] [22] The movement also recalls that of the South metope XXVII. [17]

Then came the chariots (biga) and their female charioteers. Nike (west G) leads that of Athena, but the statue has completely disappeared. Amphitrite (west O) is the usual charioteer of the sea god: on the drawing attributed to Carrey, she is identifiable thanks to the sea serpent at her feet, [N 5] but she is found occupying this function elsewhere in the art and perhaps is on one of the east metopes. [8] [21] [22] [23] Amphitrite wears a peplos with a wide belt worn very high, just under the chest. The garment is open on the left side, floating behind in the wind, leaving the leg bare. [13] The rearing horses allow an ideal occupation of the space between the cornices. [17] The auriga is accompanied by the messenger gods: Hermes (west H) on the side of Athena and Nike; Iris (west N) of the other. [8] [13] [21] [22]

The head of Hermes disappeared between 1674 (drawing attributed to Carrey) and 1749 (drawing of Richard Dalton: he looked no longer the quarrel?, but already behind him. The bust of Iris was identified through the square holes at the shoulder blades, where her wings were originally attached. She wears a short tunic that the wind sticks to the forms of her body that can be divined in multiple folds. The tunic was retained by a thin belt, added in bronze and since lost. [13]

After this large central group, the tension drops and the poses of the statues are calmer. [21]

On the left side were various characters from the Attic mythology whose identifications are discussed. The general theme of the pediment being a purely local myth, it is often surmised that Athenian heroes should be represented. The western figures D, E and F have disappeared. The west group B and C is very damaged. Snake fragments (a snake or the tail of the male figure) suggest that it could be Cecrops and his daughter Pandrosus. [8] [13] [21] [24]

On the right side, two seated women carry children: west Q holds two babies (west P and R), it could be Orithyia the daughter of Erechtheus, carrying the two sons she had of Boreas Calais and Zetes West T has an older child on the knees (west S). The western U and V statues are highly damaged and fragmentary but do not appear to form a group. [25] [26]

The first figure on the left, male, (west A) and the last on the right, female, (west W) are symmetrical. By analogy with the pediments of Olympia, river deities have been identified: Ilissos or Cephis on the left and perhaps Callirrhoe on the right. [8] [21] [25] [27] The statue of the Ilissos is of very high quality in its rendering of the anatomical details and in its movement: it seems to be extracted from the ground while turning towards the central scene. [26]

The composition of this pediment is inspired by that of the eastern pediment of Olympia. The idea of simple "spectator" statues sitting on the exteriors and then of river gods was also borrowed from the sanctuary in the Peloponnese. [11] The western statues B, C, L, Q and perhaps W have been copied and adapted to adorn one of the pediments of the temple of Eleusis (smaller than that of the Parthenon), completed in the second century and representing the abduction of Persephone. [21]

East Pediment

Proposed reconstruction of the east pediment in the Acropolis Museum, Athens. Reconstruction of the east pediment of the Parthenon 2.jpg
Proposed reconstruction of the east pediment in the Acropolis Museum, Athens.

The east pediment, on the most sacred facade, evokes the birth of Athena before the other gods together, a theme already developed in the decor of ceramics, but never yet in sculpture. [14] [15] [28] However, we know little about it because it disappeared very early, when the Parthenon was transformed into a church in the seventh or eighth century. [14] [28]

In the center was enthroned Zeus, probably seated, his eagle at his feet. [28] [29] [30] In fact, there remain traces of three large metal supports of a very heavy statue: Zeus was then seated, either on his throne or on a rock at the top of Olympus. Near him were to be Athena, of course, but also Hera and obviously Hephaestus or Prometheus [31] and Ilithyia. Other statues are poorly identified. [28] [30] Various fragments preserved in the museum of the Acropolis of Athens certainly come from this pediment. The "Wegner peplophoros" (consisting of the fragments MAcr 6711 and MAcr 6712) could have been Hera. Similarly, the torso fragment MAcr 880 could correspond to the figure is H and may have been Hephaestus or one of the Dioscuri. [32] Further, on each side, new grooves for retaining blades suggest again a very heavy statue, perhaps a biga, even if the presence of chariots here has no narrative justification; moreover, chariots (of gods) are present at the corners. [29] [30] These Heavy statues might be the horses of the Dioscuri, as proposed by Brinkmann and Koch-Brinkmann. In addition, the decor of a Roman well of the first century (Putéal de la Moncloa) preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain evokes the presence of Moirai. [33] As it seems to owe much to the Parthenon pediment, these deities could also attend the birth of Athena. [30]

Outside the central action, the other deities on the pediment seem to make only the "act of presence." [30] The left end, on the south, is the best-preserved. A standing female figure (designated G) walks away from the central action she is looking at. She is dressed in a peplos and approaches two other female figures (east E and F), sitting on folded cloths placed on chests (detail only visible from behind). [30] [34] The proposed interpretation is that it would be Demeter and her daughter Kore. To their left and with his back to them, a male figure (east D) is lying on a rock. This might be Dionysus or a deity indicating the locality. [35] He is very athletic and has his legs apart. If this is the young Dionysus, who is also on the east side of the frieze, it may well be the first example of the change in the representation of this god. While he was previously portrayed in the guise of a rude old man, this youthful and turbulent version was then imposed on iconography. The god seems to salute the chariot of Helios rising from the end of the pediment. [34]

The right end, to the north, has retained only a group of three women (east K, L and M). The work of the sculptors is of very high quality, mainly in the play of drapery. It is most often attributed to Agoracritus. East K is from the front. East M is carelessly lying on her neighbor east L. The trio has not been identified. However, the pattern of the chiton slipping subtly revealing the shoulder is seen here on east K and M. It is also on west C, identified with Pandrosus and the representation of Artemis on the eastern frieze. This sensual gesture could also be attributed to Aphrodite. [36] Brinkmann and Koch-Brinkmann argue that east K, L and M show two Horai and the locality of Attika, which was usually called Attike. [37] At the very end, the chariot of the Moon or Night seems to descend through the bottom of the pediment. [30]

The myth of the birth of Athena, reported to compose the East pediment by Pausanias, is repeated also in the East pediment of the contemporary Attic temple nearby of the Hephaisteion. [38] [39]

History

The north pediment as drawn by Cyriacus of Ancona in 1436, not very accurately. Parthenon Cyriac.jpg
The north pediment as drawn by Cyriacus of Ancona in 1436, not very accurately.

Block 19 of the eastern pediment's horizontal cornice was damaged and repaired in Roman times, but there is no evidence of restoration work on a statue. [40] At the time of the transformation of the Parthenon into a church, somewhere in the sixth or the seventh century, the statues of the center of the eastern pediment were removed to make way for the apse. [14] [40]

In the first half of the fifteenth century, Cyriac d'Ancona during one of his visits to Athens drew one of the pediments, probably that of the west. He represents only a carriage, probably that of Athena: that of Poseidon would have already disappeared, without his fate being known. [5] In 1674, an artist in the service of the Marquis de Nointel (French ambassador to the Sublime Porte), very probably Jacques Carrey, made fairly accurate coloured drawings of both pediments. In these, the west pediment already lacked the chariot of the god of the seas and a few heads, including that of Athena. The pediment was already very damaged. [18] [40] [41] [42]

So-called "Weber-Laborde head", West pediment, ca. 447-433 BC; Louvre Weber-Laborde head Louvre Ma740 n3.jpg
So-called "Weber-Laborde head", West pediment, ca. 447–433 BC; Louvre

On 26 September 1687, during the siege of Athens by the Venetians commanded by Francesco Morosini, the explosion of the powder reserve installed in the Parthenon greatly damaged the pediments. The blast caused some of the statues to fall and others to be out of balance, making a fall possible. Morosini was then ordered by the Venetian Senate to return to the Serenissima the "work of art considered the most important and the most refined." He decided to take some sculptures from the western pediment, probably the left-wing chariot, that of Athena. However, his men were ill-equipped and the statues crashed to the ground early in 1688. Only one female head (the Weber-Laborde head) found its way to Venice. [40] [43] [44] [45] In the same way, part of the head of one of the horses of Athena's chariot traveled to the Vatican. [5]

The fate of the other fragments varied: some were used as building material for houses built on the acropolis; others were bought by European collectors passing through Athens during their Grand Tour. [40] Excavations organized by the Greek state in the 1830s and 1840s brought to light many fragments. [46]

As scholarly interest increased in the 19th century, a misapprehension developed among some German scholars, despite the existence of drawings of both pediments. James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett discussed the presence of pedimental sculptures in the Parthenon in Athens in Vol II of their The Antiquities of Athens (1794). Ludwig Ross then argued in Das Theseion und der Tempel des Arcs (1852) that these existed in both the east and west pediments of the Parthenon. Francis Penrose provided evidence as regards the existence of sculptures on the west pediment in his Principles of Athenian Architecture (1851). This led Adolf Bötticher to surmise that only the west pediments had this feature, Untersuchungen auf der Akropolis (1863). However, following the publication of "Attische Bauwerke:I, Theseion" in 1873 by Cornelius Gurlitt and Ernst Ziller, the presence of pedimental architecture on both pediments of the Parthenon has generally been accepted. [47]

The west group B and C is very damaged because it remained on the Parthenon until 1977, as was the western female figure W. The western group B and C (probably Cecrops and Pandrose) was not swept away by the agents of Lord Elgin at the beginning of the nineteenth century because they believed that it was a repair of the first centuries of our era that had replaced the original group by a statue tribute to the emperor Hadrian and his wife Sabine. This erroneous assumption was made at the end of the seventeenth century in Jacob Spon's (1678) and George Wheler (1682). [13] [24] [48] travel narratives. The head of the horse of Helios' chariot, east C, was removed from the Parthenon in 1988. [49]

Conservation

The two pediments included about fifty statues. Only one, identified as Dionysus on the east side, kept his head. All others have disappeared or been dispersed across Europe. [9] The statues are preserved in the British Museum, the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the Louvre Museum (Weber-Laborde head). [40]

Much of what remains of the western pediment is in the British Museum. Busts (very damaged) of Athena, Poseidon, Amphitrite, Hermes and Iris (West L, M, O, H and N) are preserved. Although the Helios group and Iris suffered by the 1939 Duveen cleaning in the British Museum (the cleaning removed part of their historic surface and destroyed remnants of paint), overall the pediments escaped the cleaning compared to the frieze and metopes. [50] A fragment of the helmet of the virgin goddess and the front of the bust of the sea god are on the other hand in the museum of the Acropolis, with fragments of the marine snake which was at the foot of Poseidon's wife. [23]

The statues of the pediments are considered the archetype of classical sculpture. [12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Michaelis, Adolf (1871). Der Parthenon (in German). Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel.
  2. ↑ He thus attributes the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia to Alcamenes pupil of Phidias those of the temple of Heracles at Thebes to Praxiteles or those of the temple of Apollo at Delphi to Praxias and Androsthenes.
  3. ↑ Pausanias (1918). Description of Greece. Translated by Jones, W. H. S. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Book 1, 24.5.
  4. ↑ Ashmole, Bernard (1972). Architect and Sculptor in Classical Greece. London: Phaidon. OCLC   1454144.
  5. ↑ Fragments of this snake were found and identified in the 1980s: they are kept at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.( Cook 1984 , pp. 42–43)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acropolis of Athens</span> Ancient citadel above the city of Athens

The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word Acropolis is from the Greek words ἄκρον and πόλις. The term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropoleis in Greece. During ancient times the Acropolis of Athens was also more properly known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parthenon</span> Temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece

The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Greek art, an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy and Western civilization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Greek architecture</span> Era of architecture

Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greeks, or Hellenics, whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phidias</span> Greek sculptor, painter and architect (c.480–430 BC)

Phidias or Pheidias was an Ancient Greek sculptor, painter, and architect, active in the 5th century BC. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, namely the Athena Parthenos inside the Parthenon, and the Athena Promachos, a colossal bronze which stood between it and the Propylaea, a monumental gateway that served as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Phidias was the son of Charmides of Athens. The ancients believed that his masters were Hegias and Ageladas.

<i>Athena Parthenos</i> Sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena

The statue of Athena Parthenos was a monumental chryselephantine sculpture of the goddess Athena. Attributed to Phidias and dated to the mid-fifth century BCE, it was an offering from the city of Athens to Athena, its tutelary deity. The naos of the Parthenon on the acropolis of Athens was designed exclusively to accommodate it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elgin Marbles</span> Ancient Greek sculptures held in London

The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece and shipped to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and now held in the British Museum in London. The majority of the sculptures were created in the 5th century BC under the direction of sculptor and architect Phidias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erechtheion</span> Ancient Greek temple

The Erechtheion or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple on the north side of the Acropolis, Athens, which was primarily dedicated to the goddess Athena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Athena Nike</span> Ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis of Athens

The Temple of Athena Nike is a temple on the Acropolis of Athens, dedicated to the goddesses Athena and Nike. Built around 420 BC, the temple is the earliest fully Ionic temple on the Acropolis. It has a prominent position on a steep bastion at the south west corner of the Acropolis to the right of the entrance, the Propylaea. In contrast to the Acropolis proper, a walled sanctuary entered through the Propylaea, the Victory Sanctuary was open, entered from the Propylaea's southwest wing and from a narrow stair on the north. The sheer walls of its bastion were protected on the north, west, and south by the Nike Parapet, named for its frieze of Nikai celebrating victory and sacrificing to their patroness, Athena and Nike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Greek temple</span> Buildings housing cult statues in Greek sanctuaries

Greek temples were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, since the sacrifices and rituals dedicated to the respective ouranic deity took place outside them, within the wider precinct of the sanctuary, which might be large. Temples were frequently used to store votive offerings. They are the most important and most widespread surviving building type in Greek architecture. In the Hellenistic kingdoms of Southwest Asia and of North Africa, buildings erected to fulfill the functions of a temple often continued to follow the local traditions. Even where a Greek influence is visible, such structures are not normally considered as Greek temples. This applies, for example, to the Graeco-Parthian and Bactrian temples, or to the Ptolemaic examples, which follow Egyptian tradition. Most Greek temples were oriented astronomically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Greek sculpture</span>

The sculpture of ancient Greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient Greek art as, with the exception of painted ancient Greek pottery, almost no ancient Greek painting survives. Modern scholarship identifies three major stages in monumental sculpture in bronze and stone: the Archaic, Classical (480–323) and Hellenistic. At all periods there were great numbers of Greek terracotta figurines and small sculptures in metal and other materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Morosini</span> Doge of Venice (1619–1694)

Francesco Morosini was the Doge of Venice from 1688 to 1694, at the height of the Great Turkish War. He was one of the many Doges and generals produced by the Venetian noble Morosini family. He is said to have "dressed always in red from top to toe and never went into action without his cat beside him."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parthenon Frieze</span> Sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens

The Parthenon frieze is the high-relief Pentelic marble sculpture created to adorn the upper part of the Parthenon's naos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Zeus, Olympia</span> Ancient Greek temple

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the god Zeus. The temple, built in the second quarter of the fifth century BC, was the very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order.

<i>Athena Promachos</i> Bronze statue of Athena

The Athena Promachos was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the tutelary deity of Athens and the goddess of wisdom and warriors. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis, the huge gold and ivory ("chryselephantine") cult image of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon and the Lemnian Athena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metopes of the Parthenon</span> Marble sculpture from the Acropolis of Athens

The metopes of the Parthenon are the surviving set of what were originally 92 square carved plaques of Pentelic marble originally located above the columns of the Parthenon peristyle on the Acropolis of Athens. If they were made by several artists, the master builder was certainly Phidias. They were carved between 447 or 446 BC. or at the latest 438 BC, with 442 BC as the probable date of completion. Most of them are very damaged. Typically, they represent two characters per metope either in action or repose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Temple of Athena</span> Ancient temple on the Athenian Acropolis

The Old Temple of Athena or the Archaios Neos was an archaic Greek limestone Doric temple on the Acropolis of Athens probably built in the second half of the sixth-century BCE, and which housed the xoanon of Athena Polias. The existence of an archaic temple to Athena had long been conjectured from literary references until the discovery of substantial building foundations under the raised terrace between the Erechtheion and Parthenon in 1886 confirmed it. While it is uncontroversial that a temple stood on the central acropolis terrace in the late archaic period and was burnt down in the Persian invasion of 480, nevertheless questions of its nature, name, reconstruction and duration remain unresolved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeological Museum of Olympia</span> Archeological museum in Greece

The Archaeological Museum of Olympia is one of the principal museums of Greece, located in Olympia. It is overseen by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and, as of 2009, is directed by Georgia Xatzi. When the original building was completed and opened in 1888, it was the first museum in Greece outside of Athens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hekatompedon temple</span> Temple for the worship of Athena in Athens, Greece

The Hekatompedon or Hekatompedos, also known as Ur-Parthenon and H–Architektur, was an ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis of Athens built from limestone in the Archaic period, and placed in the position of the present Parthenon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Greek art</span> Art of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic development between about 750 and 300 BC was remarkable by ancient standards, and in surviving works is best seen in sculpture. There were important innovations in painting, which have to be essentially reconstructed due to the lack of original survivals of quality, other than the distinct field of painted pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedimental sculpture</span> Sculptures designed for architectural pediments

Pedimental sculpture is a form of architectural sculpture designed for installation in the tympanum, the space enclosed by the architectural element called the pediment. Originally a feature of Ancient Greek architecture, pedimental sculpture started as a means to decorate a pediment in its simplest form: a low triangle, like a gable, above an horizontal base or entablature. However, as classical architecture developed from the basis of Ancient Greek and Roman architecture, the varieties of pedimental sculpture also developed. The sculpture can be either freestanding or relief sculpture, in which case it is attached to the back wall of the pediment. Harris in The Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture defines pediment as "In classical architecture, the triangular gable end of the roof above the horizontal cornice, often filled with sculpture." Pediments can also be used to crown doors or windows.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Palagia 2005, p. 230.
  2. 1 2 Cook 1984, p. 40-41.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boardman 1985, p. 98.
  4. ↑ Palagia 2005, p. 232 et note.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cook 1984, p. 41.
  6. ↑ Holtzmann 2003, p. 137 et 141.
  7. ↑ Stanier 1953, p. 72-73.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Holtzmann & Pasquier 1998, p. 183.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Holtzmann 2003, p. 137.
  10. 1 2 Boardman 1985, p. 119.
  11. 1 2 3 Palagia 2005, p. 231-232.
  12. 1 2 Palagia 2005, p. 225.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cook 1984, p. 43.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Holtzmann 2003, p. 136.
  15. 1 2 Boardman 1985, p. 118-119.
  16. ↑ Grimal 1999, p. 58a.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Cook 1984, p. 42.
  18. 1 2 Cook 1984, p. 41-42.
  19. ↑ Boardman 1985, p. 99 et 102.
  20. ↑ Holtzmann 2003, p. 139-140.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Boardman 1985, p. 99.
  22. 1 2 3 Holtzmann 2003, p. 140.
  23. 1 2 Cook 1984, p. 42-43.
  24. 1 2 Holtzmann 2003, p. 140-141.
  25. 1 2 Holtzmann 2003, p. 141.
  26. 1 2 Cook 1984, p. 44.
  27. ↑ Cook 1984, p. 43-44.
  28. 1 2 3 4 Holtzmann & Pasquier 1998, p. 185.
  29. 1 2 Holtzmann 2003, p. 139.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boardman 1985, p. 102.
  31. ↑ Brinkmann & Koch-Brinkmann 2021, p. 51.
  32. ↑ Brinkmann & Koch-Brinkmann 2021, p. 49, 55-58.
  33. ↑ Brinkmann & Koch-Brinkmann 2021, p. 48-49, 53-54.
  34. 1 2 Holtzmann 2003, p. 137-138.
  35. ↑ Brinkmann & Koch-Brinkmann 2021, p. 50, 54-55.
  36. ↑ Holtzmann 2003, p. 138-139.
  37. ↑ Brinkmann & Koch-Brinkmann 2021, p. 49, 61-62.
  38. ↑ Stewart, Andrew F. (2018). “Classical Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, Part 1: The Pediments and Akroteria of the Hephaisteion.” Hesperia 87 (4):681–741.
  39. ↑ Peixoto, Gabriel B. (2022). Classical Pedimental Compositions: the 5th-century Post-Parthenonian Pediments and their Meanings. MA diss. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. p. 21-24. https://www.academia.edu/89686234/Classical_Pedimental_Compositions_the_5th_century_Post_Parthenonian_Pediments_and_their_Meanings
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Palagia 2005, p. 226.
  41. ↑ Ousterhout 2005, p. 317-320.
  42. ↑ Holtzmann & Pasquier 1998, p. 183-185.
  43. ↑ Cook 1984, p. 18-19 et 41.
  44. ↑ Ousterhout 2005, p. 320-321.
  45. ↑ Holtzmann 2003, p. 136-137 et 252.
  46. ↑ Palagia 2005, p. 227 et 230.
  47. ↑ Thompson, Homer A. (July 1949). "The Pedimental Sculpture of the Hephaisteion" (PDF). Hesperia. 18 (3): 230–268. doi:10.2307/146756. JSTOR   146756.
  48. ↑ Palagia 2005, p. 227 et note.
  49. ↑ Palagia 2005, p. 255.
  50. ↑ Titi, Catharine (2023). The Parthenon Marbles and International Law. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6. ISBN   978-3-031-26356-9. S2CID   258846977.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.