A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Volume 1 (of 2)

by A. H. Smith

PHEIDIAS AND THE SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON.

The sculptures of the Parthenon illustrate the style of Pheidias, the greatest of Greek sculptors.

Pheidias, son of Charmides, the Athenian, was born about 500 b.c. He was a pupil of the sculptor Ageladas, of Argos, or, according to others, of Hegias or Hegesias, of Athens. His youth was passed during the period of the Persian wars, and his maturity was principally devoted to the adornment of Athens, from the funds contributed by the allied Greek states during the administration of Pericles.

Among the chief of the works of this period was the Parthenon, or temple of the virgin Goddess Athenè. The architect was Ictinos, but the sculptural decorations, and probably the design of the temple, were planned and executed under the superintendence of Pheidias. The building was probably begun about b.c. 447 (according to Michaelis, b.c. 454). It was sufficiently advanced to receive the statue of the Parthenos in b.c. 438, and was probably completed either in that year or a little later. It stood on the Acropolis of Athens, on a site which had been already occupied by a more ancient temple, commonly supposed to have been an ancient Parthenon, which was burnt on the sacking of Athens by the Persians, b.c. 480. Recently, however, the foundations of an early temple have been discovered between the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. It has been thought that this is the Pre-Persian Parthenon, and that the traces of an older foundation below the existing Parthenon only date from the time immediately following the Persian wars. A building is supposed to have then been begun, on a plan somewhat different from that which was carried out by Ictinos and Pericles.

The Parthenon was of the Doric order of architecture, and was of the form termed peripteral octastyle; that is to say, it was surrounded by a colonnade, which had eight columns at each end. The architectural arrangements can be best learnt from the model, which is exhibited in the Elgin Room. See also the plan (fig. [6].) and elevation ([pl. iv.]).

The principal chamber (cella) within the colonnade contained the colossal statue of Athenè Parthenos (see below, Nos. [300]-302). Externally the cella was decorated with a frieze in low relief (see below, p. [145]). The two pediments, or gables at each end of the building (see below, Nos. [303], [304]) were filled with figures sculptured in the round. Above the architrave, or beam resting on the columns, were metopes, or square panels, adorned with groups in very high relief, which served to fill up the spaces between the triglyphs, or groups of three vertical parallel bands, representing beam ends. All these sculptured decorations were executed, like the architecture, in Pentelic marble.

Fig. 6.—Plan of the Parthenon. (From Michaelis.)

The statue of the Parthenos is known to have been in existence about 430 a.d.; but not long after this date the figure was removed, and the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, dedicated at first to Santa Sophia (or the Divine Wisdom), and afterwards to the Panagia (or Virgin Mary). For the purposes of the church, an apse was built at the east end of the cella, and the entrance was moved to the west end. The building was also given a vaulted roof, which covered the cella alone. In consequence the frieze was exposed to the weather, and the east pediment was much destroyed. From 1206 to 1458, during the period of the Frankish Dukes of Athens, the Parthenon was a Latin church. Athens was taken by the Turks in 1458, and the Parthenon was again an Orthodox Greek church for two years. In 1460, however, it was converted into a Turkish mosque. From this date it probably suffered little until 1687, when Athens was taken by the Venetian General, Morosini. In the course of a bombardment of the Acropolis, the besiegers succeeded in throwing a shell into a powder magazine in the Parthenon, and caused an explosion that destroyed the roof and much of the long sides of the building. Further injury was done by Morosini, who made an attempt to take down the central group of the west pediment, which was still nearly complete.

Fortunately, many of the sculptures had been drawn by a skilful artist before the explosion. In 1674 Jacques Carrey, a painter in the suite of the Marquis de Nointel, French ambassador at the Porte, made sketches of large portions of the frieze and metopes, and of the then extant portions of the pedimental compositions. These drawings are preserved in the French Bibliothèque Nationale, and are constantly referred to in discussions of the Parthenon sculptures.

In 1688 Athens was restored to the Turks, and from this date to the end of the last century the sculptures of the Parthenon were exposed to constant injury. Some of them were made into lime, or built into walls by the Turkish garrison; others were mutilated by the travellers who from time to time obtained admission to the Acropolis, and broke off portable fragments of the sculptures.

In 1749, when the west pediment was drawn by Dalton, many figures still remained in position which had disappeared before the time of Lord Elgin. Several portions also of the frieze, which were seen by Stuart, had disappeared at the beginning of the present century. On the other hand, the east pediment, being inaccessible, suffered no important change between 1674 and 1800.

In the years 1801-3 many of the sculptures of the Parthenon were removed to England by the Earl of Elgin, then British ambassador at Constantinople, by means of a firman obtained from the Porte (see p. [6]). The Elgin Collection, which includes other marbles obtained from Athens and elsewhere, together with casts and drawings, was purchased from Lord Elgin by the British Government in 1816 for £35,000. Several portions of the sculptures of the Parthenon have been discovered since the time of Lord Elgin on the Acropolis and its slopes, or in various parts of Europe, to which they had been taken by travellers. These are represented as far as possible in the British Museum by plaster casts.

The following aids to the study of the Parthenon will be found in the Elgin Room:—

Model of the Athenian Acropolis, showing its condition in the year 1870. Presented by Prof. Adolf Michaelis.

Model of the Parthenon. The model was made by R. C. Lucas, on a scale of a foot to 20 feet, and represents the state of the temple in 1687, after the explosion, but before Morosini had attacked the west pediment.

Carrey's drawings of the pediments. Photographic reproductions of the originals are exhibited.

A restored view of the Athenian Acropolis. By Richard Bohn.

Bibliography of the Parthenon.

The work of Michaelis, Der Parthenon (Leipzig, 1871), collects the material for the study of the Parthenon, and contains an excellent digest of all that had been written on the subject up to the year 1871. For later writers, see below passim, and Wolters. For the chronology of Pheidias, see Loeschcke, in Untersuchungen A. Schaefer gewidmet, p. 25; for the question as to his master, see Klein, Arch.-Epigr. Mittheilungen aus Oesterreich, VII., p. 64; Murray, Greek Sculpture, 2nd ed., p. 186. For the older temple on the site of the Parthenon, see Doerpfeld, in Athenische Mittheilungen, XII., p. 45; Harrison, Mythology of Anc. Athens, p. 467. The plan given above is taken from Michaelis. Important modifications have been proposed by Doerpfeld, Athenische Mittheilungen, VI., pl. 12, p. 283; Harrison, loc. cit., p. 464. For the mediæval history of the Parthenon, see Laborde; Athènes aux XV^e, XVI^e, et XVII^e Siècles (Paris, 1854); Gregorovius, Athen im Mittelalter (1889). Facsimiles of Carrey's drawings are in the British Museum, and have been partially published in the works of Laborde, Le Parthénon (Paris, 1848). For photographic copies of the drawings of the pediments, see Antike Denkmäler, I., pls. 6, 6a. Dalton's views of the Acropolis were published in 1751, but the remains of Athens were little known till the appearance of The Antiquities of Athens, by James Stuart and Nicolas Revett. (London: vol. I., 1762; vol. II., 1787; vol. III., 1794; vol. IV., 1816; vol. V., 1830). A second edition, with additional matter, but having inferior illustrations, was issued in 1825-1830. The original drawings, made for this work by Pars, were presented to the British Museum by the Society of Dilettanti. The official inquiry into the proceedings of Lord Elgin is contained in the Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin's Collection of Sculptured Marbles; &c. (London, 1816).