Sunday, June 19, 2016

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of the River Ilissos
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
British Museum

The arrangement of fragments from the west pediment of the Parthenon demonstrates the degree to which this group was reduced almost to rubble by successive waves of malicious humans  before its removal to London two centuries ago. The display at the British Museum attempts to reproduce the original disposition from the 430s BC within the broad triangular space of the pediment. Yet it might indeed seem like a dubious privilege, this freedom to contemplate the scale of what has been lost by comparison with the poverty of what remains. We are confidently assured that these figures once represented "the contest between Athena and Poseidon for supremacy over the land of Attica "

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Hermes
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Hermes
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Athena
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Athena
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Poseidon
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Poseidon
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Poseidon
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Iris
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Iris
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Amphitrite
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Amphitrite
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Oreithyia
British Museum

Marble sculpture from the west pediment of the Parthenon
Figure of Oreithyia
British Museum