Inventory number
ΜΑ ΑΝΤ. 002
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Modern times
Date
19th cent.
Dimensions
Height: 1.02 m
Length: 1.16 m
Material
Plaster
Location
Parthenon Gallery
Plaster copy of Block V which is exhibited in the British Museum in London. Two riders are galloping to the viewer’s right, while a third one would have been depicted on the left, damaged part of the block. The middle rider is naked and turns his head backwards. The first rider from the left, whose head hasn’t survived, is clad in a short chiton and embades, whereas his feet and the front part of his horse continue on block VI (ΜΑ ΑΝΤ. 003), that is also kept in the British Museum.
The frieze on the south side of the Parthenon depicts part of the procession formed by the people of Athens during the Panathenaic festival in honour of the protectress of the city, Athena. The procession's destination was the Temple of Athena Polias on the Acropolis. Its purpose was the transportation of the Panathenaic peplos destined to adorn the age-old xoanon of the goddess and the offer of a grand sacrifice of animals at the Great Altar outside of the temple.
On the south frieze the procession moves along the Panathenaic Way. Youths that lead sacrificial young cows precede. They are followed by more young men who carry offerings. Behind them come musicians with guitars, officials holding olive branches, eleven chariots that participate in an equestrian event, and finally sixty riders divided in ten groups.
The south frieze is fragmentarily preserved due to the bombardment of the Parthenon by the Venetians under the command of general Francesco Morosini in 1687 which caused extensive damages to the middle of the long sides of the temple. The drawings attributed to the painter Jacques Carrey, who visited the Acropolis in 1674, just thirteen years before its bombardment by Morosini, are an invaluable resource for our understanding of quite a few parts of this side of the frieze (Blocks XX - XXXVIII). Three blocks (XXII, XXX και XXXVIII) were already lost by then as they were removed during the conversion of the Parthenon into a Christian church so that windows would be opened in the blocks' positions.
The initial length of the south frieze was 58.70 m and consisted of 47 blocks. Today the blocks are divided between the Acropolis Museum and the British Museum in London, where they ended up after they were removed by Thomas Bruce, the lord of Elgin, in 1801-1804 when Greece was still under Ottoman occupation. In order to facilitate their transportation, Elgin's workmen, cut off with saws or crowbars only the faces of the blocks that bore the relief decoration. The Acropolis Museum exhibition includes the plaster casts of these blocks' faces on which some of the original fragments that fell off the monument, and thus escaped the looting, have been adjusted.
Pαγκαβής, A., Σύνοψις των Πρακτικών της Aρχαιολογικής Eταιρείας των Aθηνών: ανατύπωση τευχών 1-6 και δημοσίευση των Πρακτικών των ετών 1837-1846/7, β΄ έκδοση, 1846, σελ. 204, 298, 306-312
Jenkins, I., «Acquisition and Supply of Casts of the Parthenon Sculptures by the British Museum, 1835-1939», Annual of the British School at Athens 85, 1990, σελ. 90, 106-108
Mαλλούχου-Tufano, Φ., H αναστήλωση των αρχαίων μνημείων στην Eλλάδα (1834-1939). Το έργο της εν Aθήναις Aρχαιολογικής Eταιρείας και της Aρχαιολογικής Yπηρεσίας. Β΄ έκδοση, Αθήνα, 2008, σελ. 32-33, 299-300
Μανιδάκη, Β., «Η αντικατάσταση των γλυπτικών αρχιτεκτονικών μελών στα μνημεία της Ακρόπολης. Εκμαγεία, αντίγραφα και αυθεντικά μέλη», Τεχνικές Αναστήλωσης, υλικά και προβλήματα εφαρμογής, Πρακτικά Ημερίδας, Εταιρεία έρευνας και προώθησης της επιστημονικής αναστήλωσης των μνημείων (ΕΤΕΠΑΜ), Θεσσαλονίκη 20/11/2010, ψηφιακός δίσκος, 2010, σελ. 1, 3 και υποσημ. 5
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