Inventory number
ΜΑ ΑΝΤ. 033
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Modern times
Date
19th cent.
Dimensions
Height: 1.02 m
Length: 1.23 m
Material
Plaster
Location
Parthenon Gallery
Plaster copy of Block XLIΙ which is exhibited in the British Museum in London. Only one fragment from the original block’s upper left corner is kept in the Acropolis Museum storeroom.
Block XLII depicts three riders on their galloping horses. The intense movement is particularly visible on the last rider whose horse seems to be flying as none of its legs touches the ground. The young man is gripping the horse’s mane while simultaneously pulls on the reins which would have been made of bronze. All three riders are wearing short chiton but the two last ones have an additional chlamys and sandals. Part of the first rider who is depicted on the fragment in the Acropolis Museum storeroom (Ακρ. 1110) and his mount continue on the next Block XLI (ΜΑ ΑΝΤ. 032). After the third rider, large part of a horse’s body as well as part of its riders body are depicted, with the rest of these figures continuing on the neighbouring Block XLIII(ΜΑ ΑΝΤ. 034). Both of these Blocks are housed today in the British Museum in London.
The frieze on the north 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 north frieze the procession moves along the Panathenaic Way. On its head are youths that lead young cows and rams for the sacrifice followed by more young men who carry water and offerings. Behind them come musicians with flutes and guitars, elders, perhaps officials, holding olive branches, eleven chariots that participate in an equestrian event and finally sixty horsemen divided in ten groups.
The north frieze is fragmentarily preserved due to the explosion of the Parthenon by the Venetians under the command of general Francesco Morosini, in 1687, which damaged mostly the middle part 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 a few parts of this side of the frieze (Blocks Ι-ΧΙΧ). Three blocks (X, XVIII and XXVI) were removed during the conversion of the Parthenon into a Christian church so that windows would be opened in the blocks' positions. Some of these blocks' fragments were later found on the Acropolis.
The initial length of the north frieze was 58.70 m and consisted of 47 blocks. Today the surviving 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 the faces of these blocks. On these casts some of the original fragments that fell off the
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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