Tag: Parthenon frieze

Face-Off: Pergamon Altar ‘V’ Parthenon Frieze

Both of these monumental pieces of sculpture are beautiful, both portray good overcoming evil and the greatness of civilised man over barbarians. The Parthenon itself is awe-inspiring. If you haven’t managed to see it yet (a perfect opportunity for a holiday in Athens!), when you get up to the Acropolis and walk around, look at the Parthenon frieze, the pediments, the metopes, and then you should get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor! It is honestly one of the most magical buildings that I have ever seen. Everything about it proclaims the glory of Athens – it’s position on the Acropolis, the monumental sculpture, and of course the story which is told by the frieze.

The Pergamon Altar was built during the reign of King Eumenes II in the first half of the second century BC on the acropolis in Pergamon in Asia Minor. Although it is often said to be a temple, it’s not. It is in fact more likely to be an altar for a temple, maybe for the temple of Athena which was also on the acropolis slightly abve the Pergamon altar. One of the theories is that the Pergamon altar was only a place for making sacrifices. Another is that the altar didn’t have a temple, that it was simply an altar. This sounds silly but an altar did not necessarily have to have a temple around it, although temples always had to have an altar. There is no one theory which has been widely accepted and Wolfgang Radt who had worked on the excavations at Pergamon went so far as to say: No research is undisputed concerning this most famous artistic masterpiece of Pergamon.

So Let’s compare these two great monuments head to head and see which one you think comes out on top!

The Parthenon Frieze

Parthenon Frieze Section

The Parthenon Frieze was sculpted by Phidias under the rule of Perikles during the so called ‘Golden Age’.

The frieze runs in an unbroken line around the exterior wall of the cella, and is one metre high and 160 metres long. It is carved in low relief sculpture and depicts a parade of horses, riders, gods, people and animals. All of these together are most often interpreted as showing the Panathenaic Procession.
This happened in Summer in the first month of the Athenian Calender and was an incredibly important festival for the people of Ancient Athens. It begins in the Southwest Corner and then the 2 processions go in different directions until they meet on the east side.

In the centre part of the frieze is the folding of the peplos which was woven by virgins who were dedicated to the goddess Athena. Some scholars argue that the frieze does not show a particlar Panathenaic Procession but rather that it just shows an idealised procession that indicates what the panathenaic procession should be like.

If we agree that the frieze shows the Panathenaic procession then why are there gods depicted with mortals?

The frieze is split between Athens and London, with a few stray parts housed elsewhere in the world. In London it makes up the largest part of the Elgin Marbles Collection of the British Museum.

In Athens’ New Acropolis Museum it is laid out as it would have been when it was on the Parthenon itself and the missing parts have been replaced with marble plaster casts, presumably until they manage to get the rest of the frieze back.

PLUS POINTS

Seeing the Parthenon Frieze on the Acropolis is magical
You get to walk around the frieze and see exactly the way it was on the Parthenon

LET-DOWNS

The original isn’t all in one place

The Pergamon Altar

Pergamon Altar

The Pergamon altar is often described as the high point of Hellenistic Art. However, little is written about its origins apart from one or two comments in the Ancient texts.

The entire altar is about 35 metres wide and 33 metres deep. It’s absolutely massive! The front stairway alone is almost 20 metres wide, and the frieze itself is about 113 metres long, one of the longest friezes from Greek Antiquity after its rival the Parthenon frieze.

The base is decorated with a frieze in high relief. This shows the battle between the giants and the gods of Olympia (Gigantomachy). Here the children of Gaia (who are often described as giant creatures with snake feet) fight against the Olympian gods.

The East frieze is the one that visitors to the Pergamon altar would have seen first and it shows most of the important Olympian gods.

There is a second, smaller frieze on the inner court walls which depicts events from the life of Telephus, who not only was the son of the great Herakles but who was also accredited as the founder of Pergamon.

The Pergamon altar is housed in Berlin. After the friezes were moved there archaeologists found that the slabs weren’t actually in the right order and so they had to be re-arranged.

Also, the old museum was found to be far too small to house the alter properly a new museum was built to display them to their best adavantage, hence how the alter got its own museum – the Pergamon Museum.

PLUS POINTS

The altar is the high point of Hellenistic art
The Gigantomachy is an exciting story
It’s got its own museum

LET-DOWNS

If you go to the site itself there’s nothing much there apart from a few olive trees
Not all the panels survived being moved after they were found to be in the wrong order

Controversy Present and Absent: Dimitrios Pandermalis Introduces the New Acropolis Museum

Thirty years in the making, the 130 million euro New Acropolis Museum is a stunning, if controversial, addition to Athen’s famous architectural landscape and at the same time a provocative statement of intent by the Greek people. In a fascinating talk in Dublin last night, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the new museum took an enthralled audience on a tour of the history, architecture and intentions of the spectacular building.

The talk, entitled ‘Collections Present and Absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens‘ was hosted by the National Museum of Ireland, organised by the Irish Museums Association and was attended by the new Greek ambassador to Ireland, Her Excellency Ms. Constantina Zagorianou-Prifti.

The lecture was opened with some brief introductions, including a subtle assurance from the Director of the National Museum of Ireland that the Professor was amongst friends (an obvious reference to the repatriation controversy surrounding the famous Elgin Marbles in the British Museum in London). Finally Professor Pandermali, a short amiable man with greying hair, excellent English and a gift for public speaking took to the podium and began to take the audience on a tour through the history of the museum, and some of its major spaces and design features, stopping occasionally to note the empty spots left by artefacts not currently residing in Greece

Why Build a New Acropolis Museum?

The first topic considered was, appropriately, the question of origins. The building of such an expensive museum is a rare event and one with many motivations. So why did the Greeks decide to do it? The professor first explained why the original Acropolis Museum was constructed in the late nineteenth century; his contention being that it was built as a response to the damage caused by both the Turkish gunpowder explosion and later Lord Elgin’s ‘vandalism’ (certainly a primary motive for the building of the new museum). Perhaps a very modern perspective on nineteenth century motivations.

Whatever the reasons, the museum was almost immediately to prove not-fit-for-purpose. The discovery of an archaic-period Acropolis, pre-dating the classical one so visible today, with a wealth of sculptures and artefacts, meant that the museum was almost immediately too small to house the Acropolis finds. By the 1970s a decision had been made that all of the sculptures on the rock should be sheltered from the harsh Athenian elements. Clearly the old museum would not be able to accommodate them.

This made the need for a new museum, and a massive one at that (clearly too big to be situated on the Acropolis) very clear. A need further re-inforced by the campaign started in the 1980s for the return of sculptures removed from the Parthenon in the nineteenth century. The campaign was seriously undermined by the lack of a suitable venue in Greece for their preservation and presentation.

Some thirty years of arguments, controversy, architectural competitions and funding issues led eventually to the opening of the new museum earlier this year and a renewed and reinforced call for the return of the missing marbles.

A Quick Guided Tour

The next stage of the talk took us on a whistle-stop tour through some of the major spaces in the new museum. It truly is a stunning building with some genuinely new approaches to how museums should interact with the objects inside them as well as the cityscape around them and, in this case, the archaeology under them. Check out this interview with the architect, Bernard Tschumi, on how he approached the task of creating a home for the missing marbles.

During construction of the museum a large archaeological site was excavated, necessitating the balancing of the museum on top of 100 columns; delicately placed so as not to disturb the uncovered antiquities. The archaeological site can be viewed through transparent panels in the museum’s floor. Elsewhere in the museum transparent walls connect the museum with the city outside, in contrast to the traditional aim of museum architecture to create a sanctuary in which artefacts and art can be viewed in their own space.

This interaction with the outside world reaches its zenith in the Parthenon hall. Orientated parallel to the real thing, which can be clearly seen through the large windows (if only on one side of the hall), the room attempts to re-create the orientation and narrative effect of the original sculptures. Apparently the original intention was to leave voids for the exiled statues, metopes and friezes scattered around Europe, but the jarring effect of floating heads and limbs alongside the loss of the frieze’s narrative integrity led to the decision to fill the gaps with plaster copies of the missing pieces.

Other parts of the museum showcase some unorthodox but successful decisions. On the first floor, archaic period statues are displayed amongst large columns intended to evoke their original contexts and encourage movement through the room and around the sculptures. There is also a departure from the usual slavish adherence to chronology found in traditional museums. This allows the use of comparisons to illustrate sculptural styles and techniques. Finally, and one of my favourite elements of the museum, is the inclusion on the roof of the Parthenon hall of a ground plan of the Acropolis that can be seen by visitors to the rock looking down onto the new museum.

Re-unification of the Parthenon Frieze?

An underlying theme throughout the lecture was the spaces left in the museum for the marbles taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin. Professor Pandermalis was careful to avoid talk of reclamation, or getting back the marbles.

He suggested that the marbles belong to the world, and particularly to Europe

Instead he framed the issue as one of re-unification and the restoration of the integrity of the original artists composition. He suggested that the marbles belong to the world, and particularly to Europe, serving as a unifying symbol of European civilisation which arent owned in a legal sense (since they cant in reality be bought or sold) but are really the cultural property of humanity.

This is surprisingly close to the view of the British Museum who also see the marbles as the property of humanity but who are adamant that their legal ownership is very real. The argument that the Parthenon marbles should be re-united is hard to fault but if they truly are the property of humanity it could almost be argued that the best place for them is in London: one of the most accessible and visited cities on the planet. Is there a case for the Greeks sending their remaining marbles over to London?

In reality the near future holds no hope of uniting the remaining marbles in either London or Athens. The professor visited Dublin as part of a tour of European cities which seems rather transparently to be a kind of canvassing drive to gain the support of other European countries for Greece’s goal of the ‘re-unification’ of the Parthenon sculptures. Appealing to modern European notions of unification and civilisation is certainly a clever tactic but despite Professor Pandermaliss entertaining and earnest efforts I think the wall will not come down for the Parthenon marbles for some considerable time. Still, at least we have one more spectacular museum in the world.

Have Your Say

Do you think that the Elgin Marbles should return to Greece? Join the discussion or have your say in our new repatriation survey. Results will be announced next week.

Brian Dolan’s blog

Lord Byron, Poetry on the Elgin Marbles

Lord Byron has been described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”, but there is an other reason – besides his regular escapades – why the British may have deemed this famous poet to be ‘wicked’. Byron was a bitter opponent of Lord Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece, and “reacted with fury” when Elgin’s agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon, during which he saw the missing friezes and metopes. He penned a poem, the Curse of Minerva, to denounce Elgin’s actions. Although Byron never intended to publish this poem, a copy was stolen from him and printed without his approval.

“Mortal!” -twas thus she spake- “that blush of shame
Proclaims thee Briton, once a noble name;
First of the mighty, foremost of the free,
Now honourd less by all, and least by me;
Chief of thy foes shall Pallas still be found.
Seekst thou the cause of loathing? -look around.
Lo! here, despite of war and wasting fire,
I saw successive tyrannies expire.
Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth,
Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both.
Survey this vacant, violated fane;
Recount the relics torn that yet remain:
These Cecrops placed, this Pericles adornd,
That Adrian reard when drooping Science mournd.
What more I owe let gratitude attest-
Know, Alaric and Elgin did the rest.
That all may learn from whence the plunderer came,
The insulted wall sustains his hated name:

Fragment from ‘The Curse of Minerva’ by Lord Byron, 1811

George Gordon Byron, the 6th Baron Byron took up the subject of the Parthenon Frieze again a year later, in the lengthy narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands. Canto XIto XV of ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’ are a weeping tribute to the Parthenon Marbles:

Cold is the heart, fair Greece, that looks on thee,
Nor feels as lovers oer the dust they loved;
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behovd
To guard those relics neer to be restored.
Curst be the hour when their isle they roved,
And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
And snatchd thy shrinking Gods to northern climes abhorrd!

Canto XVfrom ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’ by Lord Byron, 1812

Already in the early 19th century, the ‘destruction of the Parthenon’ due to the removal of the friezes did not make sense to Lord Byron, permission slip or no permission slip. Maybe the British Museum can counter this with Keats? 😉

Lord Elgin’s Firman – Permission Granted?

When the British Museum is explaining why they should not return the Elgin Marbles – and how they acquired them in the first place – they often offer two old letters as proof of their entitlement on the Parthenon Friezes: a copy of letter written by Philip Hunt talking about the ‘Firman’, a letter of permission, as well as a translation of the Firman in Italian dating to 1801. But was ‘feel free to ship half the Parthenon to Britain’ really what the Ottoman Firman said?

In a recent statement Neil McGregor, director of the British Museum, said on the removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greek soil that “there’s no question it was legal because you can’t move those things without the approval of the power of the day. It was clearly allowed, or it it wouldn’t have happened.”

The British Museum in an official statement – and after pointing out that the Louvre, the National Museum in Copenhagen, the Wurzburg University, the Vatican Museums, the Glyptothek in Munich and the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna hold sculptures from the Parthenon in their collection too – denies that the collection was “stolen” by Lord Elgin because “Lord Elgin’s work was carried out openly and with the support of local officials both Turkish and Greek.” Surely, the Firman letter will prove that the removal of the Parthenon sculptures was legal?

What does the Firman letter say?

We need to keep in mind that the Firman letter in possession of the British Museum – it was on public display from October 2008 to April 2009 – is a translation to Italian from the original document, which was lost in time. The translation was made by the Venetian dragoman (translator and diplomatic negotiator) Antonio Dan so that Lord Elgin and the Rev. Philip Hunt might know exactly what the Turkish document said. The British Museum still displays the document on it’s website and supplies us with a English translation.

“… nor hinder them from taking away any pieces of stone with inscriptions, and figures, …” – the Firman

The Firman letter speaks of English painters employed by Lord Elgin, which should be not hindered in making models of the ornaments and visible figures, in measuring the remains of the ruined buildings nor “… in undertaking to dig, according to need, the foundations to find the inscribed blocks, which may have been preserved in the rubble…“

But surely, they were allowed to take some memorabilia home? The translation of the Firman letter says on this: ” …and when they wish to take away some pieces of stone with old inscriptions, and figures, that no opposition be made… .” A the end the Firman letter changes its tone: ” … nor hinder them from taking away any pieces of stone with inscriptions, and figures, … .“

It does sound like a carte blanche to chisel parts of the Parthenon? The British Museum certainly believes so, in their statement it asserts that there was no exclusion clause concerning removal of material from buildings and walls, based on that final fragment of the Firman letter.

Reading between the Firman letter’s lines

CultureGrll – Lee Rosembaum for ArtsJournal.com – took a look at the Firman letter, and concludes that what has come down to us through the translation seems to fall far short of blanket permission for Lord Elgin and his men to hack slabs of the famous frieze from the walls of the Parthenon. Lee Rosembaum points out we should look at the context of the previous parts of the letter:

But reading the phrase that permitted removal of “any pieces of stone” in the context of what came before it—the reference to objects “preserved among the rubble”—makes it appear likely that intent of this convolutedly worded edict was to allow removal of loose pieces at the base of the monument, not of the frieze slabs still affixed to its walls.

You can access it and try to decipher it for yourself, but It seems to me that a close reading of the English translation of the firman undermines, rather than supports, the British Museum’s legal argument. Maybe that’s why MacGregor is now arguing that the removal was “legal” because Ottoman officials obviously knew what was going on.

Lee Rosenbaum also points out she’s not the first to have such opinion. She quotes the ‘The Parthenon Frieze’ book by Jenifer Neils, professor of art history and classics at Case Western Reserves on the issue:

The official firman…does not specifically grant authority to remove the superstructure of the temple, but rather to ‘carry away some pieces of stone with inscriptions and figures’ (presumably those lying around the Acropolis after the explosion of 1687). (‘The Parthenon Frieze’, p. 241, Jenifer Neils)

What do you think? Did Lord Elgin get his marbles only due to a loophole, and ‘administrative error’? Should we judge Lord Elgin according to the times he lived in, and on his good intentions to improve the arts of Great Britain by making available casts and drawings of Greek monuments previously known only from drawings and engravings as the British Museum suggests? (No mentioning of chiselling there.) And what about a full transcription of Reverend Philip Hunt’s letter, in which he laments the damage being done to the sculptures of the Parthenon? And last but not least:

Should the Parthenon statues be returned to Greece?