Schwab, Katherine

English

Fairfield University: DigitalCommons@Fairfield

Fairfield University DigitalCommons@Fairfield Visual & Performing Arts Faculty Publications Visual & Performing Arts Department 4-1996 The North Metopes of the Parthenon and the Palladion Katherine Schwab Fairfield University, kaschwab@fairfield.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/visualandperformingarts-facultypubs Originally appears in American Journal of Archaeology. Copyright 1996 Archaeological Institute of America Peer Reviewed Repository Citation Schwab, Katherine, "The North Metopes of the Parthenon and the Palladion" (1996). Visual & Performing Arts Faculty Publications. 1. https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/visualandperformingarts-facultypubs/1 Published Citation Schwab, Katherine. 1996. "The North Metopes of the Parthenon and the Palladion." AJA 100(2):383-383. This item has been accepted for inclusion in DigitalCommons@Fairfield by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Fairfield. It is brought to you by DigitalCommons@Fairfield with permission from the rights-holder(s) and is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@fairfield.edu. 1996] THE 97TH ANNUAL MEETING 383 casting pits of which the two upper ones belonged to the Roman period. On the basis of the pottery, the two lower pits were dated to the fourth century B.C. Our knowledge of the casting technique of ancient large bronzes has significantly increased during the last years. Therefore, it is now possible to differentiate the two lower pits chronologically on the basis of their technical char- acteristics and facilities and to date the one to the west to the fifth century B.C. Similarities to the finds from the workshop of Pheidias in Olympia seem to indicate that this pit was part of the workshop in which Pheidias cast the colossal statue of Athena Promachos. In accordance with the recent considerations concern- ing the course of the peripatos around the Acropolis, the floor of the workshop as well as two hall-like buildings can be reconstructed. The discovery of this large workshop com- plex indicates that from the fifth century B.C. until the Roman period an area existed in the immediate vicinity of the main sanctuary of Athens in which work on large bronzes was performed over an extended period of time. THE NORTH METOPES OF THE PARTHENON AND THE PALLADION: Katherine A. Schwab, Fairfield University The north metopes of the Parthenon sustained great damage from the 1687 explosion. Only 13 of the original 32 compositions are extant, yet the theme has been known since the 19th century when A. Michaelis identified it as the Sacking of Troy. Significant studies by C. Praschniker, F. Brommer, and E. Berger reveal both the possibilities for proposing identifications of individual figures as well as the inherent difficulties when working with these badly damaged reliefs. A study of representations on Attic red-figure vases and a comparison of different sets of plaster casts of the met- opes make possible a new series of drawings of each pre- served composition. Two representations of the Palladion are partially preserved: the rescue of Helen in N 25 and the Theft of the Palladion that has been associated with N 27. Two other compositions, not preserved, surely belong in this series on the Parthenon: the Rape of Cassandra and the Recovery of the Palladion by Demophon. Recon- structions of these lost compositions are presented to sug- gest the richness of the original narrative. The recent discovery of a naiskos, presumably linked with Athena, inside the northern colonnade further under- scores the importance of cult associated with Athena in this area and on the Acropolis to the north of the Parthe- non. The theme of the Sacking of Troy offered the pos- sibility of multiple examples of the Palladion, precisely in the area of the Acropolis where the protective powers of the goddess were most abundant. THE PARTHENON FRIEZE AND PERICLEAN ATHENS: DEMOCRACY, SELF-SACRIFICE, AND THE COMMON GOOD: Joan B. Connelly, New York University The recognition of the Parthenon frieze as depicting a central Athenian foundation myth allows for new under- standing of the role of myth and ritual in the articulation of the polis and its ideology. The sacrifice of the daughters of Erechtheus prior to the battle against Eumolpos, shown on the east side, and the first commemorative festival pro- cession through which the maidens and their deceased father were honored following the battle, depicted on the other sides, may be seen as a powerful aition for the Panathenaia itself. Central to this myth is the message of saving the city from outsiders and the preservation of Athens by and for the autochthonous Athenians. The role of self-sacrifice for the common good and the importance of adhering to oaths sworn to the community are exemplified by the behavior of Erechtheus's daughters. "The power that keeps our democracy together is the oath," maintains Lycurgus (Leoc. 79), as he recounts their story, which presents Athe- nian ideology within the framework of city goddess, festi- val, and sacrifice. The fact that the Athenian royal family participates fully in the self-sacrifice required to save the city stands in con- trast to the behavior of the Persian royal family that sur- vived defeat (Aesch. Pers.). The example of Erechtheus's house is antithetical to barbarian ideology and in keeping with the democratic social values of the Athenians, which allowed no one family to put itself above the common good. THE PROCESSIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE PERI- CLEAN ACROPOLIS: Robin Rhodes, Columbia Uni- versity The Periclean Acropolis was a religious center conceived and built as an architectural unit, with kinds of formal- ized relationships of axes and proportions generally un- heard of before the great building programs of the Hel- lenistic Age. From my perspective, however, in which both the more abstract elements of the buildings and their sculp- tural decoration are understood as integrated elements of a single architectural narrative, the Acropolis was united on an even more profound level than that of symmetrical geometry: many specifics of Athenian history and, more significantly, of Athenian religious tradition were directly incorporated into its architecture. Perhaps the most basic of these was the tradition of sacred procession; it had been at the heart of the Archaic Acropolis and was also crucial to the design and spirit of the Periclean building program. On the Archaic Acropolis, and even more elaborately in its Periclean successor, a sense of architectural direction enhanced the atmosphere of procession inherent in the religious function of the Acropolis. The Acropolis was probably first elaborated monu- mentally in conjunction with the reorganization of the Grand Panathenaia in the mid-6th century, B.C., and its continuing religious function as the physical culmination of that festival- to be specific, the culmination of its final procession from the Dipylon Gate- is reflected in the gen- eral organization of the Periclean Acropolis and in the specifics of its architectural iconography. Its architecture, in concert with the Panathenaic procession, progressed step by step from the west, from the realm of the secular, the human, the realm of stories, of human explanation, to the more elemental religious experience of divine 

The North Metopes of the Parthenon and the Palladion

https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&amp;context=visualandperformingarts-facultypubs

The North Metopes of the Parthenon and the Palladion

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Fairfield University: DigitalCommons@Fairfield