Download The Parthenon: Pericles, Athena and Civic Identity

Department of History
The Fieldston School
History of Art through the Renaissance- Power, Patronage, Propaganda, Production and Perception
Andrew Meyers
U2 D12-13 Greek and Hellenistic Art: The Refinement of Athena
The Parthenon: Pericles, Athena and civic identity
Periclean Athens
Pericles leads Athens’ democracy (461-429)
Kresilas, Pericles, Greece, 440 (Roman copy)
view of Parthenon, west façade (447-432)
Athenian victory in Persian War (499-479): Burning of Acropolis (480); Marathon (490),
Salamis (480)
Delian League (470s-404);
Peloponnesian War (431-404);
Fall to Philip of Macedon(338)
Philosophy and Drama
Polykleitos, Theater, Epidauros, Greece, 350
Socrates (470-399). Plato (427-347)- Republic, Aristotle (384-322) [Pythagoras, 582-507]
platonism, empiricism, stoicism, cynicism (“barking dog”), epicureanism, hedonism
Aeschylus (525-426)- Oresteia (Athenian Eumenides), Sophocles (496-406)- Oedipus
Cycle,Euripides (480-406)- Bacchae (Apollonian/Dionysian- list)
Architecture and Sculpture
Callicrates, Ictinus, Mnesicles
Phidias
The Acropolis in Athens: City and the Divine
defense and ritual: wall and temenos
Athens, 5 c BC
Pan-Athenaic way
Acropolis and Agora
Erectheus, founder/king; defense
Mythic origins; Poseidon and Athena
Views of Acropolis
Mnesicles, Propylaea from West, 437-32
Pan-Athenaic procession
Piraeus port: chariots and horses
city gate and agora
Aeropagus (Furies= Eumenides)
Parthenon view
Entrance
Mnesicles, Picture Gallery of Propylaea, 437-32 Mnesicles ,Temple of Athena Nike, 427-24
view to Salamis
negative v. positive space; ambiguity
Arrival
Propylaea, from east
plan
Mnesicles,Erectheum, 421-405
Ichtinus (+ Callicrates), Parthenon,448-432
Natural and Manmade
palimpsest
Athena:
birth from Zeus’ head
competition with Poseidon for Attica (olive tree)
female and male: body and spirit; wisdom and force
Polias, (previous temple, burnwed by Persians, 480 BC)
Nike (war, victory at Salamis),
Promachus (war)
Parthenos (“virgin”= maiden, kore)
Acropolis, view from Propylaea
view to Mt. Lycabettus
Mt Hymettos (horned) and Mt. Lycabettos (conical)
Parthenon:
perspective: faç ade and flank (facade as elevation...)
agressive figure oriented/inflected toward nature
Erectheum (Mnesicles, 421-405)
Erectheus/ Athena Polias
perspective and landscape: frame
several deities of earth (and Poseidon and Athena’s tree)
orders
Erectheum, view, north porch
use of the ionic
Porch of the Maidens
Michael Graves, Disney Hdqtrs., Burbank, 1988
axes to Gaia statue, Parthenon, Lycabettus, and Athena statue
Parthenon (Ichtinus and Callicrates, architects, 448-432) (Phidias, sculptor, 440-32)
Athena Parthenos (Maiden)- Human Athena, surrounded by her Korai
“our dear kore among us”
plan
plan
periptal, octastyle
(1687 AD explosion; 1762 Stuart and Revett drawings
pronaos(eastern entrance), opisthodomos (western treasury)
Ionic grove v. Doric object: hollow and presence
Procession and narrative
view from northwest
refinement: stylobate and columns (entasis)
Phidias, west pediment, 440-32
Poseidon and Athena
West pediment view
Ionic and doric: The synthesis of Athena Parthenos
Doric order
Metope of Centaur and Lapith
orders
east pediment and interior frieze
corner, triglyphs and metopes
ionic and doric
Panathenaic procession
Elgin Marbles, 1806
plan
Treasury of Siphnians, frieze, Delphi, 525 BC North Frieze, Panathenaic Horsemen, 440
North Frieze, Cavalry Parade
North Frieze, Panathenaic Horsemen, 440
South Frieze,Water Bearers
East Freize, Attendants with New Robes
Sacrificial Heifers
Sacrifice
East Pediment, Crowning (Birth) of Athena
3 Goddesses or Fates
Theseus, or Dionysus, or Hercules, East ped. Horse of Selene, East Ped.
Dionysus, Iris, Athena, Zeus, Fates (?) Selene, Horse of Selene
Phidias, Athena Parthenos,
chryselephantine statue, 438 (destroyed, desc. by Pausanias)
The Athena Parthenos = “virgin”
thirty-eight feet tall
chryselephantine= covered in gold and ivory
The goddess held a figure of Nike (Victory) in her right hand. The snake beneath her shield represented Erechtheus. On the
outside of her shield was an Amazonomachy on the inside there was a Gigantomachy, on the edge of her sandals was the
Centauromachy. These three themes, which represent the victory of order and civilisation over chaotic, monstruous beings,
were also represented on the outside of the Parthenon itself.
<http://www.princeton.edu/~rhwebb/athenaparth.html>