The Parthenon Frieze Terracottas

Extract

The terracotta relief, of which an illustration is given below, is one of the series of fragments with reproductions of the Parthenon frieze which have of late years attracted considerable attention.

The present fragment was bought by me in Rome, in February 1894, of a small antiquity-dealer in the Via Tor di Nona. The vendor vowed that it had been found in the bed of the Tiber, in the course of the works in connexion with the Ponte S. Angelo, but no doubt his statement merely indicates that the bed of the Tiber is for the moment the fashionable provenience. The terracotta is 10¼ inches high, and it is obvious that it contains a part of the design of the slab at the west end of the north side of the Parthenon frieze. The original marble is in the British Museum.

Hitherto, three similar fragments have been identified, viz.: (1) Priest and boy with peplos, at Copenhagen; (2) Upper part of Athene, in the Louvre, (3) Lower part of Athene and figure of Hephaestos in the Museo Kircheriano at Rome. All the fragments are published by Dr. Waldstein in his Essays on the Art of Pheidias.