The artistic genius of Athens in the fifth century BC reached its peak in the sculpted marble reliefs of the Parthenon frieze. Designed by Phidias and carved by a team of anonymous masons, the frieze adorned the temple of Athena on the Acropolis and represents a festival procession in honour of the Olympian gods. Its original composition and precise meaning, however, have long been the subject of lively debate. Most of what survives of the frieze is now in the British Museum or the Acropolis Museum in Athens; the rest is scattered among a number of European collections. This book reconstructs the frieze in its entirety according to the most up-to-date research, with a detailed scene-by-scene commentary, and the superb quality of the carving is vividly shown in a series of close-up photographs. In his introduction Ian Jenkins places the frieze in its architectural, historical and artistic setting. He discusses the various interpretations suggested by previous scholars, and finally puts forward a view of his own.

The Parthenon Frieze

Arts & Photography

Jenkins, Ian

History & Criticism

University of Texas Press

A fascinating look at how Classical sculpture inspired Rodin and his work
Rodin, famous for The Thinker and The Kiss, was captivated by the sculptures of Classical antiquity and he constantly reworked and assimilated the forms of ancient Greek and Roman art in his own work. Rodin visited the British Museum for the first time in the summer of 1881 and there greatly admired the sculptures of the Parthenon. Before he saw the originals, he was already acquainted with plaster casts of them displayed in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. The Parthenon sculptures continued to be a major influence on his own work and he visited them frequently on his return visits to London. He also amassed a huge collection of fragments of ancient sculpture that served as a great source of inspiration.
An introduction to this volume, published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum, by Hartwig Fischer, the Museum’s director, reflects on the internationalism of the Parthenon sculptures and their global reach, and essays by the curators of the exhibition tell the story of their reception in the modern era, and chart the lifelong relationship between these sculptures and Rodin. The works featured are arranged thematically, with sections on Rodin’s Parthenon, Truth to Nature, the Monument, the Fragment and Motion and Emotion. The book includes examples of Rodin’s drawings as well as his sculpture. 200+ illustration in color

Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece (British Museum, 5)

Farge, Celeste

Garnier, Bénédicte

Individual Artists

Thames&Hudson

From Athens and Arcadia on one side of the Aegean Sea and from Ionia, Lycia, and Karia on the other, this book brings together some of the great monuments of classical antiquity --among them two of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the later temple of Artemis at Ephesos and the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos. 
 Drawing on the Greek and Lycian architecture and sculpture in the British Museum--a collection second to none in quality, quantity, and geographical and chronological range--this lavishly illustrated volume tells a remarkable story reaching from the archaic temple of Artemis, the Parthenon, and other temples of the Athenian Acropolis to the temple of Apollo at Bassai, the sculptured tombs of Lycia, the Mausoleum, and the temple of Athena Polias at Priene. Ian Jenkins explains each as a work of art and as a historical phenomenon, revealing how the complex personality of these buildings is bound up with the people who funded, designed, built, used, destroyed, discovered, and studied them. With 250 photographs and specially commissioned line drawings, the book comprises a monumental narrative of the art and architecture that gave form, direction, and meaning to much of Western culture.

Greek Architecture and Its Sculpture

Harvard University Press

The Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum are unrivaled examples of classical Greek art, an inspiration to artists and writers since their creation in the fifth century bce. A superb visual introduction to these wonders of antiquity, this book offers a photographic tour of the most famous of the surviving sculptures from ancient Greece, viewed within their cultural and art-historical context. 
 Ian Jenkins offers an account of the history of the Parthenon and its architectural refinements. He introduces the sculptures as architecture--pediments, metopes, Ionic frieze--and provides an overview of their subject matter and possible meaning for the people of ancient Athens. Accompanying photographs focus on the pediment sculptures that filled the triangular gables at each end of the temple; the metopes that crowned the architrave surmounting the outer columns; and the frieze that ran around the four sides of the building, inside the colonnade. Comparative images, showing the sculptures in full and fine detail, bring out particular features of design and help to contrast Greek ideas with those of other cultures. 
 The book further reflects on how, over 2,500 years, the cultural identity of the Parthenon sculptures has changed. In particular, Jenkins expands on the irony of our intimate knowledge and appreciation of the sculptures--a relationship far more intense than that experienced by their ancient, intended spectators--as they have been transformed from architectural ornaments into objects of art.

The Parthenon Sculptures

Uses Greek and Roman artifacts to illustrate aspects of their home life, dress, education, marriage, death, drama, athletic events, work, and slavery.

Greek and Roman Life

History

Ancient Civilizations

Archaeologists and Aesthetes in the Sculpture Galleries of the British Museum 1800-1939

British Museum Pubns Ltd

This book reconstructs the frieze in its entirety according to the most up-to-date research, with a detailed scene-by-scene commentary, and the superb quality of the carving is vividly shown in a series of close-up photographs.

THE PARTHENON FRIEZE

BRITISH MUSEUM

Jenkins reconstructs the Parthenon frieze in its entirety according to the most up-to-date research, with a detailed scene-by-scene commentary, and the superb quality of the carving is vividly shown in a series of close-up photographs.

The Parthenon Frieze (paperback) /anglais

Reference

Hardcover: 272 pagesPublisher: British Museum Press (November 20, 2006)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0714122408ISBN-13: 978-0714122403Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 7.4 x 9.6 inchesShipping Weight: 2.5 pounds

Greek Architecture And its Sculpture /anglais

The Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum are unrivalled examples of classical Greek art that have inspired sculptors, artists, poets and writers since their creation in the fifth century BC. This book serves as a superb visual introduction to these magnificent sculptures. The book showcases a series of specially taken photographs of the different sculptural elements: the pediments, metopes and Ionic frieze. It captures the vitality of the sculptures in a group, an individual sculpture or an exquisite eye-catching detail, such as the mane of a horse, a human foot, the swish of drapery or a youthful head bowed in thought.

Parthenon Sculptures

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