The Parthenon Frieze

April 11, 2009 in London
The Parthenon Frieze is the low relief, pentelic marble sculpture created to adorn the upper part of the Parthenon’s naos. It was sculpted between ca. 443 and 438 BC most likely under the direction of Phidias. 420 ft of the original frieze survives, some 94%, the rest is known only from the drawings made by flemish artist Jacques Carrey in 1674 if at all.
At present, 37.5% of the frieze is at the British Museum in London (forming the major part of the controversial Elgin Marbles); the rest (48%) is in Athens and the last 14% is shared between the two cities. Much of the Athenian material is not on display, and there are fragments in nine other international museums. Casts of the Frieze may be found in the Beazley archive at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, in the Skulpturhalle at Basel and elsewhere.