Parthenon Frieze _ South XLVI, 142, 143, 144 by Scan The World

Description

On these two blocks the procession of bulls, young herdsmen and occasional himation-clad marshals comes to an end. The head of the procession is punctuated by the figure of the leader (149), who looks out, in frontal stance, toward the viewer. The south side of the frieze is preserved fragmentarily and the sculptured surface was badly damaged in the tremendous catastrophe suffered by the Parthenon in the explosion of 1687 . This is why the sequence from block XX on is uncertain. Even so, the Carrey drawings show the representations on many of the missing sections and have enabled us to locate a number of existing fragments. The original length of the frieze along the south side was 58.70 m. It was composed of forty-seven blocks, some of which are exhibited in the Acropolis Museum, others in the British Museum. The average width of each block is 1.22 m. The workmanship as a whole is clearly less skillful than that of the north frieze, although some of the scenes may be numbered among the masterpieces of the Parthenon (blocks III, X, XI, XXVI, XXXI and XLIV).The procession begins at the west corner and proceeds toward the right. The variety of pose, garment and movement of figures and animals seen in the north frieze is missing here. The riders move in a straight line, looking straight ahead, with a single exception on block V, rider (13). The varied rendition of the horses’ trimmed manes reflects their speed of movement.As in the north frieze, the sections evident in the…