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Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases

Parthenon, West Frieze

The west frieze faced the entrance to the Acropolis, and shows the start of the Panathenaic procession. Consequently there is less speed and momentum in this part of the frieze, but the general sense of direction is from right to left.

The scenes are of preparations are for the cavalcade on the north frieze. Some of the horsemen are shown preparing to ride, putting on cloaks, fastening their shoes and tending their horses. At the front is a rider looking back and waving forward his companions.

Four of the originals of these six casts were still in place on the Parthenon until being taken down in 1993 to save them from further weathering. The picture shows one slab

Number: 
142
Material: 
Pentelic marble
Location of Original: 

Athens, Acropolis Museum & London, British Museum 326

Size: 
1.02m
Accession: 

Purchased 26 Nov 1881 from Brucciani by the Fitzwilliam. Transferred to the Museum in 1884

References: 

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 150-1
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), 486
Smith, AH: Sculpture of the Parthenon, 60-61, pls. 61-71
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 51, nos.159-164
Lawrence: Classical Sculpture (1928), 192-
Smith: Catalogue of British Museum Sculpture I (1892), 179-181
Jenkins, I: Annual of the British School at Athens 1990, 85-114, esp.105

Date: 
c.442-438 BCE
Sculptor: 
Pheidias (and workshop of)
Provenance: 

[Two of the six] Removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin

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Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge

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