Varvakeion Athena Parthenos

Statuette; free copy of the Athena Parthenos.
The huge cult statue of Athena that stood inside the Parthenon was made from gold and ivory assembled on a wooden core. In Roman times there was a thriving trade in the making and selling of small replicas of the statue, tourist souvenirs, like this one.
The original Parthenon Athena did not survive antiquity, but replicas give us a more detailed image of what it looked like. Paint traces reveal that this one used bright pigment to stand in for the expensive cladding

Number

145

Material

Pentelc marble

Location of Original

Athens National Museum 129

Size

0.95m

Accession

Purchased 26 Nov 1881 by the Fitzwilliam Museum from Martinelli of Athens. Transferred to the Museum in 1884

References

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 146 (n.6)
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), 218, figs.599-600
Lawrence: Classical Sculpture (1928), 195, pl. 48a
Hurwit: The Athenian Acropolis (1999), 25

Date

Late Roman. Original: c.440 BCE

Sculptor

Of original: Pheidias

Provenance

Found near Varvakeion in Athens in the ruins of a Roman house

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