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Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases

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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