This is a reduced version, made of marble in Roman times, of the shield of the Athena in the Parthenon by Pheidias. The reliefs depicted on it are a Gorgon’s head in the centre, surrounded by groups of fighting Greeks and Amazons.

The Roman scholar Plutarch writes, describing the original cult statue, not this copy, that the bald figure with his arms raised, just below the middle of the shield, is a self-portrait by Pheidias. Less plausibly he also claims that the figure to our right of Pheidias, with his face hidden, is a portrait of Perikles, who was responsible for the building programme that included the Parthenon.

There are traces of paint on the original, and the all-action style is very different to the more controlled action we see on the Parthenon friezes and pediments