Temple of Athena Nike south frieze
- Title:
- Temple of Athena Nike south frieze
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 420 BCE
2008 (image)
- Site:
- Athens, Greece (original)
- Location:
- Klarman Hall, ground floor, south entry wing
previously, Warehouse
Athens, Greece (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0028
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 181
258 (carved front, bottom right)
264 (red pen on front)
28 - File Name:
- CCC_0028.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 44.45 (H) x 179 (W) cm (complete block)
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Ancient warfare
Temple of Athena Nike (Athens, Greece)
Greece--History--Persian Wars, 500-449 B.C.--Campaigns - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 45.7 x 86 x 3.8 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the viewer's right side of block o from the south frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis at Athens. The south frieze depicts a battle between Greeks and Persians, speculatively the battle at Marathon in 490 BCE. At the left end of the cast, a nude, front-facing Greek with a billowing garment over his left forearm lunges towards or pulls along a clothed Persian. The Persian, shown between frontal and three-quarter views, kneels and attempts to shield his head with his arms. To the right, a Persian in a chiton, also depicted between a frontal and three-quarter pose, moves toward the right with both arms raised over his left shoulder. Next, a nude Greek (poorly preserved in the original) between frontal and three-quarter views lunges toward the right holding a shield on his left arm. The leg of a clothed Persian is visible behind the shield at the viewer's right edge of the block, but that figure is otherwise heavily damaged in the original. No. 181 in the Sage catalog refers to a collective group of blocks from the Nike Temple frieze, identifying these all as blocks from the west frieze. It is unclear how many blocks from the temple were held in the original Sage Collection, and equally unclear whether those blocks all came from the west frieze. It is likely that no. 181 included blocks from the south frieze as well as from the west.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1816,0610.158 - Bibliography:
- Carl Blümel, Der Fries des Tempels der Athena Nike (Berlin, 1923)
Elizabeth G. Pemberton, "The East and West Friezes of the Temple of Athena Nike," AJA 76 (1972), 303-310
Evelyn B. Harrison, "The Glories of the Athenians: Observations on the Program of the Frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike," Studies in the History of Art 49 (1997), Symposium Papers XXIX: The Interpretation of Architectural Sculpture in Greece and Rome (1997), 108-125 - Related Work:
- ID no. 29 is the left half of block o, cast separately.
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
London, British Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.