Parthenon Marbles

Parthenon Marbles. The Parthenon Marbles are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures, architectural members, and inscriptions that originally formed part of the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis of Athens. Created under the supervision of the master sculptor Phidias during the Age of Pericles, they are considered pinnacle achievements of Ancient Greek art and a foundational part of Western civilization. The collection has been housed in the British Museum in London since 1817, following their removal from Ottoman Greece by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, an act that has generated a persistent international controversy over cultural restitution.

History of the Marbles

The sculptures were created in the mid-5th century BC, a period of immense cultural flourishing in Ancient Athens following the Greco-Persian Wars. They adorned the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos, which was constructed as part of the grand building program initiated by Pericles. For centuries, the marbles remained in situ, witnessing the transformation of Athens under the Roman Empire, its conversion into a Byzantine church, and later a Ottoman mosque. Significant damage occurred in 1687 during the Morean War when a Venetian bombardment, led by Francesco Morosini, struck the Parthenon, which was being used as a gunpowder magazine, causing a catastrophic explosion.

Acquisition by Lord Elgin

Between 1801 and 1812, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, obtained a controversial permit, or *firman*, from the Ottoman Porte to remove sculptures from the Acropolis. Elgin's agents, including the painter Giovanni Battista Lusieri, subsequently removed about half of the surviving sculptures from the Parthenon, along with pieces from the Erechtheion and the Propylaea. The motives were a mixture of preservation concerns, documented by figures like Edward Daniel Clarke, and a desire for personal aggrandizement within the context of Grand Tour collecting. After a financially ruinous divorce, Elgin sold the collection to the British government in 1816, which then entrusted it to the British Museum.

Description and Artistic Significance

The collection includes most of the surviving sculptural decoration from the Parthenon: 75 meters of the original 160-meter Doric frieze depicting the Panathenaic Festival, 15 of the 92 metope panels showing battles between Lapiths and Centaurs, and 17 figures from the pedimental groups, including the renowned reclining figure of the river god Ilissos. Stylistically, they represent the high point of the Severe style transitioning into the Classical ideal, demonstrating masterful treatment of drapery, anatomy, and narrative composition. Their influence on later art movements, such as Neoclassicism, was profound, inspiring artists like Antonio Canova and John Flaxman.

Controversy and Restitution Debate

The legitimacy of Elgin's removal and the subsequent ownership by the British Museum have been contested since the early 19th century, notably by the poet Lord Byron in his work Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. The modern restitution movement, strongly championed by the Greek government since the 1980s, argues the removal was an act of cultural vandalism under a colonial occupation. Key figures like actress and activist Melina Mercouri and archaeologist Lord Renfrew have been central to the campaign. The British Museum and the UK government maintain their legal ownership under the British Museum Act 1963 and argue the marbles are a "world heritage" artifact accessible to a global audience in London.

Current Location and Display

Since 1817, the marbles have been a centerpiece of the British Museum's Duveen Gallery, named for the donor Joseph Duveen, who funded a controversial cleaning in the 1930s. They are displayed alongside other monumental sculptures from the ancient world, such as those from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis. The ongoing debate has spurred discussions about digital replication and cultural exchange, while the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which opened in 2009, houses the remaining in-situ sculptures and displays casts of the absent pieces, awaiting their potential return.

Category:Sculpture collections Category:Ancient Greek sculptures Category:Art controversies