Bas Relief Sculpture On Plasterboard. In The Taste Of The Panathenaic Frieze. XIX Es

Elegant 19th century bas relief sculpture representing an antique character in the style of the Panathenaic frieze made by Phidias between 445 and 438 BC on the sekos of the Parthenon of the Acropolis of Athens. This plaque represents a female character seated in three quarters. She is covered with a chiton in the movement of the drape taking up all the aesthetic codes of the classical art of the ancient Greeks (V-IV centuries BC). Perhaps it is a goddess from the assembly of the Ouranian gods who watch over the city. Or perhaps it is one of the ergastines, these young girls chosen by the magistrates of the city to present the peplos (large saffron-colored fabric) to the Chriselephantine statue of Athena during the festival of the Great Panathenaia which took place there every four years? The ceremony, known beyond the limits of the Greek world, took place in the cult of the celebration of the policy of Pericles...and which pushed the Athenians to war against the Lacedaemonians. Like the frieze of the Panathenae preserved since the 19th century in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, the head of the character is missing. For the anecdote, our bas relief is white in color...that is to say the way we liked to imagine monuments and works in marble (pentelic or coming from quarries known and exploited elsewhere in the cities Greek). The work of archaeologists and researchers has since shown that this was not the case: the works were variegated with sparkling colors. End of the 19th century. Very good state. Ready to hang.