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AP®︎/College Art History
Course: AP®︎/College Art History > Unit 4
Lesson 3: Ancient Greece- The classical orders
- The Athenian Agora and the experiment in democracy
- Anavysos Kouros
- Peplos Kore from the Acropolis
- Making Greek vases
- Niobid Painter, Niobid Krater
- Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)
- Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer)
- Parthenon (Acropolis)
- The Parthenon
- Who owns the Parthenon sculptures?
- Phidias, Parthenon sculptures (pediments, metopes and frieze)
- "Plaque of the Ergastines" fragment from the frieze on the east side of the Parthenon
- Victory (Nike) Adjusting Her Sandal, Temple of Athena Nike (Acropolis)
- Grave Stele of Hegeso
- Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace
- Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon
- Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii
- Apollonius, Seated Boxer
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"Plaque of the Ergastines" fragment from the frieze on the east side of the Parthenon
The Parthenon frieze, a beautiful ancient Greek sculpture, shows a Pan-Athenaic Procession with citizens, animals, and offerings. It's a unique representation of Athens' civic life during its democratic era. The frieze, once brightly colored, is now divided among museums in Paris, London, and Athens. Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- At, Dr. Zucker and Dr. Harris speak with us about how more modern artists were "looking back to classical Greece in trying to achieve again what been achieved in the fifth century BCE...." 2:57
We then proceed to see an image of the famous painting by George Seurat 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-1886).' What about this image evokes the classical naturalism of ancient Greek sculpture and relief?(13 votes)- Marcos, I think this interpretation is quite thoughtful and points in a valuable direction. Seurat was clearly focused on the social structures of his day and notions of ancient and modern ritual is a perfect way to frame the issue. But Seurat was also deeply concerned with formal issues (these were likely not distinct from his concern with subject) and sought a level of clarity and compositional rigor that he may well have associated with the classical ideal. When Beth chose the Seurat for the video, we discussed it and decided it was unexpected but fitting and hoped it would prompt exactly this sort of discussion. Thanks for jumping in.(13 votes)
- Also, I know I ask a ton of questions, but in the end of this video Dr. Zucker you mention that the modern day Greek government has constructed a marvelous museum of sorts to house the Greek relics lost abroad "should they ever be returned." Have you been inside this structure? And if so what is it like? Is it capable of truly doing a comparable job to the incredible British museum, the Louvre, among others?(4 votes)
- This is an extremely complex subject with many legitimate and conflicting interests. On the topic of the New Acropolis Museum, in my opinion, it is both beautiful and thoughtfully designed and it boasts many of the most important sculptures of the archaic and classical periods.(4 votes)
- Dr. Zucker, I would like to extend the conversation you had with another commenter about the modern day Greek government requesting the sculptures back. You mentioned that this subject is "very complex with legitimate and conflicting interests," how so? I have never visited Greece ;however my husband has, and he commented on how it (Parthenon) literally feels as if the story is incomplete but not because of the obvious. He said it was almost like a puzzle with many missing pieces, and knowing that someone else has the missing piece to your puzzle (but won't give it back). It seems rather, undiplomatic.
Is there information that I could read that states the reasons why the British or the French would not give the sculptures back to Greece?(5 votes) - In the video, they keep saying "the citizens of Athens", even when describing women, but weren't Athenian citizens only MEN born in Athens with two Athenian parents?(4 votes)
- I think you're right about that only men were citizens.(2 votes)
- The sculptures are really cool(3 votes)
- Is there an explanation as to why all the heads and faces have been damaged or destroyed? It almost seems intentional.(1 vote)
- Throughout the ages the head was seen as an easy prize to take with you....just take a hammer and pick to the neck and you have a valuable ancient treasure that is highly mobile and precious. Unfortunate for us although at least the body was not as easy to stuff in a rucksack or we would be left with a lot less to study than the little we have today!(4 votes)
- Will the Louvre and the British Museum return these pieces? How did they even get these important artifacts?(2 votes)
- Our video on the Parthenon discusses some of the history. We will be producing a more detailed account soon.(1 vote)
- I think that the other museums should give back there sculptures back to where they came from.(2 votes)
- Has the Frieze been returned yet?(1 vote)
- No, these museums have in their collections sculptures from the Parthenon:
· Musée du Louvre, Paris
· Vatican Museums
· National Museum, Copenhagen
· Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna
· University Museum, Würzburg
· Glyptothek, Munich(2 votes)
- What sorts of effort are being put in to try and "reunite" separated pieces such as the friezes of the Parthenon?(2 votes)
- The sort where they put them back together to make it look new.(0 votes)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) Voiceover: We're in the Louvre in Paris, and we're looking at a
fragment of the frieze from the Parthenon on the
Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Voiceover: Some of this frieze is in the Acropolis Museum, in Athens. Some of it is here, in Paris, and most of it is in the
British Museum, in London. In fact, the scene just to the right is in the British Museum in London. In this case, the word frieze, refers to a band of sculpture
that's about three feet tall, that wrapped around the entire Parthenon, just inside the first colonnade. It would have been really hard to see because it would have been in shadow. Here, we see no traces of paint, but originally, this would have
been very brightly colored. We think that the background was blue. We think there were highlights
of gold on the figures. They would have been garishly
painted, to our eyes. It's important to remember that we would have been
looking up at this. It would have been quite high, and so we're seeing it much closer than originally intended. Voiceover: Historians generally
agree that this represents the Pan-Athenaic Procession. All the citizens of Athens
gathered in a procession, made their way up the
sacred way to the Acropolis, this high point in the city, where the great temple to
Athena, the Parthenon stood. Voiceover: Young women would have woven a woolen peplos to clothe
the statue of Athena. These were specially regarded young women that came from leading families in Athens. Voiceover: Now, the peplos, this garment, was not for the colossal sculpture of Athena that was inside the Parthenon, but this was an ancient sculpture that was very sacred
that stood in a temple right next to the Parthenon. Voiceover: That's the Erechtheion. Voiceover: And so, a new garment was woven and given to this ancient
olive wood sculpture of Athena. Voiceover: The Pan-Athenaic Procession, as represented in the
frieze on the Parthenon shows not only the procession of these young women bringing the peplos, but also animals being brought
for sacrifice; libations. All the things you need for
an important ancient ceremony. Voiceover: The interesting
thing about the frieze is that it seems to show
a contemporary event. That is, it's not a mythological event, which was normal decoration for a temple, but something from the
civic life from Athens, and remember Athens is a democracy at this moment in the 5th century. The citizens of Athens look
beautiful, noble, heroic. Voiceover: Well, the nobility
is so clear in this fragment. We see these women solemnly processing. They're interrupted by two male figures, but look of the clarity of the carving. There such solemnity; there
such a sense of reverence. Voiceover: Of dignity; one
immediately gets a sense that this is a religious procession in honor of Athena, the goddess, the patron of the city of Athens. Voiceover: This is the
high classical moment, and it's beautifully represented here. There's a sense of balance, of idealism. In fact, this kind of art
was considered so perfect, that through much of the
rest of Western History, we see more modern cultures looking back to classical Greece, and
trying to achieve, again, what had been achieved
in the 5th century B.C.E. Voiceover: Phidias, who we
generally think of as in charge of the sculptural
program on the Parthenon, developed a style that we see here. Very intricate folds following
the forms of the body. We see it in flatter areas move around the breasts of the women, but also very curvilinear folds
at the edges of the peplos where it's folded over and belted, and still other areas where it
falls in very straight lines that might remind us of
the fluting of a column. Voiceover: The figures are
standing in contrapposto, that is, for the young women, in general, their left leg is the weight bearing leg. Their right leg is moving forward, and we can see the knee breaking
the fall of the drapery. So, there is this alternation between movement and the static. Voiceover: Look at the
gracefulness of the figure on the far right. Look at how she's walking to her right, but turns her body to the left, and seems to address a
companion behind her. These figures may have
carried ceremonial objects that they're offering to the male figures, or the male figures may be
giving something to them. The precise narrative is unclear. Voiceover: In fact, some art historians even question whether or not this is the Pan-Athenaic Procession. It's important before we end, to acknowledge the fact
that the Greek government has asked that both the British Museum and the Louvre return
these marvels to Greece. Just at the foot of the Parthenon, the city of Athens has built
a magnificent new museum to house these sculptures
should they ever be returned. (jazzy piano music)