Parthenon Horse Head Photograph by Weston Westmoreland

Parthenon Horse Head

by Weston Westmoreland

Canvas Print

$83

Framed Print

$92

Art Print

$37

Poster

$37

Metal Print

$89

Acrylic Print

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Wood Print

$69

Tapestry

$69

Throw Pillow

$45

Fleece Blanket

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Duvet Cover

$152

Shower Curtain

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Bath Towel

$60

Ornament

$13

Jigsaw Puzzle

$59

Tote Bag

$43

Weekender Tote Bag

$60

Zip Pouch

$39

Portable Battery Charger

$60

Yoga Mat

$91

Greeting Card

$7.90

Spiral Notebook

$19

Sticker

$6.00

iPhone Case

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Beach Towel

$60

Round Beach Towel

$101

Weekender Tote Bag

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Coffee Mug

$27

Men's Clothing

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Women's Clothing

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Youth Clothing

$40

Toddler Clothing

$38

Baby Clothing

$42

Title

Parthenon Horse Head

Artist

Weston Westmoreland

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Head of one of Selene's Horses. East Pediment, Parthenon. Athens, Greece. Pheidias, 438-432 BC.

The east pediment of the Parthenon showed the birth of the goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus. The centre of the scene was occupied by the statues of Zeus and Athena. It takes place on Mt Olympus in the presence of the other gods who watch standing, sitting or half-reclining on either side and filling the triangular space of the gable end of the temple. The pediments' corners contained the chariots of Helios (Sun), which emerges from the sea, and Selene (Moon), which sinks in the ocean waves, indicating thus that the goddess' birth takes place at dawn. This is the head of one of Selene's team of horses, which occupied the corner of the gable.

This piece is perhaps the most famous and best loved of all the sculptures of the Parthenon. It captures the very essence of the stress felt by a beast that has spent the night drawing the chariot of the Moon across the sky. As the unseen vehicle was shown sinking below the horizon, the horse pins back its ears, the jaw gapes, the nostrils flare, the eyes bulge, veins stand out and the flesh seems spare and taut over the flat plate of the cheek bone.

The statues were carved in Marble from Penteli. A portion of the lower jaw and the inner side of the top of the head were cut away. There are dowel holes where the metal bridle was attached. On the crest of the mane are eleven smaller holes, in which some metallic ornaments must have been inserted.

The Parthenon was richly decorated with sculptures, designed by the famous artist Pheidias, which took until 432 BC to complete.

The Parthenon was the temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece. Athena was the protector Goddess of Athens, so the Parthenon was the greatest temple of the most important state-city of ancient Greece (Sparta was as strong and prominent,or more, as Athens, but from the perspective of architecture, the Athenians were infinitely superior).

Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art.

The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and Western civilization. To the Athenians who built it, the Parthenon and other Periclean monuments of the Acropolis were seen fundamentally as a celebration of Hellenic victory over the Persian invaders and as a thanksgiving to the gods for that victory.

The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon served as the city treasury, later of the whole Athenian Empire. Nine the Parthenon became a Christian church.

After the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s. The Parthenon endured the pass of the centuries largely unscathed until 1687, when the joined effort of the Venetians who bombarded the Acropolis and the Ottomans who kept ammunition inside the temple contrived to severely damage the building and its sculptures.

In 1800 Thomas Bruce removed some of the surviving sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles, with the alleged permission of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. This invaluable heritage of Greece is now "protected" in the British Museum, where you should go if you wanted to stand in front of these four horsemen.

More amazing statues, sculptures and carvings at https://weston-westmoreland.pixels.com/collections/statues+sculptures+carvings

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Weston Westmoreland