Asset number
1563456001
Description
Marble relief (Block XXX) from the North frieze of the Parthenon. The frieze shows the procession of the Panathenaic festival, the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena. This is all that remains of a block that once showed two riders, wearing a tunic and a mantle. Fifty years before Lord Elgin’s men found this sorry fragment, the block to where it belongs was recorded by J. Stuart and N. Revett for their Antiquities of Athens. Their engraving is now the only record we have of the block when complete. The horsemen of the cavalcade on the North frieze are composed of a series of phalanxes overlapping one on another in an unequal division. There is among the riders of the North frieze great variation in composition and in dress. Some are heavily draped in mantle and tunic, while others are all but naked. Some ride bareheaded, while others wear a distinctive form of cap. Metal reins, which are now lost, were inserted in drill-holes. For more information on the North frieze see North frieze Block XLVII. The northern branch of the procession follows a similar pattern to the southern.
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