temple-relief
- Museum number
- 1816,0610.40
- Title
- Series: The Parthenon Sculptures
- Description
-
Marble relief (Block XLI) 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 block shows three riders. The lead horseman wears a Thracian cap with earflaps up, tunic and chlamys, which are also carved on the next block (Block XL). To the right a distinctive rider, naked but for a pinned chlamys, turns around in the seat of his horse to look out of the picture or back (the head is missing). His dangling right foot is particularly sensitively carved. To the right a figure, largely covered by the horse of the next rider, looks back and out of the picture. The horsemen of the cavalcade of the North frieze are composed of a series of phalanxes overlapping one on another in an irregular division, in contrast with the South frieze. There is a 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.
A fragment preserving the head of a horse and a rider was joined to the top left corner, first as a cast in 1903 and then as the original in 1919. A.H. Smith found it in a rockery at Colne Park, Essex, home of J.D. Dunville-Botterell.
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.
- Production date
- 438BC-432BC
- Location
- On display (G18)
- Exhibition history
-
2018, 26 Apr-29 Jul,The British Museum, Rodin and the art of ancient Greece.
- Acquisition date
- 1816
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1816,0610.40
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: North Frieze, Block XLI
- Joined objects
-
Joined Tablet Group: G14888 (2 objects)
