metope

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Object Type
Museum number: 1816,0610.6
Title: Series: The Parthenon Sculptures
Description: Marble metope from the Parthenon (South metope VII). The South metopes in The British Museum show the battle between Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage-feast of Peirithoos. With his left hand a Lapith, on the left, grasps a Centaur. His right arm is drawn back and he probably once held a metal sword, now lost, in his hand, about to strike the Centaur. A chlamys fastened on his right shoulder falls over his left arm and flies out behind his back. The Centaur, rearing up, tries to pull away the Lapith’s left hand. From the shoulders of the Centaur hangs a small chlamys. The head of the Centaur is in the Acropolis Museum, Athens, and the Lapith’s head is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The Lapith’s hands, left foot and the right leg below the knee are missing. As are the Centaur’s left arm below the shoulder and part of his left hind leg and parts of the frame.
Producer name
Cultures/periods
Production date: 447BC-438BC
Production place: Made in: Athens
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Parthenon
Materials
Dimensions: Thickness: 137 centimetres
Bibliographic references: Sculpture / Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the British Museum (310); Smith 1892 / A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (pp.136-137); Smith 1910 / The sculptures of the Parthenon (p.30, pl.19 (fig.1)); Brommer 1967 / Die Metopen des Parthenon (pp.86-87, pl.185-189); Berger 1986 / Der Parthenon in Basel; Dokumentation zu den Metopen (pp.86-87, pl.88-89); Choremi-Spetsieri 2004 / The Sculptures of the Parthenon: Acropolis, British Museum, Louvre (p.60, fig.32-34)
Location: On display (G18)
Subjects: centaur; centauromachy; lapith
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1816
Department: Greek and Roman
Registration number: 1816,0610.6
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: South Metope VII

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