drawing;
print study;
album
- Museum number
- 2013,5005.1.49
- Description
-
Study of a section of the west frieze of the Hephaisteion showing the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
Pen and ink and red-brown wash on a sheet of paper inlaid into a second sheet together with 2013,5005.1.50
- Production date
- 1765-1766
- Dimensions
-
Height: 628 millimetres (of second sheet)
-
Height: 203 millimetres
-
Width: 449 millimetres (of second sheet)
-
Width: 399 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Engraved by Blake in 'Antiquities of Athens', Vol III, 1792, chap.IV, pl. XXIV
This drawing was originally from an album of drawings by William Pars made during the Dilettanti Society's expedition to Greece and Asia Minor 1764-6 under the direction of Richard Chandler. The majority of them were engraved for 'Antiquities of Athens' and many others for 'Ionian Antiquities'. The album is bound in brown leather and tooled in gold on spine "Architectural Drawings & Views in Greece & Asia Minor 1764-67 / Vol. I / Presented to the British Museum by the Dilettanti Society". This volume, together with volume II (2013,5005.2), was given to the British Museum by the Society of Dilettanti in June 1800. It originally contained 84 drawings by Pars, 26 of which were removed from the album and transferred to the Department of Prints and Drawings. 17 of these were published by A. Wilton. 58 drawings remain in the Department of Greece and Rome and were removed from the album in 2013.
See:
Richard Chandler, 'Travels in Greece, or an Account of a Tour Made at the Expense of the Society Of Dillettanti', (1776), p.82
‘In the sculpture of the posticum, it is remarkable, that Theseus is distinguished in the same manner as by Micon. He is killing a Centaur, whom he has thrown on the ground, backwards. In another piece two Centaurs are burying one of the Lapithae in a pit alive, laying over him a large stone. On another is the battle with the Thebans, and Creon dead. Two figures with shields may be Hercules and his companion Iolaus descending into hell, where they find Theseus and Pirithous sitting on rocks, and between them a female, perhaps Metanoia, or repentance.’
See also:
'Ionian Antiquities', published by the Society of Dilettanti, Vol. 1 (1769) and Vol. II (1797)
Richard Chandler, 'Travels in Asia Minor 1764-1765', edited and abridged by Edith Clay, with an appreciation of William Pars by Andrew Wilton, (1971)
Bruce Redford, 'Dilettanti: the antic and the antique in eighteenth-century England', (2008)
Jason M. Kelly, 'The Society of Dilettanti: archaeology and identity in the British enlightenment', (2009)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1800 (June)
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 2013,5005.1.49