File:1868 Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends.jpg

Summary

Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Painting shows at left the North frieze slab XLVII and the West frieze Slabs I and up visible at right.^[1]

Among the spectators, critics have identified Pericles, the bearded man facing Phidias. Next to him is his mistress, Aspasia. In the foreground stands a boy, Alcibiades, with his lover, Socrates.^[2][3][4]

Copyright status:

public domain

Source:

1. ↑ See Parthenon Frieze Slabs at [1] Last accessed 07-Apr-2007
2. ↑ "[S]undry prominent Athenians, including Perikles with Aspasia, and Socrates with young Alcibiades, perambulate the scaffolding . . ." Nigel Spivey, Understanding Greek Sculpture, p.152
3. ↑ "he introduces us to Phidias showing the frieze of the Parthenon to Pericles, Alcibiades, and Aspasia;" in SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 1895, LAURENS ALMA-TADEMA, R.A. By Cosmo Monkhouse; p.670 Photo of page in the Cornell Library
4. ↑ "Little is actually known of the life of Phidias, but Alma Tadema's picture easily convinces us that thus the great sculptor displayed to his friends and patrons his completed handiwork. Phidias himself, standing within the rope barrier, seems to await the favorable verdict of his illustrious protector, Pericles, who confronts him and has at his side the beautiful Aspasia. The young man at the extreme left seems meant for Alcibiades, who has also accepted an invitation to this private view of the frieze of the Parthenon, seen not as we now behold it in the British Museum, but with its match-less figures glowing with the tints just laid upon it by Phidias and his fellow-workers." in Among the Great Masters of Painting: Scenes in the Lives of Famous Painters; Walter Rowlands p.2