Sunday, November 11, 2007
London, United Kingdom, 16-20 Nov 2006: Bassae Frieze
Amazonomachy & Centauromachy
The Temple of Apollo Epikourios the Helper/Saviour) was built as a thanksgiving to Apollo for deliverance from a plague in c 430 BC. Ictinus, architect of the  Parthenon, probably worked on this temple before the Parthenon. Sited in the small state of Phigaleia (Arcadia, Peloponnese) in the remote Arcadian hills, at 3710ft on a narrow terrace of Mt Kotilion, and surrounded by ravines (bassai), its inaccessibility helped preserve much of the temple (lost until 1765 AD) from marauders.The temple is renowned for its single remarkable Corinthian column, the earliest known specimen in ancient Greece, as well as the Bassae Frieze. The Frieze, now in the British Museum in London, originally lined the inner walls of the temple, perched high on columns 7 metres above ground near to the ceiling. Despite the high relief, the sculptures could not have been well seen. When found, the 23 slabs of  marble were lying in confusion amid rubble. The actual sequence of the placement of the individual segments of the Frieze is uncertain.The Frieze depicts 2 battles: the Amazonomachy and the Centauromachy. The Amazons were a mighty race of valiant women warriors. They fought fearlessly against the Greeks (led by Herakles?). The Centaurs were invited guests of the Lapiths at a wedding feast. Feted by wine, their wild nature surfaced. After one Centaur attempted to ravage the bride, fighting broke out between the Centaurs and their Lapith hosts. The overarching theme in both sequences is the struggle between Civilization (the Greeks and the Lapiths) and barbarous Nature (the Amazons and Centaurs). |
Labels: antiquity, London, museum, sculpture, United Kingdom
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