Just like the auction of casts by Christies, this story might be connected to Lord Elgin & may also be connected to Marbles – but really has very little to do with the Elgin Marbles.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Art market news: Sotheby’s sell Elgin marble
Last week Sotheby’s sold a marble bust owned by Lord Elgin, aquired in from Rome in 1799 for $8.2 million (£5.1 million
By Colin Gleadell
3:22PM GMT 11 Dec 2012

Had it been one of the Greek marbles which Thomas Bruce, the 7th Lord Elgin, spirited out of the Parthenon in Athens, shipped home to England, and sold to the British Museum in 1816, then last week’s sale in New York would have been a front-page scandal. Not only are they owned by the British Museum, but the Greek government has for years been trying to negotiate their return to Athens. However, Sotheby’s did have a marble bust which the same Lord Elgin acquired at that time, not from the Parthenon, but from Rome, which was never sold and has stayed in the family ever since. In 1799, shortly before his departure for Constantinople, where he was to be British ambassador to the Sultan, and from where he was to conduct the removal of the Parthenon marbles, the Earl instructed his private secretary, William Robert Hamilton, to go to Rome and buy “marbles” for his ambassadorial residence. Among these marbles was a portrait bust of Germanicus (pictured), the father of the Emperor Caligula, showing him as a young heroic figure.
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The Elgin Marbles have become famous for being famous – often, this means that people forget their significance as works of sculpture in their own right.

From:
The Epoch Times

The Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum
By Michael Paraskos Created: January 17, 2012 Last Updated: January 18, 2012

The Parthenon Marbles are one of the great treasures of the British Museum. Taken from the Parthenon in Athens by Thomas Bruce in the first decade of the 19th century, these wonderful sculptures have been a bone of contention between Britain and Greece ever since.

For my part I am not worked up about the Marbles being sent home. But I am also not indifferent to them, and go to see them a couple of times each year. That probably makes me a more frequent visitor to the Marbles than almost all the Britons who insist they stay in London, or Greeks who demand they go home. In fact my stock reply to people who ask what I think should happen to the Marbles is they should be sent to Shanghai or Tokyo as almost all the visitors I encounter in the gallery are not British or Greek, but East Asian.
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Research by Art Historian Katherine Schwab, looks at whether the hairstyles of the Caryatids from the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens could be recreated today. A DVD is now available that documents this project.

From:
PR Web

Documentary Now Available of Ancient Caryatid Hairstyles Being Brought to Life

A DVD is now available that documents the Caryatid Hairstyling Project, directed by Dr. Katherine Schwab, associate professor of art history at Fairfield University, that investigates whether elaborate female coiffures seen among the Erechtheion marble Caryatids, or maidens, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens could actually be replicated on women today. The 15-minute, fast-paced DVD follows six female students as they are transformed in appearance from modern 21st century women to elegant young women of ancient Greece.

Fairfield, Conn. (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 13, 2010 — A DVD is now available that documents the Caryatid Hairstyling Project, directed by Dr. Katherine Schwab, associate professor of art history at Fairfield University, that investigates whether elaborate female coiffures seen among the Erechtheion marble Caryatids, or maidens, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens could actually be replicated on women today. The 15-minute, fast-paced DVD follows six female students as their long hair is twisted and curled in intricate patterns (which in real time took hours) and records their reactions as they are transformed in appearance from modern 21st century women to elegant young women of ancient Greece. Produced by Christopher McGloin and Daniel Kole of the Media Center, with music arranged by Dr. Laura Nash, Program Director of Music, the DVD was funded by a grant from the University’s Faculty Research Committee and the Classical Studies Program. A webpage about the project includes a clip and online purchase of the DVD at www.fairfield.edu/caryatid.
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I came across this interesting re-interpretation of the Parthenon Frieze recently. Be sure to follow the link to the original post to see the images of the actual artwork.

From:
Designslinger

Sculpturally Alive

I hadn’t visited the blog, eternallycool, in awhile and found this stunning artwork in one of
their recent postings. Spanish photographer, Eugenio Recuenco, along with art director assistance by Eric Dover, and make-up artist Lewis Amarante, photographed live models and created his interpretation of Greek classical sculpture, inspired by the marble figures of the Parthenon.

We have included only a portion of the entire panel, but you’d have to agree that it is a
stunning reinterpretation of the sculpture found in the pediments and friezes of the Athenian temple. The tonal quality he has chosen and his use of chiaroscuro lighting effects, gives us the opportunity to look at the well-known marble figures with a new, dynamic perspective.
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Despite attempts to publicise the fact that most classical Greek sculptures were originally coloured, in the eyes of the public, they are still very much perceived as pristine & white. Nowhere has this problem of misconstrued opinion been more apparent, than in the 1930s cleaning of the Elgin Marbles under the instruction of Lord Duveen.

A new exhibition in Germany hopes to change people’s understandings of the sculptures, with numerous coloured reconstructions to give people a better idea of how they might have originally looked.

From:
Artdaily

Friday, October 24, 2008
Gods in Color Opens at Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung

FRANKFURT.- Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung presents Gods in Color, on view through February 15, 2009. Antique marble sculpture was not white, but colored. This is amply and overwhelmingly attested to by ancient literary sources. Whereas the incontestable fact that ancient sculpture was colored was suppressed during the Italian Renaissance, it was recalled in the nineteenth century; in the twentieth century, it once again paled into insignificance, giving way to an aestheticism directed at clarity. Numerous traces of the original polychromy in antique sculpture have survived. They bear testimony to Greek and Roman statues having worn elaborately ornamented garments painted with precious pigments. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr Alexandros Mantis is lecturing at King’s College, London on New finds from the sculptures of the Parthenon

From:
Apokrisi

New Finds from the Sculpture of the Parthenon
On: Wed 22 October 2008 – 19:00

Lecture by Dr Alexandros Mantis, Director of the Acropolis Ephorate on the new finds from the Sculpture of the Parthenon. Organised by the Greek Archaeological Committee (UK) this event is open to the public. Further information and bookings on 020 7935 2020. Venue: King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R

A lot of what we hear about the Parthenon frieze, is in relation to it being split between two countries – so much so, that we often forget about the actual significance of the sculpture itself. It is something that is famous for being famous, its aesthetic dimension overshadowed by its political context. But in many ways, the significance of the sculptures politically – is down to the fact that they are so significant as a historical work of art – the arguments about them rise to the forefront, because they are a unique piece of cultural property.

From:
The Phoenix

November 7, 2002
Lecturer dissects meanings behind Parthenon’s frieze
BY KRISNA DUONG-LY

“It is understandable why, in the absence of a myth recognizable to us, we have chosen to interpret the [Parthenon] frieze in terms of what we know best,” Joan Breton Connelly said to 100 students, faculty and staff on Monday afternoon.

An associate professor of fine arts at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University (NYU), Connelly gave her lecture “Beyond the Icon: The Parthenon and Its Sculptured Frieze” in the LPAC cinema.
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