Debbie Loftus

Lines of Site: The Parthenon Frieze

Please note: this event has been CANCELLED

Tue 28 January 2020 - Fri 27 March 2020

Museum of Classical Archaeology

The bleached and broken stones that make up the Parthenon frieze as we see it today are like an immense beautiful jigsaw from which innumerable pieces have been lost. Those absences are poignant because they remind us that we are seeing isolated pieces of a distant, seemingly perfect world that can never be recaptured in its pristine entirety.

But this vision of the shattered stones is a romantic creation.

The colour choices made by ancient artists can seem garish to modern eyes, while the Parthenon itself is a war memorial, paid for with protection money. Over the centuries the magnificent temple and sculptures have suffered immense damage: some of it accidental, but mostly caused deliberately by vandals and warring factions.

The weathered stones that survive are facets of a historical process that stretches back 2,500 years. The stories they tell, recorded in the fractures and absences that inform Lines of Site, resonate richly with contemporary life.

Cost: Free