in very high relief (see p. 47). All these sculptured decorations were executed, like the architecture, in Pentelic marble. The building inscription mentioned above contains entries for the quarrying and transport of the marble of Pentelicus for the pediments.

The statue of the Parthenos is known to have been in existence about 430 A.D.; but not long after this date the figure was removed, and the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, dedicated to the Panagia (or Virgin Mary). For the purposes of the church, an apse was built at the east end of the cella, and the entrance was moved to the west end. Probably at this time the east pediment was much destroyed. From 1204 to 1458, during the period of the Frankish Dukes of Athens, the Parthenon was a Latin Cathedral Church. Athens was taken by the Turks in 1458, and soon after, the Parthenon was converted into a Turkish mosque. A minaret was built at the south-west corner. From this date it probably suffered little until 1687, when Athens was taken by the Venetian General Morosini. In the course of a bombardment of the Acropolis, the besiegers had learnt from a deserter that the Turkish powder was stored in the Parthenon. They succeeded in throwing a shell into the powder magazine, and produced an explosion on September 26, 1687, which caused a loss of more than three hundred lives, and destroyed the roof with much of the long sides of the building. Further injury was done by Morosini, who made an attempt to take down the central group of the west pediment, which was still nearly complete. The workmen had hardly begun to remove the cornice above the figures when the whole of the central group fell to the ground. For further details, see p. 33.

Fortunately, many of the sculptures had been drawn by a competent artist before the explosion. In 1674 a painter in the suite of the Marquis de Nointel, French Ambassador at the Porte, commonly supposed to have been Jacques Carrey, made sketches of large portions of the frieze and metopes, and of the then extant portions of the pedimental compositions. These drawings are preserved in the French Bibliothèque Nationale, and are constantly referred to in discussions of the Parthenon sculptures.

In 1688 Athens was restored to the Turks, and from that date to the end of the eighteenth century the sculptures of the Parthenon were exposed to constant injury. Some of them were made into lime, or built into walls by the Turkish garrison; others were mutilated by the travellers who from time to time obtained admission to the Acropolis, and broke off portable fragments of the sculptures. Chandler, who visited Athens in 1765, after describing the process of destruction, writes: "It is to be regretted that so much admirable sculpture as is still extant about this fabric should be all likely to perish, as it were immaturely, from ignorant contempt and brutal violence. Numerous carved stones have disappeared; and many, lying in the ruinous heaps, moved our indignation at the barbarism daily exercised in defacing them" (Travels in Greece, p. 50).

In 1749, when the west pediment was drawn by R. Dalton (cf. p. 36), many figures still remained in position which had disappeared before the time of Lord Elgin. Several portions also of the frieze, which were seen by Stuart (1752), had disappeared at the beginning of the present century. On the other hand, the east pediment, being inaccessible, suffered no important change between 1674 and 1800.

In the year 1799, the seventh Earl of Elgin was appointed British Ambassador to the Porte. Being resolved to make his time of office of service to the cause of art, he engaged a body of draughtsinen and formatori to make casts, plans and drawings from the remains in Greece, and more particularly at Athens. While this work was in progress Lord Elgin became aware of the rapid destruction of the Athenian monuments. The success of the British arms in Egypt made the disposition of the Porte favourable to the British Ambassador, and Lord Elgin was thus enabled in the year 1801 to obtain extended powers, under which he was permitted to remove the original sculptures. The collection thus formed, which includes, besides many of the sculptures of the Parthenon, other marbles obtained from Athens and elsewhere, together with casts and drawings, was purchased from Lord Elgin by the British Government in 1816 for £35,000. Several portions of the sculptures of the Parthenon have been discovered since the time of Lord Elgin on the

Acropolis itself, or in various parts of Europe, to which they had been taken by travellers. These are represented for the most part in the British Museum by plaster casts.

As far as possible the casts of fragments have been united to the principal sculptures to which they belong. The majority of the unplaced fragments are reserved for the use of special students.

The following aids to the study of the Parthenon will be found in the Elgin Room :

Model of the Athenian Acropolis, by H. Walger (1898), showing the results of recent investigations.

Model of the Parthenon. The model was made by R. C. Lucas, on the scale of one twentieth, and represents the state of the temple in 1687, after the explosion, but before Morosini had attacked the west pediment.

Carrey's drawings of the pediments. Photographic reproductions of the originals are exhibited. (See also figs. 8, 11.)

A drawing by Pars (1765) of the east end of the Parthenon (see Plate I.). Indifferently engraved in Stuart II., chap. I., pl. 1. A view of the Parthenon in 1802. By Sir R. Smirke.

A portrait of the seventh Earl of Elgin. From the picture in the possession of the Earl of Elgin, K.G.

A view of the Acropolis from the Propylaea, by H. W. Williams, taken in 1817.

Photograph of the Acropolis from the south west, and a photograph of the north side of the Parthenon, taken so as to show the curvature of the steps.

A restored view of the Athenian Acropolis. By Richard Bohn. Reproductions of coins with representations of the Parthenos; also of two gold medallions, now in the Hermitage Museum.

Bibliography of the Parthenon.

The work of Michaelis, Der Parthenon (Leipsic, 1871), collects the material for the study of the Parthenon, and contains an excellent digest of all that had been written on the subject up to the year 1871. For the name Parthenon, see Furtwaengler, Meisterwerke, p. 172, and Masterpieces, p. 429. For the chronology of Pheidias, and for the question as to his master, see Gardner, Handbook of Gr. Sculpture, p. 248; Furtwaengler, Masterpieces, pp. 36, 49. For the older temple on the site of