Phidias, the monographic exhibition on the greatest sculptor of the Classical Age in Rome

An exhibition dedicated to a great sculptor of the classical world: Phidias was opened at the Capitoli Museums, in the Villa Caffarilli section. You will think “amazing” and run with higher expectations of what the exhibit can offer. Let’s start from a consideration: the only work, certainly by his hand, that has survived the passage of time coincides with the top decorations of the Parthenon. As is known, the marbles – the sculptures of the tympanums of the two façades and the metopes of the friezes – are preserved due to a famous historical theft (that of Lord Elgin) at the British Museum and are today the cause of numerous discussions on the justice or otherwise of their restitution to the rightful owner – Athens.

“Reunification”

In truth, there is talk of “reunification” since the marbles would ideally be reunited with the temple of the Acropolis, thus mending the link with the context of origin.

The other works commissioned from Phidias can be reconstructed thanks to the numerous Roman copies inspired by the Greek sculptor’s originals.

If you are welcomed in the courtyard of Villa Cappellolli by the reconstruction (inaugurated on 6 February 2024) of the colossal statue of the Emperor Constantine (4th century AD), one of the most significant examples of late ancient Roman sculpture, you cannot help but compare it with a of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World: the Zeus of Olympia (430 BC), work of Phidias. So we enter inside to discover how the route was conceived. We start with a reflection on the sculptor’s uninterrupted fame, evidenced by Rodin’s homage to Phidias’ Pallas Athena. An heirloom, the presumed signature engraved on a libation cup that reads “Pheidiom eimi” I belong to Phidias, arouses a shiver of emotion. We then start with the sculptor’s work: we encounter, first, the Apollo Parnopios, or rather, the three beautiful copies (in the “Kassel type”) of his head. From the Athena Promachos (“who fights in the front row”) – commissioned by exploiting the tenth part of the spoils of the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) -, which stood behind the Propylaea and, with its size, struck those who landed in the port of Piraeus, we move on to “the most beautiful” of the three statues dedicated by Phidias to the goddess: the Athena Lemnia. However, to get to know the third example dedicated by Phidias to the mythical image of the goddess – the Athena Parthenos -, we must first address the problematic story of the Parthenon marbles.

The corpus of sculptures and bas-reliefs in Pentelic marble suffered serious damage: first due to a bombing of the Acropolis carried out by the Venetians in the seventeenth century; then when they were forcibly detached from the architecture, by command of Admiral Lord Elgin. The marbles are, in fact, preserved in the British Museum and are not on display, apart from a few fragments. A detail from the ceremonial of the Panaceas is exhibited at the Capitolines, represented on the friezes of the long sides (north and south) of the external colonnade: it is part of the theory of knights that inspired artists such as Bertel Thorvaldsen and Dulio Cambellotti. Furthermore, some Roman works are on display which reproduce the splendid shield with which the statue of Athena Parthenos was armed, housed in the temple cell and completely chryselephantine, i.e. made of gold and ivory.