The Parthenon Marbles - Essay Example

The Parthenon was constructed on the acropolis in Athens in the years 447-438 BC. It was constructed when Athens was at the height of power and ruled the Aegean region by dominating the Delian League. The original temple was intended to be a work of beauty dedicated to the goddess Athena. She was the patron goddess of Athens. The Parthenon housed a magnificent statue of Athena as well as spaces for priest to make offerings and a room that acted as a treasury. The architects of the Parthenon designed the structure to reflect the best classical lines of the age.

Beauty, symmetry and elegance were all considered to be of primary importance. Decorative sculptures were commissioned that were to adorn the frieze and metope of the temple. These figures depicted themes and characters from the pantheon of Greek gods. The architecture of the building was impressive and displayed Doric architecture at its apogee. Equally impressive however, were the marble sculptures that adorned the metope and frieze. After the decline of Greek civilization, the Parthenon and other buildings on the acropolis of Athens fell into disrepair.

While still glorious amid the ruin, the temples and treasuries and public spaces of the Greeks were neglected for centuries. This was especially true when the Ottoman Empire controlled Greece. The splendors of classical western art and architecture held little or no interest for the new Muslim rulers of Greece. They watched over the structures but did nothing to preserve or improve the monuments. Thomas Bruce was the 7th Earl of Elgin. He was an avid admirer of all things classical and Greek.

He undertook the construction of a Greek influenced mansion on his estate and expressed an interest in making plaster moldings of famous works of Greek art to fill his mansion (Messman, 1973). He actively pursued a post as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and had enough connections to see this happen in 1799. He served in this post for four years and used his position and influence with the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to gain access to the artwork still intact on the acropolis in Athens. Agents of Lord Elgin began initially to make plaster castings in 1801, but soon realized that removing works of art would be much easier.

The Ottoman security officials were open to negotiations through bribery; so many of the treasures started to find their way back to Great Britain. Much of these pieces were removed because Lord Elgin had obtained permission to remove debris that was restricting access to some of the monuments and statues on the acropolis of Athens. Removing actual pieces of artwork was surely stretching the boundaries of the permission given to Lord Elgin and his agents, but they felt that there was no resistance to their taking of statues, so they continued.

One of the most shocking practices in which these agents engage was the removal of the metope and frieze statues from the Parthenon. These needed to actually be chiseled off of the monument. They were taken to Great Britain where Lord Elgin convinced the British government to subsidize their acquisition in exchange for a promise to keep them on public display. The rulers of the Ottoman Empire were initially outraged, because they said that they did not give permission for the Parthenon to be disassembled (Boardman, 2000).

But after some initial objections, they dropped the matter. Lord Elgin long claimed that a second letter of permission was delivered to him, giving him specific rights to the Parthenon, but the original