Monday, June 21, 2010

AIC: Freizes and Sculptural Ornamentation..







Art Institute of Chicago..
Freizes and Sculptural ornamentation..
Freizes are by Philip Martiny..
The question is.. Are they symbolic?
If yes, what do they represent?







2 comments:

adgorn said...

Was able to find out from another old Trib article that these are representations of friezes that are on the Parthenon in Greece.

Wikipedia has a good article at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon_Frieze
Notice the photo about 1/3 of the way down of "Weavers section of the frieze, East VII, 49–56, Louvre, (MR 825)."

Also, Riedy's "Chicago Sculpture" has an interesting mention:
"Philip Martiny's not-too-faithful copy of the Parthenon processional frieze - a rather common decorative detail on late nineteenth and early twentieth century civic buildings and museums in this country appears on the front and sides of the Art Institute...Thirty years later (~1923) a part of the frieze was painted blue "as an experiment in giving a populace hardened to soot and grime something cheerful to look at."

Jyoti said...

Thanks Alan,
That's an interesting information.
Thanks for all your help..