This book shows the sculptures at their best. These dramatic photographs can startle even those who think they are familiar with them into seeing the sculptures as if for the first time. It is the mark of all great works of art that we can never exhaust our fascination for them. Rather they beckon us to participate in a never-ending exercise of looking and thinking, which is rendered enjoyable as well as instructive by the images and words that follow.

EVER SINCE THE PARTHENON SCULPTURES in the British Museum were first shown in London more than two hundred years ago, they have fascinated all who see them and acted as an inspiration for historians, artists and writers. With its superb new photographs, this book aims to recapture the thrill of excitement felt by those who in 1807 first saw the sculptures recently removed from the ruin of the Parthenon itself and displayed at eye level.The remarkable photography reveals the genius of Greek sculptors for turning cold marble into living form as, for example, in the flickering mane of a horse, the turn of a human foot, the folding of the fingers of a hand, a swish of feminine drapery and a youthful head bowed in thought.

In a fascinating essay Ian Jenkins tells the dramatic story of the Parthenon as, in the course of two and a half millennia, it changed by turn from pagan temple into church, mosque, romantic ruin and,finally, world heritage monument. He relates how political, religious, aesthetic and physical factors have determined the viewing and understanding of the sculptures. It is one of the great ironies of modem appreciation that we who see them now in museum galleries - whether in London or Athens, Paris or Rome - know the sculptures more intimately than did the ancients themselves. Their transformation from architectural ornament into objects of art is celebrated in the images of this book.

DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD

PREFACE

THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPT

THE PEDIMENTS

THE METOPES

THE FRIEZE

FURTHER READING

PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS