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The pediment is found in classical Greek temples, Etruscan, Roman, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts architecture. Greek temples, normally rectangular in plan, generally had a pediment at each end, but Roman temples, and subsequent revivals, often had only one, in both cases across the whole width of the main front or ...
The Parthenon's west pediment depicted the contest between Athena and Poseidon over Attica and the east pediment the birth of Athena. [15] Classical archeologists since Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (published 1764) have recognized Greek pediment sculpture, in particular the pediments of the Parthenon, as the standard of the highest-quality art in antiquity. [16]
Pausanias, a Greek geographer, described their subjects: to the east, the birth of Athena, and to the west the quarrel between her and Poseidon to become the tutelary deity of Athens. The pediments have been damaged multiple times by natural disasters, fire, religious conflicts, weathering and pollution. As the temple was in use for almost 1000 ...
In the three orders of ancient Greek architecture, the sculptural decoration, be it a simple half round astragal, a frieze of stylised foliage or the ornate sculpture of the pediment, is all essential to the architecture of which it is a part. In the Doric order, there is no variation in its placement.
Two pediments rise above the portals of the Parthenon, one on the east front, one on the west. The triangular sections once contained massive sculptures that, according to the second-century geographer Pausanias , recounted the birth of Athena and the mythological battle between Athena and Poseidon for control of Athens.
The Western pediment in the Glyptothek as it is now. The second Trojan War – the one described by Homer – is the theme, with Ajax (son of Telamon) figuring prominently. The style of these sculptures is that of the Archaic period. The composition deals with the decreasing angles of the pediment by filling the space using a shield and a helmet.
Both pediments appear to be decorated in an identical manner and they feature a large relief of the Gorgon Medusa, more than 9 ft. high. The pediment measures 9 ft. 4 inches high at the centre. [13] The sculptures incorporated in these pediments are considered the first substantial specimens of Greek sculpture from a Doric building. [14]
One of the pediments (perhaps the West pediment) contained two lions tearing apart a bull in the centre, Herakles fights against Triton on the left and the Three-Bodied (Triple-Bodied) Daemon with the symbols of the three elements of nature in his hands on the right. The three bodies of the winged monster hold a wave, a flame and a bird and ...