The Great Athena Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Great Athena - Essay Example LeQuire found out that the original sculptor, Pheidias, built the Athena on with curved ivory on a wooden framework. The ivory acted as the gold wardrobe and skin for the original Athena. After sufficient research, LeQuire began to reconstruct the Athena. LeQuire began by first creating small clay models of the statue. From these models as starting points, the sculptor spent more than three years in enlarging the statue. This also involved the casting process which led to the building of the full Athena of Parthenon. The artist assembled the Great Athena by casting gymnasium cement in the Parthenon. The assembly involved casting of many moulds that enlarged the statue while giving it its beautiful look. In order to ensure that the statue had sufficient support, LeQuire attached each of the sections of the Athena into an armature made of steel. There are several different materials which were used in the surface materials of the statues. The most obvious of these is gold, which can be seen on Athena’s tunic, helmet, shield, and spear. However, the other elements used in the statue were ivory and silver. The sculptor put a Sphinx likeness in the center of the statue’s helmet to make it more appealing. The statue was const ructed and made upright with griffins on both sides of its helmet. The head of the status is one of the pieces of the work which is made of ivory, with a long, golden tunic that goes down to the Athena’s feet. Most of the elements of the statue, in addition to supplying it with physical beauty and attractiveness, were designed in order to have symbolic references to Athena’s role as a goddess. For example, the spear is held on the hand of the Athena which is symbolic of war. In the other hand, the Athena holds the statue of victory to signify successful engagement in a war. The shield in the feet of the Athena is symbolic of protection from the serpent which is near the shield. It is argued that the serpent was meant to