The Elgin Marbles also known as the Parthenon Marbles, are a collection of marble sculptures that originally decorated the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803, obtained permission from the Ottoman authorities to remove sculptures from the Acropolis. From 1801 to 1812 Elgin's agents removed about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon. The Marbles were transported to Britain, and were purchased by the British Government in 1816 after public debate in Parliament. They were placed on display in the British Museum, where they are now on view in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery.

Cavalry from the Parthenon Frieze, West II, 2-3, British Museum.Marbles Reunited - Home

The Marbles include 247 feet of the Parthenon Frieze (from an original 524 feet), 15 metopes (from an original 92) taken from the series on the south side of the Parthenon depicting battles of Lapiths and Centuars, and 17 figures from the east and west pediments. In addition, the collection contains a Caryatid from the Erechtheion, four slabs from the frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike, and architectural fragments of the Parthenon, Propylaia, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike.

The Parthenon Frieze is the defining monument of the High Classical style of Attic sculpture. It stands between the gradual eclipse of the Severe style as witnessed on the Parthenon metopes and the evolution of the Late Classical Rich style exemplified by the Nike balustrade. What sources the designer of the Frieze drew upon is hard to gauge, certainly large scale narrative art was

West frieze, XLVII, 132-136, British Museum

familiar to 5th century Athenians as in the Stoa poikile painting by Polygnotos of Thasos, but without evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to assume the novelties of the Parthenon belong to Phidias and his workshop alone. This period is one of discovery of the expressive possibilities of the human body; there is a greater freedom in the poses and gestures, and an increased attention to anatomical verisimilitude as may be observed in the ponderated stances of the figures W9 and W4 who partially anticipate the Doryphoros of Polykleitos. There is a noticeable ease to the physiques of the Frieze compared with the stiffness of the metopes along with an eye for such subtleties as knuckle joints, veins and the careful articulation of musculature. One important innovation of the style is the use of drapery as an expression of motion or to suggest the body beneath; in archaic and early classical sculpture clothing fell over the body as if it were a curtain obscuring the form below, now we find the billowing chlamydes of the horsemen or the multi-pleated peploi of the women which lends a surface movement and tension to their otherwise static poses. The variation in the manes of the horses has been of particular interest to scholars attempting to discern the artistic personalities of the sculptors who laboured on the Frieze^[11], so far this Morellian analysis has been without conclusion.

Weavers section of the frieze, East VII, 49-56, Louvre, (MR 825)

Cavalcade south frieze, X XI, 26-28, British Museum