Six Quotes: Kleiner on the Acropolis

parthenon

  1. “When you go into the Acropolis, why are all the great buildings off to the left? In the archaic day there was the greatest temple erected right before you. This was the temple the Persians burned down and which prompted Pericles and the Athenians to rebuild.”
  2. “Despite the agony on the centaur’s face, the whole sculpture has a grace and refinement to it. It reminds me of the movements of a Spanish matador and the restrained skill he possesses.”
  3. “No expense was too great to build the Acropolis. In fact the temple itself was not the most expensive part but rather the forty-foot statute of Athena made of gold that was housed.”
  4. “Never before has a sculpture attempted to mimic real space, to depict the effects of weather and the environment upon an inanimate marble form.”
  5. “To make the building more perfect instead of being perfect, they had to add a slight curvature to the structure so that the human eye perceived perfection.”
  6. “How in the world did they pay for all this? Rising ambitions of Pericles made him transfer the wealth of the Delian League to the coffers of Athens where he used the surplus funds to build the Parthenon. Believe me, no one was too happy with the Athenians because of this.”

As recorded by Core office employee Winona Hudak during Prof. Fred Kleiner’s discussion of the Athenian Acropolis’s during this week’s CC101 lecture.

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