William Page

Signed and inscribed l.r.: PARTHENON./ATHENS/W.PAGE, pen and brown ink over traces of graphite

63.5 x 97 cm

This drawing, made with the aid of a camera obscura, depicts the east end of the south side of the Parthenon and clearly shows the empty spaces left after the removal of the sculpted metopes in 1801 by Giovanni Battista Lusieri and his team, acting on the instructions of Lord Elgin. Edward Dodwell witnessed the removal of some of these metopes, which were fixed between the triglyphs, causing the destruction of the cornice which covered them, as it had to be thrown to the ground in order to lift them out. Most of the metopes on the south side depict Centaurs fighting Greeks, and the fifteen metopes in the British Museum today all come from here. The original position of eight of them is shown in this drawing and would have been of great interest to the British public.

The Parthenon was used as a powder store by the Ottomans, who held the Acropolis during its bombardment by the Venetians in 1687. The attack inflicted significant structural damage on the building, as recorded in this drawing. The small mosque was built in the ruins circa 1700, and a minaret was made from the old bell-tower. The mosque was demolished in 1840.