The Great Athena - Essay Example

Alan LeQuire was the sculptor behind the design and construction of the Great Athena. In his research, 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 Parthenos (Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County 1). 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. The statue is constructed of gold, 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 constructed and made upright with griffins on both sides of its helmet. A work of ivory was done on the head with a long tunic which goes down to the Athena’s feet. . It is argued that the serpent was meant to represent Erichthonius (Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County 1). The quality and character that is expressed by the Athena is owed to the imagery that the sculptor brought about through the coins and miniature sculptures which are combined into one whole.

This makes the Athena to seem like being engraved on numerous gems and therefore making it more unique and attractive. Improvements were made to the statue in 2002 which included detailing of the shield and wardrobe and enhanced details of the statue’s face. The Great Athena was made more unique with the horizontal elements of its architecture which arch towards the center (Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County 1). Moreover all of the statue’s columns in the exterior are forwardly inclined.

The diagonal incline of its corner columns also makes the statue unique. More significantly is the Parthenon’s interior which is divided into the East and West rooms. The East room acts to house the Athena while the West room is the housing of the Athena’s treasure. The similarity with the Greece Parthenon, the Nashville Parthenon also symbolically faces the East. The assembly of the Athena was however achieved on a wooden core. This core was surrounded by plates of bronze. The original Athena was a significant part of the treasury of Greece in Athens.

This is because of the numerous removable plates of gold that covered the plates of bronze. These were designed and included as a representation of wealth of the Athens. It is notable that there is a slight forward incline of the Athena’s head. This makes the observer reflect on the sculptor’s intention of spreading the weight of the statue evenly. This is further disclosed by the fact