How Does Neils Contribute To The Ionic Frieze

Classicism is stylistic movement of art that is associated with antiquity mainly in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Dated back to the middle of the 5th century B.C., the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis was constructed and dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena. This magnificent structure consisted of unique components, such as the Ionic frieze, which indicated the first change in artistic style leading to classicism. In the first appearance in writing, the Parthenon means the “temple of the virgin goddess,” but this is one of very few verifiable interpretation found, which leads to the frieze’s obscurity. Many art historians have generate scholarly interpretations, but have failed to encompass the religious rituals, physical characteristics, and social context as a whole. …show more content…
Neils examines the frieze in its entirety as well as its individual components, such as the figures and carved attributes for its relative size, location, position, and gesture. Using these physical characteristics and by taking into account temporal, spatial, and cultural aspects, she was able to weaken previous interpretation and strengthen her own. Many of the previous interpretation were more or less random guesses, but Neils utilized different pieces of art of different time periods that preceded or succeeded the Parthenon to fill in the missing information in frieze. The most referenced items were the 6th century Attic vase paintings, one being the Eretria Painter, which depicts Hebe binding her hair, which is a