Telfair Academy: Scene Analysis

While attending the Telfair Academy on October 17, I saw a variety of unique scenes. The first scene that caught my attention was the frieze on the upper part of the ceiling that was originally on the outer wall of the Greek High Classical Parthenon. In the scene I depicted different scenes of slaves making Athena’s peplos, which is a rich robe that slaves would make for the gods. I also noticed how the frieze showed many different scenes that occurred in the Parthenon with Poseidon riding in on horses. Also what look to be soldiers riding on horses and Greeks walking cattle with a cloth on their back. The contest between Poseidon and Athena influenced the scene that take place in the frieze and also in the pediment. One of the contest is where Poseidon builds a fountain for the people, and Athena builds something better, the olive tree, which ends in Athena winning the …show more content…
In the plaster cast you see a dying, weaken soldier who has loss in battle. I thought it was really peculiar how the architect sculpted Gual’s broken sword and what looks like a belt. It helped me see a little of the environment that the soldier was a part of. It also gave a better picture on how the soldier is beaten and his much humanized emotions. You don’t get to see the naturalistic emotion with the Archaic period with the Archaic smile and the stringed, stand still body pose. This sculptor also shows recurring facial features with the thick brows and the thick mustache just like with the scene of Laocoons and Sons which looks like a very popular style in the Hellenistic period. There is no excess relief in this sculpture and there also seems to be a very naturalistic features in the body throughout the shoulders and also in the lower body. The architect really gave Dying Gual a very natural pose of defeat, because this is how I look when I fail an exam, so I can really