On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Propylaea, Acropolis, Athens
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey French
Not on view
Designed as the grand entrance to the Parthenon, the Propylaea had been damaged in a seventeenth-century gunpowder explosion and was in ruins when Girault photographed it. He recovers some of the eastern facade’s former splendor with a depopulated and isolated view (the Frankish Tower is just visible at the right edge of the picture). The tumbledown ruins function as a site for not only scientific observation but also the romantic contemplation of a decontextualized, monumental past.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
