The Strangford Shield

myminifactory

This is a plaster copy of a Roman marble copy of the shield of the gold and ivory statue of Athena from the Parthenon, showing Pheidias and Pericles as two men standing back-to-back below the central mask of a gorgon. Pheidias is the balding figure on the left with arms raised, with Perikles to the right, one foot raised on a fallen Amazon and arms raised obscuring his face from view. The shield takes its name from Percy Smythe, 8th Viscount Strangford, who sold the shield (from Rome, 200-300 AD) to The British Museum.