Wender·Vista
Parthenon
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileGreece
atop the Acropolis above central Athens

Parthenon

— — a temple the colour of the Athens afternoon.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“Built between 447 and 432 BCE, the Parthenon stands on the Acropolis above Athens as the Periclean rebuilding of the older temple the Persians burned. The Pentelic marble takes the late-day sun and turns honey, then rose, then ash. Most of the sculpture has been gone since Lord Elgin's removal of the friezes in the early 1800s, but the columns and the architraves still hold the sky exactly where Phidias placed them.

from the studio
Parthenon
— bring it home

Parthenon, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Parthenon

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

The Parthenon stands on the Acropolis of Athens, a limestone hill rising 156 metres above sea level at the centre of the modern Greek capital. The temple was built between 447 and 432 BCE during the Periclean rebuilding of the citadel, dedicated to Athena Parthenos, patron goddess of the city. Architects Ictinus and Callicrates worked under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who also made the lost forty-foot chryselephantine cult statue of Athena that once stood inside the cella.

— the stone

The temple is built almost entirely of Pentelic marble quarried sixteen kilometres northeast at Mount Pentelicus. The Doric peristyle is eight columns wide by seventeen long, each column 10.4 metres high and slightly inclined inward to correct the optical splaying that perfectly vertical columns would produce against the sky. The 1687 Venetian bombardment, which detonated an Ottoman powder magazine inside the cella, blew out the roof and much of the long walls; the building has stood as a ruin since.

— the visit

The Acropolis is open daily; summer hours run roughly 08:00 to 20:00, winter hours 08:30 to 17:00. A combined ticket covers the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Forum, Hadrian's Library, and Kerameikos. The new Acropolis Museum at the foot of the hill, opened in 2009, holds the surviving sculptures still in Greek custody, including the Caryatids from the Erechtheion. Visit early or late; the marble takes its colour from low sun, and the midday crowds are heavy.

— where
Greece · Athens, Attica
— elevation
156 m · 512 ft
— position
37.9715° N · 23.7267° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
at the lake
Erechtheion
Ionic temple on the Acropolis
0.4 km NW
Ancient Agora
classical marketplace
0.5 km N
Plaka
old town district
0.7 km SE
Temple of Olympian Zeus
Hellenistic temple
N
Parthenon
Erechtheion
Ancient Agora
Plaka
Temple of Olympian Zeus
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Parthenon — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Between 447 and 432 BCE during the rebuilding programme of the Athenian statesman Pericles. The work was directed by the sculptor Phidias with architects Ictinus and Callicrates, on the site of an earlier temple the Persians had burned.

Athena Parthenos, the maiden Athena, patron goddess of Athens. A forty-foot chryselephantine cult statue of the goddess, made of gold and ivory over a wooden frame by Phidias, stood inside until late antiquity.

Roughly half are in the British Museum in London, removed by Lord Elgin between 1801 and 1812 under disputed Ottoman authorization. Most of the remainder are in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, beneath the hill itself.

The temple stood largely intact for two thousand years. In 1687 a Venetian mortar shell ignited an Ottoman gunpowder store inside the cella, blowing out the roof, the long walls, and much of the surviving sculpture.

Pentelic marble, quarried sixteen kilometres northeast of Athens at Mount Pentelicus. The stone contains trace iron, which oxidises in air and gives the weathered surface its honey-to-rose colour in low sun.

Doric in its outer peristyle, with an Ionic frieze running around the cella inside. The Doric columns number eight by seventeen, an unusual ratio for a Doric temple of its scale and a hallmark of its proportions.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for anyone who studied classics, lived in Athens, or has Greek family roots. The Parthenon silhouette is the single most recognizable image in the country. A Medium with a studio note travels well.

Mediterranean-modern, warm-Minimalist, and classical-eclectic rooms. The honey-and-rose palette of the Pentelic marble holds against limewashed walls, travertine, and aged oak without competing for attention.

Yes. The quiet return of grand-tour and classical motifs in modern interiors has pulled Athens, Rome, and Sicily back onto walls. A single tile reads as serious rather than touristic when the painting respects the architecture.

A single Large reads cleanly above a standard sofa. For a wider wall, a 4-tile Mural opens the colonnade; a 9-tile Mural carries a long console or a library shelving wall.

Yes, with the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both resist scratches and handle humidity. The colour is held in the ceramic surface, so steam and splashes will not affect it.

A microfibre cloth and water. No abrasive sponges, no ammonia cleaners. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic under high heat and pressure, so the surface will not lift or fade.

Yes. Reid Wender chose the Parthenon for the atlas and worked the piece in the studio's stained-glass and alcohol-ink visual language. No licensing is involved and no second studio produces it.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.