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Beijing Forum Figures(4):Professor St.
Clair from Cambridge: the Symbolic
Meaning of the Temple of Parthenon
By Liu Li
PKU NEWS 2004--09--01
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=94009393
When the Athens Olympic still remains as one of the most hotly discussed issue this
summer, Professor William St. Clair brought us the refreshing and up-to-date
discussion over the symbolic meaning of the Temple of Parthenon. His topic was
well paid attention to among the art sub-forum and his value seriously scrutinized by
participating scholars.
Currently a researcher from Cambridge, Professor St. Clair was capable to discover
whatever he is interested, thanks to his position and relative research facilities. He
chooses the topic of the symbolic meaning of the Temple of Parthenon because he
believes that Parthenon was in itself only a piece of architecture. It was generations
of conquerors that entitled it with rich meaning that embodying the latter‘s
achievements as winners and conquerors.
―They (conquerors in history) want it because it is such a wonderful building. They
want to thereby confirm that ‗I am the conqueror. I am the most powerful man‘‖.
20 minutes antecedent to our interview with Professor St. Clair, he mentioned in his
presentation that there grows a trend among artistic collecting and museums of
consumer culture. Museums tend to make some artistic items consumers
presumably wanted to appreciate. Obviously the latter‘s taste was in a large part
influenced by mass culture.
―The curators should understand their position and not giving up to mass culture,‖
said him during the later interview. He further added that ―we can have consumer
culture in fashion trend but not with our believes of artistic appreciation.‖
When mentioning pseudo-environmental effect that mass media created for modern
minds, Professor St. Clair agreed that ―fine art counteracts consumer culture.
However, consumer culture is not defined by consumers themselves.‖
The Cambridge history research raised his point concerning the artistic items being
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