Covent Garden theatre frieze

In 1809 Flaxman was commissioned to produce two stone friezes for the façade of the Covent Garden Theatre (by the architect Robert Smirke), now the site of the Royal Opera House. These four reliefs are the models for those friezes. They depict characters associated with the Ancient and Modern theatre. The Greek dramatist Aristophanes is portrayed in one relief, and William Shakespeare in another. These pieces were among the first works of British sculpture to be directly influenced by the Parthenon marbles, which had been brought to Britain from Athens, by Lord Elgin, in 1807. Flaxman inspected the marbles, which are today housed in the British Museum, at Lord Elgin's house soon after their arrival in England.