Transcript Ancient Greek Architecture Handout

A third order of Greek architecture, known as the
Corinthian, first developed in the late Classical
period, but was more common in the Hellenistic
and Roman periods. Corinthian capitals have a
bell-shaped echinus decorated with acanthus
leaves, spirals, and palmettes. There is also a pair
of small volutes at each corner; thus, the capital
provides the same view from all sides.
Corinthian
The Corinthian
capital, an
elaborate
variation of the
Ionic capital, is
decorated with
acanthus leaves
(an herbal shrub)
and sometimes
volutes on both
sides. [The story
of the Corinthian
capital is that an
architect saw a
basket that had
been left
unattended while
an acanthus plant
grew up around it.
Pleased by the
decorative effect,
he copied it for a
capital.]
The Corinthian temple came to embody
Hellenistic splendor. The Corinthian column first
appeared in the Hellenic period, probably as a
decorative feature. Taller and more ornamented
than either the Doric or Ionic column, the
Corinthian order was preferred for the grandiose
temples erected for Hellenistic kings, as
manifestation of their earthly majesty and the
authority of whatever deity with whom they
claimed kinship.
Although the ancient Greeks erected buildings of
many types, the Greek temple best exemplifies the
aims and methods of Greek architecture. Although
the ancient Greeks erected buildings of many types,
the Greek temple best exemplifies the aims and
methods of Greek architecture. The temple typically
incorporated an oblong plan, and one or more rows of
columns surrounding all four sides. The vertical
structure of the temple conformed to an order, a fixed
arrangement of forms unified by principles of
symmetry and harmony.
There was usually a pronaos (front porch) and an
opisthodomos (back porch). The upper elements of
the temple were usually made of mudbrick and
timber, and the platform of the building was of cut
masonry. Columns were carved of local stone, usually
limestone or tufa; in much earlier temples, columns
would have been made of wood. Marble was used in
many temples, such as the Parthenon in Athens,
which is decorated with Pentelic marble and marble
from the Cycladic island of Paros. The interior of the
Greek temple characteristically consisted of a cella,
the inner shrine in which stood the cult statue, and
sometimes one or two antechambers, in which were
stored the treasury with votive offerings.
Ancient Greek Architecture
Ancient Greek architects strove for the precision
and excellence of workmanship that are the
hallmarks of Greek art in general. The formulas
they invented as early as the sixth century B.C.
have influenced the architecture of the past two
millennia. The two principal orders in Archaic and
Classical Greek architecture are the Doric and the
Ionic. A third being the Corinthian.
Although the ancient Greeks erected buildings of
many types, the Greek temple best exemplifies the
aims and methods of Greek architecture. The
temple typically incorporated an oblong plan, and
one or more rows of columns surrounding all four
sides.
http://faculty.etsu.edu/kortumr/08hellenistic/htmdescriptionpages
/05olympieum.htm
Uncovering the Legacy of Ancient Greece
Lesson plan
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3588/
http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/greektemple/greek_te
mple.htm
http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/architec/MiddleAgesA
rchitectural/ClassicalArchitecture/ArchitectureGreekTemple/Arc
hitectureGreekTempleStyle.htm
http://www.mesogeia.net/trip/korinthos/korinthapollo01_en.html
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/GreekTemple.htm
http://www.vitruvius.be/boek4h3.htm
The vertical structure of the temple conformed
to an order, a fixed arrangement of forms unified
by principles of symmetry and harmony.
(Later, the Romans added the Tuscan, a simplified Doric,
and the Composite, combining the Ionic with the Corinthian.)
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grarc/hd_grarc.htm
In the first, the Doric order, the columns are
fluted and have no base. The capitals are composed
of two parts consisting of a flat slab, the abacus,
and a cushion-like slab known as the echinus. On
the capital rests the entablature, which is made up
of three parts: the architrave, the frieze, and the
cornice. The architrave is typically undecorated
except for a narrow band to which are attached
pegs, known as guttae. On the frieze are alternating
series of triglyphs (three bars) and metopes, stone
slabs frequently decorated with relief sculpture. The
pediment, the triangular space enclosed by the
gables at either end of the building, was often
adorned with sculpture, early on in relief and later in
the round.
The Doric order mainly used by
the Dorians (southern Italy and
Sicily "Magna Graecia") and in
Athens (Parthenon). Some
characteristic elements are the
triglyphs and metopes and the
column capitals ( with the
convex echinus and the square
abacus)
A characteristic elements of the
Doric order: the Triglyphs and the
usually decorated Metopes
Doric
Wishing to set up columns in that temple, but
not having rules for their symmetry, and being in
search of some way by which they could render
them fit to bear a load and also of a satisfactory
beauty of appearance, they measured the imprint
of a man's foot and compared this with his height.
On finding that, in a man, the foot was one sixth of
the height, they applied the same principle to the
column, and reared the shaft, including the capital,
to a height six times its thickness at its base. Thus
the Doric column, as used in buildings, began to
exhibit the proportions, strength, and beauty of the
body of a man.
The Doric columns are
carved with channels called
flutes (usually 20) these
channels meet in sharp
ridges (so called arrises)
whereas in the Ionic order
they are separated by bands
(fillets) and the flutes are
deeper.
<Location> Ancient Corinth Site, Korinthos,
Greece This Doric peristyle temple,
constructed around 550 BC, is one of the
oldest standing temples in Greece.
Now only seven
columns are
standing. The Roman
colonists removed
the interior columns
to reuse in the
construction of the
south-west portico in
the Forum. As they
also modified the
structure of cellae,
we don't know how
the inside was
originally arranged.
Ionic
Just so
afterwards, when
they desired to
construct a temple
to Diana in a new
style of beauty,
they translated
these footprints
into terms
characteristic of
the slenderness of
women, and thus
first made a
column the
thickness of which
was only one
eighth of its
height, so that it
might have a taller
look. At the foot
they substituted
the base in place
of a shoe; in the
capital they
placed the
volutes, hanging
down at the right
and left like curly
ringlets, and
ornamented its
front with cymatia
and with festoons
of fruit arranged in
place of hair,
while they brought
the flutes down
the whole shaft,
falling like the
folds in the robes
worn by matrons
In the Ionic order of architecture,
bases support the columns, which
have more vertical flutes than
those of the Doric order. Ionic
capitals have two volutes that
rest atop a band of palm-leaf
ornaments. The abacus is narrow
and the entablature, unlike that of
the Doric order, usually consists
of three simple horizontal bands. The most
important feature of the Ionic order is the frieze,
which is usually carved with relief sculpture
arranged in a continuous pattern around the
building. Ionic order was more popular among
Greeks in Asia Minor and in the Greek islands.
The Parthenon (the epitome of the Doric Order)
Temple of Hera at Selinunte, Sicily
Metopes and Triglyphs of the Hephaistion in the
Athenian Agora.
Hephaistion in the Athenian Agora
Columns of the Parthenon showing the
entablature resting on the capitals
Tumbled
column drums
at Olympia.
Plan of the Hera Temple.
Erechthion
, Acropolis
Athens
Ionic capitals of the Erechthion.
Base of a column from the Erechthion.
Olympieum. Athens, late 6th century BC to 130 AD.
Corinthian
http://ww
w.greekislands.us
/athens/a
cropolis/
Corinthian Temple remains
Example of each
of the three Orders.
http://www.theartfile.com/ArtFile/hist
ory/greek/columns.sht
ml
The temple of
Zeus at Athens
(started in the
2d cent. BC
and completed
by Emperor
Hadrian in the
2d cent. AD)
was perhaps the most notable of the Corinthian
temples.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Corinthian_ord
er.aspx