architecture essay

Ancient Greece September 2, 2020

OWL Module: Sacred Spaces: The Greek Temple due today!

Scavenger Hunt #1 due Friday

Today’s Takeaway

• The Doric and Ionic orders were standard in Greek temples in the 5th century BCE. Yet each temple varied slightly, and the carving and construction of the architectural elements was slightly different for each column, from inter-columnation to the carving of the fluting along the shafts.

• Think about the way the Greeks worshipped at their temples, approaching them via a long and winding route, circling around them to the entrance, and how this compares with worship at other temples in other cultures we’ve looked at in class. Greek temples were set in sacred precincts (Temenos) and the process of walking through the landscape to the temple was integral to the worship experience.

Map of the Aegean during the Hellenistic period

The classical tradition: here there and

Everywhere! (so how did we get to this point?)

Kore, 660-625 BCE and a megaron plan

• Temple was considered the house of the god, (oikos) so the layout evolved from Greek houses, called Megaron.

Temple of Hera, Olympia, 600-590 BCE and the megaron

• Similar layout includes the:

• Opisthodomos (Back room)

• Naos (Cella)

• Pronaos (front porch)

Temple of Hera, Paestum, ca. 550 BCE

• Perimeter columns

• Overall shape determined

• Stone not wood

• Note the large echinus of the capital

In review • Doric

• Ionic

• Corinthian

Refinements used to make the Parthenon appear more harmonious, vital and alive

Entasis: the slight bulging

of Greek columns

First Drawing: The Parthenon, the Acropolis, Athens, Iktinos and Kallicrates, 448-432, made of marble from Mt. Pentelikos

Russell Hart, The Parthenon, Nashville TN 1897, reconstructed 1920

Reconstruction drawing of the Acropolis

Queen Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, Deir- el-Bahari, ca. 1473-1458

Acropolis, Aerial View

Map of the Acropolis

Plan of the Propylaia (437 BCE) with the Temple of Athena Nike to right

View of the Parthenon and Erechtheum from the Propylaea

The value of the ¾ view

Temple of Athena Nike, North side, ca. 427 BCE

Detail of the Temple of Athena Nike

With entablature, architrave, frieze and what order columns? Quick sketch!

East pediment: Dionysius, Demeter and Persephone

East Pediment

Running goddess (Artemis or Hebe?)

East pediment, Birth of Athena, Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite, ca. 438-432

West pediment

• ‘Iris’,

• Sculptor, Phidias, credited with sculptural program on Acropolis and many sculptures on Parthenon

Sculpture from the cella frieze

Cella Frieze of Parthenon, ca. 420 BCE, reconstructio n of painted reliefs, Horsemen of the Panathenaic Festival

Lord Elgin and the Parthenon sculptures

Bernard Tschumi, Acropolis Museum, 2001- 2009

Who Owns them? • Where should these statues live? Write your thoughts

down on your drawing page and submit with your drawing for today.

Stoa of Attalos, 159-132 BCE, (reconstructed 1952-56)

Stoa of Attalos

End Stoas now and then?