GREEK ARCHITECTURE

Location: Ancient Greece

Time Period: Ancient and Lineage Based. 1100 BC – 1 BC

Common types of buildings: Temples – A place to worship their gods.

Notable building: The Parthenon

Significant idea: Perfection

Common media: Marble, Paint,

Distinguishing Features:

Colonnade: A series of columns spaced at regular intervals.

Column: (A vertical post that has 3 parts: base – bottom, shaft – middle, and

capital – top).

The 3 orders of Greek Columns:

- Doric – oldest, widest, no base, the shaft was tapered and fluted, and is topped by a flat slab.

- Ionic – more slender, has a base, shaft was fluted narrowly, and is more detailed than the Doric as its topped by a spiral scroll (volutes).

- Corinthian – similar to ionic, has a base, shaft was fluted narrowly, and shows more details in its capital of acanthus leaves.

Entablature: The upper part (above the capital) of a building. It consists of

several sections:

- Architrave – the main horizontal beam and the lowest part.

- Frieze – a horizontal band decorated with relief sculpture or paintings that is above the Architrave and below the Cornice.

- Cornice – the crowning, projecting architectural feature at the uppermost part of the entablature.

- Pediment – the triangular portion of the entablature usually positioned within a cornice. It often contained sculptures.

- Raking Cornice – At the very top of the building angling along the pediment.

Proportion: The Greeks strived for perfection in their buildings stressing the unity of the parts to the whole. They wanted to make it as pleasing and beautiful as possible.

Parthenon. Acropolis, Athens, Greece. 447 - 432 B.C.

This temple was built to honor the goddess Athena.

This structure of white marble utilizes the Doric order of columns.

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE

Location: Roman Empire

Time Period: Ancient and Lineage Based. 509 BC – 330 AD

Common types of buildings:

Temples – A place to worship their gods and to display their trophies of war. Amphitheaters – A round or oval structure that has a central stage or arena

surrounded by tiers of seats rising gradually.

Notable building: The Colosseum.

Significant idea: To build on Greek architecture & improve.

New inventions: Concrete, Rounded Arch, Triumphal Arch, and Aqueducts.

Common media: Concrete, marble, brick, mosaics.

Distinguishing Features:

Arch: A structure spanning an opening that is supported from the sides. A

roman arch has a round opening.

Composite Column: A vertical post made up of a base (bottom), shaft, and

capital (top). The Romans combined the Greek Ionic

and Corinthian to create the Composite column and

capital.

Concrete: A mixture of mortar, gravel, and bits of stone and brick.

Dome: A curved, semispherical roof structure that is circular in plan. It is

based on an arch rotated on a circle.

Mosaic: A design made of tiny pieces (tesserae )of tile, stone, glass, paper,

etc. adhered to a surface.

Triumphal Arch: An arch built to commemorate someone or something.

A single doorway of the Roman Colosseum. Rome, Italy, 70 – 82 AD

http://classics.furman.edu/~rprior/imgs/RCU5/5-081.jpg

A Roman doorway in Ostia

Photo by Prof. Felix Just, S.J. - Loyola Marymount University

http://clawww.lmu.edu/faculty/fjust/Rome/ost11-22.jpg