Carthage - Classics - Greek Architecture

Classical Archaeology: Greek Architecture

NOTES ON GREEK ARCHITECTURE (adapted after notes from John Humphrey's class on Hellenistic and Roman Architecture) Building Technique

Greek architecture relied upon the post and lintel type of construction, which meant that wide spans were not possible, in contrast to the vaults and domes of Roman architecture. A large building, then, needed supports at close intervals.

Early Temples

The earliest temples lacked surrounding colonnades and were made of perishable materials (wood, thatching, etc.). The first known example of a temple with a surrounding colonnade was the temple of Hera (Heraion) at Samos (750). Before the seventh century, temples were built entirely of wood with the exception of mud brick walls standing on stone footings (base) (e.g., the first temple of Apollo at Thermon. By the sixth century, temples were being built almost entirely of sone except for the roof beams. The appearance of stone architecture on a monumental scale was due to contact Greeks had with Egypt in the seventh century. The Egyptians had a long tradition of stone monumental architecture dating to the third millennium BCE. Rather then innovate with types of support and materials, Greek architects, particularly in the Doric order, chose to refine the details and proportions of their post and lintel structures until they achieved the "perfection" (see Parthenon) of the fifth century.

Doric Order

Its development can be traced through the temple of Apollo at Syracuse (c. 590) with stout columns placed close togther. The metopes (in the frieze zone) do not fall over the columns; the temple of Apollo at Corinth (540) with thick, heavy columns 4 and one third lower diameters in height, monolithic shafts and three necking grooves at the top of the shaft; the temple of Aphaia on Aegina (490) (an island off the Attic coast) with two rows of interior columns in two tiers; and finally the temple of Zeus at Olympia (460)

euthynteria
crepis of three steps forming the stylobate
Doric columns, normally with six on short ends and 13 on the dies; have no bases; 20 flutes meeting in a sharp aris; monolithic shafts rare after 6th century
necking grooves at the top of the shaft;
then the doric capital consists of an echinus (cushion) and square abacus which supported the entablature. The distance between the columns was half their height;
the entablature was less than a third of a column height and divided into three parts-- architrave, frieze and the cornice with the proportions of 2:2:1.
In the frieze there was one triglyph over each column and one between so that the intervening metopes were approximately square.
In the cornice there was one mutule over each triglyph and one between. Architrave, frieze and cornice make up the entablature.
Above the cornice at short ends were pediments. Pediments were crowned with a sima and raking cornice. The center of the pediment, the tympanum, often had sculptures.
Problems of corner triglyph solved by placing the corner column inwards.
Columns bulged about two thirds of the way up (entasis) and leaned slightly inwards to correct optical distortion.

Later Developments of the Doric Order:

Relationship between the lower diameter of the column and the height of the column moved from 1:4.7 in the temple of Zeus at Olympia, and 1:6.4 on the temple of Zeus at Nemea (330 BCE) and 1:6.2 in the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea (Peloponnesos) Ionic Order

Doric was traditional on mainland Greece until the fourth century BCE, but in Ionia (Asia Minor, that is, modern day Turkey) Ionic had been undergoing its own development. In the later 5th century Doric and Ionic could found on the same temple (e.g., Parthenon, Propylaia (Gateway) of the Athenian Akropolis)

The archaic temple of Artemis at Ephesus (c. 550), where the Ionic columns stood on high Asiatic bases with double scotia and thick fluted torus (scotia is the concave part, torus the convex molding). Each column had a vast number of flutes--40-48 (why do you think the architects had so many flutes per column?). The echinus of the capital was decorated with a bead and reel and egg and dart molding. The volutes spread very wide; there was no central oculus (eye); the abacus was oblong. [see page 156 in Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology, second edition (1998)]

Attic elements infiltrate the Ionic order in the Propylaia of the Akropolis at Athens (437--never finished). The column bases are Attic, with the spreading of the concave member of the bottom; this is also seen in the temple of Athena Nike on the Akropolis and the temple of Apollo at Bassai, with the upper part of the column base having torus, scotia, then another torus. The upper torus projects less than the lower one and is decorated quite often, for example byn a guilloche in the Erectheion. The shaft has 24 flutes divided by fillets (flat bands), not by sharp ridges (arrises) which are found in Doric. The echinus (cushion) has egg and dart molding. The volutes are tightly wound and have a central oculus in the middle (of the volute); the volutes are exactly one lower diameter apart. The canalis (channel) sags heavily in the middle over the shaft of the column. The abacus is almost square.

The typical Ionic base, on the other hand, is perhaps best seen in the temple of Athena Polias at Priene; it has a double scotia on the bottom, and then a torus above. The base rests on a square plinth. There are still 24 flutes.

The column is now almost 9 lower diameters in height, much taller than Doric even though Doric has grown taller and thinner by the fourth century.

The architrave in fourth century Ionic is divided into three steps, each projecting slightly; as in many Asiatic buildings of the Ionic order, there is no frieze, but instead the dentils (teeth) are strongly emphasized with egg and dart molding above and below them. These dentils take the place of a proper frieze in Ionic. Lion head spouts in the sima above give rhythm to the entablature and allow the water to drain off the roof.

Main Differences Between Doric and Ionic

The Ionic order is always taller and more slender than Doric.
Ionic columns have profiled bases; Doric columns have no bases in the classical period.
The system of fluting is quite different; fillets in Ionic, arrises in Doric.
Architrave in Ionic is stepped, not plain, and divided into three wide bands (known as fasciae).
The cornice is marked by a range of close-set projecting blocks knows as dentils below the main projectiion of the cornice; these take the place of a frieze (triglyph and metope in Doric).