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 Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, Metope, Parthenon |
Greece, Aegean islands and colonies in Asia Minor, Italy, and Sicily. A turning point in Western Art. Geography and climate. Pantheistic religion. Secular control of state. Individual artists known. Literary refernces. Beginning of serious study in modern times with Johann Winckelmann, 1763. Classical Revival in early 19th century. Availability of stone, including marble. Use of sculpture and paint.
See The Greeks, an extraordinary PBS program on ancient Greece.
Chronology
Primitive Period ca. 1100-600 B.C.
First Olympiad 776 B.C.
Archaic Period ca. 600-400 B.C.
Battle of Marathon 490 B.C.
Transitional Period ca. 480-450 B.C.
High Classic Period ca. 450-400 B.C.
Peace with Persia in 448 B.C.
Age of Pericles. 444-429 B.C.
Late Classic Period ca. 400-323 B.C.
Hellenistic Period 323-346 B.C.
The Polis (city)
Topography
Chorography (vs. choreography)
The organic polis (e.g, Athens) and the orthogonal polis - checkerboard, gridiron pattern - e.g. Miletus, conceived by Hippodamus.
Elements of the Polis
See Athens
Infrastructure:roads, sewage, bridges, aqueducts, streets, fortifications, harbours, etc...
Agora
Stoas
Acropolis (Temenos=sacred precinct). See: Acropolis Museum
Stadium,a
Public buildings: council house=bouleuterion, etc..
Theaters
See this site on the Greek theatre
Palestras, gymnasia
Dwellings
The concepts of incantation (repetition, e.g., triglyph, metope, triglyph...) and procession.*
*Robin Frances Rhodes, Architecture and Meaning in the Athenian Acropolis
Greek Sacred Architecture
1. The Greek concept of Space:
Pluralistic: different functions demand different kinds of space)
2. The Megaron as point of departure for the house and for the temple.
3. Sacred enclosure or precinct (temenos):
Propylea
Altar
Temple
Treasury
Sculpture
4. The Temple
Relation to wooden prototypes and forms in Egypt and the Near East. Different types of plans.
5. The Orders:
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian. About: the orders
6. Composition of the elevation of a temple:
Base
Column: base, shaft (fluting, entasis), capital
Entablature: architrave, frieze (Doric triglyphs and metopes, cornice (Doric mutulae and guttae)
Pediment
7. The Acropolis:
Processional Panatheatic Path
The Theatre of Dyonisos
Propylaia by Mnsikles
Temple of Athena Nike
Erechteion. The Caryatids. Check: the Caryatids
The Parthenon by Iktinos and Kallikrates.
8. Sanctuaries and Theatres:
Epidauros (Asklepios)
Delos (Apollo)
Dodona (Zeus)
Delphi (Apollo)