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... regions of this early temple are significant. With 6 columns across the front and back and 16 on each side (counting the corner columns twice), the temple has a ratio of length to width of nearly three to one. As time passed, Greek architects felt these proportions were too elongated. They progressively reduced the temples length relative to its width, until by the mid- 5 th century the ratio was slightly more than two to one. The Parthenon in Athens (447 - 432 BC), for example, has 17 columns on its sides and 8 on its ends.
The history of the Temple of Hera also hints at the use of wood in early Greek architecture. Although the surviving remains are of limestone, the original columns were of wood and were replaced by stone over a period of centuries as the wood decayed. Many elements of the Doric order may owe their form to wooden prototypes. The three grooves of the triglyph's suggest protective strips attached to the ends of wooden beams.
Guitar, which decorate the undersides of the triglyph's, resemble wooden pegs. Just as the plan of the Greek temple underwent progressive refinement through the centuries, so the Doric order continued to be revised by generations of architects. Whereas at first Doric columns were only about four times as high as their width at the base, by 450 BC the columns were about five and a half or six times as high as their width at the base. This change in proportion, coupled with similar changes to make the entablature look lighter, relieved the massiveness of the oldest buildings and effectively combined grace with strength. The early Doric echinus tended to spread out from the top of the shaft in a soft, rather bulbous curve. Later its curving profile was straightened and strengthened.
Each detail of the Doric order received similar attention until, through centuries of experimentation, the order culminated in its most refined example, the Parthenon. B 2 Ionic Order The Ionic order is distinguished from the Doric primarily by its column and frieze. The Ionic column rests on an elaborate curving base rather than directly on the stylobate. The column shaft usually has deeper flutes and is more slender than the Doric. The height-to-base ratio of early Ionic columns was 8 to 1, compared with a ratio between 4 to 1 and 6 to 1 for Doric columns. The typical Ionic capital has two spiral volutes, elements that resemble partly unrolled scrolls.
These straddle a small band at the top of the shaft, usually carved with an elaborate decorative pattern. The Ionic capital looks different from the sides than from the front or back. This difference caused problems in columns that stood at the corners, where volutes had to slant at a 45 -degree angle so that their spiral pattern would look the same from the front of the temple as from the sides. The Ionic architrave, unlike the plain Doric architrave, consists of three narrow bands. The frieze above it is often decorated with sculpture and is continuous, not divided into triglyph's and metope's as in the Doric order. Multiple rows of moldings decorate the Ionic cornice.
They are generally carved in more intricate patterns than in Doric entablatures, and may include a row of square teeth called dentil's. Over all, Ionic is a more ornamental and graceful style than Doric, but it lacks the clarity and power of the Doric style. As a result, ancient critics regarded the Doric order as masculine and the Ionic as feminine. Even so, architects used the Ionic order not only for small, delicate buildings such as the Treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi (525? BC), but also for more monumental structures. In fact, the first colossal Greek temples were Ionic the Temple of Hera on the island of Smos and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (both under construction by about 560 BC).
Both featured double rows of Ionic columns, and were gigantic the temple at Ephesus measured 112 m (366 ft) in length, with columns some 18 m (60 ft) tall. Although Doric and Ionic are often considered mutually exclusive regional styles, some buildings combined features of both orders. B 3 Corinthian Order The Corinthian order resembles Ionic in most aspects, but Corinthian columns have tall capitals shaped like an upside-down bell and are covered with rows of acanthus leaves and small vine like spirals called helices. The first known Corinthian column stood alone inside the cella of the Temple of Apollo Epicurus at Base (429? - 405? BC). Indeed, the Corinthian order was at first used only for columns inside buildings it did not appear externally until the 4 th century BC.
Its use in exterior temple colonnades did not become widespread until Roman times. C The Acropolis In many ways the Doric and Ionic orders both reached their zenith in the late- 5 th-century buildings on the Acropolis in Athens. Athenians used both Doric and Ionic styles in many of their buildings, possibly because although Athens was in mainland Greece, where the Doric order was more prevalent, Athenians had settled Ionia. The Athenian Acropolis is a natural limestone hill that in the Bronze Age was fortified for the citys defense and in the Archaic period was transformed into a major religious sanctuary.
In 480 BC the Persians destroyed the Archaic temples and monuments on the Acropolis, and for decades there was no major construction there. After the Persian Wars ended in 479 BC, Athenian democracy blossomed, its power expanded abroad, and Athens entered a period of great prosperity under the leadership of Pericles. Determined to make Athens the cultural leader of Greece, Pericles undertook one of the more remarkable building campaigns in history, especially considering that the total population of Athens may have numbered no more than 300, 000 people. The campaign centered on the Acropolis and began with the Parthenon (447 - 432 BC).
The Parthenon's architects were Ictinus and Callicrates, and the temple they designed was unusually large, about 31 by 70 m (102 by 230 ft). Eight columns marked the front and rear facades, and 17 columns ran along each side. The cella had two rooms, east and west, each accessible from a porch. In the larger, eastern room stood a statue of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin), her flesh covered in ivory, her drapery and armor in solid gold.
Made by the sculptor Phidias, she stood nearly 12 meters (40 ft) tall. The Parthenon was built as a monument to the goddess Athena and to Athens, and testifies to the Athenians' desire to create a monument of unparalleled beauty. The columns were slender and elegant, with a height 5. 5 times their diameter. The harmonious proportional relationship of each part to the whole was determined through mathematical formulas.
The temple is richly adorned with sculpture two pediments filled with statues, 92 carved metope's, numerous sculpted roof-ornaments, and a continuous Ionic frieze atop the cella walls of this otherwise Doric building. The most impressive features of the Parthenon's design are its many optical refinements. Some scholars believe that architects in ancient Greece made subtle adjustments in their designs to overcome optical illusions that they believed would mar the perfection of their buildings. For example, a long horizontal line, such as the stylobate, appears to sag when many vertical lines (the columns) rest on top of it. To correct for this sag in the middle, the Parthenon's architects gave the stylobate and other major horizontal lines a slight upward curve.
Because of a similar optical illusion, a perfectly straight column may appear to curve inward. To correct for this, architects added a slight swelling in the taper of the columns. Another adjustment was a slight inward tilt of the columns. The corner columns were made slightly thicker than the others to prevent them from seeming spindly when seen against the backdrop of the sky, rather than the building.
While such refinements had been used on earlier buildings, what was new was the Parthenon's subtle and vibrant combination of them all. The Parthenon was only one of the monuments in Pericles building program for the Acropolis. On the north side stood an Ionic temple known as the Erechtheum. Among its many sacred objects, the Erechtheum housed the Athenians most sacred statue, an ancient wooden image of Athena Policy (the name for Athena as goddess of the city). The Erechtheum was begun in the 430 s or 420 s and was mostly complete by 405 BC. It is laid out in an unusual asymmetrical plan.
A six-columned porch on the eastern facade is mirrored by six engaged Ionic columns on the western facade, which has no porch. Columned porches on the north and south sides are not centered, but are placed toward the western end of the building. The northern porch is larger than that on the south, and awkwardly extends beyond the west side of the building. The southern porch, sometimes called the Porch of the Maidens, has six marble maidens called caryatids that support the entablature in place of columns.
The irregular plan of the Erechtheum can probably be explained by a need for it to incorporate several sacred places of worship already on the site. The Propylaea (437 - 432 BC) was a monumental structure that served as the main gateway to the Acropolis on its steep western approach. Like the Parthenon, the Propylaea combines the Doric and Ionic orders. Its west and east facades are Doric and recall the proportions of the Parthenon, while Ionic columns line a taller central passageway between them.
The architect Mnesicles designed asymmetrical wings to the north and south of the Propylaea's central block. Perched on a small outcropping just to the southwest of the Propylaea is the Temple of Athena Nike (420 s BC), a tiny, elegant, Ionic structure with a richly sculpted frieze and two (mostly lost) pediments.
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