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Greek and Roman culture architecture
Greek and Roman culture architecture
Greek and Roman culture architecture
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The Beauty of the Pantheon and the Parthenon
If I showed you pictures of the Parthenon and Pantheon, would you get them confused? Well, I sure did at first, but then realized a lot of people do because they look almost alike. Well I am going to tell you today that they are two completely different, yet monumental pieces of architecture. To start off I want to look at the Parthenon and then finish with the Pantheon. So let's begin!
The Parthenon is a temple that towers above the city of Athens, symbolizing the Athenians' wealth and power. The temple is dedicated to Athena, a Greek goddess and the city-symbol of Athens. This temple served as a monument to Athena because they believed that she helped the Greeks conquer the Persian Empire in the Persian Wars. The Parthenon had a style new to that era and it was impressive to the eye. The Greeks had to the work diligently to create the Parthenon in perfection. It was built in the masculine Doric style with some Ionic elements. To me the Doric style provided the perfect look, which demonstrated the Athenian desire to be perfect god-like beings. Using this style, the Parthenon hardly incorporated a single straight horizontal or vertical line. This bulging of the columns gave the building a more masculine look and it made the temple seem perfect to the naked eye. This perfection was important at the time because the Greeks saw themselves as rising to the level of the gods and nearing perfection. The Greeks had just defeated the Persians, and they were feeling very confident. They built the Parthenon to show their dominance and strength. A key purpose of the Parthenon was to show their gratitude to Athena for helping them conquer the Persians. The statue of the god Athena that was built was 26 ft. wide and 13 ft. deep. It was made of wood, which supported ivory pieces on the top of the statue.
Sadly, the Parthenon was burned and suffered severe fire damage at a certain date that cannot be determined. In 1687 the Parthenon was blown up during a Venetian siege of the acropolis. Restoration work began in the early 20th century. Today the Parthenon remains as a symbol of the once great Greek culture, and the importance of the city of Athens.
Now I want to look at the Pantheon. Today's Pantheon ("Temple of All the Gods") is not the original.
For much of the last millennia many great architects have looked upon the Pantheon as a staple of classical architecture, as well as a model for many modern day buildings. Created by the Romans, the Pantheon would use many elements better than any other works of architecture to that time. No further than Columbia Missouri is this evident in the construction of what used to be known as the First Academic Building on the University of Missouri campus. The Architects Bell and Binder headed the creation of the new building after the First Academic Building burnt down in 1892. Known today as Jesse Hall, this modern day work of architecture pulls many elements from the Pantheon to create a unique work of public space. The most glaring comparison of both comes from the domes that top both buildings. Each building also shares similar characteristics in their front facades. Yet, while there are many similarities to both works, each contain unique differences in their layout and construction.
The interior of the Pantheon is an open circular floor plan and, was painted blue and gold to resemble the vault of heaven (The Humanistic Tradition). The interior of the Pantheon was purposely meant to outshine the exterior. Unlike the Pantheons more interior design the Cathedral has a more exterior design. The interior of the Cathedral of Chartres has a network of open and closed spaces. The exterior of the Cathedral is lined with sculptures that are linked to the Old and New Testaments. Along with t...
The Parthenon was an amazing and important temple. Dedicated to Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, it was a very important temple to the Greeks. Greeks worshiped all of their gods by building temples for them and giving sacrifices. Most of the sacrifices were sacred tiles designed especially for the gods, not many were human.
This week’s unit 2 assignment objective is to discuss the similarities and differences in culture as seen via the Parthenon and Pantheon. Both structures were great buildings of their time. They represented the spirituality of ancient Greeks and Romans. The Parthenon of Athens, Greece was a building. While the Pantheon celebrated the gods of Romans.
During Classical Greece the Parthenon was built as temple to the Goddess Athena, as symbol of the state’s wealth and superiority, along with serving as the treasury. The architecture uses a bit of both Doric and Ionic orders. On the outside rim of the temple Doric columns, triglyphs and metopes are used but on the inside of the temple Ionic friezes were used. Both the metopes and friezes were completely filled with painted sculptures depicting the gods, Athenians, and conquered enemies. The themes center on gods or Athenians being victorious over chorus. One of the main stories shown in the Parthenon is the story of the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena being chosen as the patron Goddess of Athens over the Sea God, Poseidon. Poseidon was a war god who offered the people a beautiful but useless saltwater spring while Athena offered an olive tree. The people of Athens choose the olive tree symbolizing their culture valuing peace and prosperity over the chorus of war. The Parthenon also shows the Ancient Greeks value in mathematics and idealized perfection. The columns were carved to bulge slightly as well as tilting inwards, which creates the illusion that the columns were both straighter and taller than they were. Other illusions they used to give the appearance of perfection included arching in the middle just enough to ensure what would not pull and stop the eye from seeing the ends of the steps rise. Ancient Greeks valued their gods, perfection, mathematics, wealth and
Pantheon and Hagia Sophia Pantheon and Hagia Sophia are two extremely outstanding architectural pieces of their times. They have been built according to the traditions of those particular times. The materials used to built these buildings and the purpose for which they were used are all very important aspects and have been briefly covered in this report. Pantheon The statesman Agrippa built pantheon in 27 B.C. Then it was completely rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian. The Pantheon is remarkable for its size, its construction, and its design. The dome was the largest built until modern times. The present structure was probably originally built as a temple for all the pagan gods. We do hear of it as being a law-court and a reception area for Emperor Hadrian meeting his quests too. Some say that the rotunda of the building was once a Roman bath. Due to all this mystery, the Pantheon is often referred to as the Sphinx of Rome. The visitor will probably not appreciate the construction as much as the Flavian amphitheatre, but it is still a great masterpiece of engineering and well worth a visit. Most Roman and Greek temples at the time of the Pantheon's construction were large, colonnaded, rectangular enclosures with sanctuaries situated in their centers. The Pantheon was different. It consisted of a large circular drum topped with a hemispherical dome. It is a masterpiece of both engineering and art a lasting memory of Ancient Rome’s might. Roman architecture is architecture of wall and enclosed tactile space. Individual column with entablature is no longer the basic architectural unity. Spatially, it shows a development from closed, simple space units and regular articulation to more complex spatial relations, more fluid interpenetrati...
From the Egyptians to Romans, architecture achievements of the ancient world have left a huge impression on todays modern world. They all have left a tremendous impression on modern civilizations. There are numerous architectural monuments to write about. In this essay I will be discussing about the Pantheon and Colosseum, the famous architectural buildings of the Roman Civilization. I will discuss the history, significance, and analyze the qualities of the architecture.
The Parthenon was built to honor the goddess of wisdom, Athena. When structures are built using straight lines they tend to look slightly distorted due to the science of optics. The architects Iktos and Kallikretes were skilled architects of their time and they used illusory tactics to create an ideal aesthetic for The Parthenon. The architects compensated for these visual illusions by counteracting them in their design. The end result is a structure that is not composed of straight lines, but when viewed by the human eye, looks perfectly straight. Plato would have mentioned one of his famous dictums, ?That which changes least is most real.? He would have viewed Iktos and Kallikretes designs as less real than other designs that do not u...
... made such a great impression that it has carried through to our present day buildings such as the White House. The Athena Parthenos has been recreated by the Romans and then most recently by recreated by Alan LeQuire which is in Nashville. (See Fig 2.) We can get a glimpse with LeQuire’s recreation of how that statue may have been in ancient Greece standing in the Parthenon with such majestic greatness.
So to conclude, I believe that national pride was hugely important in the building of the Parthenon, and although it seems that religion took a lower priority, it may have been just as important as national pride in the building of the Parthenon. Bibliography - Books = == ==
The Pantheon of Hadrian is known as one of the most important architectural buildings of ancient Rome. The Pantheon that stands today was built by Hadrian and his architects between the years 118 and 128 A.D. (Stamper 2005: 186). Designed by Roman emperor Publius Aelius Hadrinus, or Hadrian, the building served to celebrate his ascension into power. This paper emphasizes on the design of the Pantheon’s rotunda and its ties to divinity. Its circular design easily identifies the iconic building along with the oculus feature that allows sunlight to stream from the top. The Pantheon is a structure meant to connect the human world with the realm of the cosmos and order.
The Parthenon is an amazing Greek temple that was built 2,500 years ago. Even the architects of today have numerous questions about how it was constructed and how it has held up through its eventful past. The Parthenon's detailed appearance is not its only meaningful quality. The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to the goddess, Athena, and as an icon of the Greek people themselves. The Parthenon represents the Greek ideals of humanism, idealism, and rationalism.
The Parthenon was built during the Golden age in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon is made of mainly columns; there is a 9:4 ratio. It was almost destroyed in war; the ruins that remained were dedicated to Athena. The purpose of the Parthenon was to house the statue of Athena, made of ivory and gold, and also Athena’s treasure. The ratios and the equations used to make the Parthenon were used as a sign of the harmony in the natural world around us. The mathematical harmony in the world shows how we can work with the world rather than destroy to make it what we want. The Parthenon also has no straight lines. The columns of the Parthenon are angled going up getting smaller the higher they get. This was done so that you could get the best lighting
...ory of the contest between Athena and Poseidon to claim Athens, in which Athena won and thus being worshipped by people (Hyginus, pp. 264). Therefore, the Parthenon was built to dedicate to Athena, their virgin patron.
The Parthenon was built to house the goddess Athena, but was first used as a treasury. There is some symbolism to its location as the acropolis on which the temple is sited, was also the place other temples had been, but the Athenians rebuilt after the Persian wars and the Parthenon was according to this week’s reading from Reed College, one of those structures built ‘to commemorate their victory and in gratitude to heaven’ (n.d, Reed College)