How the columns came to the "new world"

HOW THE COLUMNS CAME TO THE “NEW WORLD” By Christian Bauer

What do you think of when you hear “Greek architecture”? You probably imagine the Acropolis, lots of columns, and several Greek theaters with their unique structure of a semicircle. The Greeks adopted this column style from ancient Egyptians buildings and tomb-temples, like the ones in the Valley of the Kings. Classical Greek architecture started approximately 3,000 years ago, when their culture reached its highest point and king Pericles was the leader. During this era Greek people were more engaged in studying their environment than any other culture. Famous Greek philosophers like Pythagoras and Socrates dealt with the discovery of nature based on numbers and the pursuit of the goals of truth, goodness, and beauty. This was also reflected in the new art that was developed- Realism. Lifelike sculptures of this style were based on the expressive power of the human body. The most important piece of a Greek building is the column, of whic h the Greeks developed three different types. The column allowed the architect to create a larger free space in a temple. The columns were also used to show an interesting visual rhythm on the metopes (the décor part on the top of a column), which illustrated the classical principle of harmonizing the opposites of unity and variety.

THE FIRS T GREEK PERIOD- THE GEOMETRICAL AND ORIENTAL ERA

The first period of Greek architecture started around 2,700 years ago when the Greeks began to adopt the Egyptian style of buildings- open minded and marvelous. They mainly used limestone from Sicily and Italy, marble from the Greek islands and Asia Minor, and Limestone covered with marble from the Greek mainland. Later they just built with marble. The temples of this period had a rectangular form and stand on a podium, and had a terrace in the form of steps where they performed rituals. Smaller temples had so called verandas, a porch created by columns on both sides. During this time architects developed two types of columns- the Doric style and the Ionic style. The Doric column had no base like the two other types. They looked plain, because they had no decorated capital. These columns were the heaviest columns, because they had to support the top part, the entablature, in what they carved vertical triglyphys and later decorated metopes. Temples near Syracuse, Paestum, Setinus, Acreages, Pompeii, Tarentum (today Taranto), Metapontum, and Corcyra (today Kerkira) still exist today. The best example for a Doric style building is the temple of Poseidon near Paestum, which was built around 450 B.C. On the other hand columns of the Ionic style, which were developed in Ionia, Asia Minor, and on the Greek island were slim grooved and more three-dimensional. Every Ionic column stand on a horizontal and circular base and ends in a capital, which has a volute with a necking under it. Above the volute there is a small abacus in contrast to the Doric column. Examples of Ionic temples are in Athens on the Acropolis, the Erechtheum.

THE S ECOND GREEK PERIOD- THE EARLY-CLAS S ICAL ERA

Most of the early-classical temples were still in the Doric style. One example for this is the temple of Zeus in Olympia, which was built circa 2,500 years ago. Libon of Elis designed the temple, whose columns show a strong reaction to the heavier proportions of the Archaic- Doric style. Circa 450 B.C. Phidias was appointed as an overseer of the works on the Athenian Acropolis. Some famous or at least know architects were Mnesicles, who built the Propylaea (437-432), Callicrates, the architect of the temple of Athena Nike (427-424), and Theseum, who created the temple of Hephaestus (448-440).

THE THIRD GREEK PERIOD- THE MIDDLE-CLAS S ICAL ERA

Architects developed a number of improvements to correct the dimensional distortions. They raised the middle of a terrace, they formed the capital of columns convex, and they gave internal and external walls an incline. The most important temple of this period was the Parthenon that was planed by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates. The unique building was totally made of marble, which was brought from the quarries on Mount Pentelikon. The Erechtheum is another example of Ionic style. The entablature is support by six caryatids, the sculptured maidens who replaced customary columns. The third building on the acropolis is the temple of Athena Nike, which was built by Callicrates.

THE FOURTH GREEK PERIOD- THE LATE-CLAS S ICAL ERA

The temples in this period were still built in the Doric Style, but the architects now omitted the verandas on both sides. A good example is the temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus, which was built circa 380 B.C. During this era they developed the Corinthian columns, which are similar to the Ionic columns, but they have Acanthus leaves on their capitals. In theaters architects replaced wooden benches with stone ones. One example of this is the theater of Epidaurus (built 350 B.C.) by Polyclintus. One of Polyclintus’ most impressive buildings was the mausoleum of King Mausolus of Caria in Halicarnassus, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. A reinterpretation of the Ionic style took place in Asia Minor.

THE LAST GREEK PERIOD- THE HELLENIS TIC ERA

The Doric style continued in the form of smaller temples and two story buildings. Big Ionic temples were built in Asia Minor, like the temple of Apollo in Didyma, which was built circa 2,300 years ago. During this era the Corinthian columns were used more and more like in the temple of Zeus, which was built in 174 B.C. in Athens. New kinds of buildings were developed, for example gymnasiums and senate houses, which reflected the marvelous Hellenistic style. They also began to build enormous altars in magnesia -white, like the ones in Syracuse, Pergamun and Priene. Hellenistic kings created porticoes, libraries, theaters, and huge gates. Sepulchers imitated the marvelous style of the mausoleum. The design of private houses changed from a rectangular corridor to a hollow rectangular around a courtyard, which was surrounded by columns.

GREEK REVIVAL (RENAIS S ANCE)

The Renaissance was like a new morning after the long gothic and medieval night. During this era explorations changed the world, especially in humanity and science. People begun to question their environment and started to study and to discover “new worlds”, as did Columbus in 1492. Scholars searched and studied Greco-Roman classics in monasteries from a new viewpoint. Knowledge began to spread after Johann Gutenberg’s invention in 1456, when more books were printed between 1456 and 1500 than had been copied by hand in the previous thousand years. Excavations like Pompeii and other Greco-Roman cities in the 18th century led to a revival of the antiquity in western architecture, sculptures, paintings, and design. Academic artists copied the external signs of Greek art, but often without comprehending its spirit. Later in the 20th century a lot of artists reacted against the old academic traditions, they wanted more respect for the Greek art. The geometrical clarity and harmonious proportions of the ancient Greco-Roman style inspired most architects.

THE NEOCLAS S ICAL S TYLE ON THE EXAMPLE OF EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA

Neoclassicism is the art and architectural style, which was rediscovered through imitating old Greco-Roman forms in Europe and North America from 1750 until the early days of 1800. In the 1700s the Enlightenment, which called for using reason and science to find truth, influenced the minds of the people and led to a new thinking. Two of the most famous neoclassical artists were the Swiss-born Angelica Kauffmann and Thomas Jefferson. Kauffmann, who was an Italian-trained painter, became one of the leading figures in neoclassicism. In the United States a neoclassical style called “federal style” spread between 1780 and 1820. Thomas Jefferson studied the Maison-Carreé, which was a temple that was built in the first century A.D. in Nîmes, France. He used it as a model for the capitol building in Richmond, Virginia (1785-1789). Because of his traveling he developed a sense of architecture which he used to make designs for his home Monticello, the University of Virginia, and for the new capitol Washington D.C. Jefferson chose Greco-Roman architecture because it represents democratic and humanistic thinking, which was first developed in Greece. The marvelous architecture reflected the thinking of the people in this new democracy, who wanted to create a new, a better world.

Sources: the Internet and the book “Arts & Ideas” by William Fleming