Handout 2 - Ancient Aegan Art, Ancient Greek Art, Etruscan and Ancient Roman Art

Column

A vertical, weight-carrying architectural member, circularin cross-section and consisting of a base (sometimes omitted), a shaft, and a capital

Base

In ancient Greek architecture, the molded projecting lowest part of Ionic and Corinthian columns. (Doric columns do not have)

Shaft

The tall, cylindrical part of a column between the capital and the base.

Capital

The uppermost member of a column, serving as a transition from the shaft to the lintel. In classical architecture, the form varies with the order.

Clycadic Art—ca. 3000-2000 BCE

• Figurine of a Woman, from Syros, marble, ca. 2500-2300BCE

Palace of Knossos, Crete (Greece), 1700-1400 BCE

Bull Leaping Fresco, ca. 1500-1400 BCE, fresco painting

Doric Order

One of the two systems (or orders) invented in ancient Greece for articulating the three units of the elevation of a classical building—the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature); characterized by, among other features, capitals with funnel-shaped echinuses, columns without bases, and a frieze of triglyphs and metopes

Ionic Order

One of the two systems (or orders) invented in ancient Greece for articulating the three units of the elevation of a classical building: the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature); characterized by, among other features, volutes, capitals, columns with bases, and an uninterrupted frieze

Corinthian Order

A more ornate form; it consists of a double row of acanthus leaves from which tendrils and flowers grow, wrapped around a bell-shaped echinus. Although this capital is often cited as the distinguishing feature of the Corinthian order, in strict terms no such order exists; capital is a substitute for the standard capital used in the Ionic order.

Pediment

In classical architecture, the triangular space (gable) at the end of a building, formed by the ends of the sloping roof above the colonnade; also, an ornamental feature having this shape

Entablature

The part of a building above the columns and below the roof; has three parts: architrave, frieze, and pediment

Colonnade

A series or row of columns, usually spanned by lintels

Contrapposto

The disposition of the human figure in which one part is turned in opposition to another part (usually hips and legs one way, shoulders and chest another), creating a counterposition- ing of the body about its central axis. Sometimes called “weight shift” because the weight of the body tends to be thrown to one foot, creating tension on one side and relaxation on the other.

Geometric Krater (from the Dipylon Cemetery in Athens, Greece), ca. 740 BCE.

• Painted ceramic (black figure krater) [Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City]

New York Kouros, ca. 600 BCE , marble [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

Exekias, Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice, ca. 540-530 BCE, painted ceramic (black figure amphora)

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman marble copy of lost bronze original of ca. 450-440 BCE

Acropolis, Athens (Greece), b. 447 BCE including: Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (Temple of Athena Parthenos). Acropolis, Athens, 447-438

Phidias, East Pediment of the Parthenon with Birth of Athena, Three Goddesses. Dionysos, Helios and his Horses, ca.438-432 BCE, marble

Kallikrates, Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens, 427-424 BCE

Praxitiles, Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman marble copy of an original of ca. 350-340 BCE

Athanadoros of Rhodes and others, Laocoön and his Sons, early first century CE, marble

Basilica

In Roman architecture, a public building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan, with an entrance usually on a long side.

Apse

A recess, usually semicircular, in the wall of a building, commonly found at the east end of a church.

Clerestory

The fenestrated part of a building that rises above the roofs of the other parts; in Roman basilicas and medieval churches, clerestories are the windows that form the nave’s uppermost level below the timber ceiling or the vaults

Nave (sometimes with side aisles)

The central area of an ancient Roman basilica or of a church, demarcated from aisles by piers or columns.

Arch (true)

A curved structural member that spans an opening and is generally composed of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit the downward pressure laterally.

Voussoirs

the wedge-shaped blocks that together form the archivolts of the arch framing the tympanum

Keystone

A wedge-shaped stone block used in the construction of a true arch; the central voussoir, which sets the arch

Vault

A masonry roof or ceiling constructed on the arch principle, or a concrete roof of the same shape.

Barrel vault

A vault, semicylindrical in cross-section, is in effect a deep arch or an uninterrupted series of arches, one behind the other, over an oblong space.

Groin vault

formed at the point at which two barrel vaults intersect at right angles

Dome

A hemispherical vault; theoretically, an arch rotated on its vertical axis

Roman concrete

Very high-quality building material developed by the Romans with water added, it is poured as a liquid; it then hardens into an artificial stone

• Composition of Roman concrete – Motar (the binder-lime, cement) + aggregate (a filler for strength-gravel. Pozzolana) + water

Statue of Augustus (Augustus of Primaporta), early first century CE marble copy of a bronze original of ca. 20 BCE