Arch History Quiz Lecture (Slide 6-7)

Highlighted works in red

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Aerial view of ruins

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Reconstruction

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Plan

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Magazines

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Reconstruction:  Courtyard view towards Throne Room

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC
 
 Courtyard view towards Throne Room

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Throne Room and light wall

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380

Queen’s Megaron

Palace Complex (“Palace of King Minos”), Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1380 BC

Grand Staircase

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Aerial view of ruins

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Reconstruction

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Plan  [NOTE:  Postern openings through thick citadel walls]

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Cyclopean walls

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Postern gate and postern

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Plan, showing location of megaron

Citadel at Tiryns, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BC

Reconstruction, showing megaron

Megaron, Palace at Pylos, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, 13th century BC

Citadel and Palace of Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1600-1250 BC

Plan

Citadel and Palace of Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1300 BC

Lion Gate

Citadel and Palace of Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1600-1250 BC  

Grave Circle A

Citadel and Palace of Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1330 BC

Treasury of Atreus, dromos

(Excavated by Schliemann)

Mary Bonner (1887-1935)

Les Cowboys, etchings, 1924 exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris, 1925

ashlar

hewn stone masonry with even faces and square edges laid in horizontal courses with vertical joints – as opposed to rubble or unhewn stone straight from the quarry

corbel

parallel masonry layers, each projecting beyond the one below

corbel arch

a “false” arch constructed by progressively cantilevering or corbelling from the two sides with horizontal joints.

cushion capital

In pre-Classical Greek architecture, a simple rounded capital carved from a block of stone, resembling a round cushion or pillow

cyclopean stones

in pre-Classical Greek architecture, masonry constructed of very large irregular blocks of stone. The later Greeks believed such masonry was the work of a race of giants, the Cyclopes.

dromos

a long, high-walled, sloping entrance passage to a Mycenaean tholos tomb

jamb

The vertical face of an archway, doorway, or window

labyrinth

A building with, or arrangement of, winding and confusing passageways

megaron

The principal hall of an Anatolian, Cretan, or Mycenaean palace or house. It is rectangular in plan, with a circular central hearth and a front porch formed by the prolongation of the side walls.

postern

a small gateway, sometimes concealed, at the back of a castle, town, or monastery

propylaeum (propylon)

an entrance-gateway to an enclosure (usually to a temple or palace precinct)

relieving arch

an arch, usually of rough construction, placed in a wall above an arch or any opening, to relieve it of much of the superincumbent weight

tholos

(pl., tholoi) a round tomb. In Mycenaean architecture, a round, corbel-vaulted tomb; also referred to as a “beehive” tomb

Greek shrine, votive clay model, from Argos, Greece, eighth century BC

The Hellenic Greeks built temples for their gods, based on the megaron.

Sir William Chambers, A Treatise on Civil Architecture (London, 1759)

Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879)
and his drawing of the Greek Doric system, from Entretiens sur l’architecture (Paris, 1872)

The Greek Orders:  Doric, Ionic, Corinthian

Remember the Labelling

*From Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 771-772

acropolis

Greek, “high city.” The upper citadel of a Greek city, usually the site where important temples were erected

caryatid

a sculptured female figure used as a column, as on the Erechtheion at the Acropolis of Athens

cella (or naos)

the sanctuary of a Greek temple, which houses the cult statue

entasis

literally, swelling. A slight convex curve to the profile of a column

Order

in classical architecture, a column with base (usually), shaft, capital, and entablature, decorated and proportioned according to one of the accepted modes (e.g., Greek Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian)

Panathenaic Festival

a festival dedicated to Athena with athletic games occurring in Athens every four years

pediment

in classical architecture, a low-pitched gable above a portico, formed by running the top member of the entablature along the sides of the gable

peristyle

a single colonnade surrounding a building or courtyard

pilaster

a shallow pier or rectangular column projecting only slightly from a wall, and, in classical architecture, conforming with one of the orders

polis

Greek, city

portico

a roofed space, open or partly enclosed, forming the entrance and centerpiece of the façade of a temple, house, or church, often with detached or attached columns and a pediment. It is called prostyle or in antis according to whether it projects from or recedes into a building

pteroma

in a Greek temple, the space between the walls and the colonnades

tympanum

the triangular space enclosed by the mouldings of a pediment

distyle

two columns across temple front

tetrastyle

four columns across fron

hexastyle

six columns across front

octastyle

eight columns across front

pteron

(from Greek, ptero-, row of columns) an exterior colonnade

peripteral

surrounded by a single peristyle or row of columns.

dipteral

surrounded by a double peristyle or row of columns

Greek Temples and Parthenon

Most Greek temples are hexastyle peripteral.

The Parthenon is octastyle peripteral.

Evolution of a Doric Order

Temple of Hera (I), a.k.a. Basilica, Paestum, Italy, ca. 550 BC

Temple of Aphaia, at Aegina, Greece, ca. 510-490 BC

Temple of Hera (II), a.k.a. Temple of Poseidon, Paestum, Italy, ca. 460 BC