Ancient Greek architecture had a huge impact on the architecture of subsequent eras. Its main concepts and philosophy have long been entrenched in the traditions of Europe. What is interesting about ancient Greek architecture? The order system, the principles of city planning and the creation of theaters are described later in the article.
Development periods
Ancient Greece is an ancient civilization that consisted of many scattered city-states. It covered the western coast of Asia Minor, the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea, as well as Southern Italy, the Black Sea region and Sicily.
Ancient Greek architecture gave rise to many styles and became the basis in the architecture of the Renaissance. In the history of its development, several stages are usually distinguished.
- Homeric period (mid XII - mid VIII century BC) - new forms and features based on the old Mycenaean traditions. The main buildings were residential houses and the first temples, made of clay, unbaked bricks and wood. The firstceramic details in decor.
- Archaic (VIII - early V century, 480s BC). With the formation of policies, new public buildings appear. The temple and the square in front of it become the center of city life. In construction, stone is more often used: limestone and marble, terracotta cladding. There are different types of temples. The Doric order prevails.
- Classic (480 - 330 BC) - heyday. All types of orders in ancient Greek architecture are actively developing and even compositionally combined with each other. The first theaters and musical halls (Odeillons), residential buildings with porticos appear. A theory of street and quarter planning is being formed.
- Hellenism (330 - 180 BC). Theaters and public buildings are being built. The ancient Greek style in architecture is complemented by oriental elements. Decorative, luxury and pomp prevail. The Corinthian order is more commonly used.
In 180, Greece came under the influence of Rome. The empire lured the best scientists and masters of art to its capital, having borrowed some cultural traditions from the Greeks. Therefore, ancient Greek and Roman architecture have many similarities, for example, in the construction of theaters or in the order system.
Architectural Philosophy
In every aspect of life, the ancient Greeks sought to achieve harmony. Ideas about it were not blurry and purely theoretical. In ancient Greece, harmony was defined as a combination of well-balanced proportions.
They were also used for the human body. Beauty was measured not only "by eye", but also by specific numbers. So, the sculptor Poliklet in the treatise "Canon" presented clear parameters of the ideal man and woman. Beauty was directly associated with physical and even spiritual he alth and integrity of the individual.
The human body was seen as a structure, the details of which are perfectly matched to each other. Ancient Greek architecture and sculpture, in turn, sought to match the ideas of harmony as much as possible.
The sizes and shapes of the statues corresponded to the idea of a "correct" body and its parameters. The type of sculptures usually promoted the ideal person: spiritual, he althy and athletic. In architecture, anthropomorphism manifested itself in the names of measures (elbow, palm) and in proportions that were derived from the proportions of the figure.
Columns were the display of a person. Their foundation or base was identified with the feet, the trunk - with the body, the capital - with the head. Vertical grooves or flutes on the shaft of the column were represented by folds of clothing.
Basic Orders of Ancient Greek Architecture
There is no need to talk about the great achievements of engineering in ancient Greece. Complex structures and solutions were not used then. The temple of that time can be compared with a megalith, where a stone beam rests on a stone support. The greatness and features of ancient Greek architecture lie, first of all, in its aesthetics and decorativeness.
The artistry and philosophy of the building helped to embody its order or a post-and-beam composition of elements in a certain style and order. There were three main types of orders in ancient Greekarchitecture:
- Doric;
- ionic;
- Corinthian.
All of them had a common set of elements, but differed in their location, shape and ornament. So, the Greek order included a stereobat, stylobate, entablature and cornice. The stereobat represented a stepped base over the foundation. Next came the stylobate or columns.
The entablature was a carried part, located on the columns. The lower beam, on which the entire entablature rested, is called the architrave. It had a frieze - the middle decorative part. The upper part of the entablature is a cornice, it hung over the rest of the parts.
At first, the elements of ancient Greek architecture were not mixed. The Ionic entablature lay only on the Ionic column, the Corinthian - on the Corinthian. One style per building. After the construction of the Parthenon by Iktin and Kallikrates in the 5th century BC. e. orders began to combine and put on top of each other. This was done in a certain order: first Doric, then Ionic, then Corinthian.
Doric order
Doric and Ionic ancient Greek orders in architecture were the main ones. The Doric system was distributed mainly on the mainland and inherited the Mycenaean culture. It is characterized by monumentality and somewhat heaviness. The appearance of the order expresses calm grandeur and conciseness.
Doric columns are low. They have no base, and the trunk is powerful and tapers upward. The abacus, the upper part of the capital, has a square shape and rests on a round support (echinus). The flute was usuallytwenty. The architect Vitruvius compared the columns of this order with a man - strong and restrained.
Architrave, frieze and cornice were always present in the entablature of the order. The frieze was separated from the architrave by a shelf and consisted of triglyphs - rectangles stretched upwards with flutes, which alternated with metopes - slightly recessed square plates with or without sculptural images. Friezes of other orders did not have triglyphs with metopes.
The triglyph was primarily used for practical purposes. Researchers suggest that he represented the ends of the beams that lay on the walls of the sanctuary. It had strictly calculated parameters and served as a support for the cornice and rafters. In some ancient buildings, the space between the ends of the triglyph was not filled with metopes, but remained empty.
Ionic order
The Ionic order system was widespread on the coast of Asia Minor, in Attica and on the islands. It was influenced by Phoenicia and Persia of Achaedine. A striking example of this style was the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Temple of Hera at Samos.
Ionica was associated with the image of a woman. The order was characterized by decorativeness, lightness and refinement. Its main feature was the capital, designed in the form of volutes - symmetrically arranged curls. The abacus and echin were decorated with carvings.
The Ionic column is thinner and slimmer than the Doric. Its base rested on a square slab and was decorated with convex andconcave elements with ornamental cutting. Sometimes the base was located on a drum decorated with a sculptural composition. In ionics, the distance between the columns is greater, which increases the airiness and sophistication of the building.
The entablature could consist of an architrave and a cornice (Asia Minor style) or three parts, as in a dorica (Attic style). The architrave was divided into fascia - horizontal ledges. Between it and the cornice were small teeth. The gutter on the eaves was richly decorated with ornaments.
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is rarely considered independent, it is often defined as a variation of the Ionic order. There are two versions of the origins of this order. More mundane speaks of borrowing style from Egyptian columns, which were decorated with lotus leaves. According to another theory, the order was created by a sculptor from Corinth. He was inspired to do so by a basket he saw containing acanthus leaves.
It differs from the Ionic one mainly in the height and decor of the capital, which is decorated with stylized acanthus leaves. Two rows of fashioned leaves frame the top of the column in a circle. The sides of the abacus are concave and decorated with large and small spiral curls.
The Corinthian order is richer in decor than other ancient Greek orders in architecture. Of all three styles, he was considered the most luxurious, elegant and rich. Its tenderness and sophistication was associated with the image of a young girl, and acanthus leaves resembled curls. Due to this, the order is oftencalled "girlish".
Ancient temples
The temple was the main and most important building of Ancient Greece. Its shape was simple, the prototype for it were residential rectangular houses. The architecture of the ancient Greek temple gradually became more complex and supplemented with new elements until it acquired a round shape. Usually these styles are distinguished:
- distill;
- forgiveness;
- amphiprostyle;
- peripter;
- dipter;
- pseudo-dipter;
- tholos.
Temple in ancient Greece had no windows. Outside, it was surrounded by columns, which housed a gable roof and beams. Inside was a sanctuary with a statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated.
Some buildings could house a small dressing room - pronaos. In the back of the large temples there was another room. It contained donations from residents, sacred inventory and the city treasury.
The first type of temple - distil - consisted of a sanctuary, a front loggia, which was surrounded by walls or antes. There were two columns in the loggia. With the complication of styles, the number of columns increased. There are four of them in the style, in the amphiprostyle - four each on the back and front facade.
In the perimeter temples, they surround the building from all sides. If the columns are lined up along the perimeter in two rows, then this is the dipter style. The last style, tholos, was also surrounded by columns, but the perimeter was cylindrical. During the Roman Empire, the tholos developed into a type of building"rotunda".
Policy device
Ancient Greek policies were built mainly near the sea coast. They developed as trading democracies. All full-fledged residents participated in the public and political life of cities. This leads to the fact that ancient Greek architecture is developing not only in the direction of places of worship, but also in terms of public buildings.
The upper part of the city was the acropolis. As a rule, it was located on a hill and was well fortified in order to hold back the enemy during a surprise attack. Within its boundaries were the temples of the gods who patronized the city.
The center of the Lower City was the agora - an open market square where trade was carried out, important social and political issues were resolved. It housed schools, the building of the council of elders, the basilica, the building for feasts and meetings, as well as temples. Statues were sometimes placed around the perimeter of the agora.
From the very beginning, ancient Greek architecture assumed that buildings inside policies were placed freely. Their placement depended on the local topography. In the 5th century BC, Hippodames brought about a real revolution in urban planning. He proposed a clear grid structure of streets, which divides blocks into rectangles or squares.
All buildings and objects, including the agora, are located inside the block cells, without getting out of the general rhythm. Such a layout made it easy to complete the construction of new sections of the policy, without violating the integrity and harmony. By projectHippodama were built by Miletus, Knida, Assos, etc. But Athens, for example, remained in the old "chaotic" form.
Living quarters
Houses in ancient Greece differed depending on the era, as well as the we alth of the owners. There are several main types of houses:
- megaron;
- apsidal;
- herd;
- peristyle.
One of the earliest types of dwellings is the megaron. His plan became the prototype for the first temples of the Homeric era. The house had a rectangular shape, in the end part of which there was an open room with a portico. The passage was edged by two columns and protruding walls. There was only one room inside, with a hearth in the middle and a hole in the roof for smoke to escape.
The apsidal house was also built in the early period. It was a rectangle with a rounded end part, which was called the apse. Later, pastoral and peristyle types of buildings appeared. The outer walls in them were deaf, and the layout of the buildings was closed.
Pastada was a passage in the inner part of the courtyard. From above it was covered and supported by supports made of wood. In the 4th century BC, the peristyle becomes popular. It retains the original layout, but the pastoral passage is replaced by covered columns around the perimeter of the courtyard.
From the side of the street there were only smooth walls of houses. Inside there was a courtyard, around which all the premises of the house were located. As a rule, there were no windows; the courtyard was the source of light. If there were windows, they were located on the second floor. Interior decoration was mostly simple, excessesbegan to appear only in the Hellenistic era.
The house was clearly divided into a female (gynoecium) and a male (andron) half. In the men's part, they received guests and had a meal. It was possible to get to the female half only through it. From the side of the gynaecium was the entrance to the garden. The we althy also housed a kitchen, a bathhouse and a bakery. The second floor was usually rented out.
Ancient Greek theater architecture
The theater in ancient Greece combined not only an entertaining aspect, but also a religious one. Its origin is associated with the cult of Dionysus. The first theatrical performances were arranged to honor this deity. The architecture of the ancient Greek theater reminded of the religious origin of the performances, at least by the presence of an altar, which was in the orchestra.
Festivals, games and plays took place on the stage. In the 4th century BC, they ceased to be related to religion. The distribution of roles and control of performances was handled by the archon. The main roles were played by a maximum of three people, women were played by men. The drama was performed in the form of a competition, where the poets took turns presenting their works.
The layout of the first theaters was simple. In the center was the orchestra - a round platform where the choir was located. Behind her was a chamber in which the actors (skena) changed their clothes. The auditorium (theatron) was of considerable size and was located on a hill, skirting the stage in a semicircle.
All theaters were located directly under the opensky. Initially, they were temporary. For each holiday, wooden platforms were built anew. In the 5th century BC, places for spectators began to be carved from stone right in the hillside. This created a correct and natural funnel, contributing to good acoustics. To enhance the resonance of the sound, special vessels were placed near the audience.
With the improvement of the theater, the design of the stage also becomes more complicated. Its front part consisted of columns and imitated the front facade of temples. On the sides were rooms - paraskenii. They kept scenery and theatrical equipment. In Athens, the largest theater was the Theater of Dionysus.
Acropolis of Athens
Some monuments of ancient Greek architecture can be seen now. One of the most complete structures that have survived to this day is the Acropolis of Athens. It is located on Mount Pyrgos at an altitude of 156 meters. The theater of Dionysus, the temple of the goddess Athena Parthenon, the sanctuary of Zeus, Artemis, Nike and other famous buildings are located here.
The temples of the Acropolis of Athens are characterized by the combination of all three order systems. The combination of styles marks the Parthenon. It is built in the form of a Doric perimeter, the internal frieze of which is made in the Ionic style.
In the center, surrounded by columns, there was a statue of Athena. The acropolis played an important political role. Its appearance was supposed to emphasize the hegemony of the city, and the composition of the Parthenon was supposed to sing of the victory of democracy over the aristocratic system.
Next to the majestic and pretentious building of the Parthenon is the Erechtheion. It's completely donein the Ionic order. Unlike his "neighbor", he sings of grace and beauty. The temple is dedicated to two gods at once - Poseidon and Athena, and is located on the spot where, according to legend, they had a dispute.
Due to the features of the relief, the layout of the Erechtheion is asymmetric. It has two sanctuaries - cellae and two entrances. In the southern part of the temple there is a portico, which is supported not by columns, but by marble caryatids (statues of women).
In addition, the Propylaea, the main entrance, surrounded by columns and porticos, was preserved in the acropolis, on the sides of which there was a palace and park complex. On the hill was also located Arreforion - a house for girls weaving clothes for the Athenian games.
