Architecture. Jean Piaget. Tourism 2nd year

ARCHITECTURE. 2nd. Year Tourism

Greek Architecture

Greeks were excellent architects. Their art was connected with the view of life they had. Consequently, their art exhibited qualities of simplicity. It was free from decorative extravagance and exuberant ornamentation.
At first Greeks were influenced by the Egyptians but during the 5th. Century B.C. Greek architecture and sculpture reached their perfection.
Greek temple architecture was one of the simplest of structural form. Their elements were five in number:
 The cella or nucleous: rectangular chamber to house the statue of God
 .The Columns: three types of columns
 The entablature or lintel: rested upon the columns and supported the roof
 The gabled roof
 The pediment or triangular section under the gable of the roof




Columns
The columns formed the porch and surrounded the cella. They had three different kinds of columns: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian
Doric: it is a heavy, sharply fluted column surmounted by a plain capital
Ionic: it is more graceful than the Doric. It has flat flutings and a triple base with a scroll or volute capital
Corinthian: too ornamented. In its capital it had a mixture of ivy and flowers.

The most famous Greek building was The Parthenon. It was essentially a Doric building but it reflected some grace of ionic influence. They built rectangular temples and used the golden number discovered by the Pythagoreans.
Greek theatres are very important in architecture. They had a circular shape and were constructed at the foot of mountains to take profits of their Geography.


Sculpture
They were excellent at sculpture. They represented prototypes of human beings at perfection. Equally with architecture, the second period during the fifth century was the greatest in Greek sculpture. Their main contributions were:
• They lowered the height of statues
• They portrayed naked organs (only men)
• They portrayed Olympic competitions
• They separated the limbs from the body



Sculpture attained its best with the work of Phidias. His masterpieces were the statue of Athena in the Parthenon and the statue of Zeus. The charioteer is another Greek famous statue. It was a man wearing typical Greek clothes holding the horse of a chariot.
Greek sculpture was a medium for the ennoblement of man. Its attention was given to the description of beautiful bodies.
The second most renowned sculptor was Myron noted for his statue of the discus thrower.

Middle Ages

Romanesque style

Towards the end of the Middle Ages architecture went under a revival which gave birth to the Romanesque style. This style was born in Cluny, a monastery in France. In fact, it was a product of the monastic revival and was used to build monasteries. The essential features of this building style were the massive walls, huge and strong pillars, plain interior except for, in a few cases, some mosaics.
The most important feature was the small windows this style had. This was because interior had to be dark and gloomy for monks to meditate based on St. Benedict rules of vows of meditation and silence. Other characteristics it had were the round topped arches and towers with conical roof
In the exteriors there were no ornaments so they were as plain as the interior. In the late 12th Century the Romanesque style was superseded in popularity by the Gothic.

Gothic style

It employed the arch, vault and the dome. Arches were pointed. Their points represented man search for divinity. This style was used to build cathedrals. These cathedrals were built in front of the main square. Before the birth of the Gothic style, there were no cathedrals in Europe. It was an awfully complicated style. It had:
• Strong columns: They seemed a bunch of columns but it was only one
• Gorgoiles which had animals of the local fauna with their mouth open
• In the exterior it used the rose window