Terms for 01/29/15 Quiz Flashcards
The Parthenon
- Erected on the Acropolis of Athens in the mid-fifth century BCE
- Represents the culmination of a century-long effort by Greek architects to build a temple having perfect proportions
- Architect Iktinos calculated the dimensions of every part of the Parthenon
- The number of columns on the long versus the short sides corformed to an all-encompassing mathematical formula
- Result of a “perfect temple”
The basic parts of the Greek temple (know at least 5)
- Shaft
- Column
- Cornice
- Pediment
- Stylobate
The Kritios Boy
- Marble statue
- The sculptor of the Kritios Boy was among the first to grasp this anatomical fact and to represent it in sanctuary
- Has a slight dip to the right hip
- Head turns slightly to the right and tilts
- Right leg is bent at ease
Polykleitos
- Sought to portray the perfect man and to impose order on human movement
- Achieved his goals through harmonic proportions and a system of cross balance for all parts of the body
- Created Doryphoros aka Spear Bearer
- Was not content with simply rendering a figure that stands naturally
- Made the Doryphoros as a demonstration piece to accompany his treatise on the ideal statue of a nude man
- Contrapasto - weight shift of a statue
Roman Concrete Construction
- Barrel vaults
- Groin Vaults
- Hemispherical domes
- Romans developed concrete construction, which revolutionized architectural design
- Roman builders mixed concrete according to a changing recipe of lime mortar, volcanic sand, water, and small stones
The Colosseum
- Aka The Flavian Amphitheater
- One of Vespasian’s first undertakings after becoming emperor
- Could hold more than 50,000 spectators
- Takes its name from its location beside the Colossus of Nero
- Could not have been built without concrete
The catacombs in Rome
- Chambers that served as cemeteries
- Name derives from the Latin ‘ad catacumbas’
- Less elaborate than the Etruscan tombs
- Known catacombs in Rome run for 60 to 90 miles
- Housed as many as four million bodies
Pericles
General of Athens during the Golden Age
Importance of Athens
- Provided allied fleet commander and picked which cities were to furnish ships and which were to pay an annual tribute to treasury at Delos
- Kept persians at bay
Central Plan Building
Structure where parts of equal or near equal dimensions surround center
Ambulatory
Ring-like barrel-vaulter corridor
Nimbus
Halo
Atrium
Central room in private house
Transept
Transverse aisle, perpendicular to move; between nave and apse
Baldacchino
Dormical canopy over alter
Nave
Central, main aisle
Apse
End of nave, where alter is
Narthex
Vestibule behind nave (front door)
Lunettes
Semicircular frames displaying key episodes of Jonah
Orants
Praying figures
Liturgy
Ritual of public worship
Prefiguration
Prophotic forerunner
Catacombs (ad catacumbas)
Vast subterranean networks of passageways; chambers that served as cemetaries
Cubicula
Roman houses as mortuary chapels within catacombs
Greek temple characteristics
- Parthenon - temple with perfect proportions
- Pythagoras of Samos - believed beauty was in numeric ratios
- Displayed their gods and their stories
- Core is naos or cella
- Styles: Doric & Ionic
- Elevation - platform, colonnade, and entablature
Chronology of Ancient Rome
- Amphitheater - double theater; roman amphitheater is 2 greek theaters put into 1.
- Republic U.S. Empire: republic depends and gives power to a senate and 2 consuls; dictator used to command army in a crisis
- Monarchy - Latin and Etruscan kings rules Rome from founding by Romulus (753-509 BCE)
Acropolis
- “High city”
- Most ambitious building project
- Persian sack destroyed city - got rebuilt by Pericles
- The Parthenon was located in the center of the Acropolis
How did early Christianity begin
- During 3rd and 4th centuries
- Junius Basus: mid 4th century converted Rome
- Art - Junius’s sarcophagus displayed Hebrew scripture and Jesus’s life
Ottonian
- In the mid 10th century, the eastern part of the former empire consolidated under the rule of a new Saxon line of German emperors called, after the three most illustrious family members, the Ottonians
- A great patron of Ottonian art and architecture was Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim, Germany
- The Ottonian period witness a revival of interest in freestanding statuary
- The Ottonian clergy interpreted Hebrew scripture as prefiguring the New Testament
- For Bernward’s doors, Ottonian metalworkers cast each giant door in a single piece with the figural sculpture of the Old and New testament
