Ancient Greek Architecture
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Greek Art in Sicily Greek ancient temples in Sicily Temple plans Doric order 1. Tympanum, 2. Acroterium, 3. Sima 4. Cornice 5. Mutules 7. Freize 8. Triglyph 9. Metope 10. Regula 11. Gutta 12. Taenia 13. Architrave 14. Capital 15. Abacus 16. Echinus 17. Column 18. Fluting 19. Stylobate Ionic order Ionic order: 1 - entablature, 2 - column, 3 - cornice, 4 - frieze, 5 - architrave or epistyle, 6 - capital (composed of abacus and volutes), 7 - shaft, 8 - base, 9 - stylobate, 10 - krepis. Corinthian order Valley of the Temples • The Valle dei Templi is an archaeological site in Agrigento (ancient Greek Akragas), Sicily, southern Italy. It is one of the most outstanding examples of Greater Greece art and architecture, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily as well as a national momument of Italy. The area was included in the UNESCO Heritage Site list in 1997. Much of the excavation and restoration of the temples was due to the efforts of archaeologist Domenico Antonio Lo Faso Pietrasanta (1783– 1863), who was the Duke of Serradifalco from 1809 through 1812. • The Valley includes remains of seven temples, all in Doric style. The temples are: • Temple of Juno, built in the 5th century BC and burnt in 406 BC by the Carthaginians. It was usually used for the celebration of weddings. • Temple of Concordia, whose name comes from a Latin inscription found nearby, and which was also built in the 5th century BC. Turned into a church in the 6th century AD, it is now one of the best preserved in the Valley. • Temple of Heracles, who was one of the most venerated deities in the ancient Akragas. It is the most ancient in the Valley: destroyed by an earthquake, it consists today of only eight columns. • Temple of Olympian Zeus, built in 480 BC to celebrate the city-state's victory over Carthage. It is characterized by the use of large scale atlases. • Temple of Castor and Pollux. Despite its remains including only four columns, it is now the symbol of modern Agrigento. • Temple of Vulcan, also dating from the 5th century BC. It is thought to have been one of the most imposing constructions in the valley; it is now however one of the most eroded. • Temple of Asclepius, located far from the ancient town's walls; it was the goal of pilgrims seeking cures for illness. • The Valley is also home to the so-called Tomb of Theron, a large tuffmonument of pyramidal shape; scholars suppose it was built to commemorate the Romans killed in the Second Punic War. Agrigento Temple of Concord Temple plan • Due to its good state of preservation, the Temple of Concordia is ranked amongst the most notable edifices of the Greek civilization existing today. It has a peristatis of 6 x 13 columns built over a basement of 39.44 x 16.91 m; each Doric column has twenty grooves and a slight entasis, and is surmounted by an architrave with triglyphs and metopes; also perfectly preserved are the tympani. The cella, preceded by a pronaos, is accessed by a single step. The exterior and the interior of the temple were covered by polychrome stucco. The upper frame had gutters with lion-like protomes, while the roof was covered by marble tiles. • When the temple was turned into a church the entrance was moved to the rear, and the rear wall of the cella was destroyed. The spaces between the columns were closed, while 12 arched openings were created in the cella, in order to obtain a structure with one nave and two aisles. The pagan altar was destroyed and sacristies were carved out in the eastern corners. The sepultures visible inside and outside the temple date to the High Middle Age. Agrigento Temple of Hera Lacinia • This temple dates to c. 450 BC, measuring 38.15 x 16.90 m: it is in Doric style, peripteros 6 columns wide by 13 long, preceded by a pronaos and opisthodomos. The basement has four steps. • Current remains consist of the front colonnade with parts of the architrave and of the frieze. Only fragments of the other three sides survive, with few elements of the cella. Agrigento Temple of Zeus Olimpico Segesta • Segesta was one of the major cities of the Elymian people. It is located in the northwestern part of Sicily in Italy, near the modern comune of Calatafimi-Segesta in the province of Trapani. Segesta Segesta Temple Plan Segesta Temple in Thomas Cole´s picture from 1843 • On a hill just outside the site of the ancient city of Segesta lies an unusually well preserved Doric temple. It was built sometime in the late 5th century BC and has six by fourteen columns on a base measuring 21 by 56 meters, on a platform three steps high. Several things suggest that the temple was never actually finished. The columns have not been fluted as they normally would have been in a Doric temple and there are still tabs present in the blocks of the base (used for lifting the blocks into place but then normally removed). It also lacks a cella and was never roofed over. The temple is also unusual for being a Hellenic temple in a city not mainly populated by Greeks. Selinunte • Selinunte was one of the most important of the Greek colonies on the southern coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Belice and Modione rivers. It now lies in the comune Castelvetrano. The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as "Temple E", has been re-erected. Selinunte: View of the Acropolis from the Temple C Selinunte Temple of Apollo (G) Selinunte - Temple of Hera, also called temple E Temple E, view from within Selinunte Temple plan • Its current appearance is the result of anastylosis (reconstruction using the original material) carried out –controversially – between 1956 and 1959. The peristyle is 25.33 x 67.82 metres with a 6 x 15 column pattern (each 10.19 metres high) with numerous traces of the stucco which originally covered it remaining. It is a temple characterised by multiple staircases creating a system of successive levels: ten steps lead to the entrance on the eastern side, after the pronaos in antis another six steps lead into the naos and finally another six steps lead into the adyton at the rear of the naos. Behind the adyton, seoarated from it by a wall, was the opisthodomos in antis. A Doric frieze at the top of the walls of the naos consisted of metopes depicting people, with the heads and naked parts of the women made of Parian marble and the rest from local stone. Four metopes are preserved: Heracles killing the Amazon Antiope, the marriage of Hera and Zeus, Actaeon being torn apart by Artemis’ hunting dogs, Athena killing the giant Enceladus, and another more fragmentary one perhaps depicting Apollo and Daphne. All of them are kept in the Museo Archeologico di Palermo. Temple E was dedicated to Hera as shown by the inscription on a votive stela but some scholars deduce that it must have been dedicated to Aphrodite on the basis of structural parallels. Selinunte Temple F Siracusa • The Cathedral of Syracuse is a monument of singular charm, and its extraordinary characteristics are virtually unequalled in Italy. The building was, in fact, made by closing the spaces between the columns of a Doric Greek temple of the 5th century BC, which in this way has survived virtually intact. The imposing Greek columns are still clearly visible both inside and outside the church. While keeping up with the times and changes of religion (Greek temple, church, mosque, and then a church again), the site has remained a place of worship for a good two and a half millennia! • The charm of this construction of a modern place of worship upon a much more ancient one is heightened by the fact that some of the columns "trapped" within the walls have been tilted and twisted by earthquakes that the cathedral has endured during its history. In these deformities one can see "frozen" in time the awesome force of nature that shook Syracuse in its ancient history. Siracusa Temple of Athena The Doric columns of the Temple of Athena, "imprisoned" in the right nave of the Cathedral of Syracuse. The nave of the Cathedral of Syracuse. The pillars were created by opening the walls of the internal cella ot the Temple of Athena. Siracusa Temple of Apollo • The Temple of Apollo on the island of Ortygia in Siracusa, is a Greek temple dating from the 6th century BC. • This is the oldest known Doric temple in Western Europe. An inscription says that the temple honors Apollo, but after Cicero came to Syracuse, he wrote that the temple was dedicated to Artemis. • Regardless, the temple was eventually devoted to neither – it was turned into a Byzantine church and then the Muslims took over and converted it into a mosque. Later, under Norman rule, it was turned back into a church. • Today the building is in ruins, but its imposing size is still evident - 58 x 24 m or 190 x 70 ft. It occupies a large part of Piazza Pancali. The dedication inscription is on the top step of the base. Greek theaters in Sicily Diagram of the Greek theater Iato Mountin Segesta Siracusa Eraclea Minoa Morgantina Palazzolo Acreide Solunto Taormina Tindari Sculpture: Selinunte’s Metope Selinunte’s Metope Artemide e Atteone, metope in the Temple E in Selinunte – Palermo, National Museum Agrigento: Temple of Zeus Olimpico Efebo Agrigento Venus in Morgantina Motya Charioteer The Motya Charioteer is a very rare surviving example of an original Greek victor’s statue and represents the winner of a chariot race that took place some 2,500 years ago.