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Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Classical Tradition_ A tradition, as opposed to ‘period’ or ‘epoch which relates to a distinct time frame, suggests the handing down of customs, beliefs and cultural values, often through a set of precedents W. Gray Young. Wellington Railway Station. Thorndon Wellington 1937 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition The history lecture series will be covering: Classical Tradition_ W. Gray Young. Wellington Railway Station. Thorndon Wellington 1937 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition The history lecture series will be covering: Classical Tradition_ Gothic Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Wellington Railway Station, W. Gray Young, 1937 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Parthenon, Ictinus and Callicrates and , Athens, 477-438BC Lecture 1: Classical Tradition • Important Dates • Plato 428/427 BC-347/348 BC • Greek civilisation's "Classical" phase lasted from about 500 BC to 300 BC and was followed by the "Hellenistic" period, marked by increasingly "humanistic" art. • The Roman Republic and then Empire rose about the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The first Emperor was Augustus, (63 BC-14 AD) and began to decline around the 4th century AD. • The Renaissance began around the early 1400s (it can be said to have begun in the 1300s) and peaked around 1500 with the "High Renaissance". It represents the Humanist triumph over the theocratic or church-ruled civilisation of the Middle Ages. Artists of this time include Leonardo, Michelangelo. Later, dramatic styles are called Baroque (eg., the Scala Regia of Bernini). Several course could be devoted to this period, naturally! Lecture 1: Classical Tradition • The period of the late 1600s and especially the late 1700s is called the Enlightenment or "The Age of Reason", and is marked by clear, strict interpretations of the Classical Style, called Neoclassicism, the development of true scientific method, academic institutions, ideals of republican democracy etc. A time of turmoil (American Revolution 1776, French Revolution 1789), it ended or overlapped with the Industrial Revolution. One can point out Sir Isaac Newton (1642/3-1727), a scientist at the beginning, William Blake near the end (1757-1827), also such great modern myths as Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), written 1818. • Other Sources • Web: http://www.britannica.com, http://www.artchive.com • Reading: Clark, Kenneth, Civilisation Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _For the US of America, Classicism became the signature style of the ‘New Republic ’ _Classical values, such as ‘democracy’ are expressed through its visual language: _Western Culture traces its origins back to in Greek culture, to a ‘Golden Age’ that is conjured up through its stories / myths and what remained of its architecture and art White House, J. Hoban, Washington DC, USA, 1800 Capitol Complex, W. Thornton / multiple designers, Washington DC, USA, 1793- Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _For the US of America, Classicism became the signature style of the ‘New Republic ’ _Classical values, such as ‘democracy’ are expressed through its visual language: _Western Culture traces its origins back to in Greek culture, to a ‘Golden Age’ that is conjured up through its stories / myths and what remained of its architecture and art White House, J. Hoban, Washington DC, USA, 1800 Capitol Complex, W. Thornton / multiple designers, Washington DC, USA, 1793- Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Knowledge about Greek culture has come down to us also in the form of its myths. _Greek Mythology revealing the cosmic order, how the world worked. _Explanation of natural phenomena _In general gods were set up for human beings to aspire to the virtues described in the mythical stories Nike of Samothrace, Greece, 300BC Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _The Victorian age understood ‘Britannia’ as part of a combined English and Greek mythology, relating the English Celtic tribe with the Golden Age of Ancient Rome and Greece, to form its National heroine modelled on Athena. _Similarly Nike,Goddess of triumph and victory, stood as the model for Rolls Royce’s car mascot ‘The spirit of Ecstasy’, portraying grace and speed, and drawing on classical authority, superiority, excellence, good taste and highest quality Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Zealandia, the classically based personification of New Zealand on the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Certificate of Attendance, Leonard Mitchell, 1940 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _A fundamental aspect of Greek or classical thinking are archetypes or what Plato called ideas. _Mimesis: means imitation ‘in the fairly direct sense of copying from nature’. _For Plato, things as they appear in nature are mere reflections of their true identity which could not be attained in the physical world of the living. _The ultimate reality is beyond the physical _The world is ordered in a hierarchical fashion. Illustration of Plato’s Cave Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _It was to be found in the mind, the intellect was favoured over emotions _A consequence of this is the emphasis of the mind, the cognitive, reason and the abstract over the physical and the body and over sensory perception. _Greek thought established a binary structure in Western thinking: Classical values stand for are opposed to reason emotion restraint impulse moderation excess self control inconstancy clarity deception simplicity redundancy . Illustration of Plato’s Cave Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Ideas or ‘universal essences’ have a strong connection to mathematics - they need to be considered with logic and the mind _Mathematics, geometry and proportions are all bound up with beauty and might reveal universal / cosmological order _Basic geometric shapes like circles, squares, triangles and rectangles; solids such as spheres, cubes, pyramids, cylinders Vitruvian Man, Leonardo Da Vinci 15th C Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Ideas or ‘universal essences’ have a strong connection to mathematics - they need to be considered with logic and the mind _Mathematics, geometry and proportions are all bound up with beauty and might reveal universal / cosmological order _Basic geometric shapes like circles, Pantheon, Rome, Italy, 118-128 squares, triangles and rectangles; solids such as spheres, cubes, pyramids, cylinders Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Pantheon, Rome, Italy, 118-128 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _The intent of all theory of proportion is to create order among the elements in a visual construction _The Golden Section is a mathematical phenomenon that can be found in nature. Parthenon and the Golden Section Lecture 1: Classical Tradition • www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/golden- ratio.html • www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008ct2j Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Parthenon and the Golden Section Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _They built their temples so that the roof was slanted. This gave the illusion that the temple was actually standing straight. _They also made the columns bulge so that from a distance they would look perfectly proportioned. Lecture 1: Classical Tradition A visual order was established by applying the Classical Canon (set of strict and sacred rules) ‘the logos opticos’ _Doric order Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Ionic Order Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Corinthian Order Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Post and beam [lintel] >architrave >trabeated Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Post and beam [lintel] >architrave >trabeated Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Post and beam [lintel] >architrave >trabeated Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Wellington Railway Station, W. Gray Young, 1937 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Renaissance: re-birth of the Classical tradition in 15th C Italy -Vitruvian Man establishing the relationship between the number, man and the universe Bramante, Tempietto, Rome, 1502 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Bramante, Tempietto, Rome, 1502 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotonda, 1570 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Proportioning system applied to plan of Villa Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _’The Grand Tour’ was undertaken by the wealthy English and other Europeans to see Roman ruins in particular, but also other parts of Europe, and resulted in the spread of the classical knowledge _Neoclassicism becomes the most popular style right into the 20th Century Palais du Justice, Brussels, 1861-63 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _Classical tradition can be found in Modernist designs where basic geometric forms were to assure control, clarity and simplicity _The Bauhaus and its preoccupation with pure form and good design suggests an attainable ‘ideal’. Bauhaus illustration [magazine cover] Herbert Bayer, 1928 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _The Modulor, a proportioning system designed by Le Corbusier, linked the Golden Section with the proportions of the human body and so placed himself and his work within the classical tradition of Vitruvius and the Renaissance. Le Corbusier, ‘Modulor’ c1948 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy, France, 1932 Lecture 1: Classical Tradition _More modernism with Le Corbusier, with the citing of ‘classical authority’ and juxtapositions with equal ‘modern’ feats of the civilisation he was living in. Le Corbusier, Towards a new Architecture Lecture 1: Classical Tradition [publication], 1924 _Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart: ‘classical references abound’
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