South African Journal of Art History
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
South African Journal of Art History Volume 28 Number 1 2013 The perceptual totality of group design in sacred Classical Greek architecture: the approach and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and the Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis Estelle Alma Maré Reviewer’s Report This work is a substantial and major contribution to the understanding of and interpretational efforts by present-day viewers of Classical Greek temple precincts, in particular the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and the Temples of the Athenian Acropolis. It integrates two remarkable results of observational and scholarly research, namely the admirable drawings by the late Anastasios Rapanos of the relevant temple precincts, and the magisterial exposition of the cultural contexts and the dynamics of the rituals executed there, by Estelle Alma Maré. The many serially ordered illustrations are a visual representation of unique value, with the linguistically expressed argument running parallel in a wonderfully synthesized presentation. The voluminous literature on the topic has been studied in depth and ably compacted. The result is, however, more than just an overview of past work, but a new and original synthesis, casting a unique illumination on what is a difficult and controversial issue: the totality and integration of the disparate buildings with their different architects and dates on the precincts and what their total functioning was intended to be. The contents and structuring of the contribution, the references, and the English language usage are of the highest standard. With complete confidence I can recommend the publication in the Journal of this major academic contribution to our knowledge of the architecture of Classical Greece, a fresh and meticulously motivated perspective on an essential but challenging topic. Estelle Alma Maré holds the position Antanasios Rapanos was a Pretoria of extraordinary professor in the based architect. Department of Architecture, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, and is the present editor of the SAJAH. The South African Journal of Art History is a peer reviewed journal publishing articles and review articles on the following subjects: Art and architectural history Art and architectural theory Aesthetics and philosophy of art Visual culture Art and the environment Film and photography History of craft Design ISSN 0258-3542 Available on Sabinet Website: www.sajah.co.za Archive: UP Online © E.A.Maré i South African Journal of Art History Volume 28, number 1, 2013 Editor Estelle Alma Maré Editorial Board Karel A. Bakker, University of Pretoria (architectural history) Rudolf Bitzer, University of the Free State (design thinking and process) Johannes Heidema, University of South Africa (aesthetics and philosophy of art) Adrian Konik, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (philosophy, film theory and cultural studies) Estelle Liebenberg-Barkhuizen, University of KwaZulu-Natal (women artists, works on paper) Mauritz Naudé, Tshwane University of Technology (South African architecture) Jonathan Noble, University of the Witwatersrand (architectural history, theory and criticism) Bert Olivier, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (aesthetics and philosophy of art) Johann Opperman, University of South Africa (South African art) John Steele, Walter Sisulu University (prehistoric southern African ceramics) Aletta Steenkamp, University of Cape Town (architecture) Ingrid Stevens, Tshwane University of Technology (art theory, contemporary art, craft) Gerald Steyn, Tshwane University of Technology (African and South African architecture) Rita Swanepoel, North-West University (philosophy of art) C.J. van Vuuren, University of South Africa (indigenous architecture, anthropology) International Advisory Board Tsion Avital, Emeritus professor, Department of Design and Art, Holon Academic Institute of Technology, Israel Concha Diez-Pastor, eIribas, ESNE University of Design and Innovation, Madrid, Spain Pascal Dubourg-Glatigny, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France Aleš Erjavec, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia John Hendrix, Department of Arhitecture, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom John A.H. Lewis, architect, independent medievalist, Auckland, New Zealand Constantinos V. Proimos, Hellenic Open University and the Technical University of Crete, Greece Raymond Quek, Department of Architecture, Bond University, Australia Tijen Roshko, Department of Architecture, University of Manitoba, Canada Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou, Department of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Alexander Tzonis, Emeritus Professor, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Leoni Schmidt, School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand Gert van Tonder, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan The SAJAH is published by the Art Historical Work Group of South Africa Chairperson: Gerald Steyn Treasurer and Publication Secretary: E.A. Maré Cover design: notanotherjoe: Joh Deetlefs Layout: notanotherjoe: Joh Deetlefs Printed by: Procopyprint ii iii iv The perceptual totality of group design in sacred Classical Greek architecture: the approach and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and the Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis Estelle Alma Maré Department of Architecture, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria E-mail: mare_estelle@ fastmail.fm SAJAH, ISSN 0258-3542, volume 28, number 1, 2013: 1-127 v vi I dedicate this research to the late Atanasios Rapanos whose reconstruction drawings of serial movement along the approach to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and the Panathenaic Way and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis inspired the writing of this text. vii viii Contents Abstracts xiii Preface 1 Introduction 3 Propositions regarding the perceptual totality 4 of group design in sacred Classical Greek architecture, exemplified by the approach and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and by the Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis Part One 7 The approach and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi 8 Observations of the approach and the Temple of Apollo 10 Scale 10 Orientation and axial layout 12 Use of orders 14 Dialectical relationship between blemished and fragmented buildings and the Doric temple of unified design 16 Architectural components and natural features 17 Summary of the observations of the approach and the Temple of Apollo 21 Part Two 25 The Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis 26 Observations of the Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis 31 ix Scale 31 Orientation and axial layout 33 Use of orders 34 Dialectical relationship between blemished and fragmented buildings and the Doric temple of unified design 35 Architectural components and natural features 47 Summary of observations on the approach to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis 51 Part Three 54 Serial movement and visual perception at the Delphi temple precinct 55 Part Four 63 Serial movement and visual perception along the Panathenaic Way and on the Athenian Acropolis 64 Conclusion 83 Substantiating the propositions 84 Coda 88 The relevance of Classical Greek design for today 89 x Notes 92 Notes to the text 93 Preface 93 Introduction 94 Part One 98 Part Two 104 Conclusion 114 Coda 116 Notes to the illustrations 117 Part Three Sources for the illustrations of the serial movement at the temple precinct at Delphi 117 Part Four Sources for the illustrations of the serial movement at the Athenian Acropolis 117 Figure credits 118 Works cited 121 xi xii Abstracts It is the contention of this research to explain the perceptual totality of composed groups of Classical Greek buildings in sacred precincts, as exemplified at Delphi and the Athenian Acropolis. The main proposal to be tested by the analysis of these architectural ensembles is that sacred Classical Greek architecture is not exclusively an architecture of three Classical orders, but an architecture on two hierarchical levels, namely the architecture of the divine level, as symbolised mainly by the Doric temple, as opposed to the architecture of the secondary human level, represented by the ancillary buildings in the approach areas that are characterised by a diminished scale, complexity and ambiguity. Key words: Classical Greek architecture, approach to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Delphic treasuries, Panathenaic Way, Athenian Acropolis, Parthenon, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nikè, Erechtheum, Trophonios and Agamedes, Ichtinos and Callicrates, Mnesikles, serial movement, perceptual totality Die perseptuele totaliteit van groepsontwerp in heilige Klassieke Griekse argitektuur: die aanloop tot die Tempel van Apollo by Delfi en die Panatenaïese Weg, die Propylaea en die tempels op die Akropolis van Athene Die bespreking in hierdie navorsing het ten doel om te verduidelik hoe komposisies van groepe Klassieke Griekse geboue in heilige omgewings ’n perseptuele totaliteit vorm, soos by uitnemendheid by Delfi en die Akropolis van Athene. Die belangrikste proposisie wat deur die ontleding van hierdie argitektoniese groeperings getoets word, is dat heilige Klassieke Griekse argitektuur nie by uitnemendheid drie Klassieke ordes is nie, maar ’n argitektuur op twee hiërargiese vlakke, naamlik die heilige vlak wat hoofsaaklik deur die Doriese tempel gesimboliseer word, in teenstelling met die argitektuur van die sekondêre menslike vlak wat