Order From Chaos: The Greek Temple and the Classical Orders

I. Greek prehistory: the Bronze Age in the Aegean Sea, 1700-1400 B.C. (Kostof, ch. 5)

Bronze-Age Mycenae, Greece, c. 1400 BC

I. A. 1. Where were cities situated?

The megaron of the Mycenaean palace at Pylos, Greece, c. 1400 BC

I. A. 2. What were the priorities in architecture: the case of the megaron?

I. A. 2. a. What forms did tombs take?

A tholos tomb at Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1400-1300 BC

II. The Archaic period (800-480 BC): the cultural turn in Greece and the invention of the Greek temple, 9th-7th centuries BC

II.

Archaic period Classical period Hellenistic period

The Greek polis (city-state): governed by citizen councils

Human-centered: Gods imagined as humans in

ideal form

Faith in human reason: Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

II. A. Historical context: Emergence of the Greek polis (city-state); the Greek gods; science and philosophy; formation of Greek cultural identity through religion

II. A.

The Greek temple at Segesta, Italy, 430-420 BC

II. B. Greek temple basics

Temple of Hera I at Samos, Greece, 8th cen. B.C.phase 1

phase 2

II. B.

Temple of Hera I, phase 1

II. B. 1. Where was the altar?II. B. 2. What was in the cella (Greek naos)?II. B. 3. What were the building materials of the early Archaic temples?

late 9th or early 8th cen. B.C.

late 9th or early 8th cen. B.C.

Temple of Hera II at Samos, mid 7th cen. B.C.

II. B. 4. What was the setting like?

stoa (portico) and west corner of Hera II

The megaron of Mycenaean palace Pylos, c. 1400 B.C.

II. C. Precedents for the archaic Greek temple 1. Bronze-Age megarons

Temple of Hera I, phase 1 Samos, late 9th/early 8th cen. B.C.

8th-cen. B.C. Greek shrine

II. C. 2. 8th-century Greek shrine, clay model from Argos, Greece

Temple of Hera I, phase 1

late 9th or early 8th cen. B.C.

Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 1 Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 2

II. D. Architectural form: What is significant about the addition of the peristyle? 1. How does the addition of the peristyle reflect the polis-centered culture of Greek peoples?

late 9th / early 8th cen.

mid 8th cen.

II. D. 1.

mid 8th cen.

Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 2 Temples of Hera II, III, and IV, superimposed

ca. 650-522 BC

II. D. 2. What are the initial signs of a classical order?

Doric order (half in wood, half in stone)Wood: Hera II at Samos, mid 7th cen. B.C.

II. F. What was the predominant architectural theory in pre-Classical times?

Evidence from an excerpt of “To Apollon,” a Homeric hymn of the 8th century B.C.:

“Apollo laid out the foundations, broad and very long from the beginning to end; and on them the sons of Erginos, Trophonios and Agamedes [architects], dear to the immortal gods, placed a threshold of stone. And the numberless races of men built the temple all around with hewn stone . . . ” (from assigned reading in Gelernter, p. 41).

Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 2

mid 8th cen. B.C.

Doric Temple of Hera at Olympia

III. The first stone temples and the invention of the orders in the Archaic period, 6th-5th century B.C.

Doric Temple of Hera I at PaestumIonic Temple of Hera at Samos

Doric Temple of Artemis at Corfu

III.

Temple of Hera I at Paestum, Italy, 6th cen. BC (c. 530 BC), Archaic

Temple of Hera II at Paestum, Italy, 5th cen. BC (c. 460), Early Classical

III.

Three temples at Paestum, 6th - 5th cen. BC

Greek temple as mid-space object

Greek temple at Segesta, Italy Temple of Demeter at Paestum, 5th cen. BC

Greek colony of Paestum in Italy (Western Greece)

Hera I

III.

Hera I

“Proto-Doric” columns at Hatshepsut’s Temple, c. 1500 B.C.

Greek Doric Order at the Temple of Hera I in Paestum

III.

Temple of Hera I at Paestum (Archaic), 530 B.C.

III. A. What are new parts are added to the plan of a Doric temple?

generic Greek temple plan

Temple at Hera I at Paestum

III. A.

Temple at Hera I at Paestum

III. A.

Temple of Concordia, Agrigento, Italy

III. B. The Classical Orders: 1. What are the essential components of a Classical order?

Doric Order of the Templeof Hera I at Paestum

less well preserved better preserved

Doric Order of the Templeof Hera II at Paestum

III. B. 2. What parts may correspond to the primitive wood version of the Doric order?

Doric order (half in wood, half in stone) Doric Order of the Temple of Hera II at Paestum

guttae

triglyph

entasis

III. C. 3. Greek empathy: human experience counts a. How can we explain entasis in the Doric column?

Temple of Hera I at Paestum

Temple of Zeus at Olympia

IV. The Early Classical period (480-450 BC): shift in temple design that went with the new-found power to create and preserve the conditions in which man lived

Temple of Hera II at PaestumTemple E at Selinus

IV. A. Political context: To what event can we ascribe greater self-confidence but also greater uneasiness among Greeks on the mainland in the early Classical period?

III.

Temple of Hera i at Paestum, Italy, 6th cen. BC, Archaic

Temple of Hera II at Paestum, Italy, 5th cen. BC (c. 460), Early Classical

IV. A. 1. Why did the Early Classical style invented by Greeks on the mainland reject excessive ornament and gigantism in temples?

Doric Temple of Hera II at Paestum (460 BC) Ionic Temple of Hera IV at Samos (538-22 BC)

Great Archaic Ionic temples

IV. A. 1.

Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, Turkey (formerly Ionia), 560-550 BC

Temple of Hera IV at Samos538-22 BC

Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, Turkey (formerly Ionia), 560-550 B.C.

IV. A. 1.

Hera I at Paestum (Archaic), 530 BC Hera II at Paestum (Early Classical), 460 BC

IV. B. Design changes in the Early Classical temple  1. What has changed in the plan of the Early Classical temple?

IV. B. 2. What is the secret of the new compactness and simplicity (severity) of the Early Classical temples compared to Archaic temples?

Temples of Hera I (left, Archaic) and II (right, Early Classical) at Paestum

Temple of Hera I at Paestum (Archaic)

Temple of Hera II at Paestum (Early Classical)

IV. B. 2.

symmetria = commensurability of parts

III. C. Theory: What was the predominant architectural theory in the Archaic period? 1. How is the trust in numbers and proportion part of the Greek cultural turn?

Gods imagined as humans in ideal

proportions

Temples built by the numbers

Pythagorus of Samos (580-500 BC)

III. C. 2. In what way are numerical harmonies (proportionality) actually spiritual, and therefore an appropriate part of sacred architecture?

Temple of Hera II at Paestum (Early Classical)

The Classical moment: the Parthenon in Athens

For Monday: J.J. Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece, ch. 3, On E-Reserve.