'The Parthenon'

In a funeral oration delivered in 430 BC Pericles expressed his pride in the city of Athens:

"Mighty indeed are the marks and monuments we have left. Men of the future will wonder at us, as all men do today."

What does Plutarch say about the Parthenon's timeless quality?

'Created in a short time for a long time'.

What happened in 1816?

A large part of the sculpture that remained was removed by British nobleman Thomas Bruce and sold to the British Museum.

What type of temple is this?

A peripteral temple.

What happened to the temple?

A powder magazine on the temple blew up, destroying the centre of the building.

What is a peripteral temple?

A temple with a front and back porch as well as a colonnade surrounding the entire structure.

What was the lavish product the outcome of?

Collective levels of self-confidence and economic boom.

What is the second step in building a Greek temple?

Columns erected.

Who was Thucydides?

Contemporary historian who wrote about the building of the parthenon.

What does the entasis of the columns do?

Counteracts the tendency of the eye to reach upward.

Who is it dedicated to?

Dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena Parthenon. ("Athena the Virgin").

What architectural refinements are made to the columns?

Delicate convexity in the columns - entasis - always takes place about 2/5ths up the column as they diminish in diameter.

Thomas Jefferson was an architect during this period

Designed not only his own home, Monticello, but the campus of the University of Virginia in this style

Columns

Doric order

Where did ceremonies take place and why?

Due to the mild climate of Greece, ceremonies generally took place outdoors. Even the altar was on the outside.

How many columns?

Eight columns at the façade and 17 columns at the flanks.

Support the roof of the back room

Four Ionic order columns

What order capitals are on the inside?

Ionic.

How is the building given a plastic sculptural appearance?

It consists of multiple architectural refinements.

Features of the Doric order

It features a plain capital with a thick shaft and no base.

What do Honour and Fleming say about the Parthenon?

It is the 'surviving moment which best characterises Greek art'

What happened to the colour of it?

It was bleached by centuries of Mediterranean sun.

What was the building known for in terms of colour?

Known for its pure white appearance and fine grains but now looks like a sandy colour due to weathering.

What are the foundations made out of?

Limestone.

What does the great frieze show?

Most worshippers could not see the great frieze that depicted the Panathenaic Procession.

Pericles

Ruler of Athens from 460-429 BC initiated the building program on the Acropolis, the towering hill in Athens where the Parthenon and other temples dedicated to the gods were located.

Neoclassical period that ensued from the 18th century to the mid-19th.

Saw the use of classical columns like those in the Parthenon.

Fluted

Shafts

Perfect proportions

Show an understanding of the mathematical harmony in the natural world.

What is the sloping top called?

Sloping cornice

What is the first step in bulding a Greek temple?

Stepped platform of stone was laid out.

In moving from stone to wood how did builders adapt?

Stone has greater compressive strength than wood but lacks tensile strength therefore columns must be relatively thin and the entablature quite thick.

What happened by the 6th century BC?

Stone replaced wood in the construction of important temples.

Who was Thomas Bruce?

The 7th Earl of Elgin who removed several sculptures supposedly by permission from 1801-3.

Where were the Elgin marbles sold to?

The British Museum.

Federal style

The Federal Style that came in the early years of American independence also featured columns and columnades.

How do the Greeks feel about this?

The Greek government have been attempting to get them returned since the 1980s. The British government have refused thus far.

Location

The Parthenon stands at the highest point of the city overlooking the Aegean sea, as a display of the dominance of Athens.

What does the continuous low-relief frieze around the top of the cella wall represent?

The annual Panathenaic procession of citizens honouring Athena, culminated on the east end with a priest and priestess of Athena flanked by two groups of seated gods.

What was the grandeur of the work enhanced by?

The bronze accessories.

How are the columns spaced?

The columns looked like they are spaced at equal intervals but six at the centre are slightly further apart and the three on the corner are closer together.

Where would the only light have entered in through?

The east doorway except for some that might have filtered through the marble tiles.

Slanting columns

The four exterior columns also slant inward diagonally to prevent the illusion of the building widening as onlookers looked up

Why was it built?

To replace a damaged building of the previous temple which had been destroyed following the Persian attack on the city in 430 BC.

What was it's main function?

To shelter the monumental chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena in the naos - made by Phidias - out of gold and ivor.

mid 19th century Greek revival architecture became widespread in the U.S.

became known as the national style as it was used in houses and smaller public buildings generally featured Doric order in larger buildings

Visible from

all points of Greece

Post and lintel

architecture

What were the original colours of the sculptures?

blue red and gold

What is the third step in building a Greek temple?

Blocks of entablature set on top of them.

Steps

Borromini - steps may have inspired San Carlo from this building, both inviting in the passer-by in a welcoming fashion.

Describe the original layout of the cella.

Cella was originally divided into three aisles by two smaller Doric colonnades closed at the west end just behind the great cult statue

What had happened by the 7th century?

Certain structural alterations in the inner portion had also been made.

Metopes signify ascendancy of Greece

Civilisation over barbarism

What do Honour and Fleming say about the Doric order?

'Doric is quintessentially stone architecture conditioned by the potentialities and limitations of blocks resting on one another without motion'.

'Emphasis was placed...

... on the exterior rather than the interior'.

'The Parthenon is a supreme...

...example of the Doric Temple ... Greek temples were not designed for ritual' - Honour and Fleming.

Approximately how many stones were used to build the Parthenon ?

13,400.

When was the bombardment of the Acropolis?

1687

Never before had so much marble been used

22,000 tons

What was the cost?

469 talents?

When did it remain intact until?

5th century CE.

Integration of Ionic and Doric elements

Added to the splendour of the Parthenon by creating a balance between rigid and delicate characteristics.

Where else are some of the sculptures from the Parthenon on display?

At the Louvre, Paris and in Copenhagen whilst a majority are in Athen's Acropolis Museum.

What type of construction did Greek temples use?

Basic post and beam (trabeated) construction.

What type of proportions are used and what is the effect?

Golden section proportions - the most harmonious.

Who were the architects?

Ictinus and Callicrates

Smithsonian Art Museum

In Washington D.C. has a similar triangular tympanum and front row of Doric columns

Where is the upward curvature of the base repeated and why?

In the entablature for drainage.

Large room and small room

In the larger one, a huge standing statue of Athena was located, resting on a support slab. In the smaller room was the state treasury, including cash gifts to the deity.

What is depicted in the sculpture on the pediments?

In the sculpture on the pediments is depicted the birth of Athena and her struggle with Poseidon for the land of Attica.

What is shown on the metopes?

On the metopes combats between the gods and giants as well as men against creatures are depicted.

Where are other sculptures from the Parthenon now?

Other sculptures from the Parthenon now in the Lourve in Paris or Copenhagen, however, most remain in Athens.

What were the columns made out of?

Pentelic marble from Mt. Pentelicus - a material that was utilised for the first time.

Who promoted it?

Pericles

Who was the sculptor?

Phidias

What happened to it in the 5th century CE

Phidias' colossal statue was removed. Temple was them transformed into a Christian Church.

What is this a proclamation of?

Proclamation of triumph over the Persian army Darius and Xerxes.

How did Pericles finance this project and why was this considered dishonest?

The money that financed the opulent endeavour mainly came from the tributes extracted from allied city-states under Athenian protection rather than the Athenian residents themselves.

What is the Propylaea?

The monumental entry point to the Acropolis

What rivals the architecture?

The sculpture decorating the Parthenon rivalled its architecture in careful harmony.

When did the so-called Athenian empire reach its zenith?

The so-called Athenian empire reached its zenith during the era of construction after defeating the Persians at Marathon.

What was the statue made from?

The statue was made of 1040 kgs of gold which could be easily be melted down in times of crisis.

What does the thickening of the corner columns counteract?

The thinning effect of being seen at certain angles against the sky.

What did the Turks do to the Parthenon?

The turks adopted the Parthenon as a mosque in 1460 without material change except for the raising of a minaret at the southwest corner.

What is the fourth step in building a Greek temple?

The walls and cella are made.

stone platform supports

The walls of a shoebox-like room called the Cella or Naos.

What has happened to the white marble over time?

The white marble has suffered damage over the centuries - but basic structure has remained intact.

What did designs still reflect?

Their origins in wood.

How do columns that are straight appear against the light?

Thinner in the middle - flimsy.

This building is said to be the birthplace of democracy, giving Athenian democracy its definitive form.

This influenced the White House which can be deemed the new centre of democracy and so it is only fitting that it reflects this original structure.

inhabitants of Athens especially state leaders, would bring offerings to it

This linked the Gods with the leaders of politics and religion.

Inside the exterior columns is a

raised stone platform.

Western Culture - The summit of the Acropolis

served as a model of an idealized civic society for Western culture which is reflected in other buildings such as the National gallery

Plutarch - one of the main reasons for construction

the need to deal with growing unemployment. By embarking on a major public works program for the acropolis, Pericles hoped to provide jobs for ordinary Athenians, whom he relied on for political support.