GREEK ARCHITECTURE
In their architecture as in their sculpture the Greeks gave eloquent
expression to the exquisite feeling for symmetry of form which was one
of their most distinctive characteristics. Architects and masons were in
close touch with the people for whom they built, no social barriers, so
far as the arts and crafts were concerned, divided class from class,
citizens, aliens, and even slaves vying with each other in their zeal to
produce the best work possible.
The finest buildings of ancient Greece and its dependencies entirely
fulfilled the conditions of true architecture, for they were beautiful
alike in design and execution, admirably adapted to the purpose for
which they were erected, and in complete harmony with their
surroundings. Moreover they are of exceptional importance in the
history of the evolution of the art on account of the influence they
exercised on that of other countries, all their distinctive features
having been either copied or modified in those of the rest of Europe.
[Illustration: Plan of Greek Temple]
The Greeks, though they were doubtless acquainted with the arch, the
dome, and the tower, refrained as a general rule from using them,
probably because they considered them unsuitable to the topographical
and climatic conditions that prevailed in their native land. They
achieved their highest results by means of correctness of proportion and
dignity of outline, giving far more attention to the exterior than to
the interior of their buildings, and in this respect differing greatly
from the Egyptians, who endeavoured to impress the spectator chiefly by
the vast extent and massiveness of their temples and palaces.
[Illustration: Doric Capital]
Recent discoveries on the site of Knossos in Crete of the remains of a
many-roomed palace, and elsewhere in the same island of circular stone
tombs, all of which betray strong Oriental influence, confirm the
opinion of archaeologists that it was in the islands of the AEgina Sea
that the first works of architecture properly so called were erected in
Europe. On the mainland of Greece, notably at Mycenae and Tiryns, exists
relics of many buildings, including at the former the noble Lion Gate
that gave access to the Acropolis, and at the latter the residence of a
chieftain, which maintain the continuity between the earliest and the
latest phase of Greek architecture, and may justly be said to presage
the triumphs of the Golden Age.
[Illustration: Column from the Parthenon]
From first to last Hellenic architecture was characterised by unity of
purpose, its grandest forms being essentially the same in general
principle as its earliest efforts, the mud walls with timber pillars
upholding a flat wooden roof, having been gradually transformed into
stately colonnaded structures in costly materials, that to this day
remain absolutely unrivalled in their exquisite beauty of proportion and
the close correlation of every detail with each other and the whole.
[Illustration: Portion of a Doric Entablature]
The grand temples of Greece were built either of stone or of marble. As
a general rule they are set on a platform to which a long flight of
steps lead up, and are enclosed within an outer wall or a continuous
colonnade. Their plan is extremely simple: a parallelogram, formed in
some cases entirely of columns, in others with walls at the side and
columns at the ends only, encloses a second and considerably smaller
pillared space known as the cella or naos, that enshrined the image of
the god to whom the building was dedicated, and was entered from a
pronaos or porch, and with a posticum or back space behind it, sometimes
supplemented by a kind of second cella called the opisthodomus or back
temple. The front columns at either end are spanned by horizontal beams
that uphold a sloping gable called a pediment, the flat, three-cornered
surface of which is generally adorned with sculpture in bas-relief, and
along the side-columns is placed what is known as the entablature, that
consists of three parts, the architrave resting on the capitals of the
columns, the frieze above it and the cornice, the last of which
sustains the flat roof, usually covered with tiles or marble copies of
tiles.
[Illustration: The Parthenon]
Greek architecture is generally divided into three groups or orders: the
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, each of which, though the buildings
belonging to them resemble each other in general plan, is distinguished
by certain peculiarities of the columns and entablatures. The Doric was
the earliest to be employed, but the Ionic, that early succeeded it, was
long used simultaneously with it, sometimes even in the same building,
whilst the Corinthian did not come into use until considerably later.
[Illustration: Metope from the Parthenon]
In the Doric order the column has no separate base, but rises direct
from the top step of the platform on which the building it belongs to
stands. It is of massive form and has what is known as an entasis or
slightly convex surface, it is generally fluted, that is to say, cut
into parallel perpendicular channels, several rings called annulets
connecting it with the capital, which consists of an echinus or rounded
moulding and an abacus or unrounded slab resting on the echinus. The
Doric entablature is equally simple, the architrave being perfectly
plain, whilst the frieze is adorned with triglyphs or three upright
projections with grooves between them, set at equal distances from each
other, the spaces separating them, known as metopes, being as a rule
enriched with fine sculptures of figure subjects. The frieze is
connected with the cornice by narrow bands called mutules resting on the
triglyphs and metopes, and the cornice itself has a plain lower band
known as the corona, surmounted by more or less decorated courses of
stone or marble.
[Illustration: Portion of Frieze of Parthenon]
[Illustration: Portion of Frieze of Parthenon]
[Illustration: Ionic Capital]
The Ionic and Corinthian orders are alike characterised by lightness and
grace rather than massiveness and simplicity. In both, the columns,
instead of rising direct from the platform, have a complex base
consisting of a number of circular mouldings above another, the fluted
shafts are comparatively slim and tapering, and the channels in them are
divided by spaces called fillets. In the Ionic order the flat abacus of
the Doric capital is replaced by two coiled volutes projecting beyond
the echinus on either side, and the horizontal portion between the
volutes is surmounted by finely carved leaf mouldings. The Corinthian
order is specially distinguished by the ornate decoration of the
capitals, that represent calices of flowers and leaves, chiefly those of
the acanthus, arranged so as to point upwards and curve outwards in much
the same style as they do in nature. The architrave in both the Ionic
and the Corinthian orders consists of plain slabs, but the frieze--which
is not divided as in Doric buildings into triglyphs and metopes--is in
nearly every case enriched with a series of beautiful figure subjects,
and is therefore known as the Zoophorus or figure-bearer.
[Illustration: Ionic Column]
Among the most ancient remains of sacred Greek architecture are those of
the Heraeon or Sanctuary of the Goddess Hera at Olympia; of the temple
that preceded the Parthenon at Athens; and of those at Assos in Asia
Minor, Selinus in Sicily, and Corcyra in Corfu, the last a very typical
example of archaic Doric, with a pediment in which are primitive
sculptures of a gorgon flanked by lions. Of somewhat later date are the
ruined temples at Girgenti, Syracuse, and Segesta, all in Sicily, the
last the best preserved of all; the group at Paestum in Southern Italy,
of which that of Neptune is the finest, the pediments having been
originally filled in with beautifully executed sculptured figures. The
Temple of Athene in the island of AEgina marks the transition from the
extreme severity of early Doric to the more ornate buildings of the
Golden Age of Greek architecture, its decorative sculptures being of
exquisite design and execution. The Temple of Jupiter at Athens, begun
in the Doric style by Pisistratus about 540 B.C. and not completed
until about 174 B.C., has Corinthian capitals on some of its columns,
and the Temple of Theseus, of uncertain date, in the same city, that
consists entirely of white marble, ranks, in spite of its severe
simplicity, even with that of Neptune at Paestum on account of its fine
proportions and the admirable finish of every detail.
[Illustration: Ionic Entablature from the Erectheum]
It was in the Parthenon, or Temple of the Virgin Goddess of Wisdom, at
Athens, that the Doric style found its highest expression, for in it
were combined the massive grandeur of the archaic period with the
refinements of construction, decoration, and lighting of a more
scientific but not less aesthetic age. It occupies the site of an earlier
building, the relics of which are referred to above, that was destroyed
by Xerxes, and it rises from the summit of the lofty rock of the
Acropolis that dominated the ancient city. It was built, it is supposed,
by the famous architects Ictinus and Callicrates about 440 B.C., under
the enlightened ruler Pericles, and its decorative sculptures, some of
which are now in the British Museum, were the work of Phidias and his
pupils, and, mutilated though they are, they still rank amongst the
greatest masterpieces of plastic art.
Before the Parthenon, after being long used as a Christian church, was
reduced to ruins by the explosion of a shell, when in 1687 it was
desecrated by being converted into a powder magazine by the Turks during
their struggle with the Venetians, it must have been one of the very
noblest buildings in the world, forming with other sanctuaries and
secular buildings on the world-famous hill a spectacle of surpassing
grandeur, the pride and glory of the whole Greek world.
[Illustration: Acanthus Ornament]
[Illustration: Corinthian Capital]
The Parthenon was 228 feet long by 101 broad, and 64 feet high; the
porticoes at each end had a double row of eight columns; the sculptures
in the pediments were in full relief, representing in the eastern the
Birth of Athene, and in the western the Struggle between that goddess
and Poseidon, whilst those on the metopes, some of which are supposed to
be from the hand of Alcamenes, the contemporary and rival of Phidias,
rendered scenes from battles between the Gods and Giants, the Greeks and
the Amazons, and the Centaurs and Lapithae.
Of somewhat later date than the Parthenon and resembling it in general
style, though it is very considerably smaller, is the Theseum or Temple
of Theseus on the plain on the north-west of the Acropolis, and at Bassae
in Arcadia is a Doric building, dedicated to Apollo Epicurius and
designed by Ictinus, that has the peculiarity of facing north and south
instead of, as was usual, east and west.
Scarcely less beautiful than the Parthenon itself is the grand triple
portico known as the Propylaea that gives access to it on the western
side. It was designed about 430 by Mnesicles, and in it the Doric and
Ionic styles are admirably combined, whilst in the Erectheum, sacred to
the memory of Erechtheus, a hero of Attica, the Ionic order is seen at
its best, so delicate is the carving of the capitals of its columns. It
has moreover the rare and distinctive feature of what is known as a
caryatid porch, that is to say, one in which the entablature is upheld
by caryatides or statues representing female figures.
Other good examples of the Ionic style are the small Temple of Nike
Apteros, or the Wingless Victory, situated not far from the Propylaea and
the Parthenon of Athens, the more important Temple of Apollo at
Branchidae near Miletus, originally of most imposing dimensions, and that
of Artemis at Ephesus, of which however only a few fragments remain _in
situ_.
Of the sacred buildings of Greece in which the Corinthian order was
employed there exist, with the exception of the Temple of Jupiter at
Athens already referred to, but a few scattered remains, such as the
columns from Epidaurus now in the Athens Museum, that formed part of a
circlet of Corinthian pillars within a Doric colonnade. In the Temple of
Athena Alea at Tegea, designed by Scopas in 394, however, the transition
from the Ionic to the Corinthian style is very clearly illustrated, and
in the circular Monument of Lysicrates, erected in 334 B.C. to
commemorate the triumph of that hero's troop in the choric dances in
honour of Dionysos, and the Tower of the Winds, both at Athens, the
Corinthian style is seen at its best.
[Illustration: Corinthian Column from Monument of Lysicrates]
In addition to the temples described above, some remains of tombs,
notably that of the huge Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in memory of King
Mausolus, who died in 353 B.C., and several theatres, including that of
Dionysos at Athens, with a well-preserved one of larger size at
Epidaurus, bear witness to the general prevalence of Doric features in
funereal monuments and secular buildings, but of the palaces and humbler
dwelling-houses in the three Greek styles, of which there must have been
many fine examples, no trace remains. There is however no doubt that
the Corinthian style was very constantly employed after the power of the
great republics had been broken, and the Oriental taste for lavish
decoration replaced the love for austere simplicity of the virile people
of Greece and its dependencies.
[Illustration: Corinthian Entablature from Monument of Lysicrates]