Hello there. As we more forward in our art history course,
we are now going to be focusing on the ancient Greeks.
One of the ancient Greek's largest contributions to
art was their style of architecture
In order to understand the historic and current relevance
of Greek monumental architecture we have to learn
the architectural language or the architectural order of Classical Greece.
An architectural order refers to a style
of building and can be identified through various aesthetics,
proportions, and profiles which we get into later in this video.
A classical order refers specifically to Greek architecture.
The Classical orders can help us identify if a building was meant for a feminine or masculine god for a
specific purpose like a building or science or the importance of a building, and roughly the time
period of a piece that we are looking at. We can still see the Classical Orders importance and influence today,
mainly through our own capital and
In order to understand the orders of columns, we have to look at the Greek temples as a whole, so let's start with the base of a column, or what a column rests on.
The red arrow is pointing to what we call a Stylobate or base of a temple.
Some columns have bases in between a Stylobate and the shaft of a column, but some do not.
This is an important identifier for what type of column it is.
Moving on to the head or the top of the column, i've used an orange arrow to indicate this section.
This section is called the Capital.I remember this part by thinking that in America, our heads of government rests
at the Capitol. So, the head is always on top. The blue arrow points to the entablature area
of a temple, which is where most of the decoration of temples were. We will go
more in-depth on this section of temples in later lessons, but for now just note that it is called the entablature.
So now that we have covered the basics of temples,
we can talk about the first, and, most simplest order,
the Doric order.
We can first see these Columns appear around 7th Century BCE.
These Columns have three main identification points
The lack of base to their calm, and this is indicated by the red arrow.
See how the shaft of the Column just flows into the Stylobate
Simplistic black capital pointed out by the yellow arrow
See how it's just kind of rectangular, not much decoration?
And lastly, the bulky shaft of the Column, which is different from the future orders.
These columns are used in important buildings for the cities
like the Parthenon in Athens, or temples for male gods
like the Temple of Poseidon. This is seen in the next slide
This is because they were considered a more masculine shape that indicated power.
You can see this masculine shape by the way the Column is not perfectly straight
and instead
a bit bloated at the bottom.
So, something to note about these Columns, is that
they were actually constructed in parts.
You can see one of the lines indicated on the first Column to the left,
there's about a line halfway up the Column, where you can see that these Columns were
actually made up of pieces of marble carved
to look like one solid column and then assembled.
They also fold at the bottom to give them
the perception of being perfectly straight if you
were just an onlooker, observing them from the ground.
This tells us a lot about
what the greeks understood about perspective
as well as what they valued in their architecture.
It's important to understand that the Greeks valued the way people looked
at their Columns; they valued what they could do in math to create the most perfect architecture.
Ionic Columns are the second Greek architectural order. They first come into appearance
in Ionia, which is on the coast of modern day Turkey in the year 570 BCE,
and it had been transmitted to mainland Greece by the 5th Century BCE.
The monumental temple dedicated to Hera on the island of Samos,
which was created in 570-560 BCE,
was the first of the great Ionic buildings.
However, it has been lost to history as it was destroyed by an earthquake shortly thereafter
Ionic Columns are distinguishable by how they differ from Doric Columns.
Ionic have more graceful proportions and are slender, as opposed to the oafish,
bulging Doric ones.
The Ionic order incorporates a running Frieze
of continuous sculptural relief,
as opposed to the Doric Frieze, composed of
triglyphs and Metopes.
These proportions are much more feminine , and we see these Columns more so often with Greek monuments that worship goddesses.
This is because they are a direct response to the masculine Doric that preceded them.
A few other key features of the Ionic Columns are their scrolls.
The scrolls are called Volutes.
These ornaments are put atop the Columns, which is called the capital,
and it is suggested that they embodied Ram's horns or the ovule of a clover native to Greece.
These scrolls make it incredibly easy to distinguish which type of Greek order you are looking at.
Corinthian Columns.
Corinthian Columns are the third order developed during the Classical Hellenistic period. They're from the 5th century.
From 432 to 323 BCE.
These are the most ornate of the three columns,
coming after the Ionic and Doric Columns.
They're more complex than the ones that come before them.
These Columns are identified by a couple features,
one being their decorative aspect,
rather than being their bell shaped Capitol with Volutes
Volutes are a spiral scroll characteristic of the Ionic Capitals seen before this one.
It is also characterized by a two rows of Agentha's leaves,
so these are just plants leaves as you see under the scroll like painters.
Lastly, they have an elaborate Cornings.
This is an ornamental molding around the wall of a room, just below the ceiling.
These are examples of the three Columns seen in today's world.
First we have the Doric Column. These can be found in the crypt of the US Capital building.
Second, are the Ionic Columns.
These can be seen at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC.
Also, keep your eye out on campus,
as these columns can even be seen at Schaffer Hall.
Lastly, a well-known place where Corinthian Columns can be seen, is the Supreme Court building.
Ancient architecture, and specifically these Classical orders,
are still very permanent in today's buildings around the world.
Art History is very important, in that it can show where we have come from
and help us continue to build from these ideas and make improvements.
The Classical Orders are one part of the many interesting things we will learn in Art History.
