During Which Period of Greek Art Was the Parthenon Built?
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| The Parthenon: Modernistic engineering helps archaeologists piece together the puzzle of the Parthenon'south original structure. Courtesy MacGillivray Freeman Films |
The Parthenon is one of the best known architectural symbols of any civilization. Built in the xv year period between 447-432 BC this aboriginal Greek temple was designed as a replacement for a temple destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. To build a temple of this size (101 x 228 ft.; 30.9m x 69.5m) in that short a timeframe was considered astonishing merely what was even more amazing was the quality of construction and finishing, which was superb. The leading politician of the mean solar day and the man behind the structure project was Pericles. According to Plutarch, the nifty Greek biographer writing centuries after the building was completed; one of the master reasons for the structure of the Parthenon and the other temples which surrounded information technology was the need to deal with growing unemployment. By embarking on a major public works programme for the acropolis (the towering loma in Athens where the Parthenon and other temples defended to the gods were located) Pericles hoped to provide jobs for ordinary Athenians- carpenters, stonemasons, ivory-workers, painters, enamellers, blueprint-makers, blacksmiths, rope-makers, weavers, engravers, merchants, coppersmiths, potters, shoemakers, tanners, laborers, etc.
At the aforementioned time and more chiefly, he envisioned the Parthenon as an architectural masterpiece that would brand a statement to the world almost the superiority of Athenian values, their arrangement of governance and their way of life. Because of this, only the best edifice materials were good enough- the finest stone, bronze, gold, ivory, ebony, cypress-wood- and the all-time artists and craftsmen. Information technology was to be a building for the ages. In a funeral oration delivered in 430 BC Pericles expressed his pride in the city of Athens and there seems no doubt he was thinking of the Parthenon when he noted that "Mighty indeed are the marks and monuments we have left. Men of the future volition wonder at united states, equally all men practice today."
The new construction project was not welcomed by everyone. There were some who were outraged that so much coin was being spent on the construction "gilding and beautifying our city every bit if it were some vain woman decking herself out with costly stones and 1000 talent temples". Many were also upset that the monies to build the Parthenon were being supplied, reluctantly, by Athenian allies who had originally handed over this money for use in any future conflict confronting the Persians. Pericles argued that as long equally the Athenians honored their commitment to defend these allies against Persian aggression, so the allies had nix to complain about. And the bulk of people supported Pericles. In fact his about vocal opponent was ostracized (banished for ten years) by a popular vote leaving the way clear to proceed with construction.
The Parthenon building program was carried out under the general direction of Pericles himself. He chose three men at the top of their professions to collaborate on the design and execution of the project. Although we don't know everything that each did, it seems that Ictinuswas the main builder, Callicratus acted as the project contractor and technical coordinator while Phideas was responsible for overseeing and integrating all artistic elements. He also personally created the enormous gold and ivory sculpture of the city goddess and produced some of the diverse sculptural groupings while supervising the production efforts of a small army of artists and craftsmen. Phideas was recognized at the fourth dimension as being the greatest sculptor of his era but is acknowledged now equally the greatest Greek sculptor of all time. The collaboration of the threesome was an indelible success.
In that location is no denying that the Parthenon construction project was expensive. (The cost, co-ordinate to public accounts engraved in rock, was 469 silver talents. Attempts to interpret that into a modernistic equivalent aren't entirely satisfactory.) The main building textile was Pentelic marble quarried from the flanks of Mt. Pentelikon, located about 10 mi/ 16 km from Athens. (The sometime Parthenon, the i destroyed by the Persians while information technology was partway through structure was the beginning temple to use this kind of marble.) The huge pieces of rock had to exist hauled to the building site by oxcart. This construction was, past no ways, the largest but what distinguishes the Parthenon from about other temples is the quality and extent of the sculptures. Many of the sculptures were made of the more expensive Parian marble, from the island of Paros, which most sculptors proclaimed the best kind of marble for their piece of work. As a collection that shows Greek art at its zenith the Parthenon marbles (sculptures) are but without peer.
The edifice itself is a work of art incorporating a number of aesthetic refinements calculated to brand information technology announced equally visually perfect every bit possible. Knowing that long horizontal lines announced to sag, fifty-fifty though they are admittedly straight, horizontal elements were deliberately curved and the vertical columns "fattened" in the middle to compensate for the vagaries of the human being eye. This thickening in the middle made it look as though the columns were straining a flake under the weight of the roof, thus making the temple less static, more than dynamic. Although the lines and distances in the Parthenon appear to be straight and equal, the geometry has been altered to achieve that illusion. It has been said about this edifice that "nothing is every bit information technology appears".
The Parthenon is a Doric temple, which artfully incorporated selected Ionic features to produce a edifice that many, including some of the world's meridian architects, accept called perfect. The Doric style uses thicker columns and has a more massive appearance (sometimes called masculine) than the Ionic (feminine) style. This may have been a politically inspired choice by Pericles, symbolically uniting Greeks of Dorian and Ionian backgrounds in ane transcendent building.
The Parthenon is classified as a peripteral temple, that is, the perimeter of the construction is defined by columns, in this example by eight on the narrow ends and seventeen on the long sides, for a total of 46 columns. Sitting inside the exterior columns is a raised stone platform. This supports the flooring-to-ceiling walls of a shoebox-like room called the Cella or Naos. In traditional temples this is a unmarried room but in the case of the Parthenon, the Cella has been divided into two rooms. In the larger one, a huge standing statue of Athena was located, resting on a back up slab. In front of the statute…a reflecting pool. In the smaller room, with the iv interior columns, was kept the state treasury, including cash gifts to the deity. The collection of interior columns was necessary to back up the roof that, like the remainder of the edifice, was made of marble.
The portion of the Cella where the magnificent statue of Athena was kept was called the Hekatompedon (heka = 100) which was a hundred Athenian (Cranium) feet in length, equally the Greek room proper name indicates. The reflecting pool was filled with water to add humidity to the air and prevent splitting of the ivory elements of the huge chryselephantine (composite gold and ivory) statue. It is worth noting that the statue cost more than the building built to business firm information technology and the sculptor Phideas made information technology and then that it'south gold panels could exist removed, weighed and sold should the need arise. (That proved to be a wise decision because when he was later accused of pilfering some of the gilded, he was able to quickly establish his innocence.)
None deny that the Parthenon building is a piece of work of art in its ain correct just it was too embellished with a dazzling array of quality sculptures.
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The famous Parthenon frieze. This was a 160 meter (524 ft.) long landscape, carved in high relief, a continuous band of sculpture. Information technology encircled the Cella at the ceiling. It would take been very hard to see and appreciate from the temple floor, the usual identify from where it could be seen. The pinnacle of the frieze was but in excess of i meter (about 41" tall) and the depth of the relief was about the width of a dollar beak. (Phideas had the top portion of the frieze cutting to that depth and the bottom portion incised somewhat less so as to make the scenes more than apparent from the afar floor.) Despite the fact that it would have been difficult to discern details of the artwork from that viewpoint, specially given the dim, shadowy light of the temple, no less care was lavished on these images than on the other groupings. If only the gods could see and appreciate them, then that was sufficient.
The goddess Artemis adjusts her chiton. Item from Parthenon frieze, slab XIXX.
Copyright: Thomas Sakoulas, Ancient-Greece.org
Used by permission of Aboriginal-Greece.org © 2001-2006
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| Seated gods await to receive the new peplos, particular from Parthenon frieze, Slab IV. Copyright: Thomas Sakoulas, Ancient-Greece.org Used by permission of Ancient-Hellenic republic.org © 2001-2006 |
The frieze tells the story of the Great Panatheniac procession- a major parade, festival and games that took place in Athens every four years. (Each year a smaller issue called the Lesser Panathenaea too celebrated the birthday of the goddess.) On each occasion, a new peplos (robe), woven by selected maidens would be presented to the goddess, who was besides the patroness of weaving. The frieze tells the story of the marshalling of the parade, depicted on the western end, the parade participants (musicians, horsemen, priests, maidens with offerings, sacrificial animals, etc.) winding around both sides of the building, heading east. On the eastern side, seated gods and goddesses and standing civic and religious leaders gather to receive the new garment and, naturally, to make speeches.
- The West Pediment. In that location are 2 triangular pediments, one on each narrow end of the structure, and these were commonly used on temples as a place within which to display sculptures appropriate to the nature of the building. The theme of the west pediment is the mythological competition between Athena and Poseidon to determine who should exist patron of the city. Each offered a souvenir, a saltwater spring from Poseidon symbolizing bounding main ability, and an olive tree from Athena. The people deemed the latter to be more practical. (Olives were a favorite food item and the oil was used in lamps, for cooking and in cosmetics as well as being a prime trading staple.) In this sculptural grouping, the key figures are Athena and her uncle, Poseidon. They occupy the central, high point of the triangle and various other participants are assembled on each side- Cecrops, half-homo, half-snake founder and offset rex of Athens, Erechtheus, the second king, various water divinities, Hermes, Iris, etc.
- The E Pediment. This grouping of sculptures was in the most advantageous location to be seen and appreciated past anyone budgeted the temple via the usual route. Appropriately, the theme dealt with the birth of Athena, which took place in the presence of the other gods and goddesses. The story is well-known. Zeus had developed a splitting headache and great pressure level in his caput, for which he could notice no relief. He ordered his son, Hephaistos, to strike him across the caput with his axe, to relieve his symptoms. From that opening sprang a fully-grown Athena, dressed in complete battle regalia. Instead of the wail of a new-built-in baby observers heard the sound of a battle cry. The sculptural setting commemorates the event in stone. A seated Zeus fittingly occupies center stage with key players Athena and Hephaistos, while other deities take in the miraculous occasion.
- The Metopes. The Parthenon actually had two friezes. One, already described, ran around the exterior of the Cella. The 2d, which encircled the exterior of the edifice, just underneath the roof overhang, is a typical Doric frieze with alternating triglyphs and metopes. (The triglyph is a projecting block featuring two vertical, parallel glyphs or grooves. It is about 2/3rds the width of a metope and it alternates with the metopes for the length of the frieze. On the Parthenon in that location are 92 metopes (32 on each side and 14 on each end), each roughly i.20 meters (48" square).
The metopes on the Parthenon substantially exceed the usual temple standard for such embellishment. Each metope on the Parthenon is decorated, carved in high relief to the bespeak that in some examples information technology is akin to sculpture in the round. Each side of the building had its own story to tell:
- On the W. (Amazonomachy). This end depicts a battle between the Greeks and the Amazons. According to Greek mythology, the Amazons were a disagreeable tribe of women descended from Ares, the god of war. Heracles came into conflict with the tribe in the class of doing his twelve labours. Symbolically this boxing, and the others shown, symbolized the defeat of the barbarians (the Persians) by civilization ( the Greeks)
- On the East. (Gigantomachy). This end portrays the mythical battle between the Giants and the gods for the command of Mount Olympus.
- On the North. (Trojan War). The subject field on this side is the Trojan War, a favorite topic for illustrations for temples too as vase paintings.
- On the Due south (Centauromachy). Different the sculptural groupings on the other three sides that were all badly defaced and disfigured past early Christians, for some unknown reason, the Due south escaped that fate. Depicted is the mythical battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs where the drunken Centaurs, who had been invited to the Lapith hymeneals party, tried to make off with the Lapith women.
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| Athena: 40 feet tall, this tower of ivory and golden price even more than the building which housed it. Courtesy MacGillivray Freeman Films |
The chryselephantine statue of Athena. This was a huge piece of work of art by any standard, at to the lowest degree xl feet (12 meters) in height, a formidable figure in gilded and ivory with gems for optics and outfitted with her total panoply of weapons and symbols. (Chryselephantine comes from the give-and-take chryso (gilded) and elephantine (ivory). Information technology was a standard technique of the Greek Classical menstruation whereby beaten gold for clothing and ivory for mankind was attached to a wooden armature or core. Information technology is estimated that the gold on the statue lone was worth many millions of dollars. According to early Greek writers, the tyrant Lachares later stripped the goddess of her gold and used it to pay his ground forces. It was said that the statue was afterwards supplied with a coat of gilt by mode of replacement.
The figure of Winged Victory- "Nike"- held in the right hand of Athena was six feet tall. In her left paw she supports both a spear and her shield. Entwined inside the shield is a ophidian representing Erechtheus, an early rex of Athens, son of the world goddess Gaia but who was raised by Athena.
After the Parthenon project was completed Phideas went on to build an fifty-fifty larger and more renowned sculpture, that of the god Zeus, at Olympia. That became one of the 7 wonders of the ancient earth, and the model for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. What happened to the Athena sculpture? It was taken to Constantinople by the Byzantines by the fifth Century AD. Then, no one is sure when, it disappeared.
The dream of Pericles, that the Parthenon would be an imperishable symbol of the greatness of Athens and of the inevitable triumph of civilisation over the forces of atrocity, was short-lived. The last of the sculptural ornaments was completed in 432 BC but simply three years later Pericles and many of his fellow citizens succumbed to a horrific plague that devastated Athens.
The Parthenon served as a temple to Athena for almost a millennium. And then, in the half dozenthh Century Advert, Christian monks from the Greek Orthodox Church took over the building which became known every bit the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia). The zealous Christians smashed or defaced a number of the sculptures that they felt were pagan or secular and they fabricated minor alterations to the compages. 700 years passed.
In 1204 the French (Franks) invaded Athens and took over control of the Parthenon, renaming it Notre Dame d'Athenes (Our Lady of Athens). Information technology was now a Cosmic church building. By 1458 Athens was overrun by the Turks who promptly converted the aboriginal Greek temple into an Islamic mosque, consummate with minaret. The Turkish governor took over the adjacent Erechtheum (the temple which features caryatids, draped female figures, in lieu of columns), in which to accommodate his harem. In 1687 the Venetians, who were warring against the Turks, bombarded the Parthenon with mortar and cannon fire. The Turks had felt so confident that the Venetians would non set on this venerable religious building that their women and children were sheltered inside- along with their stores of gunpowder. 300 people and 28 of the Parthenon's columns were destroyed in a massive explosion.
The next person to have a major impact on the Parthenon was Lord Elgin, a British statesman and administrator to Constantinople in 1801, who had obtained permission from Turkish authorities to brand drawings and plaster casts of the marvelous sculptures and to "take away any pieces of rock with inscriptions or figures". (Many pieces of sculpture shattered by the explosion still lay buried or half-cached on the Parthenon grounds.) Lord Elgin'south agents were non content for long in picking up broken pieces of sculpture. Soon they were prying pieces off the building and, later, using saws to remove the artwork in sizable chunks. In their defense, they would have been familiar with other destructive practices of the era. The Turks had used some of the Parthenon sculptures for target practice and had lopped the heads off a few figures within reach (likely Pericles among them). In addition, the Turks used whitewash to paint their buildings, which had sprung upwardly all effectually the Parthenon. Marble, when burned, produces lime and lime mixed with water makes whitewash. It was a recipe that would outcome in the devastation of both cleaved and complete marble statuary in Athens and elsewhere.
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| Horsemen in the Panatheniac procession, Parthenon frieze, Slab XIXX detail. Copyright: Thomas Sakoulas, Ancient-Greece.org Used by permission of Aboriginal-Greece.org © 2001-2006 |
Today the remains of the Parthenon, the bleached bones of what was one time an architectural masterpiece for the ages, provide mute testimony to the celebrity that was ancient Greece. The artworks that once adorned the marble walls can be institute, in bits and pieces nevertheless clinging to the remnants of the ancient temple or scattered amongst the world'southward leading museums in Athens, London, Paris, Munich, Rome, Copenhagen, Vienna, etc. In at to the lowest degree one case a marble sculpture taken from the temple was cleaved apart and pieces of it can be found in three major cities. Hellenic republic has petitioned Britain numerous times seeking the return of the Parthenon marbles from London (which has near 50% of the sculptures), maintaining that the Turks had no right to distribute them to anyone. Britain has refused, saying the collection was legally acquired from the Regime then in power and they have no intention of returning anything. And there the matter rests.
Source: https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/greece/gr1130e.html
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