Comparing Greek and Gothic Architecture
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In todays world, people drive through cities looking at tall skyscrapers, huge sports arenas, and many other types of buildings, and think nothing of it. This was not always the case. With the technology and equipment of current times, architectural projects are not even close to being as hard to complete as they were hundreds of years ago, when there was hardly any technology. Greece is an excellent example of architecture hundreds of years ago. When one thinks of Greek architecture, he or she thinks of white pillars, temples, and open air theatres. Some of these are still standing to this day, which is incredible when one thinks of how these were constructed. Another great example is from the gothic and late middle ages. This time period is most famous for the building of many cathedrals for the Christian church. These cathedrals are amazing works of architecture and took hundreds of years to construct. These took such a long time to build for similar reasons that the Greek architecture took so long, and that is because there was no technology to speed the process. There are several similarities between these two time periods; some are very obvious and some, not.
The most common and well-known type of Greek architecture is a temple. Temples were very important because religion was an extremely important value of life in Greek culture. Temples do not serve the same function as a Christian church or Cathedral. They were made to be a sacred place for a statue of the god or goddess. Also in these temples were valuable possessions associated with the god or goddess to whom the temple was dedicated. If one were to choose to leave offerings for the god or goddess, the temple was the place to do so. People would leave things such as helmets, statues, or weapons.
One of the most famous of all the temples is the Parthenon. This temple was created for the Greek goddess Athena. It was built by Pericles with money that was supposed to be used for the defense of Athens. The construction of this temple began in 447 B.C. and was completed in 438 B.C. The Parthenon is the only Acropolis building that was actually completed. The rest were not able to be finished due to the Peloponnesian War. The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates, and Phidias was in charge of sculptural decoration. Phidias made the statue of Athena that is inside the Parthenon. The Parthenon actually replaced a temple of Athena that had been torn down in the Persian invasion, which took place in 480 B.C. This temple was unique, in that it had many uses over time. At first, like most temples, it was used as a treasury to store precious items. It was then turned into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In the 1460s, the Ottoman conquest resulted in the temple being turned into a mosque for Islamic worship. After this, there was an explosion in the Parthenon, and it was severely damaged. Sculptures, known as the Elgin Marbles, were then removed to try and keep them preserved. These sculptures eventually ended up in the British Museum in 1816. To this day they are still displayed there. The Greek government has been trying to retrieve them still, but it has not succeeded. Today, the Parthenon is a very popular tourist attraction in Greece. Where it sits on the Athenian Acropolis, it is beautifully lit and can be seen from quite a distance.
The Greeks also constructed many sculptures. These sculptures were usually made to depict battles, mythology, and rulers from ancient times in Greece. The main sculpture that the Greeks would construct is the human figure. Sculptures were carefully made to the proper proportions and scales. The goal was to make the sculptures look as much like an actual human as possible, which they succeeded in doing most of the time. The first statues that were constructed were made out of wood. None of these first wooden sculptures are around today, but they were thought to be images of the gods similar to the stone statues people would find in temples. There were many different statues made after these wooden ones. These were made out of stone. Many of these still survive to this day and are quite famous. Although many of them are not fully constructed because they have broken down over time, many people can still see that the figures were breathtaking works of art at one time.
There are several very popular sculptures created by Greek artists that all seem to have some similarities. This is definitely due to the time and influence of popular sculptures of that time. Most human sculptures were standing in a slight “S” curve. This “S” curve is achieved by making it