Topic
Doric order
About: Doric order is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 21 publications have been published within this topic receiving 124 citations. The topic is also known as: Doric.
Papers
TL;DR: A growing number of scholars have challenged the Vitruvian consensus, whether by tracing the Doric frieze back to Mycenae, Egypt, the Orient and idioms of pattern making in Geometric art, or by arguing for symbolic modes of interpretation as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The standard wisdom on the origins of the Doric order revolves around the doctrine of petrification, by which a previously established timber vocabulary came to be perpetuated in stone once society acquired the means to build in this material. While the petrification doctrine takes its authority from the Roman architect-writer Vitruvius, and finds support from parallel processes observable elsewhere in the world, it none the less copes inadequately with the archaeological realities of Greece in the late Geometric and early Archaic periods. In particular, the form, size, and placement of the triglyphs in the frieze are not necessarily demanded by the logic of timber construction and the configuration of early temple superstructures. A growing number of scholars accordingly challenge the Vitruvian consensus, whether by tracing the Doric frieze back to Mycenae, Egypt, the Orient, and idioms of pattern making in Geometric art, or by arguing for symbolic modes of interpretation. After briefly reviewing these approaches, this paper presents connections between triglyphs and tripods, ritual objects of considerable significance for early Greek cultural and religious life. The formal characteristics of tripods and representations of tripods find echoes in the generic compositional structure of the triglyph. Depictions of multiple tripods alternating with decorative motifs recall the rhythmical disposition of the triglyph and metope frieze, while certain small-scale details on bronze tripod legs find counterparts in non-canonic types of triglyph. The concluding section initiates a debate over the explanation for these affinities by exploring the significance of the tripod and its many associations: as aristocratic gift with heroic overtones, as agonistic prize, as oracular instrument, as Apolline symbol, as the Greeks' ultimate votive offering. Some of these themes can strike chords with Greek temples, so there thus emerges the possibility that the triglyph frieze was invented to articulate visually the programmatic concerns of their builders.
36 citations
TL;DR: The Temple of Zeus at Akragas is poorly preserved and imperfectly known as discussed by the authors, and its dimensions and the principles which might have determined the anomalous arrangement of the columns are unknown.
Abstract: The Temple of Zeus at Akragas is poorly preserved and imperfectly known. This article offers an analysis of its dimensions and of the principles which might have determined the anomalous arrangement of the columns. Suggestions are made for the interior plan and for the roofing of the structure, which probably included an hypaethral section in the center. Pythagorean beliefs and number theories may have influenced the shaping of this unusual temple. Among Doric temples the Olympieion of Akragas stands apart.1 Anomalous in scale and architectural form, the building seems intended to set forth a radical solution to the problem of Doric design. In size it was the largest temple in Sicily and the largest ever attempted anywhere in the Doric order. The strange design (ill. i) transforms the anticipated peristyle into a perimeter wall, creating interior spaces of unprecedented vastness. The order is treated with great freedom, with regard both to its structure and to the inclusion of non-Doric elements, some Ionic in origin and others unique. The temple bore the only major pedimental sculptures in Sicily, now almost entirely lost, and it incorporated into its design a series of colossal male figures, or Atlantes, which for more than a century have provoked debate as to their function and
30 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors pay close attention to architectural decoration in King Herod's construction projects and offer a renewed perspective on Herod's use of monumental display to situate his own kingdom within the empire.
Abstract: This paper pays close attention to architectural decoration in King Herod's construction projects and offers a renewed perspective on Herod's use of monumental display to situate his own kingdom within the empire. His increased reliance on the Corinthian rather than the Doric order, for example, appears to reflect Augustus's choice of the Corinthian order as representing the new Roman taste. His introduction into local architecture of particularly Roman architectural elements, such as the stucco ceilings of the “coffer-style” and the console cornice, moreover, transformed the adornment of buildings throughout Judaea. The recently discovered mausoleum in Herodium identified by its excavators as Herod's tomb exemplifies how these new Roman trends were incorporated into the local Hellenistic architectural tradition. I suggest that Herod's decorative program influenced the tastes of many of his subjects; the architectural decoration in cities such as Jerusalem demonstrates how the innovations introduced by He...
13 citations
TL;DR: Many authorities on ancient Greek architecture state that during the fourth century B.C. the Doric order was in a decline, and that by the Hellenistic period it was virtually abandoned for temples as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Many authorities on ancient Greek architecture state that during the fourth century B.C. the Doric order was in a decline, and that by the Hellenistic period it was virtually abandoned for temples. The archaeological evidence, it is argued, seems to bear this out. Doric temples were built during this period, but they can be dismissed, for instance by Dinsmoor (Architecture of Ancient Greece 267) as ‘for the most part imitations of earlier works, and completion of earlier undertakings, together with a few sporadic but minor structures in which the style was adopted for conservative reasons’. It is clear, however, that the objection was not against the Doric order as such, since it was employed in all Greek areas to the virtual exclusion of the other orders (at any rate externally) in such buildings as stoas, of which large numbers were constructed during this period. We are to suppose, therefore, that it was only for temples that the other orders, Ionic and Corinthian, were considered superior to Doric, and that it was this belief that led to the decline and eventual abandoning of the Doric order. Since Vitruvius (iv 3.1) refers to statements by certain distinguished architects of the period to the effect that Doric was not suitable for temples, it would seem that the case is proved; moreover we are given the causes of this revulsion, quod mendosae et disconvenientes in his symmetriae conficiebantur, and more specifically, quod impedita est distributio et incommoda in opere triglyphorum et lacunariorum. The problems caused by the corner triglyphs in Doric buildings have been admirably expounded by Professor Robertson, and it is not my purpose to discuss them further. I intend instead to discuss whether their effects, during the Hellenistic period, were quite as catastrophic as have been thought.
13 citations
TL;DR: The column number ratio was used as the ratio for the stylobate of some of the earliest stone temples and it was later applied to the krepis for the great majority of temples constructed from c. 535 and c. 320 as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: During the fifth century B.C., Greek architects perfected a method for designing Doric peripteral temples, and this procedure was used for most temples constructed during the second half of the century in mainland Greece and in its colonies. This procedure had to be determined in order to see how it was adapted to design the Parthenon. Minor modifications enabled the architects of the Parthenon to achieve greater commensurability than for any other Doric temple (Fig. 1). To lay foundations for a Doric temple, an architect needed to know the number of columns and the overall length. Since nearly all peripteral temples of the Doric Order have six columns on their fronts, the first decision which ordinarily needed to be made was how many columns would be used on the sides, and for hexastyle temples this ranged from ten to sixteen columns. The ratio of the number of columns on the fronts to the number on the sides determined the overall form and was the single most important ratio which had to be selected. The column number ratio was reused as the ratio for the stylobate of some of the earliest stone temples (Table 1, column 2; Table 2, column 6), and it was later applied to the krepis. It was used as the ratio of the krepis for the great majority of temples constructed from c. 535 and c. 320 (Table 1, column 1; Table 2, column 4).
9 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2017 | 1 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2013 | 1 |