Ancient Architecture

Egyptian
3000 BC to Roman period
 Funerary Buildings –
 Created for Monarchs &
Nobles
 Stepped Design
 Granite, limestone, and
sandstone - Both sun-dried
and kiln-dried bricks were
used extensively
 Hieroglyphics were
decoration as well as
records of historic events.
 Egyptian

 Temples
 Columns/Colonnades (post &
lintel)
 First stone capital = papyrus
flower
 Nile floods deposit fine clay,
allowing ceramic arts to develop
early
 Sandstone, limestone, & granite
available for obelisks, sculpture,
and decorative uses. 
 Ramps – build on the way up,
decorate as it’s taken down
Mesopotamia –
Babylon, Assyria, Persia
 Planned city building,
cobblestone streets, and
architecture itself have their
beginnings here
 Mud brick on a raised plinth
(platform base)
 Walls are ornamented on the
outside with alternating
pilasters and recesses
 Flat roofs, supported on palm
trunks, (assumed)
Ziggurat
Mesopotamia

Saddam’s Palace

Ishtar Gate
Greek
 The temple is the best known
form of Greek architecture.
 These biggest and most
beautiful buildings reflect the
importance of religion.
 The political purpose - to
celebrate civic power and
pride.
 Beauty lies in ratios &
proportions = The Golden
Mean
The Greeks developed three architectural systems,
called orders, each with their own distinctive
proportions and detailing.
Doric Ionic Corinthian

The Doric style is sturdy
and the capital is plain.
This style was used in
mainland Greece and the
colonies in southern Italy
and Sicily.
The Ionic style is thinner
and more elegant. Its
capital is decorated with a
scroll-like design (a
volute). This style was
found in eastern Greece
and the islands.
The Corinthian style is
seldom used in the
Greek world, but often
seen on Roman temples.
Its capital is very
elaborate and decorated
with acanthus leaves.
Greek
 Buildings were usually a
cube or a rectangle made
from limestone which was
cut into large blocks.
 Marble was readily
available. It was used
mainly for sculptural
decoration, only used as
structural in the very
grandest buildings of the
Classical period.
Etruscans
700 B.C. – 280 B.C. (Fall of Rome)
 Palaces, public buildings,
and early temples made
of wood and brick, so
nothing remains.
 The Etruscans also built
aqueducts, bridges, and
sewers which were built
so well they still exist
today.
Etruscan

 Etruscans are credited

with the true stone
arch
 Etruscan architecture
was really the
beginning of Roman
architecture.
 Roman
 Roman art and
architecture shaped by
extensive borrowing, first
from Etruscans, then from
Greece.
 One architectural technique
that came into use by
experimentation was the
arch and vault.
 Roman
 To support the
tremendous weight of
the arches, it was
necessary to transmit
the force of gravity from
the top of massive piers
to the foundation of the
arch. The Romans
achieved this feat
through the use of the
Keystone block.
Roman
 Circular structures were
common as well,
exemplified by the
Temple of Vesta, the
Pantheon and the Castel
Sant'Angelo.
Roman
 The word "arena" is
Latin for sand. Sand
was spread across the
amphitheater fighting
floor to soak up blood.
Early Christian
 Early Christian builders
adapted structures that
had long been used in the
Hellenistic and Roman
worlds. (recycled
buildings)
 Adistinct emphasis was
placed on the centralized
plan, which was of round,
polygonal, or cruciform
shape.
Early Christian
 Developed from Roman
secular basilica
 Rectangular space
separated by two rows
of columns making a
nave and two side
aisles
 Separated clergy from
congregation
Byzantine
 A continuation of
Roman and early
Christian architecture.
 Eventually combined
architecture of the
near east, with the
Greek cross plan for
the churches.
Byzantine
 Brick replaced stone,
mosaics replaced
carved decoration,
and complex domes
were erected.
Ancient America - Mayan
 Monumental
construction
 Buildings erected on
platforms
 Upper walls decorated
with continuous frieze
 Lime stucco painted
vivid colors
Mayan
 Every day dwellings were rectangular
 Two doorways were placed directly opposite
each other to allow for the free flow of air.
Romanesque
 Romanesque is
characterized by a use of
round or slightly pointed
arches, barrel vaults,
cruciform piers supporting
vaults, and groin vaults.
 The great carved portals
and church facades
 Stone sculpture seems
reborn in the
Romanesque.
Romanesque
 Romanesque seems to have
been the first pan-European
style since Roman Imperial
Architecture and examples
are found in every part of the
continent. Merchants,
nobles, knights, artisans, and
peasants crossed Europe
and the Mediterranean world
for business, war, and
religious pilgrimages,
carrying their knowledge of
what buildings in different
places looked like.
 Gothic
 Originating in northern
France (Denis) in the
twelfth century, Gothic
spread rapidly across the
continent and England,
then invaded Scandinavia,
confronted the Byzantine
provinces.
 Made appearances, under
the aegis of crusader and
explorer in the Near East
and the Americas.
 By 1400 it had subsumed
many types of structures.
Gothic
 There is no fixed set of
proportions in the
parts, and no standard
relationship between
solid and void. The
result is a distortion.
Gothic
 Light, open and aerial.
 Emphasizes verticality
 Features almost skeletal stone
structures
 Great expanses of glass
(stained)
 Sharply pointed spires
 Flying butresses
 Ribbed vaults
 Pointed arches
 Inventive sculptural detail
Renaissance
 Rebirth of classical art
and learning
 Classical orders,
round arches, and
symmetrical
composition
 The golden mean
 Renaissance
 The ideals of art and
architecture became unified in
the acceptance of classical
antiquity and in the belief that
humanity was a measure of
the universe.
 The rebirth of classical
architecture, which took place
in Italy in the 15th century and
spread in the following century
through Western Europe,
terminated the supremacy of
the Gothic style.
Chinese
 Simple, rectangular,
low-silhouetted
buildings
 Stone and brick for
permanent structures
 Wooden frameworks
on platforms with
nonbearing screen
walls
India
 All surviving architecture is
stone
 Post and lintel, brackets
and corbels
 Rhythmical multiplication
of pilasters, cornices,
moldings, roofs, and finials
 Overgrowth of sculpture
decoration
Japanese
 Exclusively timber
 Strong Chinese
influence
 Pavilion structures
with nonbearing walls
 Tiled, hipped roofs are
widely projecting and
upward turning.
 Garden
References:
 http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-babylon.htm
 http://archnet.org/library/sites/
 www.earchinfo.com/architecture/egyptian.htm
 http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761554529/Renaissance_Art_and_A
rchitecture.html
 http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/meso/meso.htm
 http://www.greatbuildings.com/
 http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/etruscans.htm
 http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/art_history_lessons/greek_architect
ure.htm
 http://www.lookeducation.com/ancient-architecture-mesopotamia.html
 http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/worlds_intertwined/etruscan/architectu
re.shtml
 http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/orion/eng/hst/hist.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_architecture