Which era....? (1 Viewer)

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

MINE is definitely the best art - of all time :)

But seriously... I couldn't name any specific era where the art or architecture excelled more than another. There's always been 'good' and 'bad' of each, no matter the style of the time - and everyone has a different opinion on what fits into each category!
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' as the saying goes...
 
Last edited:
I'm gonna halfta go with anchient Greece Bob for 469 silver talents (one talent was the cost of an entire tireme, the annual gross income of the city of Athens at the time of Perikles was 1000 talents, with another 6000 in reserve at its treasury.)
IMHO the Parthenon is one of the most beautiful buildings ever designed or built with human perception in mind. All temples in Greece were designed to be seen only from the outside. The viewers never entered a temple and could only glimpse the interior statues through the open doors. Basically a Doric Temple in which many Ionic elements were incorporated. While the integration of Doric and Ionic elements on the same temple was not a new development in Greek architecture, it was rare.
There are no absolute straight lines on the Parthenon. The columns of the peristyle taper on a slight arc as they reach the top of the building giving the impression that they are burdened by the weight of the roof.
The peristyle columns are over ten meters tall, and incline slightly towards the center of the building at the top (about 7 cm), while the platform upon which they rest bows on a gentle arc which brings the corners about 12 cm closer to the ground than the middle.
The columns that appear at the corners of the temple are 1/40th (about 6 cm) larger in diameter than all the other columns, while they the space around them is smaller than the rest of the columns by about 25 cm. The reason for this slight adaptation of the corner columns is due to the fact that they are set against the bright sky, which would make them appear a little thinner and a little further apart than the columns set against the darker background of the building wall. The increase in size and decrease of space thus compensates for the illusion that the bright background would normally cause.
•Year Built: 447-432 BC
•Precise Dimensions:
◦Width East: 30.875 m
◦Width West: 30.8835 m
◦Length North: 69.5151 m
◦Length South: 69.5115 m
•Width to length Ratio: 9:4
◦Width to height Ratio (without the Pediments): 9:4
•Number of stones used to built the Parthenon: Approximated at 13400 stones.
•Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates
•Parthenon Cost: 469 talents
 

Attachments

  • The_Parthenon_in_Athens.jpg
    The_Parthenon_in_Athens.jpg
    106.3 KB · Views: 533
Last edited:
After 2,500 years of war, pollution, erratic conservation, pillage and vandalism it's pristine. A 1:1 model is located in Nashville and includes a 42ft tall 1:1 model of Athena as in the orginal Temple
 

Attachments

  • AthenaGilded.jpg
    AthenaGilded.jpg
    28.4 KB · Views: 219
  • Parthenon-Dusk.jpg
    Parthenon-Dusk.jpg
    40 KB · Views: 251
Last edited:
My favourite period of architecture is Norman Sicily, this is something I know a fair bit about - unlike the fine details of WW2 fighters ;)

12th Century Sicily was more like a gateway to eastern culture, and King Roger II used Byzantine, Islamic and Christian influences in his monasteries. It's often named the leading state in the 'medieval renaissance' and some argue it influenced the structure of the state here in England. The art of the period, from around 1100 to the 13th and 14th centuries is truly amazing, and the level of craftmanship in mosaic superior to any of the time.

palermo.jpg


Palatine-Chapel-Capella-Palatina-Pictures-Images-Photos-PWP55441.jpg


Palatine-Chapel-Capella-Palatina-Pictures-Images-Photos-PWP55431.jpg


Should really answer the question, but I'm just gonna say the upper medieval period on the broader side of things. Kingdom of Sicily as a more specific area :)
 
Last edited:
So, that 1:1 model. The box the kit came in would, I think, be representative of later 20th Century cubism, in it's basic form, symbolising the simplicity of man as He has evolved.
Does that sound like the usual b*ll*cks spouted by the average art critic?
Good post a great pics Alex.
 
I wasn't even aware of the Norman influence in Sicily. Only ever been there once, at the very southern end - at night, by parachute, on an exercise!
 
They're actually rebuilding the temples on the Acropolis...it was incredible to be there, the downside is they had cranes and scaffolding all over the place...

Hard to nail down a single period, but I would say the architecture of late classical Greece and early to mid Imperial Rome. Then jump to the late Victorian through the late 1930's.

A special nod to the ancient Imperial Chinese architecture, especially during the Tang Dynasty.
 
The Parthenon still strikes me as one of the most amazing human structures ever built. It is made for humans to LOOK at. The building is distorted in such a way as to appear, to humans, as being straight and plumb. The designers knew that a truely straight plumb structure would APPEAR distorted. So, amazingly, there is not one single straight line in the entire structure, yet it APPEARS perfect. Cutting and fitting stone is one thing but to distort in such a way as to appear undistorted is a totally different proposition
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back