Greek Architecture Material & Techniques

GREEK ARCHITECTURE – MATERIAL & TECHNIQUES

3 Greek Orders – Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.

The ambition of the Greek architects was to discover eternally valid rules of form and proportion: to erect buildings human in scale yet suited to the divinity of their gods; to create in other words, a classically ideal architecture.

Their works have been copied on and off for some 2,500 years. Though severely damaged ‘The Parthenon’ remains the most nearly perfect building ever erected. (It’s influence stretches from the immediate followers of it’s architects to le Corbusier,a 20th Century architect who died in 1966)

Greek architecture was mainlyreligious and official. Whereas temples and the public buildings were magnificent, private houses seem to have been fairly simple, single-storey affairs, built of cheap materials.

Although the technique of constructing arches was known to Greeks and the materials used for building temples after the 6th Century B.C. were normally stone or marble, their architecture was TRABEATED, (constructed on the post and lintel, horizontal beam or stone bridging an opening principle) and preserved many of the techniques of wooden construction. A deep respect for tradition led them to preserve as decorative elements in their stone buildings many of the constructional elements of wooden ones (e.g. Triglyphs).

The Greeks derived much from other Mediterranean civilizations – the plan of the temple from Asia Minor or Mycene, the columnar form from Egypt. But the Doric temple form evolved in the late 7th Century B.C. was original and typically Greek in it’s bold simplicity, limits of design and use of decoration to emphasise (never to mask) the structure.

The Ionic period pointed towards a new appreciation of architecture with its graceful Ionic capitals and wonderful Caryatids.

A desire for richer ornamentation was manifested by the Mausoleum at Halicarnasus (355-330 B.C.), a magnificent and stately tomb where the role of sculpture was greater than that of the architect.

Although the main Greek achievement was in the evolution of the Doric temple, many other religious buildings were of great beauty.

GREEK SCULPTURE

NOTES ON TECHNIQUE

Carving of Marble

This required much training and was expensive. The Greeks knew the Egyptian methods of drawing outlines onto four faces of the block (front, sides and back of the person, according to fixed proportions) and then chipping away.

The Greek sculptor would probably first trim down the block to a certain regular shape before drawing the four sides. Then, using a heavy punch on all sides, hewed off marble. The next stage would involve using finer punches and finally smoothing down uneven surfaces by abrasive processes, using files etc.

The kouroi type of sculptures, though far from realistic, are full of vitality due to the indentations produced by the punch and smother areas for skin.

Sculptures were painted, that is the pupils of the eyes, hair, lips were tinted and clothing was decorated.

By the middle 5th century B.C. (about 450 B.C.) more varied tools were introduced, including the drill, which bored deep into the marble. More realistic effects could be achieved. At this time preparatory work before carving is evident, especially for large schemes such as the Parthenon decoration.

Bronze Casting

This was a major technical innovation, allowing more complex sculptures. This sculptor first modelled in clay changing as he went along. Then the clay sculpture would have been covered with wax. Then a clay mould was put over the wax, strong enough to withstand the pressure of molten metal. It was held on with Iron rods. The wax was melted out, leaving a gap between the clay model core and the outer mould. Then molten bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) was poured into the gap to fill it. After setting and hardening, the mould was chipped away, the clay core removed, and the completed bronze figure was smoothed and finished. Later, bronze casting became more complex.

The advantage of bronze was its tensile strength. Statues could balance on no or slight supports, unlike marble statues, which break easily if not well–supported.