Lecture 2.4 – Aesthetics and Design 1
Venustas (Taj Mahal)
Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2007
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Are both of these buildings beautiful?? Their various different types, flavors are so different
Soldiers and Artists
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Maximum, Gladiator vs. Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus
Rome’s identity myth: “farmers and soldiers”
Greeks identity: art, etc.
o Zeuxis vs. Parrhasisus: art as competition, who could produce the most life like painting
Rome had conquered “sophisticated” Greeks
o Greeks changed cause the Romans really were awesome
Greek Cultural Legacy
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Architecture and art: over 500 years of tradition
Spoils from conqurered cities (lots of Greek conquered cities) brought to Rome… so now Rome
has tons of Greek stuff
Roman sculptures were of the way the person was, his fighting and sacrifice, usually at the end
of the life whereas Greeks idealilzed a beautiful person
Imperial art: incorporates Greek aesthetic
The Greek Temple
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Vitruvious wrote so many of his books about this building
Peripteral Temple: a 600+ year old building type
Iktinos and Kallkrates, Parthenon, Athens, Greece, 447-438 BCE
Embodies Greek culture and identity: “civiliazation”
Knowing how to build one of these = knowing how to build
More than a useful model: Vitruvius’ aesthetic ideal
Three styles of temples with est. vocab of parts
The Three “Orders”
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Vitruvius’ most famous division of temples = by “order”
Doric, ionic, Corinthian: identify each visually, know:
o Column: capital, volute, base, shaft, flute, abacus
o Stylobate: temple’s main “floor”
o Entablature: horizontal “beam” above columns
o Pediment: triangular space at roof gable
o Entasis: slight bulge in column shaft
Doric Temples
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“Doric” vs. “Ionic”: geographic and ethnic labels
Doric: most simple, austere of Greek styles
Surviving examples: show design evolution
o Temple of Hera I
o Temple of Athena
o Parthenon
o Temple of Hera II
Ionic Temples
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Developed in Eastern Greece (Western Anatolia)
Slender, ornate: column bases, volutes, sculptured frieze
Kallkrates, Temple of Athena Nike, Athens, Greece, 427 BCE
Ionic column from Temple of Artemis, Sardis, 4th ce. BCE
Became more popular in late 5th ce. BCE until Roman era
Vitruvius’ favorite: discusses at greatest length
Corinthian Columns
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“Maison Carree”, Nimes, France, ca. 15 BCE
Variant of ionic with taller, more ornate foliate capital
Vitruvius: sculptor inspired by basket on girl’s grave
Greeks used decoratively; Romans use architecturally
Tuscan Temples
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Vitruvius describes Tuscan (Etruscan) native Italic Temple
Materials: wood, terra-cotta, mud brick (perishable)
Layout: podium, frontal orientation, 3 side-by-side rooms
Vitruvius and the Orders
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Vitruvius: Greek styles are beautiful, universal
Aesthetic legitimacy: defined in “natural” terms
Anthropomorphic: analogue to the human body
o Entasis expresses elastic response to load
o Gendered= part of “propriety” (matched to gods)
o Fluting, volutes “symbolize” female dress and hair
o Column proportions began as foot/height ratio
Proportion and the column
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Column diameter: basic module for the entire building
Hintz Family Alumni Center, PSU
Basic proportional relationships in orders:
o Column diameter to column height
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Space between columns
Proportion and Beauty
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Vitruvius’ design goals: order, eurythmy, symmetry
III. 1: “Principles of Symmetry”= proportion
All design measurements from a common module
How parts of building relate to the whole
Why?
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Proper proportions create beauty through harmony
Pythagorean legacy: nature’s fundamental structure = simple ratios, perfect geometry, harmonic
proportions
Beauty: reflection of perfect mathematical structure
Absolute Perfection?
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Proportion: makes beauty objective, quantifiable
Reality or myth: scientific fact or cultural variable? Symmetrical faces are the prettiest