Tuesday, October 15, 2013

It's all Greek.



     My older sister went to the University of Delaware for Art History. During her time there, she was able to take Art History I in Greece. All the pictures are from her trip. The top picture is of the top of a Corinthian Column from the Basilica of St. Titus. Pictured on the right, in Gortyn, Greece, are the remains of the basilica. It is believed that Titus was sent by Paul to go and minister to the people in Gortyn and that he preached in this building.   Archeologists have found, from the ruins, that the structures from Gortyn were comprised of different time periods such as Minoan, Hellenistic, and Roman buildings. 
  This other temple, on the left, is The Temple of Hephaestus. It was built around the same time as the Parthenon. In fact, on a side note, the Parthenon should be in the same kind of condition as this one, if it wasn't used as a Mosque, Church and an ammunition dump. This is one of the last complete surviving temples left.  It was still being used as a temple until at some point in the early christian era it was used as a church. Then in 1834 Otto I designated it to be used at a museum. In 1934 it was decommissioned as a museum and returned to it's status as a monument.  If you look close you will see that there are Doric Columns on the temple. 
   I find Greek architecture so interesting.  Especially the Corinthian columns. The intricacy of the carving they did is so fascinating and mesmerizing.  I have always, also, been interested in Greek history and art as well as their mythology.  It was thrilling getting to see the sculptures that were in the pediment of the Parthenon when I went to the British Museum in London.

4 comments:

  1. It is believed that this was the worship place for the first bishop of Crete who was martyred. This is considered his burial grounds.

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  2. That's really cool that your sister had the opportunity to see all of the pieces and buildings that we have learned about in class, in person. My favorite picture of all of these is definitely the piece of the corinthian column. I can see the stylized details that make that column corinthian such as the floral decorations.

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  3. This is actually quite unique, Drew. I can clearly see how they all used a one-of-a-kind way that they chose to do their styling/various uses of techniques which can be clearly seen throughout all of these artworks. These are still standing in Greece like the Parthenon (pg.129) that can be found right in our class textbooks.

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  4. the arches in the 2nd picture are really awesome, especially how there's a big center one and ones perpendicular and off to the side. that the arches are still standing even though some walls are in ruins is a testament to how well the greeks built them, and the strength of an arch in general

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