Etruscans and Roman Architecture
Etruscans exploited their resources in trade with Greece and with other people of the eastern Mediterranean. Etruscan artists brought inspiration from Greek and near Eastern art, incorporating such influence to create a unique Etruscan style. In architecture they established patterns of buildings that would be adopted later by the Romans. Cities were laid out on grid plans, like cities in Egypt and Greece but more frequently. Buildings were designed around an open courtyard that was open to the sky, with a pool or a reservoir fed by rainfall. Walls with protective gates and towers surrounded Etruscans cities. The city gate of Perugia called the Porta Agusta in one of the few surviving examples of Etruscan monumental
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Like the Etruscans, the Romans built urban temples in commercial centers as well as in special sanctuaries. An early example would be a small rectangular temple standing on a raised platform beside the Tiber River in Rome. This was probably from the second century BCE and dedicated to Portunus, the god of harbors and ports. This temple used the Etruscan system of a rectangular cella and front porch at one end reached by a large passage of steps, but the Roman architecture have adopted the Greek Ionic order, with full columns on the porch and half columns set into the walls around the exterior walls of the cella. The overall effect resembles a Greek temple, but there are two major differences. First, Roman architects modernized the shape of the column from its post and lintel structural line and engaged it onto the exterior of the wall as a decorative feature. Second, while a Greek temple want viewers to walk around the building and look at its well designed features, Roman temples are defined in relation to interior spaces, which visitors are invited to enter through one opening. The Romans adopted the Greek Ionic order with full columns. The round arch wasn’t an Etruscan or Roman invention, but the Etruscans and Romans were the first to make widespread use of it both as an efficient structural idea and a well-designed pattern. Round arches move most of their weight or downward force along …show more content…
They were believed to be centered on the Southern Gulf coast of Mexico, which are today the states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The earliest Olmec ceremonial center at San Loremzo, was built at the top of a large barrier, three quarters of a mile long, with a stone drainage system running right through the mound. Another center, at La Venta, was built on high ground between rivers. The La Venta buildings are placed symmetrically along a north-south axis with four colossal heads facing outwards at key points, seemingly acting as guardians to the complex. It is at the south end of a large, open plaza aligned by long, low earth mounds. The Great Pyramid is the most well-known trait that’s on an earth mound and rises to a height of 100 feet. “A huge ceremonial step pyramid (now a shapeless mound), sunken plaza once lined with 2 meters high basalt columns, and two smaller pyramids/mounds provide features that would be copied time and again at the major sites of later Mesoamerican cultures with whom equal attention was paid to the precise alignment of buildings. La Venta, as with San Lorenzo, suffered systematic and deliberate destruction of its monuments sometime between 400 and 300 BCE.”
Rome had many architectural buildings that we know of today. Many Roman building ways were copied right from how the greek people use to do theirs. Though they copied Greek style, they came up with their own style. They used many arches, some arches were used to show the wealth of a person, the fancier, the wealthier. Roman people made aqueducts. Aqueducts were able to bring the city of Rome, running water. One of the most famous aqueducts would be the Pont Du Gard, it ran for thirty miles and supplies twenty thousand gallons of water to th...
The Newport Coast structure is clearly a representation of Roman architecture in general, but more specifically, the sturdy columns and enlarged entablatures are reminiscent of the Tuscan order. Although the simplified columns may at first glance appear to be rather doric in their style, upon closer inspection they prove to be more similar to the less renowned Tuscan order. This in fact, does not diminish the influence the doric temples of Greek architecture had on the Etruscan invention of the Tuscan temple, but rather demonstrates yet again how one culture can inspire another artistically. The Tuscan order refers to "the variation that resembles the doric order, with an unfluted shaft and a simplified base, capital, and entablature" (Stokstad, 227). Like architecture of the Tuscan order, the Newport Coast structure's entablature is very plain and geometric in its form. The Tuscan order was originally used by the Etruscans around the time of 700-509 BCE and was later adopted by the Romans. Even though the Newport Coast structure and the Tuscan temple function differently in terms of public use, for the Tuscan temple was used by the Etruscans for religious purposes, their appearances prove to be strikingly similar.
Most notably in Mesoamerica are the colossal Olmec heads. These heads are carved of basalt, weigh about ten tons and are between six and ten feet tall. What makes them notable is that the nearest source of basalt for the Olmecs was 60 miles away in the Tuxtla Mountains. In Peru, South America, the Nasca culture drew over 800 miles of complex lines on the top of the Nasca Plain. The creators of these networks made these lines by removing the dark top layer of stones to expose the light clay and calcite layer below. Art historians are unsure what these lines were for or even how these ancient peoples could create such seemingly perfect straight lines for such a distance. In the North American cultures, burial and effigy mounds were very common. The Serpent Mound in modern day Ohio was created by the Mississippian Culture, also well known for Monk’s Mound in Illinois. Unlike Monk’s Mound however, Serpent Mound was not for burial nor religious practices. Therefor the purpose for this mound is unknown, though some have hypothesized that the curves of the mound could be replicating the path of Halley’s Comet in
Thousands of years ago, Greek and Roman architects created rectangular-shaped buildings supported by huge, marble columns. For example, the Parthenon has forty six outer columns and twenty three inner columns. All of these columns come at a price. There is less space in the building and the views through the building are obstructed by the columns. It was not until about 100 A.D that that the Romans did a little experiment with a new concept, arches. These Roman scientists discovered that when you put them together, they form a circular dome. This concept caught on quickly as many ancient architects began to build “domes”. They found that making a dome created more space because there were no columns involved. Without the columns, the arches provided unobstructed space that is more appealing to those u...
The Etruscans are located in Italy. Their alphabets came from the Greeks and they were also influenced by the Greeks, learning about them through Rome. Getting inspiration from the Greeks, the Etruscans temples are made of stone, “is rectangular, has raised podium, and has a peaked roof.” Some were created in columns of Tuscan order. But the Etruscans temples differ from the Greeks also. “The Etruscan temple has steps on only one side, whereas the Greek temple has steps on all four sides. The Etruscan temple has a deep front porch, occupying much more of the platform than is occupied by the porch of a Greek temple. And the cella (enclosed part) of the Etruscan temple is divided into three rooms, further differing from the Greek temple plan.”
Grecian architecture formed its own conventions in the ancient world, buildings in Greece were built with meticulous mathematic design. Great buildings were believed to be symmetrical, and perfectly proportioned [Document 7]. Another prominent aspect of ancient Greek architecture is the extensive use of columns. There were three basic types used, Doric which were plain capitals, ionic in which the capitals were fashioned after ram’s horns, and Corinthian which were made to mirror acanthus leaves.
temple to all the Roman gods. Both buildings used a classical style – with columns, symmetry,
Of the well-known Etruscan cities, the majority are virtually unexplored, and some of them are now buried underneath new towns that arose before the archaeologists could find out where these cities were. Others have been found by accident and had only a brief and limited excavation time. There are seven major centres in the Etruscan territory. They were: Tarquinii, Caere, Vulci, Vetulonia, Volaterrae, Clusium and Veii. Tarquinii was the first Etruscan centre to respond to an external desire for its metals by completing the process of urbanization.
The Olmecs are the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization. Around 1200 B.C. the Olmecs originated as a primitive people living and farming on the shores of Mexico (Stanton 91). Soon, however, they began to build cities such as San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Monte Alban. These “cities” were religious centers where people gathered to worship, and were not populated (Stanton 91). The first of these centers, San Lorenzo, was built c. 1150 B.C., on a flat topped, man-made mountain. It was mysteriously abandoned 200 years later (Stanton 92-93). La Venta, built between 1000 and 600 B.C., sat on an island in a swamp (Stanton 93). Later, around 500 B.C., Monte Alban, which was used as a religious center even after the Olmecs faded, was built on an immense mountain (Stanton 93). The cities were made up of temples and plazas, and decorated by monumental stone heads, which weighed up to 50 tons (Stanton 93)! These heads probably represented their early kings and had distinct helmets (Kingfisher 32). It is incredible how the Olmec people transported the stone from the distant mountains to La Venta, near the shore, without the aid of work animals or carts. It appears that the Olmecs did this grueling work for their gods willingly, as there is no evidence of forced labor (Stanton 93). The Olmecs probably worshipped the jaguar, as it appears so often in their artwork. There are also many e...
One of the most well known ides was columns, columns were used outside grand buildings such as temples, and coliseums. There is three types of columns, the first of which being doric columns, they are very plain and were used for the most simplest of buildings. Coming in at number two is Ionic columns they were slightly fancier with curls of marble near the top of the columns unlike doric which were flat. Lastly there is Corinthian columns, they were used for the most exquisite of buildings having carved marble tops with beautiful designs. In addition to columns we also received the idea of slanted roofs from the Romans. Before the romans most houses and buildings had flat roofs. We also received the usual design of things like churches from the Greeks and Romans. In the world today most churches or religious holy places you enter are very large and open and have very high ceilings, this is because we got the idea from the Greek and Roman temples to their Gods. These temples were usually made for prayer to a specific God and would have depictions of that God and large columns and very high ceilings showing their importance, somewhat like most civilizations have some type of monumental building such as ziggurats and the
The Romans also saw a need for well-planned cities. They used the same basic layout as they would for an army encampment. Water would flow into a cistern through the aqueducts to be dispersed in the cities plumbing. The cities were laid out in small sections, each section having its own fountain. The wealthy citizens would have also had hot and cold running water. The Romans also made sure that the streets could accommodate heavy traffic. By allowing for extra traffic the Roman army could move through a city more easily and it allowed for future expansion.
The end of the Geometric period resulted in the beginning of the Orientalizing Period, dated between 700-600 BC. Within this time frame, Greek introduced a new innovation, the Peripteral Temple. For many years prior, a row of colonnade was used on the interior primarily to hold up the roof of the building. In contrast, columns are seen being used on the outside, creating a visual wall around the building exposing parts of the interior. With in the temple existed the megaron style, carried forward from Bronze Age homes. It was also in eastern influenced period, the first real stone temples, and terra cotta roof tiles came to exist to hold the weight on these new stone temples. The population grew drastically, introducing new techniques and styles, which blended to form designs with balance and symmetry. It was during this period, two major Greek designs were developed, the Ionic and Doric order. (Pedley, 2012: pg. 180) The Doric order, being the first and most simple, consisted of baseless columns placed closely together as the Greeks did not know how much weight the shortened columns could hold. Reason behind this was the lack of length in the columns were believed to hold less weight and therefore forced into being placed closer together. This closely set arrangement created a very bold statement in the Doric temple. The Capital, which sat on top of the concaved shaped shaft, was left plain but when grouped alongside others, suggested a bold harmony. In contrast, the Ionic order was less bulky and more delicate than the Doric order. The top of the capital is decorated with two scrolls, also known as volutes, which could have resembled a shell or animal horns. Above the capital, held room for a surrounding frieze depictin...
Another difference in these civilizations is in the architecture of each region. The architecture of the Romans was also more advanced than that of the Greeks; they used concrete and placed emphasis on arches, vaulted ceilings, and domes while Greece emphasized balance and symmetry. Greek temples aimed at impressing by designing intricate, aesthetically pleasing outer views, while Roman architecture's goal was to impress by enclose a vast amount of space.
This class has examined the various accomplishments of ancient Rome, many that have been carried on throughout time and influenced numerous cultures around the world. Amongst those accomplishments were the development of concrete and the utilization of arches. This paper will examine the Roman development of both concrete and the infamous concrete arch that is utilized in many modern day structures today.
Both the Greeks and the Romans dedicated their temples to the gods, however, unlike temples today that are used for congregation, Greek and Roman temples were used differently. Greek temples were used as the home of a certain deity and as a place to worship the specific god that was housed there. The Romans used temples to praise a god for military victory or for a politician to show his increase of wealth and status by commissioning the construction of a temple. Roman Temples were also often used as a meeting place for people to express a multitude of social and political concerns whereas the Greek temples were typically used by one person at a time. Within the cella of both the Greek and Roman temples was an altar dedicated to the gods. The Greeks used elements from their temple design in the creation of these altars, and Romans sometimes modeled their sarcophagi after this design. The Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus from his tomb on the Via Appia from 200 B.C.E depicts the elements that the Romans borrowed from Greek temples. It is a mixture of two styles of Greek temple, Ionic and Doric. The Ionic style can be seen in the curves on the lid whereas the Doric style is depicted in the squares on the side of the sarcophagus, where each of the vertical lines of the square is a set of columns. This shows not only Greek