Parthenon

I chose the Parthenon because of the significance that it has today. Whenever I think about democracy, great buildings such as the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol Building come to mind. All of these government buildings have features that are similar to the architecture of the Parthenon. For example, they all have columns, colonnades, pediments, and porticoes (porches). These features it quite well since democracy was created in ancient Greece, where democracy was born. Therefore the Parthenon stands today as a monument to the birth of western civilization, although to the Greeks it had a much different meaning. The Parthenon was constructed from the leftover money that the Greek poleis pulled together to defeat Persians

The original sculpture was lost to time, but it was admired so highly by the Romans that they left numerous detailed descriptions of it, as well as several copies, some more accurate than others. This piece was important to the time period because it marked a point when artist started focusing on the human form, striving to attain accurate representations and lifelike qualities. Unlike the works that came before it, Doryphoros was not rigid and stiff, the sculptor used techniques such as contrapposto to make it evoke a sense of motion or fluidity as if it was frozen in time, whereas works of art before its creation were made to look static. Spear Bearer most likely was not based off the image of an actual person, it represented the ideal human form. Its emotionless misdemeanor, bulging muscles, and athletic figure was meant to inspire people to look like that and act with reason and intelligence, but it was also viewed as the standard of beauty. This sculpture is important to the study of history because of how it has influenced the art of nearly all western civilizations that adopted its standard for beauty. It was also the embodiment of humanism or the idea that humans can understand the world through knowledge, order, and the reason: this notion is what characterized the Classical Period. I think this piece is significant today because it can kind