Greece PROJECT!

Discussion of the Classical Elements in their Historical Context:

The Parthenon is a very intriguing monument which can be found in Nashville, imitating exactly the true structure that can be found in Athens, Greece. It is a classical monument because of its stylistic and humanist elements. For example, the bodies that are on the metopes are balanced and show an idealization of the human bodies. As discussed in class, the humanization of the art relates to the Greeks wanting to socialize with one another. This is shown mainly on the eastern pediment, displaying the Birth of Athena, and the western pediment, displaying the Battle for Athens. Both of these scenes that are displayed on the pediments show interaction between the Greeks. The Battle of Athens shows them interacting by fighting one another, and the Birth of Athena shows interaction between them by expressing a celebration. The style is one of realism.

The strengths seen in the way the humans and gods are expressed in the pediments reflects our reading of the Funeral Oration. While reading the Funeral Oration, we found that Athens was a very war oriented city-state. Their men were trained at very young age for war. Athens was known as a very strong city state that was rarely challenged by choice. Part of this reason was because they were considered to be “group oriented” (Pollitt 11).

 These scenes that are depicted on the pediments also coincide with the idea of “Order and Chaos” that is described in the Pollitt text. On the East Pediment there is Athena who is being birthed form the head of her father, Zeus. According to ancient Greek belief, Athena came out fully clothed in armor. The other figures are said to be the other gods watching this miraculous event. The West Pediment is the famous depiction of the contest between Athena and Poseidon. The contest was over who would be the patron god/goddess of Athens. Surrounding them are horses pulling chariots and while crowds have gathered around to see the event.

When looking the composition of each pediment it really is a beautiful use of space in the triangular confinement of the structure where the stories involving Athena are played out into sculpture. There are gods, goddesses, horses and chariot warriors and speculators all sculpted into figures that are larger than actual human size, and all are stylized yet aesthetic representations of humans and gods done in a very skillful manor. This work is often described as something that is chaotic yet orderly. “Measure and commensurability are everywhere identified with beauty and excellence”, which was the way Plato explained things and is how the Greeks thought as well (Pollitt 4). There was always a search for organization and simplicity. Another uniting factor that brings order to the chaos of the scenes on the pediments is the fact that the figures mainly run through the same vertical plane. They were all made to be contained in the same space, up against a wall, or plane on the top of the Parthenon. This is another stylistic feature of the classical art during the time.

Relating that to the Parthenon, we can tell that it has plenty of organization and simplified order because it is mainly made using the architecture of the Doric Order. Out of the three types of architectural orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, Doric is the most simplified because it was the first type of Order to emerge, and it does not have as much detail as the other two.

Although the Parthenon takes on the modeled construction of mainly the Doric Order, it also takes on the modeled construction of the Ionic Order because of the columns design. They are designed with the fillets and flutes giving it a simpler look. The columns are one of the main reasons why the Parthenon is so balanced. Commenting on the balance Stockstad says: “One key to the Parthenon’s sense of harmony and balance is an attention to proportion” (Stokstad 130). There is an organized equal amount of space between each column making the entire balance of the Parthenon aesthetically pleasing.