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Greek and Roman Architecture

zed by Alexander the Great, also saw a lessening of the Greek artistic vision, which she had so generously exported to her subjects. Greek architecture and art began in these centuries to reflect an orientalized influence and the former unity of Greek architecture waned.

The proportion, which is so evident in Greek architecture, was based on mathematical precepts, according to C.A. Doxiadis, who analyzed Greek architecture in terms of proportions based

on geometrical discoveries of the Pythagoreans. This cult assigned certain angles with specific gods: "the 60 degree angle with Rea, Demeter, Hera and Hestia; the 150 degree angle with Zeus." Doxiadis gives numerous charts and tables of the public buildings with their angles broken down into mathematical formulae in support of his thesis that Greek architecture, particularly temple architecture, was built as a series of angles reflecting religious and philosophical values of the era. Whether or not one accept his thesis, it must be agreed that Greek architecture embodies to many, the essence of harmonious proportion.

The space values of Greek architecture both framed and concealed the landscape. The simultaneously open and closed areas created by the colonnades reflected the dual aspects of Greek city life: bustling commercial and political activity and a pursuit of philosophy and contemplation. The spatial unity of the individual buildings is reflected in a corresponding spatial unity of the polis itself. A notable example of this can be seen from the Acropolis in Athens. The development of town planning arising in the third and fourth centuries B.C. in response to the increasing commercial wealth of the polis (for reasons noted previously) sought to plan the spatial unity of the entire polis:

A town . . . now played the part of the capital of a vaster world and its proportions increased to a scale commensurate with this new pretension. Its plan and buildings wer...

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Greek and Roman Architecture. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:04, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682208.html