Cretan-Mycenaean and Greek Architecture
Cretan-Mycenaean Art Greek art is the product of a long training process in which some fundamental influences are nearby. These include the Minoan civilization and the Mycenaean civilization. They were based on important maritime trade, which led to contact with other worlds, like the Egyptian.
Cretan-Mycenaean architecture uses elements that will then be assimilated by Greek art:
- Essential material: stone
- Architraves structures used with large entablature
- Aegean column: on a rectangular base, a downward-decreasing shaft will be built, with a capital consisting of an equine auction and abacus.
Beautiful palaces have been preserved, such as Knossos. In Mycenaean art, we can emphasize the walls, built with cyclopean rigging. In them were large monumental gates, such as the Lion’s Gate. In this civilization, a type of house called a *megaron* sprang up: rectangular columns that must be interpreted as the most direct antecedent of the Greek temple.
Greek Architecture
It is said that Greek architecture is an architecture of sculptural values. It conceived the building as a member of an urban area, worrying about everything by its outward appearance. In fact, the Greek temple, the most characteristic expression of its architecture, is designed to be viewed from the outside, and the interior configuration is less important. Thus, surrounding buildings with an item, the column, was treated as a sculpture, that is, as an aesthetic form. Greek architecture offers tremendous creations, not to mention that the contribution of their characteristic orders has played a key role throughout later architecture.
General Features
- It is an architraved or lintel architecture.
- The material used was stone; from the 5th century BC, the use of marble became widespread.
- Obsession with the technical perfection of his works.
- The colors used: blue (triglyphs), red (at the bottom of the metopes), flat gold, etc.
- The essential sustaining element is the column and can be of three orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
- Buildings constructed on a human scale, so we can speak of an anti-colossal architecture.
- Search for constructive harmony based on number, proportion, and balance.
- Visual harmony was also pursued through a series of optical adjustments intended to correct the interference optical effects that could introduce a structure of horizontal and vertical lines.
The Doric Order
The Doric order is the oldest and comes first, around the 7th century BC. It was created by the Dorians, which explains the severe and austere nature of this style, since these Greek mainlanders were rude, with agricultural traditions and character. The main features of that order would be:
- Column: no bases; it starts directly from the stylobate.
- Trunk: razor striatum and rapture.
- Capital: consisting of necking, horses, and abacus.
- Entablature: consisting of architrave, frieze (triglyphs and metopes), and cornice.
- Fronton.
The Ionic Order
The Ionic order emerged by the mid-6th century BC in the territory of Ionia. It is during this time when it is conceived as a forest temple of divinity, with a greater accumulation of columns and their characteristic volute capitals. It presents some characteristics that differentiate it from the Doric and appear related to oriental influences:
- It is more slender and responds to a more refined thinking.
- It achieves more monumental dimensions, leading to a grandiloquent monumentality, returning to intermarry with Egyptian influences.
- It relies on a base consisting of two bulls and Scotia.
- Its trunk has fluting and no rapture.
- The capital is made up of two scrolls that are leaves that spiral.
- In the entablature, the architrave is decorated with three horizontal strips or moldings, while the frieze is decorated smoothly or continuously.