Masterpieces of Art and Architecture
Parthenon
Chronology
447-432 BC
Style
Classic Greek style, built by Iktinos and Callicrates, under the supervision of Phidias.
Materials
Pentelic marble and wood.
Building System
Trabeated.
Preceding the Parthenon, there was an initial temple that was never finished and was replaced by the current construction. This building, done on a human scale, with a predominance of straight lines, as implied by the trabeated construction. Greek architecture took Egyptian architecture as a reference, also marked by straight lines.
Supporting and Supported Elements
Columns supporting an entablature. The Parthenon’s entablature consists of a horizontal architrave, a frieze, and a cornice, which runs around the perimeter. Along with the interior walls and columns, it supports the sloping gabled roof, which has pediments on both fronts.
Space Leading to the Exterior and Interior
The Parthenon was built according to the precepts of the Doric order. It is an octastyle temple because it has eight columns on the main facade, with two hexastyle porticos on both fronts (because there is a second row of columns), and peripteral because the building is completely surrounded by columns. The temple rises on one stylobate and two stereobates, which form the stairway giving access from any side. Doric columns arise directly from these, without a base, heavy and grandiose. The shafts are robust, with a low height (between four and six times the diameter), and drums that are visually linked with sharp grooves. A subtle concave molding, hardly appreciated, forms the collar leading to the capital. The capital, of simple shapes, forms an abacus and an echinus. Then there is the entablature, which consists of the architrave, which directly supports the columns without decoration, the frieze divided into triglyphs and metopes, and the projecting cornice. The pediment, which forms a triangle with the cornice as its base, was full of sculptures, some of which are still preserved.
The Parthenon was a rectangular building with an inner cella divided into two separate rooms that formed a double temple, necessary because two facades and access porticos were required. The largest room contained the famous 12.8m chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena, to whom the temple was dedicated, sculpted by Phidias. The windows, their location, and the eastern gate were designed so that when the sun rose, its rays illuminated the statue.
The smaller room, the opisthodomos, kept the temple’s treasure.
Meaning
The main facade of the temple faces east, towards the sunrise, as is usual in all religious buildings of antiquity. This orientation meant that the building’s main entrance would face away from the Acropolis.
Theater of Epidaurus
Author: Polykleitos the Younger.
Type of work: Building dedicated to theater.
Style: Classical Greek art.
Chronology: c. 330 BC.
Geographic Location: Epidaurus, in Argolis, Peloponnese.
Horseshoe-shaped or semicircular. Initially, this theater had 30 rows of seats, but 20 more were added later, separated by a corridor. It had a capacity of 14,000 spectators. The acoustics of this theater are exceptional: from the most distant row, one can perfectly hear what is said on stage.
The orchestra, a gravel circle with a diameter of 20.30 meters, was located between the cavea and the stage. The chorus evolved there during the plays, and songs and ritual dances were performed. The altar of Dionysus was also there. The Greek theater was built within the natural features of the terrain, usually on a hillside to form the cavea, the stands of which were often carved into the rock itself. This arrangement allowed perfect visibility of the orchestra from any point of the cavea. In the theater of Epidaurus, the cavea is divided into twelve sections that converge radially on a central point in the middle of the orchestra. The two furthest sides exceed the canonical circular figure and move towards the scene. Later, the Roman theater, heir to the Greek, would not extend the cavea beyond the semicircumference. Performances are still held at Epidaurus, and the theater festival held there is the most important in Greece. This is the most beautiful and best-preserved of the ancient Greek theaters.
The Altar of Pergamon
The Altar of Pergamon is a religious monument built in the Hellenistic period on the Pergamon acropolis, certainly at the beginning of the reign of Eumenes II (197-159 BC). Its monumental friezes, depicting the history of Telephus, constitute one of the masterpieces of Greek sculpture and represent the full “Hellenistic Baroque”. The altar was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world.
Doryphoros
It is the representation of a spear-bearer at the peak of his muscular strength, without any other trait shown. It represents a young, nude male figure in a walking attitude, with a spear resting on his left shoulder, his head slightly tilted to the right, and a smile on his face, accompanied by a distant and lost look.
This work, despite being considered Classical, still preserves a certain archaic trait with a certain roughness in the carving; the chest muscles are flat, with hardly any relief, and the lines of the hips and waist are perfectly marked. The movement of the figure is perfectly measured, with the advanced leg straight and slightly ahead and the other leg delayed, reminiscent of the Kouros of the preceding period.
The beauty of Doryphoros primarily resides in its proportions and balance. The right leg firmly supports the weight of the body, compressing the hip and keeping the leg straight. The left leg supports no weight and touches the floor with the toes only. In the upper part, the scheme is also functional: the right arm hangs relaxed along the body, while the left arm originally held the spear. The torso bends slightly to the right, and the head rotates, inclining slightly in the same direction. This posture is called Contrapposto and was created to be seen from the front. The vertical axis is clear, but Polykleitos broke with the traditional concept of symmetry by opposing the parts of the body with respect to the axis, subjecting them to the service of the whole. This is Polykleitos’ most famous sculpted work because in it the Greek artist defined the canon of beauty of 7 heads, considered the model of human body proportions. The head is exactly one-seventh of the total height, the torso and chest are very marked, and there is a certain rigidity and unnatural exaggeration in the chest (beginning of the diarthrosis). As with most Greek works, only marble copies of a bronze original have survived. The best-preserved copy is in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Diadumenos
The figure is standing in Contrapposto with its weight on one leg. The example of the statue preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens has a fractured knee. This shows that most of the pores once filtered water, which fractured the limestone, requiring various reconstructions. The head is slightly tilted to the right, the expression seemingly lost in divine life.
The Diadumenos, along with the Doryphoros, are the most famous sculptures by Polykleitos, forming three basic models for Ancient Greek sculpture that represent idealized youth in a convincingly naturalistic manner. The statue illustrates the principles enunciated by Polykleitos in his Canon: the total height is equivalent to seven times the height of the head, which is the length of the supporting foot. The work is emblematic of genuine classicism; the sculpture combines balance and dynamism, thanks to a clever combination of torsion of the back and hips.
Tassel House
Tassel House was built from 1892 to 1893 by Victor Horta in Brussels, Belgium. It is one of the architect’s first buildings (his second residential building, to be precise) and the first global synthesis of Art Nouveau architecture. It remains a seminal work since it was the first to break entirely with the classical layout of rooms in Brussels residences. In these, the entrance was always on the side of the facade and extended inland via a long hallway. The latter then allowed access to the three main rooms: the living room facing the street, the dining room in the middle, and the covered patio next to the garden. Consequently, the dining room was often very dark. The stairway was generally located in the hallway. Victor Horta placed the entrance in the middle of the facade, logically placing the central corridor of the house and the center of the floor plan for installing a light well.
It is also the first application of his principle of “interpenetration” (see Victor Horta). Mr. Tassel was a professor at the ULB. Horta built a “reception hall” located at the entrance. The latter also served as an office. Mr. Tassel was also passionate about photography and cinematography. When he had guests, he liked to show them movies. The architect built a “terrace” on the inside on the first floor that overlooked the light well. He could set up the projector there to project onto a canvas located below. In 2000, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with three other later constructions.
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
The sculpture was crafted in 1787 but was not completed until 1793. It is considered the best work of the neoclassical sculptor, Antonio Canova (Possagno, Italy, November 1, 1757 – Venice, October 13, 1822), commissioned by Colonel John Campbell (Lord Cawdor) in 1787, although it ended up being acquired by the Dutch collector and merchant Henry Hoppe in 1800 and then by King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. It is one of the six versions of the Legend of Cupid and Psyche, immortalized by Apuleius in his Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) that Antonio Canova created.
Currently, the piece is exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
Style: Neoclassical
Height: 1.55 meters
Length: 1.68 m
Width: 1.01 m
Material: Marble
Technique: Sculpted.
The Thinker
The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is one of the most famous bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin. The piece, originally called The Poet, was part of a commission from the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris to create a monumental portal based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Each of the statues represented one of the main characters in the epic poem. The Thinker originally represented Dante in front of The Gates of Hell (as the portal is called), pondering his great poem. The sculpture is a heroic nude, a style Rodin wanted in the manner of Michelangelo, to represent both thought and poetry.
There are more than 20 different versions of the sculpture in museums around the world. Some are enlarged versions of the original, others are of different proportions. The first bronze cast was completed in 1880. Auguste Rodin was helped in this work by his disciple Camille Claudel.
Palace of Catalan Music
The Palace of Catalan Music is a concert hall located on Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt in the Ribera quarter of Barcelona, Spain. It was designed by the Barcelona architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of the greatest representatives of Catalan Modernism. The construction took place between 1905 and 1908, with very advanced structural solutions, including the application of large glass walls and the integration of all the arts: sculpture, mosaic, stained glass, and wrought iron. The building, headquarters of the “Orfeó Català”, founded in 1891 by Lluís Millet and Amadeu Vives, was commissioned by enlightened Catalan industrialists and financiers and music lovers, who fifty years earlier had already financed the Liceu Grand Theater.
In 1997, UNESCO included the building on its list of World Heritage Sites.
Construction
- The project began with a commission from the Orfeó Català to architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner to build a building for their social activities. This project and its corresponding budget were approved by the assembly on May 31, 1904. Before the end of the year, the purchase of the cloister of the convent of San Francisco was completed, with an area of 1350.75 square meters and a final price of 240,322.60 pesetas, with the intention of using this space to build the building.
- The following year, specifically on April 23, 1905, the laying of the first stone took place, and its financing was secured by the issuance of 6,000 bonds of 100 pesetas.
- Three years later, on February 9, 1908, its inauguration was celebrated.
The auditorium was intended for orchestral and instrumental concerts, as well as choral interpretations, singers’ recitals, and more. The Palau has also hosted cultural and political events, theatrical works, and various musical performances. It continues to fulfill all these functions, both in the field of classical music and popular music.
The auditorium has unparalleled acoustics. The best performers and conductors of the last century (from Richard Strauss and Daniel Barenboim to Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals, and Frederic Mompou) have paraded uninterruptedly through the Palau, an authentic sanctuary of Catalan music and a benchmark concert hall on the international art scene.
Restoration and Reforms
The Palau de la Música Catalana was declared a national monument in 1971. Major restoration work was carried out under the direction of the architects Joan Bassegoda and Nonell and Jordi Vilardaga. Starting in the 1980s, the Orfeó Català decided to carry out a major reform of the building. In 1983, the Consorci del Palau de la Música Catalana was established, maintaining the ownership of the Orfeó but with the involvement of the Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Ministry of Culture. The project was entrusted to Òscar Tusquets. This work lasted seven years and completed Tusquets’ project, which was recognized with the 1989 FAD Architecture Prize. Lluís Domènech i Girbau, grandson of the Palau’s main architect, Domènech i Montaner, wrote about these works, praising them:
The refurbishment of the access rooms and the new annex building for services have resulted in a coherent and creative work, perfectly up-to-date in terms of safety and comfort and acoustic specifications, within a radical and innovative spirit that Domènech i Montaner would have loved.
In 1990, the Orfeó formed the Fundació Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana for the centenary events of the Orfeó and to obtain private resources with activities organized at the Palau.
German Pavilion
The German Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was the German representation pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. It is a landmark building in the history of modern architecture, embodying the ideas of the then-nascent Modern Movement with more freedom than other works, as it did not have to be built for any other function. However, these new ideas, as well as the materials used and the new construction techniques, were surprising. Within the exposition grounds, the location of the German Pavilion was chosen by the architect himself in a somewhat secluded place, outside the main exhibition area where the large buildings constructed for the occasion were located. The modest size of the pavilion was also surprising, even smaller than a single-family dwelling.
The building stood on a travertine-covered podium, with two pools. Access was via a small staircase tangential to the podium. Eight cruciform cross-section pillars supported a flat roof. The work was completed with tinted interior walls, free of the structures, made of large pieces of marble, as well as large glass enclosures. The overall impression is one of a luxurious space created by perpendicular planes in three dimensions. The work was complemented by a sculpture by Georg Kolb, Der Morgen (“The Dawn”), Barcelona chairs designed by the architect himself (which are an important piece in the history of 20th-century furniture design), a curtain, and a red carpet that combined with the brownish-yellow color of the marble, imitating the colors of the German flag.
The pavilion was dismantled after the exposition, but over time this work became a key reference in the history of 20th-century architecture, as well as in the career of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In 1980, thanks to the initiative of Oriol Bohigas, the Barcelona City Council’s Urban Planning Department began to rebuild the building on its original site. The work began in 1983, led by the architects Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici, and Fernando Ramos, and the reconstruction was based entirely on the original design, using the same materials. It was inaugurated in 1986.
Fallingwater
Located in rural Pennsylvania and completed in 1939, Fallingwater was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), considered by some to be the greatest American architect. Fallingwater is his most famous work. The American Institute of Architects has deemed it “one of the best works of American architecture.”
Designed and built between 1934-1935 and 1936-1937, Fallingwater was the home of Edgar J. Kaufmann, his wife Liliane, and their son Edgar Jr., owners of a department store in Pittsburgh. Today, Fallingwater is a National Historic Landmark and belongs to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
Fallingwater exemplifies the principles of “organic architecture” emphasized by Wright in his studio and Taliesin school. It basically consisted of integrating the environmental factors of the place, the use and function of the work, the native materials, the construction process, and the human being or client into a single entity (the building). There are several anecdotes about the construction of Fallingwater. Kaufmann’s preferred location was on a part of his property overlooking the “Bear Run” stream. After a couple of visits to the site, and after a proposal to build over the waterfall, which was accepted, and nine months “without touching a pencil,” Frank Lloyd Wright “finished” the project in his head. When Edgar Kaufmann announced his visit to Taliesin (September 1935), Wright felt compelled to draw the first sketches of the house, and in a few hours, the plans were developed. As Wright commented to Kaufmann, “…designed for… the music of the waterfall… for whoever likes to listen to it.” Today, the sound of the waterfall can be heard from anywhere in the house.