Aegina and the Transition
to the Classical PeriodThe years just before and after 500BCEwere also a time of dynamic
transition in architecture and architectural sculpture. Some of the
changes were evolutionary in nature, others revolutionary. Both
kinds are evident in the Temple at Aegina dedicated to Aphaia, a lo-
cal goddess.
TEMPLE OF APHAIA, AEGINAThe temple (FIG. 5-25)
sits on a prominent ridge with dramatic views out to the sea. The
colonnade is 45 95 feet and consists of 6 Doric columns on the
facade and 12 on the flanks. This is a much more compact struc-
ture than the impressive but ungainly Archaic Temple of Hera I
(FIG. 5-15) at Paestum, even though the ratio of width to length is
similar. Doric architects had learned a great deal in the half century
that elapsed between construction of the two temples. The columns
of the Aegina temple are more widely spaced and more slender. The
capitals create a smooth transition from the vertical shafts below to
the horizontal architrave above. Gone are the Archaic flattened echi-
nuses and bulging shafts of the Paestum columns. The Aegina archi-
tect also refined the internal elevation (FIG.5-26) and plan (FIG.
5-27,left). In place of a single row of columns down the center of
the cella is a double colonnade—and each row has two stories. This
arrangement allowed a statue to be placed on the central axis and
also gave worshipers gathered in front of the building an unob-
structed view through the pair of columns in the pronaos.
Both pediments featured painted life-size statuary (FIG. 5-27,
right) in place of the high reliefs characteristic of Archaic temple
pediments. The theme of both statuary groups was the battle of
Greeks and Trojans, but the sculptors depicted different episodes.
The compositions were nonetheless almost identical, with Athena at
the center of the bloody combat. She is larger than all the other fig-
ures because she is superhuman, but all the mortal heroes are the5-25Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, ca. 500–490 bce.
In this refined early-fifth-centuryBCEDoric design (compare FIG. 5-15),
the columns are more slender and widely spaced, and there are only
6 columns on the facade and 12 on the flanks.
5-26Model of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, ca. 500–490 bce,
showing internal elevation. Glyptothek, Munich.
Later Doric architects also modified the plan of their temples (compare
FIG. 5-16). The Aegina temple’s cella has two colonnades of two stories
each (originally with a statue of the deity between them).5-27Plan (left)
and Guillaume-
Abel Blouet’s
1828 restored
view of the facade
(right) of the
Temple of Aphaia,
Aegina, Greece, ca.
500–490 bce.
The restored view
suggests how
colorful Greek
temples were.
The designer
solved the prob-
lem of composing
figures in a pedi-
ment by using
the whole range
of body postures
from upright to
prostrate.Archaic Period 117