Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

Doric order (FIG. 5-14,left), where decorative sculpture appears only
in the metope and pediment “voids.” Ionic (FIG. 5-14,right) builders,
less severe in this respect as well, were willing to decorate the entire
frieze and sometimes even the lower column drums. Occasionally,
they replaced their columns with female figures (caryatids;FIGS. 5-18
and 5-54). Capitals, decorative moldings, and other architectural ele-
ments were also painted. By painting parts of the building, the de-
signer could bring out more clearly the relationships of the structural
parts and soften the stone’s glitter at specific points, as well as provide
a background to set off the figures.
Although the Greeks used color for emphasis and to relieve
what might have seemed too bare a simplicity, Greek architecture
primarily depended on clarity and balance. To the Greeks, it was un-
thinkable to use surfaces in the way the Egyptians used their gigantic
columns—as fields for complicated ornamentation (FIG. 3-25). The
history of Greek temple architecture is the history of Greek archi-
tects’ unflagging efforts to find the most satisfactory (that is, what
they believed were perfect) proportions for each part of the building
and for the structure as a whole.

BASILICA, PAESTUM The prime example of early Greek ef-
forts at Doric temple design is not in Greece but in Italy, south of
Naples, at Paestum (Greek Poseidonia). The huge (80 170 feet) Ar-
chaic temple (FIG. 5-15) erected there around 550BCEretains its en-
tire peripteral colonnade, but most of the entablature, including the
frieze, pediment, and all of the roof, has vanished. Called the “Basil-
ica” after the Roman columnar hall building type (see Chapter 10)
that early investigators felt it resembled, the structure was actually a
temple of Hera. Scholars refer to it as the Temple of Hera I to distin-
guish it from its later neighbor, the Temple of Hera II (FIG. 5-30). The
misnomer is partly due to the building’s plan (FIG.5-16), which dif-
fers from that of most other Greek temples. The unusual feature,
found only in early Archaic temples, is the central row of columns
that divides the cella into two aisles. Placing columns underneath the
ridgepole (the timber beam running the length of the building below
the peak of the gabled roof ) might seem the logical way to provide
interior support for the roof structure, but it resulted in several dis-
advantages. Among these was that this interior arrangement allowed
no place for a central statue of the deity to whom the temple was

dedicated. Also, the peripteral colonnade, in order to correspond

with the interior, required an odd number of columns (nine in this

case) across the building’s facade. At Paestum, the builders also set

three columns in antis instead of the standard two, which in turn

ruled out a central doorway for viewing the statue. (Some scholars

have suggested, however, that this design was well suited for two stat-

ues, perhaps of Zeus and Hera.) The architect nonetheless achieved a

simple 1:2 ratio of facade and flank columns by erecting 18 columns

on each side of the temple.

Another early aspect of the Paestum temple is the shape of its

heavy, closely spaced columns (FIG. 5-15) with their large, bulky,

pancakelike Doric capitals, which seem compressed by the overbear-

ing weight of the entablature. The columns have a pronounced

swelling (entasis) at the middle of the shafts, giving them a profile

akin to that of a cigar. If the temple’s immense roof were preserved,

the columns would seem even more compressed, squatting beneath

5-15Temple of Hera I (“Basilica”), Paestum, Italy, ca. 550 bce.

The peristyle of this huge early Doric temple consists of heavy, closely spaced, cigar-shaped columns with bulky, pancakelike capitals,
characteristic features of Archaic Greek architecture.

5-16Plan of the Temple of Hera I, Paestum, Italy, ca. 550 bce.

The Hera temple’s plan also reveals its early date. The temple has an

odd number of columns on the facade and a single row of columns in

the cella, leaving no place for a central cult statue.

N

0 50 feet

0105 15 meters

10 20 30 40

2

1

1.

2.

Cella with central

row of columns

Pronaos with three

columns in antis

Archaic Period 111