In What Ways Did the Arts of the Greeks & Romans Affect Medieval Christian Art & Architectur
- The very first people to live on the Greek peninsula lived in small rectangular one-room houses with a single entrance at one of the small ends. Later settlers built larger houses with many rooms separated by columns. In this period, the architectural characteristics that are most closely associated with the Greeks, columns and stairs, began developing. Three orders developed distinct patterns for the columns on their temples. The Corinthian column style is the rarest to find, as it had the most elaborate and decorative columns. The simplest of the styles was the Doric style, used by the Spartans. Ionic columns were more slender than the Doric style and about twice the height.
- Like the Greeks, the Romans used Doric, Ionic and Corinthian column styles. The Romans, however, discovered the structural and aesthetic value in arches and domes. Arches were first used because they were able to sustain a great deal of weight, enabling the Romans to construct larger and more decorative buildings. Likewise, Romans used domes for their larger government offices and temples. For 18 centuries, the largest dome in the world was the Roman Pantheon.
- The Goths were a migrating Germanic tribe, and were one of the early barbarian armies that attacked the Roman Empire. The Goths survived into the middle ages and helped bring Roman architecture to the rest of Europe. Gothic architecture was based on the Roman style. Like the Romans, the Goths used domes and arches to support large buildings, mostly enormous Christian cathedrals. Unlike the Romans, however, the peaks of the domes and arches reached higher.
- During the middle ages, Gothic styles were the most popular for religious buildings. Because the domes are so much taller than Roman domes, they allow for much taller Greek-inspired columns. Gothic buildings were popular as Cathedrals because the main hall draws the gaze upward to the tall ceiling, as if toward God. Later on, in the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, Gothic architecture fell out of favor, replaced by a Roman revival. As ideals of social equality began cropping up, it was appropriate for Roman-style buildings to make a return, as they guide the gaze horizontally, and show everything on a wide, equal plane.