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Ancient Greece Architecture: The Marble Column

Ancient Greece is undoubtedly the cradle of Western culture. Just like the Egyptians, the Greeks made solid proportional foundations and used the golden mean in designing their edifices as evidenced by the Parthenon, the Greek temple in Athens. Greek artisans also carved their arts using local marble which was painted with garish delight. The Romans, on the other side, designed their architecture based on their Greek precedents. The Marble Column, which is an Ionic column, from the Temple of Artemis that was constructed at Sardis is one of the ancient Greek art pieces located in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Marble Column certainly depicts all characteristics of ancient Greece architecture that greatly impacts contemporary culture patterns.

The Marble Column

The Marble column is a stone sculpture made of longitudinal columns of over fifty-eight feet (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017). The sculpture is composed of metal clamps free from mortar with narrow flutes separated by a flat band. The marble also has a flat roof composed of ceramic tiles. The Marble column has a broad Ionic order base elevated above the ground by a crepidoma. The Marble column was created by the Greeks in 300BCE to offer structural support to the Temple of Artemis, located in Sardis. The temple which was created for the worship of goddess Artemis, a Greek goddess of virginity, chastity and the hunt, was never completed and was discovered during the 1911 to 1914 excavations by the American Society. The Marble column was hence given to the American society as a gift for the excavation and is stored in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Figure below depicts the Marble column as retrieved from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/26.59.1/

The Marble column is a perfect representation of Greece architecture due to its unique features. Firstly, ancient Greeks embraced logic and order in the construction of their sculptures (Sayre & Sayre, 2013). Fundamentally, ancient Greeks used columns in designing their temples and other public buildings such as the Parthenon located in Athens. The marble column was composed of vertical columns to bring out a straight and orderly structure to support the temple. The ancient architecture was hence painted in a color to bring a unique and attractive feature. The Marble column is thus vibrantly painted to depict a unique structure of the Temple of Artemis. Secondly, ancient Greeks used classical orders; Doric order, Ionic order and Corinthian order, as their basic structural designs (Sayre & Sayre, 2013). The Marble column has an Ionic order base and is raised above the ground on a masonry base, crepidoma, as ancient Greece always embraced it. Ancient Greece temples were composed of flat ceramic roofs which were supported by the columns as evidenced in the Marble column (Sayre & Sayre, 2013).

Influence of Ancient Greece to Contemporary Cultural Patterns

The legacy of ancient Greece has had a momentous influence on contemporary culture. From the libraries which were first constructed by ancient Greeks, to modern architectures in public utilities, the legacy still lingers in our society. Pillars were often used in ancient Greek with the Parthenon as the most famous Greek architecture composed of pillars. In the contemporary world, pillars have been used in various public buildings including libraries and churches. Pillars are also used in significant public places such as the White House. Apart from  pillars, the White House is also composed of ionic columns accompanied by flutes and is thus worthy of study for the influence of ancient Greece on contemporary cultural patterns. (The White House, 2017).

Overall, ancient Greeks embraced logic and order in their exquisite architectures. Just like the Marble column, ancient Greece is still acknowledged in our current culture as depicted in various libraries and public buildings such as the White House.