Concepts:Influence

These past couple weeks vignettes have been very popular in our classes. These short, descriptive scene are fleeting but give good insight into the artist's perspective. Architecture can be the same way. Buildings and furniture are a window into the artist/designer's perspective, marinated with information about their contemporary society. As mysterious as the past is "archaeological excavations have allowed researchers to develop a picture of a range of characteristics for interior architecture and decoration." (Blakemore 33)

We recently also made a section of Pat's Chair. Plans and Elevations can be deceiving so sections are popular in interior architecture to more intimately show a room or design. Researchers got to know Egyptian architecture "based on the sections of houses depicted...these representations disclose such features as spatial relationships, functional uses of spaces, interior architectural details, and decorative elements." (Blakemore 7) Our section of our 2x4 artifact room is shown as a section as well.

Shiho Nakaza

Scale represented a large portion of social hierarchy. For instance, Greek Temples were the most important, and also the biggest. Although entry was only allowed to the highest elite of Greek society, the insides were very ornate and in the case of the Parthenon, it was the symbol of the entire city. In drawing we researched different types of scale figures, since people are the ultimate judge of scale. While drawing people we are also learning foreshortening, which warps the scale of a person to make it more realistic, which dips into what the greeks grappled with, reality vs. ideal. Even though the Greeks were regarded as a democratic society, architecture is one of the many examples that shows differently.

Parthenon

The Greeks always expanded their boundaries, trying to set the ideal. The Parthenon was considered a perfect piece of architecture--or sculpture? Where is the boundary between architecture and sculpture? There is no real answer, but architecture tends to satisfy commodity, firmness and delight while sculpture only requires the latter two. Whichever it was, the Greeks strived hard for perfection because "the home of the goddess required the most excellent materials and the most exacting workmanship. It was done because the Greeks could do it." (Roth 240) Believing they were the center of the world and being one of the leading civilizations in the world, "much of this early philosophy was based on a priori assumptions rather than on observation of how things actually worked" (Roth 220) Some boundaries are more literal than others, our vignettes are pictures without defined boundaries, which in drafting boundaries are very strict.

Ancient Greece
Although the Greeks were city-states separated by rugged terrain, they had a sense of unity. In every society there are four concepts that "reveals the same influences reflected in other arts of the dynastic periods: religion, inspiration from familiar objects, technology (material and construction techniques), and social hierarchy." (Blakemore 13) Although all the cultures are express things differently, we can break down their influences the same. In every piece of Greek architecture there is a porch, court, and hearth. We have adopted deeply into western architecture as well, although the hearth may be a kitchen instead of inside of a temple in American Suburbia. One thing we can say about the Greeks from the Acropolis is that they "cared little for immortality on a spiritual plane, but rather, they sought to ensure their immortality in human memory, through their intellectual and artistic excellence." (Roth 243)

SUMMARY

A vignette is a section without clear boundaries that is not necessarily always meaningful, but it is descriptive. While struggling with the real vs. ideal, the Greeks began to learn and push their boundaries to create what is in their eyes perfection for the gods. Through this they discovered their ideal archetype, which unified all buildings to have a hearth, court, and porch. This is used from the small scale of a single building, to a much larger group of buildings such as the Acropolis.