Post #9

During this quarter, I have taken a higher interest and appreciation for the ancient architecture that can be viewed as art.  Most importantly, such works as Stonehenge, the Parthenon, and the Temple of Aphaia.  I find these pieces of work to stand out above others through the ages because of the severe complexity that has been put into raising these marvelous structures.

The Parthenon, although a popular piece that we associate with ancient Greece art and culture, stands out to me as one of the most well thought out pieces of architecture from the centuries.  Not only does it serve its aesthetic purpose, it has been composed and designed by the idea of math; there is much more to the structure than just a few pillars and columns strategically placed, it has been mathematically calculated to each exact point.  It highlights areas of precision and pays close attention to proportions throughout the entire building.

Another piece which has been considered artwork and highly controversial over the centuries is Stonehenge.  One of the greatest attracting ideas to this architecture is the fact that nobody is quite sure of how it became to be, where it came from, or what it even symbolizes; its entire existence is just a giant question.  To think that some of the stones average around from 13 to 24 feet tall and weighed up to 26 tons each makes it hard to believe that people could construct this during the 2500 B.C. era without the help of machines or devices.  There are even such theories that such figures as Merlin, who was the magician of the King Arthur legend had built it and that Stonehenge was the primary location for Celtic druid rituals.  Something that leaves me thinking about the idea of the architecture of this is the fact that the bluestone was not located anywhere close to where the actual stones are placed.  The book refers that they would have been moved over 150 miles from the west in order to arrive to their current location, which makes us wonder how that is humanly possible without the technology we have today.

Along with these two pieces, I found the Temple of Aphaia to be rather intriguing as well.  The way that the temple was structured and designed showed that there was also a fair amount of time put into figuring out how the columns would hold the roof and combining structures.  The temple also uses mathematical proportions within their columns that expressed artistic creativity by the engravings towards the top.

I realize that some of these may be a little cliché in the terms of what artwork we should be choosing to focus on since we covered so much, but the architecture just stands out so much above the rest to me that it is hard to ignore.  Such intricate and mathematical measures have been presented in creating these columns in most of these temples that it is fascinating to think somebody could replicate these detailed designs over.