Parthenon temple of athena

Parthenon Temple of Athena constructed on the Acropolis Athens, Greece, 447-438 BCE. Gardner’s Art through the Ages Vol. 1, page 113, picture 5-44. Parthenon: The construction of this temple beganin 447 ECB during the government of Pericles and was dedicated to the goddess of wisdom and war Athena. Its architects were Kalikrates Iktinos and it was directed by the great sculptor Phidias.The Parthenon temple was constructed during the classical period where the Doric order was used. Doric order was fashioned flat and simple giving a classical beauty to the buildings and sculptures ofthat time. In the Doric order was not in use the base that is the bottom of the column, the shaft or body of the column rests on top of the stair stylobate which is the platform. The body of the slendercolumns with 20 concave grooves and its diameter is not constant but decreases with height giving the sensation of bulge in the middle. Besides the different parts of the temple was painted withbright colors. These features allow situating in the period and architectural order in which the Parthenon temple was built.

Inside the Parthenon temple we also see ionic architectural features whereAthena statue stands. The Athena statue was made by Phidias using the chryselephantine technique with gold. Furthermore, the Parthenon contains indoors metopes which are decorative bands made ofstone, marble and terracotta depicting various mythological scenes as the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths.The sculptor show the victory of the centaur over the lifeless corpse. There is afrieze representing an important religious festival of ancient Athens known as Panathenaic procession, it is one of the most important decoration characteristic of the Parthenon temple, but it was in theexterior of its walls.

This temple is one of the finest constructions of the ancient Greek.





2. Iktinos and Kallikrates. They were Greek architects of the Parthenon they lived in...