Architecture - AP Art History

The main architect of the entire church was Arnolfo Di Cambio, who mastered the nave and the aisles. It was Brunelleschi, though, who pioneered the dome, which is the largest of its kind and was considered an architectural wonder of its time. He was a mathematical genius, and the dome reflected his prowess. Serving under him was the apprentice Leonardo da Vinci, who was young at the time and would go on to pioneer a number of Renaissance buildings.

The church at the time had more money than the state and the wealthiest families of Italy. Likely it was the Catholic church itself that commissioned the cathedral. Given also the time it took to build, kings had come and gone and the Medici had gain and subsequently lost their prominence in Italian society, but the church was omnipresent and dominating for the three hundred years it took to go from construction to completion.

The dome is Renaissance; it was built two hundred years after the facade of the cathedral, under the guidance of Brunelleschi and his pupil, Leonardo da Vinci. both were pioneers of the Renaissance movement. Note also the shape and nature of the dome; it is very much in the tradition of Classical Greek and later Roman temple construction styles. It is meant very much to emulate the grandeur of the Parthanon, much like the rest of the Renaissance movement emulates Roman and Greek wonders.

Gothic architecture dominated between the fall of Rome in the fifth century CE and the rise of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. Gothic architecture was notable for large, ornate stone structures with many elements and imposing figures. All of these are best seen in the many Gothic cathedrals that allowed architects and designers their most control over the shape of buildings.

A key feautre of Gothic churches is their extreme height. This verticality was partly for show, but more importantly symbolized an attempt to reach heaven. For many centuries, Gothic cathedrals were the tallest buildings in Europe.

The centermost sweeping area of the church is the nave. Its length is what contributes to the rectangular nature of the plan. The aisles are what give the church its cross shape, and the transepts are the outcroppings on the sides. The apex is the half-circle at the top of the nave across from the doors, and is where the church official would stand.

The Column of Trajan tells the story of Trajan's victory against the Dacians. Over 128 feet high, the narrative wraps around the entirety of the column and tells the story over 625 feet of marble. As a result, the compositions are crowded and the entire story is difficult to view in its entirety.

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The defeated Dacians are depicted on the base of the column. They are shown as being worthy opponents to further highlight how significant the victory was for Trajan -- they appear strong, which shows how strong Trajan's army needed to be to defeat them. Above the defeated Dacians is a victory laurel to again highlight the significance of winning the battle against them.

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Originally, two libraries stood next to the column. Each had manuscripts detailing the Roman-Dacian war. One had the manuscripts in Roman, and the other in Greek. (Lamassu guardians are associated with Assyrian architecture and art, and steles, such as the Stele of Hammurabi, are associated with the Babylonians.)

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Roman triumphal columns were massive structures erected in the city of Rome to celebrate massive victories in battle against enemies. These arches were huge structures with minute details of the battle's events and signifiers of the people who were defeated. These triumphal arches were used as models for many later arches in European history, such as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Bas-relief a very ancient artistic form. Bas-relief, from the French for "low relief," is a sculpture that leaves a background in the medium, carving only a portion of the front of the image into the stone being used. Bas-relief was first developed by the Ancient Egyptians, and widely used in Classical Greece and Rome.

Both Kouros (c. 600 BCE) and Dying Warrior from the Temple of Aphaia (500-490 BCE) are works of Archaic Greek sculpture. Kritios Boy is from 480 BCE and is an early work of the Classical period. Laocoon and His Sons (c. first century CE) is from the late Hellenistic period.

The Ionic order was named after the region of Ionia, a smattering of islands between Greece and Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), which were settled by Greeks in roughly the seventh century BCE. While the Ionians were there, they adapted Greek architecture into a simpler form, with more slender columns and less ostentatious ornamentation. This architectural form spread through mainland Greece, with the Temple of Athena Nike, at the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, being an early example and the first Ionic building on the Acropolis.

Knossus is one of the most important sites in European art history, and one of the first studied for many scholars in basic art history. This question is helpful because it teaches while it asks: most students can recall or relate Knossus with the memorable Minotaur, but often do not correlate it with the Bronze Age or with being Europe's oldest city.

The figure at the top of the Column of Trajan is actually St. Peter. It was previously a statue of Trajan himself, but the statue went missing in the Middle Ages. It was replaced with the current bronze statue of St. Peter by Pope Sixtus V in 1587.

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The 9:4 proportions, the slight curving of the base to make the temple look flat from far, and the metopes are all iconic of the Doric order. All other orders use slenderer proportions and do not have metopes in the frieze.

Ictinus and Callicrates were the architects who designed the Parthenon, but Phidias oversaw the project and was one of its founding fathers as an iconic early Classical architect and sculptor.

The Pantheon was built by Hadrian as a temple to all gods, and is distinguished especially by the "oculus," or "eye," in its roof. The Ara Pacis is an altar built under Augustus. The Colosseum is an arena, and the Pont du Gard, an aqueduct in southern France.

Although the Parthenon was a significant form of architecture in the ancient world, it was not Roman, but rather Greek. The Pantheon, located in central Rome, can be considered an example of Roman technological innovation.