Parts:Whole

We have been been focusing on the idea of Archetypes, prototypes, and hybrids. This idea is present in the relationship between the different cultures that we have began to study, mainly the transition from Greek culture to Roman culture and their arts and architecture both exterior and interior. "While several races were prominent among the settling peoples of the Italian peninsula, two in particular were instrumental in shaping the arts of the Romans, the Etruscans and the Greeks."(Blakemore 45). The Romans started to use the Greek buildings as prototypes for their own buildings. They used the idea of the Greek Orders. The Greek orders are the type of columns that they used throughout their architecture, these include Tuscan, Doric, ionic, Corinthian and composite. 

The orders were used in one of the most famous Roman buildings, the Colosseum. The Colosseum was modeled after the theaters of Greece, however they created the the teared seats which made it a Amphitheater. This is considered to be a hybrid because they used the theater of Greece as a prototype and added onto it their own ideas. The Greek orders Corinthian, ionic, and Doric all decorate the outside of the Colosseum. The Romans focused a lot of their attention on surface decoration which is why they had three different orders on the outside of one building. "The Romans were expert in the manipulation of three dimensional space, this is noted particularly in public architecture" (Blakemore 51) like the Colosseum.

The Entourage of Roman arts and architecture was payed a great deal of attention. "The Roman temple, templum, based on Etruscan prototypes, was similar to the Greek Temple and was eventually embellished with Greek orders and architectural detail.(Roth 250). The Romans focused a lot of attention on interiors as well as exteriors. They used groin vaults and vaults to make the bathhouses which were then decorated with mosaic tiles. Every part of Roman architecture had a strong sense of design with a lot of inspiration from Greek architecture. Even the courtyards of homes were surrounded by Doric columns to give good aesthetics.
One of the most famous buildings in Roman culture is the Pantheon. "The Pantheon was the culmination of important experiments that had been pursued for over two centuries" (Roth 259) which would make it a hybrid building. The Pantheon was not a whole temple, but rather the front of a temple with a plain building behind the entrance. The Pantheon was a prototype for the famous dome shape in architecture. The dome represented the universe because the Romans had a lot of faith in their gods. They were a polytheistic culture like the Egyptians and the Greeks.
"The Romans not only used ideas for architecture from the Greeks, but they also used the Greek Gods as a source for their own Gods. "After contact with the Greeks, the Romans invested their civic, or state, gods with much of the character of the Olympian Gods, so that Jupiter became nearly the same as Zeus." (Roth 250)
The way that the Romans used the Greeks as a source for their Gods, and their Architecture relates to our drawing class, in that we were asked to find examples, or sources, of other artists scale figure drawings. We were then supposed to use the styles that we found to go out and try it on our own. Although I used different artists styles for inspiration my scale figures had their own style completely. It was just helpful to look at other examples to help get the proportions right. Also after being asked to do this, we were asked to find examples of different styles of buildings, both exteriors and interiors, and again even after looking at the different styles, i still came out with my own style combined with the examples that i found, which would make my drawings somewhat of a hybrid.

     Another way that we used sources was looking directly at something three dimensional rather than looking at a photograph. I found that drawing other peoples hands was a lot more challenging than drawing my own hand. Also drawing other peoples feet was difficult. The more detailed drawings of the hands are ones i did of my own hand, while the less detailed ones are ones I did of other people

     Much like drawing hands and feet from a three dimensional source we were asked to draw thumbnails of buildings from looking at them in 3D rather than from photographs. I found it really difficult to add enough details without zooming in too much, and also drawing a scale figure that small was challenging.

In class we were asked to make drawings and watercolors of different Entourage Vignettes. When painting these I tried to focus on the details of the surroundings of the people i was drawing.

Overall what we are learning about the Greek and Roman cultures, and the different aspects of architecture and art are all interrelated, weather it be my attention to detail in my drawings, or the Romans attention to detail in their wall coverings, and exterior arches and orders. The idea of Archetype, prototype, and hybrid fit into the relationship between Greek and Roman culture, and the relationship between one persons art and the next, as far as using sources to create something new.

Greek Orders image found at http://www.mansfieldct.org/schools/MMS/staff/hightower/home_files/image014.jpg