Architecture Criticism

TISHIK UNIVERSITY
Engineering College / Architecture Dept.
Lecture 4: Architecture Criticism” Greek & Roman
Dr. MAHA J MALAIKA
[email protected]
OUTLINE

u REVIEW
u Greek
u 1.Greek
u 2. Roman
u Philosophy & Comparison
u Class Activity

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OBJECTIVES

u Understanding The Greek Philosophy in Art

u Learning difference between Greek philosophies
and Roman impacts on Architecture Criticism

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Review

u What are impacts of egyptian phylosophy on Art

and interiors?

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Greek Architecture / Criticism

u Greek civilization focused on aesthetic

governance and produced critical thinking
on the Arts.
u Greek Philosophers: Plato, Aristotle
and Socrates, have formed the seeds of
art criticism theory in the 500 BC
u these philosophers wrote the first
books in the philosophy of art and
beauty, their philosophical ideas
accompanied the flourishing of the Source: =greek+art+philosophy+photo
Greek arts.
Greek Architecture / Criticism

u The ideas that came out of these philosophers about

aesthetic judgment and perception of art and
artists, was a unique concept for critical vision to
express public taste in that era.
u Art Criticism associated philosophy of art and
aesthetics.
u The criticism was based on what is produced by
artistic philosophies and aesthetic theories in the
interpretation of art and judgment on works of art.

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1. Plato
u Has talked about ideals, and art with him was a
simulation of nature,
u to transfer an image from reality (Transferred picture
from reality is false).
u The beauty in his view is relative, more deficient in
our world.
u Full beauty can be achieved only in a perfect world.
Beauty was divided into two types:

u 1.voluptuous beauty is the lowest degrees of

beauty,
u 2.Spiritual Beauty the beauty of the soul or mental
beauty, a top-class beauty
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2. Aristotle

u believed that the beauty is what show coherence

and harmony and clarity, which varies with Plato,
he proves the existence of beauty in our world.
u Aristotle considered that art arises from the
instinctive tendency in humans to imitate
reality.
u Aristotle divided Arts into the
1.utilitarian arts, and
2.fine arts,
also he laid the foundations and rules of some of the
arts.
u His opinions are the top summit reached by
Greek thinking about the philosophy of judging arts
(or criticism).
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3. Socrates: Father of Western Philosophy

u linked the concept of beauty to the

principle of purpose or benefit, and
the benefit has stated that
"everything useful is wonderful and
beautiful."
u The art was subject to the nobility
who glorified the ethics and ideals.
u It is no doubt that the Greek thought
had an impact on all the civilizations
that came after, including the
Hellenic civilization, and Roman
civilization. 9
Greek Philosophy
u Plato divided science (episteme) into 'science of
action' (praktike) and 'science of mere knowing'
(gnostike).
u His argument is the first known attempt to distinguish
what is now recognized as technology, as distinct from
more purely rational science,
u Socrates, the son of a craftsman, had shown
considerable interest in the practical arts (technai)
u Plato's pupil, Aristotle, who coined the compound
term technologia and thereby established this new
department of science within the general system of
knowledge. The first art to be explicitly designated a
technology was rhetoric [Aristotle, Rhetorica, c. 330
BC].
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Roles of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates in
Greek Knowledge
u Plato boldly envisaged pratike and gnostike as
'constitutive of the unity of science as a whole',
thus anticipating Aristotle and the modern division of
knowledge into 'know how' and 'know that’.
u Plato identified kings and architects as exemplifying a
distinctive kind of practical knowledge: knowledge which
is 'imperative' (or executive) rather than purely 'critical'
(philosophical, scientific or mathematical), as being
concerned with 'commanding' rather than just ascertaining
scientific facts or calculating mathematical truths.
u Greek Architecture was designed and constructed based
on:
Proportions, Balance, Symmetry, Harmony, Mathematical
strictness and the basic designs were lightened by optical
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refinements.
2.Roman civilization

u The Roman civilization affected

by Greek art and art from the East,
and the Germens, and Berbers.
u Rulers were engaged in wars and
conquests, did not produce
creative critical thinking . Platen
was the philosopher who linked
creative beauty with religion and
divine power.
u Wide range of civil engineering
structures, public buildings, and
military facilities.
u These included amphitheaters,
aqueducts, baths, bridges, circuses,
dams, domes, harbours, temples, and
theatres. 12
2.Roman Philosophy and Architecture
u Vitruvius first asserts fabrica

u fabrica : as used here by Vitruvius does not denote making, practical building or the art
of construction; and,
u it does not refer directly to any kind of manual art. Vitruvius's concept of ratiocinatio has
proved elusive too; but both of these problematic terms are greatly illuminated by Plato's
pioneering analysis of architectural knowledge.
u Despite their profound differences of culture and intellect, Plato and Vitruvius characterise the
architect in very similar terms, not as an illiterate manual worker or hired artisan but as an
educated executive whose intellectual qualifications include an understanding of practical
building as well as a knowledge of pure sciences. The parallelism can be represented as follows:

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Architecture Characteristics/ Comparison
between Plato & Vitruvius Philosophy

4 main comparisons:
1. RATIO AND PROPORTION IN ARCHITECTURE
The Roman term ratio and all its derivatives go back to the
Greek logos, which became a fundamental concept of
western philosophy and science.
u From its core meaning of 'word' or
'number', logos acquired a bewildering range of technical
meanings, including 'theory', 'explanation', 'definition',
'principle', 'reason', 'ratio' (in the mathematical sense) and
so on.
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Cont’d
2. MATHEMATICS FOR THE CLASSICAL ARCHITECT
According to Plato's system of higher education, which is
outlined in both books the Republic [VII, 527-531] and
the Laws [VII, 817-822]:
- the first academic curriculum consisted of a progressive
training in four mathematical sciences, Arithmetic,
Geometry, Cosmology (or Astronomy) and Music (or
Harmonics).
u For Vitruvius the science and practice of architecture begins
with a Platonistic system of general education, in the four
Pythagorean mathemata, and, as with Plato, this encyclical
training is a preparation both for professional practice and the
higher study of philosophy.
VITRUVIUS: ‘”the architect should know music, in order to have a
grasp of canonical and mathematical relations’”
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Cont’d
3. FROM MUSIC THEORY TO ARCHITECTURAL AESTHETICS
Vitruvius briefly outlines a sophisticated system of aesthetics in
analyzing the concept of venustas ('beauty: in relation to “ Order
& Rhythm in Music” related to the Greek Philosophy too.

4. BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE: GENUS AND SPECIES

u Although Plato does not formalise the relationship of building
in general to architecture in particular, a rational ordering of
these arts is clearly implied in his contrast between the
illiterate manual worker and the well educated architect:
u Vitruvius echoes Plato in insisting that the architect must be
qualified in the knowledge of practical building as well as the
intellectual refinements of 'theory and literature'; and his
remarks presuppose a similar distinction between the craft of
building in general and scientific or mathematical architecture 16
in particular.
Roman
Architectue
re

Rich Deep Red Colors/ Arches

and17 vaults in Roman
Archuitecture
3. The Middle Ages after the collapse of Roman
civilization 476-600 until 14th century

u Cromer (Cromer 1990) divided Art Criticism in

that period to:
1. (a) Naturalist hidden trend, ideas from
nature.
2. (b) Symbolic imagination, related to divine
power.
3. (c) the phenomenal mechanism thinks that
“shapes with meanings may exist in both
nature and mind of the artist, and it stems
all of divine power”.
u Arts were related to spiritual thinking and
away from reason, expressing superstitious
legends with metaphysical vision in arts to
absorb knowledge.
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Early Christian
& Dark Ages
After Christianity :
Arts were mainly
related to religion
and spiritual
legends

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Diffrences between Greek and Roman phylosophy
Greek Roman

The Greeks often represented the Gods in For the Romans, art had a more practical
their art, in an effort to express the ideal function. Artwork was primarily used for
form of beauty, physical strength and ornamentation and decoration
power.
Greek statuary was created to represent Roman sculpture represented real,
idealized human forms of athletes and gods. ordinary people with their natural beauty
Source:
and imperfections
Greek art showed ideal people. Roman art showed realistic people.

Greek Art works have both Proportionality Romans refined the technique of painting
and Balance. mosaics and murals and emphasized natural
Art works are base on Greek Mythology themes such as landscapes and narrative
themes drawn from literature and
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mythology.
Assignment 2: Group Work

What are the diffrences between Greek

Philosophy and Roman Philosophy in:
Architecture ?
- Give Examples & References
- Use PPT Presentation
- Maximum 5 Slides, Minimum 3 Slides

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References

u https://www.euston96.com/en/greek-art/
u https://prezi.com/ylbgowsspp5j/ancient-greek-vs-ancient-rome-
philosophers/
u big-three-of-greek-philosophy-socrates-plato-and-aristotle/
u https://www.emis.de/journals/NNJ/Pont-v7n1.html

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NEXT WEEK

u Art & architecture Criticism in the 19th-20th

Century

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