art and architecture essay

• Hispanoamérica
• Work at ArchDaily
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy

The Close Relationship Between Art and Architecture in Modernism

• Written by Camilla Ghisleni | Translated by Tarsila Duduch
• Published on July 21, 2023

The idea of integration between art and architecture dates back to the very origin of the discipline, however, it took on a new meaning and social purpose during the Avant-Garde movement of the early twentieth century, becoming one of the most defining characteristics of Modernism . This close relationship is evident in the works of some of the greatest modern architects, such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Oscar Niemeyer, to name a few.

Needless to say, modernism emerged from an expectation of moral and material reconstruction of a world devastated by war, serving as a tool to strengthen a collective identity and, consequently, the bond between the city and its inhabitants. In this context, artistic expression is used as a tool to shape the emotional life of the user, to which art and architecture combined can give a new meaning, offering a place that represents a sense of community, in addition to function and technique.

The professional development at Bauhaus was marked by what Argan (1992) calls "methodological-didactic rationalism," encouraging the unification of all the arts through a Gesamtkunstwerk , which roughly translates as a "total work of art," incorporating architecture, painting, sculpture, industrial design, and crafts. This collaboration was expected to happen even on the building site, thus bringing together intellectual and manual work in a shared experience. As their leading exponent Walter Gropius used to say, an architect should be as familiar with painting as a painter should be with architecture. One should not design a building and commission a sculptor afterward; this would be wrong and detrimental to the architectural unity.

Apart from the Bauhaus program, this integration between disciplines was also, and most notably, brought up by Le Corbusier through the combination of elements from painting and sculpture with the formal concepts of architecture. In this sense, Le Corbusier - despite being a "one-man show" who preached the synthesis of the arts in his designs, but always worked as a solo artist - argued that the roles of architects, painters, and sculptors were of equal importance contributing to productive collaborations in the real world, that is, on the building site, by creating and designing in complete harmony.

To some extent, this inseparable relationship sounded so utopian that Lucio Costa stated that this greater art would require a level of cultural and aesthetical evolution that was almost impossible to achieve, in which architecture, sculpture, and painting would form one cohesive body, a living organism that could not be disintegrated. Nevertheless, the Capanema Palace in Rio de Janeiro is arguably the closest one could get to this utopia in Brazil by relying on painter Candido Portinari, sculptor Bruno Giorgi and landscape architect Burle Marx from the very beginning of the project development. As French historian Yves Bruand states, the result is an ensemble of great artistic value, brilliantly enhancing and complementing architecture, but subordinated to it at the same time.

While his works turned out to be prime examples of the fusion of architecture and art, Oscar Niemeyer also shared Costa's opinion that only in extraordinary circumstances could a true synthesis of the arts be achieved. He also stressed the crucial need to establish a team that would work together from the very beginning of the architectural sketches to amicably discuss the problems and smallest details of the project, without dividing them into specialized fields but considering them as a single balanced entity.

The ideal goal is to integrate all disciplines from the beginning of the project, but inviting artists to participate later in the design process does not necessarily compromise the final result. A good example is the Salão Negro (Black Room) at the National Congress in Brasília, where artist Athos Bulcão, invited by Niemeyer after the project was finished, created an abstract and simple language using black granite on the floor and white marble on the walls, which resulted in a mural fully integrated with the architecture and building materials. This mural with abstract patterns is often cited by academics, including Paul Damaz when he states that non-figurative language is the best match for modern architecture. In this regard, the author also mentions Maria Martins' semi-figurative bronze sculpture in the gardens of the Palácio da Alvorada , highlighting the "formal affinity between the curves" of the sculpture and the "graceful pillars of the building," as a perfect example of integration.

However, while Damaz praises the integration between architecture and art in Oscar Niemeyer's projects, he rejects one of the most important examples of integration between disciplines in the history of modernism, which is Mexico City's UNAM Campus . This complex is one of the most emblematic architectural achievements in Mexico, a country considered to be a pioneer in the incorporation of art into architecture, as seen in their tradition of mural painting since the 1920s. Inaugurated in 1952, parallel to the CIAM VIII, the University Campus was designed by more than 100 architects, as well as engineers, artists, and landscape designers. Some of the most remarkable artworks featured in the project are the murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Juan O'Gorman, and Francisco Eppens, which were criticized by the author for being figurative, creating a disparity in style between social realism and functionalist architecture, to the detriment of the latter. Nevertheless, despite the critiques, one cannot ignore the fact that UNAM is an open-air art museum and an example of cooperation and collectivity.

On a different scale but equally important, is integration between art and architecture through the inclusion of occasional individual elements such as the iconic Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe. Indeed, the sculpture Der Morgen , also known as Alba, by German sculptor Georg Kolbe (1877-1947) is not essential to the pavilion. But what else is essential in this new architectural concept, if not only the arrangement of planes and vertical supports? The pavilion is completely independent of the sculpture, as well as of the materials however, one cannot picture it today without this human figure with arms outstretched precisely positioned and framed for the user's experience. As Claudia Cabral beautifully explains, "in Mies' delicate balance, guided by partial asymmetries, and by a system of compensations, the sculpture is the only element that has no counterpart [...] Mies decided to place only one sculpture, a single figurative element in his abstract plane. Within the pavillions play with reflections, transparency, and parallels, we are the only possible partners for the bronze figure, we humans of flesh and blood, the visitors."

Every form of integration of different disciplines consists of a coherent dialogue between architects, painters, and sculptors, whether from the very beginning of the project development or later on, during construction, whether on a large scale or with individual elements. Having this in mind, it is very alarming to witness events such as the relocation of the panels by artist Athos Bulcão in the Planalto Palace in Brasilia in 2009 due to a renovation. Even the Athos Bulcão Foundation - Fundathos opposed it since the original location was defined by Athos himself, along with Niemeyer while he was designing the palace in 1950.

As Rino Levi once said, architecture is not secondary, but neither is it the mother of all arts. There is only one art and its value is measured by the emotions it triggers in us. Painting and sculpture can be independent, however, when applied to architecture, they become part of a whole. This lesson on collectivity and shared experiences starts during project development and touches every single person who has the opportunity to visit the architectural work.

Reference List ARGAN, Giulio Carlo. Arte Moderna [Modern art]. São Paulo: Cia das Letras, 1992. BRUAND, Yves. Arquitetura contemporânea no Brasil. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2010. CABRAL, Cláudia Costa. Arte e arquitetura moderna em três projetos de Oscar Niemeyer [Art and modern architecture in three projects by Oscar Niemeyer]. DOCOMOMO Brasil, Salvador, 2019. CABRAL, Cláudia Costa. Arquitetura moderna e escultura figurativa: a representação naturalista no espaço moderno [Modern architecture and figurative sculpture: naturalist representation in modern spaces]. DOCOMOMO Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 2009. DAMAZ, Paul. Art in Latin American Architecture. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1963. DIÓGENES, Beatriz Helena Nogueira ; PAIVA, Ricardo Alexandre. Diálogo entre arte e arquitetura no modernismo em Fortaleza [Dialogue between art and architecture of modernism in Fortaleza]. DOCOMOMO Brasil, Recife, 2016. TAVARES, Camila Christiana de Aragão. A integração da arte e da arquitetura em Brasília: Lucio Costa e Athos Bulcão [The integration of art and architecture in Brasília: Lucio Costa and Athos Bulcão]. Dissertação de mestrado [Master's Thesis] UNB, Brasília.

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: Collective Design . Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics . As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us .

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on June 01, 2021.

Image gallery

• Sustainability

世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!

想浏览archdaily中国吗, you've started following your first account, did you know.

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.

Free Site Analysis Checklist

Every design project begins with site analysis … start it with confidence for free!

Architecture Essays 101: How to be an effective writer

• Updated: October 25, 2023

The world of architecture stands at a fascinating crossroads of creativity and academia. As architects cultivate ideas to shape the physical world around us, we are also tasked with articulating these concepts through words.

Architecture essays, thus, serves as a bridge between the visual and the textual, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of architectural ideas and their implications.

The ability to articulate thoughts, analyses, and observations on design and theory is as crucial as creating the designs themselves. An architectural essay is not just about presenting information but about conveying an understanding of spaces, structures, and the stories they tell.

Whether you’re delving into the nuances of a specific architectural movement , analyzing the design of a historic monument, or predicting the future of sustainable design, the written word becomes a powerful tool to express intricate ideas.

This guide provides a comprehensive roadmap for crafting insightful architectural essays, ensuring that your perspectives on this multifaceted discipline are communicated effectively and engagingly.

Understanding the Unique Nature of Architecture Essay s

Architecture sits on a unique line between the aesthetic and the analytical, where designs are appreciated not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for their functionality and historical relevance.

An architecture essay isn’t just a manifestation of this intricate blend; it’s a testament to it. Aspiring architects or students of architecture must grasp the singular characteristics of this type of essay to truly succeed.

Embracing Creativity

When one imagines essays, the mind typically conjures up dense blocks of text. However, an architecture essay allows, and even demands, a flair of creativity.

Visual representations, be it in the form of diagrams , sketches , or photographs , aren’t just supplementary; they can form the core of your argument.

For instance, if you’re discussing the evolution of skyscraper designs , a chronological array of sketches can provide an insightful, immediate overview that words might struggle to convey.

Recognizing and capitalizing on this visual component can elevate the impact of your essay.

Theoretical Foundations

Yet, relying solely on creative illustrations won’t suffice. The foundation of every solid architecture essay is a strong understanding of architectural theories, principles , and historical contexts. Whether you’re analyzing the gothic cathedrals of Europe or the minimalist homes of Japan, delving deep into the why and how of their designs is crucial.

How did the social, economic, and technological conditions of the time influence these structures?

…How do they compare with contemporary designs?

Theoretical exploration provides depth to your essay, grounding your observations and opinions in recognized knowledge and pre-existing debates.

Furthermore, case studies play an essential role in these essays.

Instead of making sweeping statements, anchor your points in specific examples. Discussing the sustainability features of a particular building or the ergonomic design of another offers tangible evidence to support your arguments.

Blending the Two

The magic of an architecture essay lies in seamlessly weaving the creative with the theoretical.

While you showcase a building’s design through visuals, delve into its history, purpose, and societal implications with your words. This blend not only offers a holistic understanding of architectural marvels but also caters to a broad audience, ensuring your essay is both engaging and enlightening.

In conclusion, understanding the unique blend of design elements and theoretical discussion in an architecture essay sets the foundation for an impactful piece.

It’s about striking a balance between showing and telling, between the artist’s sketches and the academic’s observations. With this understanding, you’re better equipped to venture into the exciting world of architectural essay writing.

Choosing the Right Topic

Architectural essays stand apart in their blend of technical knowledge, aesthetic sense, and historical context. The topic you choose not only sets the tone for your essay but can also significantly affect the enthusiasm and rigor with which you approach the writing.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to selecting the right topic for your architecture essay:

Find your Golden Nugget:

• Personal Resonance: Your topic should excite you. Think about the architectural designs, movements, or theories that have made an impact on you. Perhaps it’s a specific building you’ve always admired or an architectural trend you’ve noticed emerging in your city.
• Uncharted Territory: Exploring less-known or under-discussed areas can give you a unique perspective and make your essay stand out. Instead of writing another essay on Roman architecture, consider focusing on the influence of Roman architecture on contemporary design or even on a specific region.

Researching Broadly:

• Diversify Your Sources: From books and academic journals to documentaries and interviews, use varied materials to spark ideas. Often, an unrelated article can lead to a unique essay topic.
• Current Trends and Issues: Look at contemporary architecture magazines , websites , and blogs to gauge what’s relevant and debated in today’s architectural world. It might inspire you to contribute to the discussion or even challenge some prevailing ideas.

Connecting with Design Projects:

• Personal Projects: If you’ve been involved in a design project, whether at school or professionally, consider exploring themes or challenges you encountered. This adds personal anecdotes and insights which enrich the essay.
• Case Studies: Instead of going broad, consider going deep. Dive into a single building or architect’s work. Analyzing one subject in-depth can offer nuanced perspectives and help demonstrate your analytical skills.

Feasibility of Research:

• Availability of Resources: While choosing an obscure topic can make your essay unique, ensure you have enough resources or primary research opportunities to support your arguments.
• Scope: The topic should be neither too broad nor too narrow. It should allow for in-depth exploration within the word limit of the essay. For instance, “Modern Architecture” is too broad, but “The Influence of Bauhaus on Modern Apartment Design in Berlin between 1950-1970” is more focused.

Finding the right topic is a journey, and sometimes it requires a few wrong turns before you hit the right path. Stay curious, be patient, and remember that the best topics are those that marry your personal passion with academic rigor. Your enthusiasm will shine through in your writing, making the essay engaging and impactful.

Organizational Tools and Systems for an Effective Architecture Essay

Writing an essay on architecture is a blend of creative expression and meticulous research. As you delve deep into topics, theories, and case studies, it becomes imperative to keep your resources organized and accessible.

This section introduces you to a set of tools and systems tailored for architectural essay writing.

Using Digital Aids

• Notion: This versatile tool provides a workspace that integrates note-taking, database creation, and task management. For an architecture essay, you can create separate pages for your outline, research, and drafts. The use of templates can streamline the writing process and help in maintaining a structured approach.
• MyBib: Citing resources is a crucial part of essay writing. MyBib acts as a lifesaver by generating citations in various styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) and organizing them for easy access. Make sure to cross-check and ensure accuracy.
• Evernote: This tool allows you to clip web pages, articles, or images that inspire or contribute to your essay. You can annotate, highlight, and categorize your findings in different notebooks.

Systematic Research

• Organizing Findings: Develop a system where each finding, whether it’s a quote, image, or data point, has its source attached. Use color-coding or tags to denote different topics or relevance levels.
• Note Galleries: Convert your key points into visual cards. This technique can be especially helpful in architectural essays, where visual concepts may be central to your argument.
• Sorting by Source Type: Separate your research into categories like academic journals, books, articles, and interviews. This will make it easier when referencing or looking for a particular kind of information.

Strategies for Effective Literature Review

• Skimming vs. In-depth Reading: Not every source needs a detailed read. Learn to differentiate between foundational texts that require in-depth understanding and those where skimming for key ideas is sufficient.
• Note-making Techniques: Adopt methods like the Cornell Note-taking System, mind mapping, or bullet journaling, depending on what suits your thought process best. These methods help in breaking down complex ideas into manageable chunks.
• Staying Updated: The world of architecture is evolving. Ensure you’re not missing any recent papers, articles, or developments related to your topic. Setting up Google Scholar alerts or RSS feeds can be beneficial.

Organizing your research and using tools efficiently will not only streamline your writing process but will also enhance the quality of your essay. As you progress, you’ll discover what techniques and tools work best for you.

The key is to maintain consistency and always be open to trying out new methods to improve your workflow and efficiency.

Writing Techniques and Tips for an Architecture Essay

An architecture essay, while deeply rooted in academic rigor, is also a canvas for innovative ideas, design critiques, and a reflection of the architectural zeitgeist. Here’s a deep dive into techniques and tips that can elevate your essay from merely informative to truly compelling.

Learning from Others

• Read Before You Write: Before diving into your own writing, spend some time exploring essays written by others. Understand the flow, the structure, the narrative techniques, and how they tie their thoughts cohesively.
• Inspirational Sources: Journals, academic papers, architecture magazines, and opinion pieces offer a wealth of writing styles. Notice how varied perspectives bring life to similar topics.

Using Jargon Judiciously

• Maintain Clarity: While it’s tempting to use specialized terminology extensively, remember your essay should be accessible to a broader audience. Use technical terms when necessary, but ensure they’re explained or inferred.
• Balancing Act: Maintain a balance between academic writing and creative expression. Let the jargon complement your narrative rather than overshadowing your message.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

• Plagiarism – The Silent Offender: Always give credit where credit is due. Even if you feel you’ve paraphrased sufficiently, ensure your sources are adequately referenced. Utilize plagiarism check tools to ensure originality.
• Stay Focused: It’s easy to get lost in the vast world of architecture. Ensure your writing stays on topic, refraining from veering too far from your central theme.
• Conciseness: While detailed elaboration can be insightful, verbosity can drown your main points. Be succinct where necessary.

Craft a Compelling Introduction and Conclusion

• First Impressions: Your introduction should provide context, state the purpose of your essay, and capture the reader’s interest. Think of it as the blueprint of a building – it should give an idea of what to expect.
• Tying it All Together: Your conclusion should summarize your main points, reflect on the implications of your findings, and perhaps even propose further areas of study or exploration.

Use Active Voice

• Direct and Dynamic: Active voice makes your writing sound more direct and lively. Instead of writing, “The design was critiqued by several architects,” try “Several architects critiqued the design.”

Personalize your Narrative

• Your Unique Voice: Architecture, at its core, is about human experiences and spaces. Infuse your writing with personal observations, experiences, or reflections where relevant. This personal touch can make your essay stand out.

Revise, Revise, Revise

• The First Draft is Rarely the Final: Writing is a process. Once you’ve penned down your initial thoughts, revisit them. Refine the flow, enhance clarity, and ensure your argument is both cogent and captivating.

Remember, an architecture essay is both a testament to your academic understanding and a reflection of your perspective on architectural phenomena. Treat it as a synthesis of research, observation, creativity, and structured argumentation, and you’ll craft an essay that resonates.

Incorporating Sources Seamlessly

In architectural essays, as with most academic endeavors, sources form the backbone of your assertions and claims. They lend credibility to your arguments and showcase your understanding of the topic at hand. But it’s not just about listing references.

It’s about weaving them into your essay so seamlessly that your reader not only comprehends your point but also recognizes the strong foundation on which your arguments stand. Here’s how you can incorporate sources effectively:

Effective Quotation:

• Blend with the Narrative: Direct quotations should feel like a natural extension of your writing. For instance, instead of abruptly inserting a quote, use lead-ins like, “As architect Jane Smith argues, ‘…'”
• Use Sparingly: While direct quotes can validate a point, over-relying on them can overshadow your voice. Use them to emphasize pivotal points and always ensure you contextualize their significance.
• Adapting Quotes: Occasionally, for the sake of flow, you might need to change a word or phrase in a quote. If you do, denote changes with square brackets, e.g., “[The building] stands as a testament to modern design.”

Referencing Techniques:

• Parenthetical Citations: Most academic essays utilize parenthetical (or in-text) citations, where a brief reference (usually the author’s surname and the publication year) is provided within the text itself.
• Footnotes and Endnotes: Some referencing styles prefer notes, which can provide additional context or information without interrupting the flow of the essay.
• Consistency is Key: Stick to one referencing style throughout your essay, whether it’s APA, MLA, Chicago, or any other format.

Using Notes Effectively:

• Annotate as You Go: When reading, jot down insights or connections you make in the margins or in your note-taking app. This will help you incorporate sources in a way that feels relevant and organic.
• Maintain a Bibliography: Keeping a running list of all the sources you encounter will make the final citation process smoother. With tools like Zotero or MyBib, you can auto-generate and manage bibliographies with ease.
• Critical Analysis over Summary: While it’s vital to understand and convey the main points of a source, it’s equally crucial to critique, interpret, or discuss its relevance in the context of your essay.

Remember, the objective of referencing isn’t just to show that you’ve done the reading or to avoid accusations of plagiarism. It’s about building on the work of others to create your unique narrative and perspective.

Always strive for a balance, where your voice remains at the forefront, but is consistently and credibly supported by your sources.

Designing Your Essay

Architecture is an intricate tapestry of creativity, precision, and innovation. Just as a building’s design can make or break its appeal, the visual presentation of your essay plays a pivotal role in how it’s received.

Below are steps and strategies to ensure your architecture essay isn’t just a treatise of words but also a feast for the eyes.

Visual Aesthetics: More Than Just Words

• Whitespace and Balance: Much like in architecture, the empty spaces in your essay—the margins, line spacing, and breaks between paragraphs—matter. Whitespace can make your essay appear more organized and readable.
• Fonts and Typography: Choose a font that is both legible and evocative of your essay’s tone. A serif font like Times New Roman may offer a traditional, academic feel, while sans-serif fonts like Arial or Calibri lend a modern touch. However, always adhere to submission guidelines if provided.
• Use of Imagery: If allowed, incorporating relevant images, charts, or diagrams can enhance understanding and add a visual flair to your essay. Make sure to caption them properly and ensure they’re of high resolution.

Relevance to Topic: Visuals That Complement Content

• Thematic Design: Ensure any design elements—be they color schemes, borders, or footers—tie back to your essay’s topic or the architectural theme you’re discussing.
• Visual Examples: If you’re discussing a specific architectural movement or an iconic building, consider incorporating relevant images, sketches, or blueprints to give readers a visual point of reference.

Examples of Unique Design Ideas

• Sidebars and Callouts: Much like how modern buildings might feature a unique design element that stands out, sidebars or callouts can be used to highlight crucial points, quotes, or tangential information.
• Integrated Infographics: For essays discussing data, trends, or historical timelines, infographics can be an innovative way to present information. They synthesize complex data into digestible visual formats.
• Annotations: If you’re critiquing or discussing a specific image, annotations can be helpful. They allow you to pinpoint and elaborate on specific elements within the image directly.

Consistency is Key

• Maintain a Theme: Just as in architectural design, maintaining a consistent visual theme throughout your essay creates harmony and cohesion. This could be in the form of consistent font usage, header designs, or color schemes.
• Captions and References: Any visual aid, be it a photograph, illustration, or chart, should be captioned consistently and sourced correctly to avoid plagiarism.

In the realm of architectural essays, the saying “ form follows function ” is equally valid. Your design choices should not just be aesthetic adornments but should serve to enhance understanding, readability, and engagement.

By taking the time to thoughtfully design your essay, you are not only showcasing your architectural insights but also your keen eye for design, thereby leaving a lasting impression on your readers.

Finalizing Your Essay

Finalizing an architecture essay is a task that demands a meticulous approach. The difference between an average essay and an outstanding one often lies in the refinement process. Here, we explore the steps to ensure that your essay is in its best possible form before submission.

Proofreading:

• Grammar and Syntax Checks: Always use tools like Grammarly or Microsoft Word’s spellchecker, but remember, they aren’t infallible. After an initial electronic check, read the essay aloud. This can help in catching awkward phrasing and any overlooked errors.
• Consistency in Language and Style: Ensure that you maintain a uniform style and tone throughout. If you begin with UK English, for instance, stick with it till the end.
• Flow and Coherence: The essay should have a logical progression. Each paragraph should lead seamlessly into the next, with clear transitions.

Feedback Loop:

• Peer Reviews: Having classmates or colleagues read your essay can provide fresh perspectives. They might catch unclear sections or points of potential expansion that you might have missed.
• Expert Feedback: If possible, seek feedback from instructors or professionals in the field. Their insights can greatly enhance the quality of your content.
• Acting on Feedback: Merely receiving feedback isn’t enough. Be prepared to make revisions, even if it means letting go of sections you’re fond of, for the overall improvement of the essay.

Aligning with University Requirements:

• Formatting: Adhere strictly to the specified format. Whether it’s APA, Chicago, or MLA, make sure your citations, font, spacing, and margins are in line with the guidelines.
• Word Count: Most institutions will have a stipulated word count. Ensure you’re within the limit. If you’re over, refine your content; if you’re under, see if there are essential points you might have missed.
• Supplementary Materials: For architecture essays, you might need to attach diagrams, sketches, or photographs. Ensure these are clear, relevant, and properly labeled.
• Referencing: Properly cite all your sources. Any claim or statement that isn’t common knowledge needs to be attributed to its source. Also, ensure that your bibliography or reference list is comprehensive and formatted correctly.

Final Read-through:

• After making all the changes, set your essay aside for a day or two, if time permits. Come back with fresh eyes and do one last read-through. This distance can often help you catch any remaining issues.

Finalizing your architecture essay is as vital as the initial stages of research and drafting. The care you take in refining and polishing your work reflects your commitment to excellence. When you’ve gone through these finalization steps, you can submit your essay confidently, knowing you’ve given it your best shot.

To Sum Up…

Writing an architecture essay is a unique challenge that requires a balance of creativity, critical thinking, and academic rigor. The process demands not just a deep understanding of architectural theories and case studies but also an ability to express these complex ideas clearly and compellingly.

Throughout this article, we have explored various facets of crafting an excellent architecture essay, from choosing a resonant topic and conducting thorough research to employing effective writing techniques and incorporating sources seamlessly.

The visual aspect of an architecture essay cannot be overlooked. As architects blend functionality with aesthetics in their designs, so too must students intertwine informative content with visual appeal in their essays. This is an opportunity to showcase not only your understanding of the subject matter but also your creativity and attention to detail.

Remember, a well-designed essay speaks volumes about your passion for architecture and your dedication to the discipline.

As we wrap up this guide, it is crucial to emphasize the importance of meticulous proofreading and seeking feedback. These final steps are vital in ensuring that your essay is free from errors and that your arguments are coherent and compelling.

Engaging in a feedback loop with peers, mentors, or advisors can provide valuable insights and help to refine your work further.

Additionally, always ensure that your essay aligns with the specific requirements set forth by your university or institution. Pay attention to details like font styles, referencing methods, and formatting guidelines.

These elements, while seemingly minor, play a significant role in creating a polished and professional final product.

Keep practicing, keep learning, and remember that each essay is a stepping stone toward mastering the art of architectural writing.

FAQs about Architecture Essays

Do architecture students have to write essays.

Yes, architecture students often have to write essays as part of their academic curriculum. While architecture is a field that heavily involves visual and practical skills, essays and written assignments play a crucial role in helping students develop their critical thinking, research, and analytical skills.

While hands-on design work and practical projects are integral parts of an architectural education, essays play a crucial role in developing the theoretical, analytical, and communication skills necessary for success in the field.

By writing essays, architecture students learn to think critically, research effectively, and communicate their ideas clearly, laying a strong foundation for their future careers.

Every design project begins with site analysis … start it with confidence for free!.

As seen on:

Unlock access to all our new and current products for life .

Providing a general introduction and overview into the subject, and life as a student and professional.

Study aid for both students and young architects, offering tutorials, tips, guides and resources.

Information and resources addressing the professional architectural environment and industry.

• Concept Design Skills
• Portfolio Creation
• Meet The Team

Where can we send the Checklist?

By entering your email address, you agree to receive emails from archisoup. We’ll respect your privacy, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

The Intersection of Art and Architecture: Unveiling the Prime Influence

Art in Architecture combines art and science that revolves around space, events, movement, and time. Architecture has been described as ‘ art ‘ due to its creative nature and visual appeal. The fusion of art and architecture has resulted in inspiring and spiritually uplifting designs. Throughout history, different art movements have influenced architecture. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jugendstil, an art nouveau style, emerged, inspired by organic forms and the relationship between humans and nature. This movement translated into architecture with organic lines, nature-inspired motifs, and engineered and natural materials. Another influential art movement was Dadaism , which emerged as a rebellious and revolutionary response to war and capitalist culture. Dada art featured irrational concepts and aimed to ridicule societal norms. These art movements have significantly impacted modern architecture, breaking traditional structures and focusing on simplicity, functionality, and multiple perspectives. These movements have shaped architectural styles globally, from vibrant colours in Art Nouveau to minimalism in the 1960s. Art in Architecture highlights the importance of creativity, emotion, and community beyond mere functionality in the built environment.

The impact of architectural design on art movements

While art has undoubtedly influenced architecture throughout history, it is essential to recognise the reciprocal relationship between the two disciplines. Architectural design has often catalyzed new art movements, pushing artists to explore new techniques and concepts. The Industrial Revolution , for instance, brought about significant changes in architectural design with the rise of steel and glass structures. This newfound architectural landscape inspired artists like Claude Monet and the Impressionists to capture the changing urban environment, resulting in a shift towards more experimental and vibrant artistic styles.

Similarly, the advent of modernist architecture in the early 20th century, characterised by minimalist forms and functional design, influenced art movements like Cubism and Constructivism . Artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, inspired by modernist architecture’s geometric shapes and clean lines, translated these principles into their paintings, revolutionising the art world. The interplay between art and architecture in this period challenged traditional boundaries and sparked innovation in both disciplines.

Case studies: Examining famous architectural works influenced by art

In order to improve the built environment, whether in cities, workplaces, healthcare facilities, or public green spaces, art and architecture must be interwoven. Eye-catching buildings like The Esplanade and Changi Jewel in Singapore showcase how art can be combined with architecture. Some people hold the opinion that architecture is an art form in and of itself and does not need the presence of artists in the design process. However, the fusion of art and architecture can create something greater than the sum of its parts. For millennia, artists and designers have been attracted to the union of art and architecture. Architects should consider art as a vital aspect of their work, as it can enhance the character of a space and create a more environmentally conscious society. Architecture must not only serve functional needs but also inspire and have an emotional impact. By incorporating art into the design of a structure, it can transform the space and evoke emotions in its occupants. Hanging art on the walls is a simple yet transformative design strategy that can be used to incorporate art into the overall design.

Contemporary examples: How art and architecture continue to intersect

Art and architecture continue to intersect in fascinating ways in contemporary times, with architects and artists collaborating to create immersive spaces that engage and inspire. One such example is the Tokyo Skytree in Japan , designed by architect Tadao Ando. This towering structure, one of the tallest towers in the world, combines architectural prowess with artistic sensibility. Ando’s design incorporates elements of Zen philosophy and traditional Japanese aesthetics, creating a serene and harmonious environment for visitors. The observation decks, with their panoramic views of Tokyo, offer a unique artistic experience, merging the beauty of the cityscape with the architectural marvel.

Another noteworthy example is the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, designed by architect Jean Nouvel. This cultural institution combines art, architecture, and nature, creating a mesmerising experience for visitors. Nouvel’s design features a series of interconnected buildings covered by a stunning geometric dome that filters sunlight, creating a captivating play of light and shadows. The architectural design not only complements the art within the museum but also becomes a work of art in itself, blurring the boundaries between the interior and exterior spaces.

The Role of Technology in the Fusion of art and Architecture

Technology has played a significant role in the fusion of art and architecture, offering new possibilities for collaboration and immersive experiences. The Serpentine Pavilion in London is an annual showcase for this fusion, with renowned architects incorporating interactive installations and digital art. Advancements in parametric design and 3D printing have also revolutionised architectural possibilities, allowing for intricate and innovative structures that blur the lines between art and architecture.

Criticisms and controversies surrounding the integration of art and architecture

Criticisms and controversies exist within this integration. Some argue that architectural designs can overshadow the art within a space, detracting from the intended experience. The allocation of public funds to integrate art into architectural projects is also a point of contention, with some questioning the practicality of such investments .

The future of art and architecture: Emerging trends and possibilities

In the future, sustainability and eco-conscious design will be increasingly important in the fusion of art and architecture. Architects and artists are incorporating sustainable materials and energy solutions into their creations. Additionally, the rise of interactive and immersive experiences through virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality technologies will reshape engagement with art and architecture. These technologies will democratise access to creativity and collaboration, transcending physical limitations.

Admin (2021) How can art enhance an architecture , Minimalism.sg . Available at: http://minimalism.sg/how-can-art-enhance-an-architecture/ (Accessed: 02 July 2023). 

Saha, S. and Chinurkar, K. (2023) Art in architecture: A strong influence , The Design Gesture . Available at: https://thedesigngesture.com/art-in-architecture-a-prime-influence/ (Accessed: 02 July 2023). 

Art Nouveau Architecture: Features & Famous Examples (no date) Gira . Available at: https://www.gira.com/en/en/g-pulse-magazine/architecture/art-nouveau#origins (Accessed: 02 July 2023). 

An overview of European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention AADIPA

An architectural review of location: Antigua, Guatemala

Related posts.

LEED for Show: Exploring the Pitfalls of Building Green for Certification Alone

The Housing Crisis in Asia

From Bytes to Building

Why going to events important as a budding professional

Embroidering our Heritage through Textiles

Sustainability: The Ethical Principle of Architecture

• Architectural Community
• Architectural Facts
• RTF Architectural Reviews
• Architectural styles
• City and Architecture
• Fun & Architecture
• History of Architecture
• Design Studio Portfolios
• Designing for typologies
• RTF Design Inspiration
• Architecture News
• Career Advice
• Case Studies
• Construction & Materials
• Covid and Architecture
• Interior Design
• Know Your Architects
• Landscape Architecture
• Materials & Construction
• Product Design
• RTF Fresh Perspectives
• Sustainable Architecture
• Top Architects
• Travel and Architecture
• Rethinking The Future Awards 2022
• RTF Awards 2021 | Results
• GADA 2021 | Results
• RTF Awards 2020 | Results
• ACD Awards 2020 | Results
• GADA 2019 | Results
• ACD Awards 2018 | Results
• GADA 2018 | Results
• RTF Awards 2017 | Results
• RTF Sustainability Awards 2017 | Results
• RTF Sustainability Awards 2016 | Results
• RTF Sustainability Awards 2015 | Results
• RTF Awards 2014 | Results
• RTF Architectural Visualization Competition 2020 – Results
• Architectural Photography Competition 2020 – Results
• Designer’s Days of Quarantine Contest – Results
• Urban Sketching Competition May 2020 – Results
• RTF Essay Writing Competition April 2020 – Results
• Architectural Photography Competition 2019 – Finalists
• The Ultimate Thesis Guide
• Introduction to Landscape Architecture
• Perfect Guide to Architecting Your Career
• How to Design Architecture Portfolio
• How to Design Streets
• Introduction to Urban Design
• Introduction to Product Design
• Complete Guide to Dissertation Writing
• Introduction to Skyscraper Design
• Educational
• Hospitality
• Institutional
• Office Buildings
• Public Building
• Residential
• Sports & Recreation
• Temporary Structure
• Commercial Interior Design
• Corporate Interior Design
• Healthcare Interior Design
• Hospitality Interior Design
• Residential Interior Design
• Sustainability
• Transportation
• Urban Design
• Host your Course with RTF
• Architectural Writing Training Programme | WFH
• Editorial Internship | In-office
• Graphic Design Internship
• Research Internship | WFH
• Research Internship | New Delhi
• RTF | About RTF
• Submit Your Story

Looking for Job/ Internship?

Rtf will connect you with right design studios.

Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

Summary of Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

Classical Art encompasses the cultures of Greece and Rome and endures as the cornerstone of Western civilization. Including innovations in painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and architecture, Classical Art pursued ideals of beauty, harmony, and proportion, even as those ideals shifted and changed over the centuries. While often employed in propagandistic ways, the human figure and the human experience of space and their relationship with the gods were central to Classical Art. Over the span of almost 1200 years, ideals of human beauty and proportion occupied art's subject. Variations of those ideals were later adopted during the Renaissance in Italy and again during the 18 th and 19 th century Neoclassical trend throughout Europe. Connotations of moral virtue and stability clung to Classical Art, making it attractive to new nations and republics trying to find an aesthetic vocabulary to convey their power, while, later, in the 20 th century it came under attack by modern artists who sought to disrupt and overturn power and traditional ideals.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• The idealized human form soon became the noblest subject of art in Greece and was the foundation for a standard of beauty that dominated many centuries of Western art. The Greek ideal of beauty was grounded in a canon of proportions, based on the golden ratio and the ratio of lengths of body parts to each other, which governed the depictions of male and female figures.
• While ideal proportions were paramount, Classical Art strove for ever greater realism in anatomical depictions. This realism also came to encompass emotional and psychological realism that created dramatic tensions and drew in the viewer.
• Greek temple designs started simply and evolved into more complex and ornate structures, but later architects translated the symmetrical design and columned exterior into a host of governmental, educational, and religious buildings over the centuries to convey a sense of order and stability.
• Perhaps a coincidence, but just as increased archaeological digs turned up numerous examples of Greek and Roman art, the field of art history was being developed as a scientific course of study by the likes of Johann Winkelmann. Winkelmann, often considered the father of art history, based his theories of the progression of art on the development of Greek art, which he largely knew only from Roman copies. Since the middle of the 18 th century, art historical and classical tradition have been intimately entwined.
• While Greek and Roman sculpture and ruins are linked with the purity of white marble in the Western mind, most of the works were originally polychrome, painted in multiple, lifelike colors. 18 th century excavations unearthed a number of sculptures with traces of color, but noted art historians dismissed the findings as anomalies. It was only in the late 20 th century that scholars accepted that life-size statues and entire temple friezes were, in fact, brightly painted with numerous colors and decorations, raising many new questions about the assumptions of Western art history and revealing that centuries of classical imitations were not in fact imitations but rather based on nostalgic ideals of the past.

Artworks and Artists of Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

Roman copy 120-50 BCE of original by Polycleitus, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) c. 440 BCE

This work depicts a nude muscular warrior, as he steps forward, his head turns slightly to his right, and his left hand would have readied a spear that originally rested upon his left shoulder. The figure's anatomical realism conveys potential movement through a complex interaction of tensed and relaxed muscles. Almost seven feet tall, the monumental work conveys an imposing sense of male heroic beauty that could face whatever may come with dispassionate calm, as shown in the serious but expressionless face. Because marble copies needed additional support, the tree stump was an addition to the bronze original. What is known of the original is based upon the exceptional quality of later copies, including this one. Polycleitus thought this work was synonymous with his Canon, a treatise of sculptural principles, based upon mathematical proportions. Though his treatise has been lost, references to it survived in later accounts, including Galen's, a 2 nd century Greek writer, who wrote that its "Beauty consists in the proportions, not of the elements, but of the parts, that is to say, of finger to finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and the wrist, and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and of all the other parts to each other." At the time it was made, the work was widely acclaimed, as Warren G. Moon and Barbara Hughes Fowler write, the Doryphorus ushered in "a new definition of true human greatness...an artistic moral exemplar...tied to no particular place or action, he represents the universal male ideal." This marble copy, found in a gymnasium at Pompeii, became the most admired work of the Roman Republic, as Roman aristocrats commissioned copies.

Marble copy of bronze original - Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy

The Parthenon

Artist: Ictinus and Callicrates

This iconic temple, dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom and patron of Athens, stands majestically on top of the Acropolis, a sacred complex overlooking the city. The 17 Doric columns on either side and the eight at each end create both a sense of harmonious proportion and a dynamic visual and horizontal movement. The building exemplifies the Doric order and the rectangular plan of Greek temples, which emphasized a flow of movement and light between the temple's interior and the surrounding space, while the movement of the columns, rising out of the earth, to the entablature that rings the building, draws the eye heavenward to the carved reliefs and statues that, originally, brightly painted, crowned the temple. Ictinus and Callicrates were identified as the architects of the building in ancient sources, while the sculptor Phidias and the statesman Pericles supervised the project. Dedicated in 438 BCE, the Parthenon replaced the earlier temple on the city's holy site that also included a shrine to Erechtheus, the city's mythical founder, a smaller temple of the goddess Athena, and the olive tree that she gave to Athens, all of which were destroyed by the invading Persian Army in 480 BCE. The Persians also killed the priests, priestesses, and citizens who had taken refuge at the site, and, when the new Parthenon was dedicated, following that experience of trauma and desecration, it was a monument to the restoration and continuation of Athenian values and became, as art critic Daniel Mendelsohn wrote, a "dramatization of the political and moral differences between the victims and the perpetrators." As Mendelsohn noted, the Parthenon while taken "as the epitome of Greek architecture...was typical of nothing at all, an anomaly in terms of material, size, and design." It was both the largest temple in Greece and the first built of only marble. While Doric temples commonly had thirteen columns on each side and six in the front, the Parthenon pioneered the octastyle, with eight columns, thus extending the space for sculptural reliefs. Originally the Parthenon Marbles decorated the entablature, as 92 metopes , or rectangular stone panels, depicted mythological battle scenes - of gods fighting giants, Greek warriors fighting Trojans or Amazons, and men battling centaurs - while the pediments contained statues depicting the stories of Athena's life, so that as Mendelsohn wrote, "Merely to walk around the temple was to get a lesson in Greek and Athenian civic history." The temple's interior was equally meant to inspire, as Phidias's colossal statue of Athena Parthenos , or the virgin Athena, dominated the space. Forty feet tall, the statue held a six foot tall gold statue of Victory in her hand. A frieze, carved in relief, lined the surrounding walls, innovatively introducing a decorative feature of Ionic architecture into the Doric order. The 525 foot long frieze has been described by art historian Joan Breton Connelly as "showing 378 human and 245 animal figures... the largest and most detailed revelation of Athenian consciousness we have ... this moving portrayal of noble faces from the distant past, ... the largest, most elaborate narrative tableau the Athenians have left us." The Parthenon's design employed precise mathematical proportions, based upon the golden ratio, but as Mendelsohn noted, "There are almost no straight lines in the building." The columns employ entasis , a swelling at the center of each column, and tilt inward, while the foundation also rises toward the façade, correcting for the optical illusion of sagging and tilting that would have resulted in perfectly straight lines. Aesthetically, though, as Mendelsohn explains, "[T]he slight swelling also conveys the subliminal impression of muscular effort...Arching, leaning, straining, swelling, breathing: the over-all effect...is to give the building a special and slightly unsettling quality of being somehow alive." The building has been highly praised since ancient times as the 1 st century Roman historian Plutarch called it "no less stately in size than exquisite in form," and in the modern era, Le Corbusier called it "the basis for all measurement in art."

Marble - Athens, Greece

Apollo Belvedere, Roman copy, c. 120 - 140 CE of Leochares bronze original c. 350-325 BCE

This nude statue, a little over seven feet tall, depicts Apollo, the Greek god of art and music, as he strides forward, having just shot an arrow from a bow which his extended left hand originally held. Realistic in its anatomical modeling, the work conveys a sense of gravity, both in his form as seen in the musculature of his weight-bearing right leg and in the folds of his chlamys , or robe, falling across his left arm. Contrapposto is employed innovatively to create a sense of complex movement, presenting the statue both frontally and in profile as the god strides forward majestically. While the statue is identified as the god by the headband he wears, reserved for gods or rulers, and his bow and the quiver across his left shoulder, he is also equally a symbol of youthful masculine beauty. The work has also been called the Pythian Apollo, as it was believed to depict Apollo's slaying of the Python, a mythical serpent at Delphi, marking the moment when the site became sacred to the god and home of the famous Delphic Oracle. The marble statue is believed to be a Roman copy of an original bronze from the 4 th century by the Greek sculptor Leochares. The work was discovered in 1489 and became part of the collection of Cardinal Giulano della Rovere who, subsequently, became Pope Julius II, the leading patron of the Italian High Renaissance. He put the work on public display in 1511, and Michelangelo's student, the sculptor Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, restored the missing parts of the left hand and right arm. Much acclaimed, the work was sketched by Michelangelo, Bandinelli, Goltzius, and Albrecht Dürer who modeled Adam upon Apollo in his engraving Adam and Eve (1504). Marcantonio Raimondi made a copy of the Apollo, and his engraving in the 1530s was widely disseminated throughout Europe; however, the work became most influential in the 1700s as Winckelmann, the pioneering German art historian, wrote, "Of all the works of antiquity that have escaped destruction, the statue of Apollo represents the highest ideal of art." The work became fundamental to the development of Neoclassicism as seen in Antonio Canova's Perseus (1804-1806) modeled after the work. As art critic Jonathan Jones noted, "The work was admired two hundred years ago as an image of the absolute rational clarity of Greek civilisation and the perfect harmony of divine beauty," but in the Romantic era it fell into disfavor as the leading critics, John Ruskin, William Hazlitt, and Walter Pater critiqued it. Still, it has remained popular and frequently reproduced, lending it a cultural currency, as seen in the official seal of the 1972 Apollo XVII moon landing mission.

Marble - Vatican City

The Dying Gaul, Roman marble copy of Greek bronze by Epigonus

This Roman copy of a Greek Hellenistic work depicts a nude and dying man, identified as a Gaul or more specifically a Galatian, a member of a Celtic tribe in Pergamon, a Greek city in Turkey. Sitting on the ground, his left hand grasping his left knee, and his right hand resting upon a broken sword as he holds himself up, he looks down as if contemplating his end. His extended legs and the twist of his torso suggest pain and immanent collapse. The work is realistic and emotionally expressive, as the tension between tensed and relaxed muscles conveys his struggle to fight off death. A pensive and somber feeling dominates the work, making it an intense reflection on defeat and mortality, while the idealization of his physical beauty suggests a heroic death. The statue was discovered sometime in the early 1600s at the Villa Ludovisi, the country residence of a wealthy and powerful Italian family, and was originally believed to depict a Roman gladiator. The work was popular and viewing it became a necessary part of the Grand Tour undertaken by young aristocrats in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The British Romantic poet, Lord Byron whose famous poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812) was written following his Grand Tour, wrote, "I see before me the gladiator lie/ He leans upon his hand - his manly brow/ Consents to death, but conquers agony." Its popularity led to a proliferation of marble and plaster copies across Europe. In the 19 th century, scholars identified the subject as a Gaul, due to his hairstyle and the torque he wears on his neck, and Epigonus, a court appointed sculptor of Pergamon, as the original artist. The original was part of a complex sculpture group to celebrate Pergamon's victory over the Gauls and exemplifies what was called the "Pergamene Style," which as contemporary art critic Jerry Saltz noted, "emphasized emotional appeal and almost Baroque volatility. Nothing defines that style quite as clearly as the Dying Gaul , who is both tragic and sensual, firing both our desire and our sense of compassion."

Marble - Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy

Winged Victory of Samothrace

This monumental work, depicting Nike, the goddess of victory, and created in honor of a naval victory, emphasizes dynamic movement, as the goddess surges forward, swept by the wind, her wings unfurled behind her. As art historian H.W. Jansen wrote, "This invisible force of on-rushing air here becomes a tangible reality; it not only balances the forward movement of the figure but also shapes every fold of the wonderfully animated drapery. As a result, there is an active relationship - indeed, and interdependence - between the statue and the space that envelops it, such as we have never seen before." Over 18 feet tall, the Hellenistic statue stands on a pedestal, placed upon a base that resembles the prow of a ship. Most scholars believe the work was originally placed at the Sanctuary of the Greek Gods, a temple complex overlooking the harbor on the island of Samothrace. Charles Champoiseau, a French envoy, discovered the fragmented statue in 1863 and sent it to Paris where it was reassembled and placed in the Louvre, famously dominating the view up the grand staircase. The work influenced a number of modern artists and movements, as Umberto Boccioni's Futuristic work Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913) references the statue, and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti also referenced it in his Futurist Manifesto (1903). The American sculptors Samuel Murray and Augustus Saint-Gaudens created Nike-like figures, as seen in Saint Gauden's Sherman Memorial (1903) and the statue was a favorite work of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who included reproductions of it in a number of his residential designs. Yves Klein painted a number of plaster copies, painted in his International Klein Blue and using a resin he named Victoire de Samatrace , and more recently, Banksy's CCTV Angel (2006) repurposed the figure.

Parian Marble - Louvre Museum, Paris

Venus de Milo

Artist: Alexandros of Antioch

Believed to portray Venus, the goddess of love, this six-and-a-half-foot statue creates dynamic visual movement with its accentuated s-curve, emphasizing the curve of the torso and hip, as the lower part of her body is draped in the realistic folds of her falling robe. The dramatic contrapposto , her left knee raised as if lifting her foot off the ground, further emphasizes her movement, as she turns toward the viewer. The work was originally attributed to Praxiteles but is now generally credited to Alexandros of Antioch. Scholarly dispute continues about the identity of its subject; traditionally identified as Venus, some scholars believe the work actually portrays Amphitrite, a sea goddess, worshipped on the island of Milo where the sculpture was found in 1820, and some contemporary scholars have suggested the figure may in fact portray a prostitute. The statue was made from several pieces of marble, two blocks used for the body, while other parts, including the legs and left arm, were sculpted individually and then attached. When excavated in 1820, part of an arm and a fragmented hand holding a round orb were discovered with the statue, which stood upon a stone plinth. At the time, the fragments were discarded, due to their 'rougher' finish, and later so was the plinth. It's believed that, originally, the statue was brightly painted and adorned with expensive jewelry. During his Italian campaign Napoleon Bonaparte took the Medici Venus (1 st century BCE), then the most renowned classical female nude, to France and installed it in the Louvre. But in 1815 the French returned the Medici Venus and bought the Venus de Milo , which they promoted both as the finest classical work and a model of feminine grace and beauty. More than any other classical sculpture, this iconic nude has greatly influenced both modern art and culture, due to its compelling ideal of feminine beauty and its beguiling mystery. As art critic Jonathan Jones writes, "The Venus de Milo is an accidental surrealist masterpiece. Her lack of arms makes her strange and dreamlike. She is perfect but imperfect, beautiful but broken - the body as a ruin. That sense of enigmatic incompleteness has transformed an ancient work of art into a modern one." Salvador Dalí's Venus de Milo with Drawers (1936) copied the work but inserted pull drawers with pink pompom handles into the torso. As Jones noted, the Venus de Milo has retained its contemporary artistic relevance because it "entered European culture in the 19th century just as artists and writers were rejecting the perfect and timeless." As a result, the work haunts the modern imagination, referenced in literature, films, and television episodes and used in any number of advertisements, while its impact on cultural concepts of feminine beauty can be seen in the American Society of Plastic Surgeons' use of the figure on its seal in 1930.

Marble - Louvre Museum, Paris

Laocoön and His Sons

Artist: Agesandro, Athendoros, and Polydoros

This famous work depicts the doomed struggle of Laocoön, and his two sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus caught in the coils of two giant poisonous sea serpents, one of them biting Laocoön's hip. His hand grasps the snake's neck as he tries to fend it off. On the left, the youngest boy, dying from the poison, has collapsed, his legs caught in the coils that lift him off the ground. The central figure is the father, whose powerful muscular form twists upward and backward, his despairing and contorted gaze turned heavenward, as his son on the right turns to look pleadingly at him. Drawing upon the story of the Trojan war, the work is thought to dramatically depict the moment when Laocoön, a priest of Troy who warned the Trojans against taking the Greek wooden horse into the city, was attacked, along with his two sons, by the serpents sent by the gods to silence him. As a result the frightened Trojans, fearing the gods' punishment, took in the wooden horse containing the Greek soldiers, who, hidden within it, came out at night to open the gates for the Greek army, leading to the fall of Troy. Art historian Nigel Spivey has called the work "the prototypical icon of human agony," and its dynamic sense of drama and its use of slightly unrealistic scale to emphasize paradoxically the father's power and helplessness made it innovative and a masterwork of the Hellenistic style. In 1506 the work was discovered during excavations of Rome and immediately drew the attention of Pope Julius II who sent Michelangelo to oversee the excavation. Its identification drew upon the ancient accounts of Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, who described the work as located in the emperor Titus's palace and attributed it to the Rhodes sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus. The work greatly influenced Michelangelo, including some of his figures in the Sistine Chapel ceiling and his later sculpture. Raphael depicted Homer with Laocoon's face in his Parnassus , and Titian drew upon the work for his Averoldi Altarpiece (1520-24), as did Rubens for his Descent from the Cross . (1612-14). William Blake also referenced the sculpture, though within his own belief that imitations of Classical Art destroyed the creative imagination. The work informed a number of ongoing debates, as to whether sculpture or painting were more primary, and has played a role in modern discourses, as seen in Irving Babbit's (1910) The New Laokoon: An Essay on the Confusion of the Arts (1910) and Clement Greenberg's Towards a Newer Laocoön (1940), where he argued for abstract art as the new, equivalent, ideal. The Henry Moore Institute held a 2007 exhibition with this title while showing modern works influenced by the statue, and contemporary artist Sanford Biggers has referenced the work within his contemporary installation pieces.

Augustus of Prima Porta

This statue depicts Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, in military uniform, his right arm raised in a gesture of leadership, addressing the military and populace of Rome. His contrapposto pose, the muscular modeling of his breastplate, and his dispassionate expression are informed by Polycleitus's Doryphorus , as the emperor is presented as the new model of the universal male ideal. His breastplate is intricately carved with scenes and figures - including the sun, sky, and earth gods, a diplomatic victory over the Parthians, and female figures representing conquered countries - that establish him as a military leader, founder of the Pax Romana, and heir of Rome's mythological and historical traditions. Tugging at his right, a small cupid rides a dolphin that symbolizes Augustus's victory at the 31 BCE Battle of Actium over Mark Antony and Cleopatra, which made him sole ruler. At the same time, the cupid, representing Eros, a son of the goddess Venus, refers to Julius Caesar's claim that he was descended from the goddess. As Augustus was Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted heir, he establishes his divine patrimony and connects it to the legendary founding of Rome by Aeneas, the only mortal son of Venus and the only surviving Trojan prince. The statue is barefoot, a trope associated with portrayals of divinity, and as art critic Alastair Sooke noted, the work, "is not simply a portrait of Rome's first emperor...it is also a vision of a god." Emerging victorious from a civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar, Augustus launched a notable building campaign, saying later, "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble." His image became a powerful propaganda tool, as art critic Roderick Conway Morris wrote, "He projected his image through art and architecture and...this gave birth to a new classical Roman style, which would long outlive the first emperor and influence imperial and dynastic art over the next two millennia." As a result, more images of Augustus in statues, busts, coins, and cameos, all depicting him as this ever youthful and virile leader, survive than of any other Roman emperor. While Romans were known for their exacting portraiture, Augustus insisted on the idealized, youthful image throughout his reign to distance himself from any unrest in the empire. The work was rediscovered following its excavations in 1863 at Prima Porta, a villa which belonged to Augustus's wife, and as Sooke wrote, "Since its rediscovery, this charismatic work of art has become a symbol of ancient Rome's peculiar blend of refinement and ruthless military might." As a result, it has had a somewhat notorious afterlife, as when the Italian dictator Mussolini held an art exhibition in 1937 dedicated to Augustus and included this work in order to identify Fascist Italy with a new Roman Empire.

The circular temple faces the street with a monumental portico, employing eight Corinthian columns at the front with double rows of four columns behind, to create an imposing entrance. The façade, evoking the octastyle of the Athenian Parthenon, also emphasized that Rome was the heir of the classical tradition. The large granite columns rise to an entablature with an inscription reading "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made [this] when consul for the third time." Though Agrippa's temple, built during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE), burned down, the Emperor Hadrian retained the inscription when he rebuilt the temple. The building's innovative and distinctive feature was its concrete dome; with a height and diameter of 142 feet, still, the world's largest dome made of unreinforced concrete. The interior was equally innovative, as the dome rose above a circular interior chamber, illuminated by an oculus opening to the sky in the center of the coffered dome, creating a sense of both an imperial and divine space. "Pantheon" means "relating to the gods," and scholars continue to debate whether this meant the temple was dedicated to all the gods or followed tradition in being dedicated to a specific god. Specific dedications to single gods were considered more provident since, if any mishap struck, the people would know which god had been offended and could offer sacrifices. When Agrippa first built the temple, it was part of the Agrippa complex (29-19 BCE) that also included the Baths of Agrippa and the Basilica of Neptune, and it is thought that the façade is what remains of his original structure. The building is one of the best preserved from the Imperial Roman era, as it was turned into a Christian church in the 7 th century, though it has also been altered, and many of the relief sculptures of gilded bronze were melted down. The work influenced Filippo Brunelleschi's dome of Florence Cathedral in 1436, a radical design that transformed architecture and informed the development of the Italian Renaissance. The Pantheon also informed the Baroque movement, as seen in Bernini's Santa Maria Assunta (1664), and the Neoclassical movement, as seen in Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda (1817-26) on the grounds of the University of Virginia.

Marble, concrete, bronze, stone - Rome, Italy

Beginnings of Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

Mycenaean influences 1600-1100 bce.

Considered the first Greeks, the Mycenaeans had a lasting influence on later Greek art, architecture, and literature. A bronze age civilization that extended through modern day southern Greece as well as coastal regions of modern day Turkey, Italy, and Syria, Mycenaea was an elite warrior society dominated by palace states. Divided into three classes - the king's attendants, the common people, and slaves - each palace state was ruled by a king with military, political, and religious authority. The society valorized heroic warriors and made offerings to a pantheon of gods. In later Greek literature, including Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey , the exploits of these warriors and gods engaged in the Trojan War had become legendary and, in fact, appropriated by later Greeks as their founding myths.

Agriculture and trade were the economic engines driving Mycenaean expansion, and both activities were enhanced by the engineering genius of the Mycenaeans, as they constructed harbors, dams, aqueducts, drainage systems, bridges, and an extended network of roads that remained unrivaled until the Roman era. Innovative architects, they developed Cyclopean masonry, using large boulders, fit together without mortar, to create massive fortifications. The name for Cyclopean stonework came from the later Greeks, who believed that only the Cyclops, fierce one-eyed giants of myth and legend, could have lifted the stones. To lighten the heavy load above gates and doorways, the Mycenaeans also invented the relieving triangle, a triangular space above the lintel that was left open or filled with lighter materials.

The Mycenaeans first developed the acropolis, a fortress or citadel, built on a hill that characterized later Greek cities. The king's palace, centered on a megaron , or circular throne room with four columns, was decorated with vividly colored frescoes of marine life, battle, processions, hunting, and gods and goddesses.

Scholars still debate how the Mycenaean civilization declined, and theories include invasions, internal conflict, and natural disasters. The era was followed by what has been called the Greek Dark Ages, though it is also known as the Homeric Age and the Geometric period. The term Homeric Age refers to Homer whose poems narrated the Trojan War and its aftermath. The term Geometric period refers to the era's style of vase painting, which primarily employed geometric motifs and patterns.

Greek Archaic Period 776-480 BCE

The Archaic Period began in 776 BCE with the establishment of the Olympic Games. Greeks believed that the athletic games, which emphasized human achievement, set them apart from "barbarian," non-Greek peoples. The Greeks' valorization of the Mycenaean era as a heroic golden age led them to idealize male athletes, and the male figure became dominant subjects of Greek art. The Greeks felt that the male nude showed not only the perfection and beauty of the body but also the nobility of character.

The Greeks developed a political and social structure based upon the polis, or city-state. While Argus was a leading center of trade in the early part of the era, Sparta, a city state that emphasized military prowess, grew to be the most powerful. Athens became the pioneering force in the art, culture, science, and philosophy that became the basis of Western civilization. Though the era was dominated by the rule of tyrants, Solon, a philosopher king, became the ruler of Athens around 594 BCE and established notable reforms. He created the Council of Four Hundred, a body that could question and challenge the king, ended the practice of putting people into slavery for their debts, and established a ruling class based on wealth rather than descent. Extensive sea-faring trade drove the Greek economy, and Athens, along with other city-states, began establishing trading posts and settlements throughout the Mediterranean. As a result of these forays, Greek cultural values spread to other cultures, including the Etruscans in southern Italy, influencing and co-mingling with them.

Figurative sculpture was the greatest artistic innovation of the Archaic period as it emphasized realistic, though idealized, figures. Influenced by Egyptian sculpture, the Greeks transformed the frontal poses of pharaohs and other notables into works known as kouros (young men) and kore (young women), life-sized sculptures that were first developed in the Cyclades islands in the 7 th century BCE. During the late Archaic period, individual sculptors, including Antenor, Kritios, and Nesiotes, were celebrated, and their names preserved for posterity.

The late Archaic period was marked by new reforms, as the Athenian lawgiver Cleisthenes established new policies in 508BC that led to him being dubbed "the father of democracy." To celebrate the end of the rule of tyrants, he commissioned the sculptore Antenor to complete a bronze statue, The Tyrannicides (510 BCE), depicting Harmonides and Aristogeion, who had assassinated Hipparchos, the brother of the tyrant Hippias, in 514 BCE. Though the two were executed for the crime, they became symbols of the movement toward democracy that led to the expulsion of Hippias four years later and were considered to be the only contemporary Greeks worthy enough to be granted immortality in art. The commission of Antenor's work was the first public funded art commission, and the subject was so resonant that, when Antenor's work was taken during the 483 BCE Persian invasion, Kritios was commissioned to create a replacement. Kritios's The Tyrannicides (c. 477 BCE) developed what has been called the severe style, or the Early Classical style, as he depicted realistic movement and individual characterization, which had a great influence on subsequent sculpture.

Classical Greece 480-323 BCE

Classical Greece, also known as the Golden Age, became fundamental both to the later Roman Empire and western civilization, in philosophy, politics, literature, science, art, and architecture. The great Greek historian of the era Thucydides, called the general and populist statesman Pericles "Athens's first citizen." Equal rights for citizens (which only meant adult Greek males), democracy, freedom of speech, and a society ruled by an assembly of citizens defined Greek government. Pericles launched the rebuilding of the Parthenon (447-432 BCE) in Athens, a project overseen by his friend, the sculptor Phidias, and established Athens as the most powerful city state, expanding its influence throughout the Mediterranean region.

The Classical era also saw the establishment of Western philosophy in the teachings and writings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The philosophy of Socrates survived through Plato's written accounts of his teacher's dialogues, and Plato went on to found the Academy in Athens around 387 BCE, an early prototype of all later academies and universities. Many leaders studied at the Academy, including most notably Aristotle, and it became a leading force known throughout the world for the importance of scientific and philosophical inquiry based upon the belief in reason and knowledge. While their philosophies diverged in key respects, Plato and Aristotle concurred in seeing art as an imitation of nature, aspiring to the beautiful.

Additionally, the emphasis on individuality resulted in a more personalized art, and individual artists, including Phidias, Praxiteles, and Myron, became celebrated. Funerary sculpture began depicting real people (instead of idealized types) with emotional expression, while at the same time, bronze works idealized the human form, particularly the male nude. Praxiteles, though, pioneered the female nude in his Aphrodite of Knidos (4th century BCE), a work that has been referenced time and time again in the ensuing centuries.

Hellenistic Greek 323-31 BCE

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE marked the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Having amassed a vast empire beyond Greece that included parts of Asia, North Africa, Europe and not having named a successor instigated a war between Alexander's generals for control of his empire, and local leaders jockeyed to regain control of their regions. Eventually, three generals agreed to a power-sharing relationship and carved the Greek empire into three different regions. While the mainland Greek cultural influence declined, Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in modern day Syria became important centers of Hellenistic culture. Many Greeks emigrated to other parts of the fractured empire, "Hellenizing the world," as art historian John Griffiths Pedley wrote.

Despite the splintering of the empire, great wealth led to royal patronage of the arts, particularly in sculpture, painting, and architecture. Alexander the Great's official sculptor had been Lysippus who, working in bronze after Alexander's death, created works that marked a transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic style. Some of the most famous works of Greek art, including the Venus de Milo (130-100 BCE) and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (200-190 BCE) were created in the era.

Architecture turned toward urban planning, as cities created complex parks and theaters for leisure. Temples took on colossal proportions, and the architectural style employed the Corinthian order, the most decorative of Classical orders. Pergamon became a vital center of culture, known for its colossal complexes, as exemplified by in the Pergamon Altar (c. 166-156 BCE) with its extensive and dramatic friezes. During the Hellenistic period, the Greeks gradually fell to the rule of the Roman Republic, as Rome conquered Macedonia in the Battle of Corinth in 146 BCE. Upon his death in 133 BCE, King Attalus III left the Kingdom of Pergamon to the Romans. Though Greek rebellions followed, they were crushed in the following century.

Roman Republic 509 BCE - 26 CE

Rome began as a city-state ruled by kings, who were elected by the nobleman of the Roman Senate, and then became a Republic when Lucius Tarquinii Superbus, the last king, was expelled in 509BC. Because his son had raped Lucretia, a married noblewoman, who took her own life, Tarquinii was deposed by her husband, her father, and Lucius Junius Brutus, Tarquinii's nephew. The story became both part of Roman history and a subject depicted in art throughout the following centuries.

With the kingship abolished, the Republic was established with a new system of government led by two consuls. As the patricians, the upper class who governed Rome, were often in conflict with the plebeians, or common people, an emphasis was put upon city planning, including apartment buildings called insulae and public entertainments that featured gladiator fights and horse races to keep the people happy, a type of rule that the Roman poet Juvenal described as "bread and circuses." Cities were planned on a grid system, while architecture and engineering projects were transformed by the development of concrete in the 3 rd century. Rome was primarily a military state, frequently at war with neighboring tribes in Italy at the beginning. Various military campaigns resulted in the conquest and destruction of Carthage, a North African kingdom, in three Punic wars, the conquest of the Macedonia and its eastern territories, and Greece in the 2 nd century BCE resulted in geographically expansive empire.

Roman culture adopted many of the myths, gods, and heroic stories of the Greeks, while emphasizing their own tradition of the mas majorum , the way of the ancestors, a kind of contractual obligation with the gods and the founding fathers of Rome. Greek works, taken as spoils of war, were extensively copied and displayed in Roman homes and became a primary influence upon Roman art and architecture. The rise of Julius Caesar, following his triumph over the Gauls in northern Europe, marked the end of the Republic, as he was assassinated in 44 BCE by a number of senators in order to prevent him being declared emperor. His death plunged the Republic into a civil war, fought by his former general Marc Antony allied with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, against the forces of Pompeius and the forces of Caesar's great nephew and heir, Octavian.

Imperial Rome 27 BCE - 393 CE

While the assassins may have staved off the crowning of Caesar as emperor, eventually an emperor was named. Imperial Rome begins with the crowning of Octavian as the first emperor, who came to be known as Augustus. In his almost forty-five year reign, he transformed the city, establishing public services, including the first police force, fire fighting force, postal system, and municipal offices, while creating revenue and taxation systems that were the blueprint for the Empire in the following centuries. He also launched a new building program that included temples and notable public buildings, and he transformed the arts, commissioning works like the Augustus of Prima Porta (1 st century CE) that depicted him as an ideal leader in a classical style that harkened back to Greece. He also commissioned The Aeneid (29-19 BCE) an epic poem by the poet Virgil that defined Rome and became a canonical work of Western literature. The poem described the mythical founding of Rome, relating the journey of Aeneas, the son of Venus and Prince of Troy, who fled the Sack of Troy to arrive in Italy, where, fighting and defeating the Etruscan rulers, he founded Rome.

The Imperial era was defined by the monumental grandeur of its architecture and its luxurious lifestyle, as wealthy residences were lavishly decorated with colorful frescoes, and the upper class, throughout the Empire, commissioned portraits. The Empire ended with the Sack of Rome in 393 CE, though by that time, its power had already declined, due to increasingly capricious emperors, internal conflict, and rebellion in its provinces. The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the moving of the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople in 313 CE established the rising power of the Byzantine Empire.

Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

The golden ratio.

The Greeks believed that truth and beauty were closely associated, and noted philosophers understood beauty in largely mathematical terms. Socrates said, "Measure and proportion manifest themselves in all areas of beauty and virtue," and Aristotle advocated for the golden mean, or the middle way, that led to a virtuous and heroic life by avoiding extremes. For the Greeks, beauty derived from the combination of symmetry, harmony, and proportion. The golden ratio, a concept based on the proportions between two quantities, as defined by the mathematicians Pythagoras (6 th century BCE) and Euclid (323-283 BCE), was thought to be the most beautiful proportion. The golden ratio indicates that the ratio between two quantities is the same as the ratio between the larger of the two and their sum. The Parthenon (447-432 BCE) employed the golden ratio in its design and was fêted as the most perfect building imaginable. Because the artist Phidias oversaw the building of the temple, the golden ratio became commonly known by the Greek letter phi , in honor of Phidias. The golden ratio had a noted impact on later artists and architects, influencing the Roman architect Vitruvius, whose principles informed the Renaissance, as seen in the work and theory of Leon Battista Alberti , and modern architects, including Le Corbusier .

Greek Architecture

Best known for its temples, using a rectangular design framed by colonnades open on all sides, Greek architecture emphasized formal unity. The building became a sculptural presence on a high hill, as art historian Nikolaus Pevsner wrote, "The plastic shape of the [Greek] temple ... placed before us with a physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building."

The Greeks developed the three orders - the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian - which became part of the fundamental architectural vocabulary of Rome and subsequently much of Europe and the United States. Developed in different parts of Greece and at different times, the distinction between the orders is primarily based upon the differences between the columns themselves, their capitals, and the entablature above them. The Doric order is the simplest, using smooth or fluted columns with circular capitals, while the entablature features add a more complex decorative element above the simple columns. The Ionic column uses volutes , from the Latin word for scroll, as a decorative element at the top of the capital, and the entablature is designed so that a narrative frieze extends the length of the building. The late Classical Corinthian order, named for the Greek city of Corinth, is the most decorative, using elaborately carved capitals with an acanthus leaf motif.

Originally, Greek temples were often built with wood, using a kind of post and beam construction, though stone and marble were increasingly employed. The first temple to be built entirely of marble was the Parthenon (447-432 BCE). Greek architecture also pioneered the amphitheater, the agora , or public square surrounded by a colonnade, and the stadium.The Romans appropriated these architectural structures, creating monumental amphitheaters and revisioning the agora as the Roman forum, an extensive public square that featured hundreds of marble columns.

Roman Architecture and Engineering

Roman architecture was so innovative that it has been called the Roman Architectural Revolution, or the Concrete Revolution, based on its invention of concrete in the 3 rd century. The technological development meant that the form of a structure was no longer constrained by the limitations of brick and masonry and led to the innovative employment of the arch, the barrel vault, the groin vault, and the dome. These new innovations ushered in an age of monumental architecture, as seen in the Colosseum and civil engineering projects, including aqueducts, apartment buildings, and bridges. The Romans, as architectural historian D.S. Robertson wrote, "were the first builders in Europe, perhaps the first in the world, fully to appreciate the advantages of the arch, the vault and the dome." They pioneered the segmental arch - essentially a flattened arch, used in bridges and private residences - the extended arch, and the triumphal arch, which celebrated the emperors' great victories. But it was their employment of the dome that had the most significant impact on Western civilization. Though influenced by the Etruscans, particularly in their use of arches and hydraulic techniques, and the Greeks, Romans still used columns, porticos, and entablatures even when technological innovations no longer required them structurally.

Though little is known of his life beyond his work as a military engineer for Emperor Augustus, Vitruvius was the most noted Roman architect and engineer, and his De architectura ( On Architecture ) (30-15 BCE), known as Ten Books on Architecture , became a canonical work of subsequent architectural theory and practice. His treatise was dedicated to Emperor Augustus, his patron, and was meant to be a guide for all manner of building projects. His work described town planning, residential, public, and religious building, as well as building materials, water supplies and aqueducts, and Roman machinery, such as hoists, cranes, and siege machines. As he wrote, "Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning." His belief that a structure should have the qualities of stability, unity, and beauty became known as the Vitruvian Triad. He saw architecture imitating nature in its proportionality and ascribed this proportionality to the human form as well, famously expressed later in Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (1490).

Vase Painting

Vase painting was a noted element of Greek art and provides the best example of how Greek painting focused primarily on portraying the human form and evolved toward increased realism. The earliest style was geometric, employing patterns influenced by Mycenaean art, but quickly turned to the human figure, similarly stylized. An "Orientalizing" period followed, as Eastern motifs, including the sphinx, were adopted to be followed by a black figure style, named for its color scheme, that used more accurate detail and figurative modeling.

The Classical era developed the red figure style of vase painting, which created the figures by strongly outlining them against a black background and allowed for their details to be painted rather than incised into the clay. As a result, variations of color and of line thickness allowed for more curving and rounded shapes than were present in the Geometric style of vases.

Greek and Roman Painting

While Classical Art is noted primarily for its sculpture and architecture, Greek and Roman artists made innovations in both fresco and panel painting. Most of what is known of Greek painting is ascertained primarily from painting on pottery and from Etruscan and later Roman murals, which are known to have been influenced by Greek artists and, sometimes, painted by them, as the Greeks established settlements in Southern Italy where they introduced their art. Hades Abducting Persephone (4 th century BCE) in the Vergina tombs in Macedonia is a rare example of a Classical era mural painting and shows an increased realism that parallels their experiments in sculpture.

Roman panel and fresco paintings survived in greater number than Greek paintings. The 1748 excavation of Pompeii, a Roman city that was buried almost instantaneously in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, led to the groundbreaking discovery of many relatively well-preserved frescos in noted Roman residences, including the House of the Vettii, the Villa of Mysteries, and the House of the Tragic Poet. Fresco paintings brought a sense of light, space, and color into interiors that, lacking windows, were often dark and cramped. Preferred subjects included mythological accounts, tales from the Trojan war, historical accounts, religious rituals, erotic scenes, landscapes, and still lifes. Additionally, walls were sometimes painted to resemble brightly colored marble or alabaster panels, enhanced by illusionary beams or cornices.

Greek Sculpture

Influenced by the Egyptians, the Greeks in the Archaic period began making life-sized sculptures, but rather than portraying pharaohs or gods, Greek sculpture largely consisted of kouroi , of which there were three types - the nude young man, the dressed and standing young woman, and a seated woman. Famous for their smiling expressions, dubbed the "Archaic smile", the sculptures were used as funerary monuments, public memorials, and votive statues. They represented an ideal type rather than a particular individual and emphasized realistic anatomy and human movement, as New York Times art critic Alastair Macaulay wrote, "The kouros is timeless; he might be about to breathe, move, speak."

In the late Archaic period a few sculptors like Kritios became known and celebrated, a trend which became even more predominant during the Classical era, as Phidias, Polycleitus, Myron, Scopas, Praxiteles, and Lysippus became legendary. Myron's Discobolos , or "discus thrower," (460-450 BCE) was credited as being the first work to capture a moment of harmony and balance. Increasingly, artists focused their attention on a mathematical system of proportions that Polycleitus described in his Canon of Polycleitus and emphasized symmetry as a combination of balance and rhythm. Polycleitus created Doryphoros ( Spear-Bearer ) (c.440 BCE) to illustrate his theory that "perfection comes about little by little through many numbers."

Most of the original Greek bronzes have been lost, as the value of the material led to their frequently being melted down and reused, particularly in the early Christian era where they were viewed as pagan idols. A few notable examples have survived, such as the Charioteer of Delphi (478 or 474 BCE), which was found in 1896 in a temple buried in a rockslide. Other works, including the Raice bronzes (460-450 BCE) and the Artemison Bronze (c.460) were retrieved from the sea. The earliest Greek bronzes were sphyrelaton , or hammered sheets, attached together with rivets; however, by the late Archaic period, around 500 BCE, the Greeks began employing the lost-wax method. To make large-scale sculptures, the works were cast in various pieces and then welded together, with copper inlaid to create the eyes, teeth, lips, fingernails, and nipples to give the statue a lifelike appearance.

Along with sculpture in the round, the Greeks employed relief sculpture to decorate the entablatures of temples with extensive friezes that often depicted mythological and legendary battles and mythological scenes. Created by Phidias, the Parthenon Marbles (c. 447-438 BCE), also known as the Elgin Marbles, are the most famous examples. Created on metopes , or panels, the relief sculptures decorated the frieze lining the interior chamber of the temple and, renowned for their realism and dynamic movement, had a noted influence upon later artists, including Auguste Rodin.

The Greeks also made colossal chryselephantine, or ivory and gold statues, beginning in the Archaic period. Phidias was acclaimed for both his Athena Parthenos (447 BCE), a nearly forty foot tall statue that resided in the Parthenon on the Acropolis, and his Statue of Zeus at Olympia (435 BCE) that was forty three feet tall and considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Both statues used a wooden structure with gold panels and ivory limbs attached in a kind of modular construction. They were not only symbols of the gods but also symbols of Greek wealth and power. Both works were destroyed, but small copies of Athena exist, and representations on coins and descriptions in Greek texts survive.

Roman Portraiture

Many Roman sculptures were copies of Greek originals, but their own contribution to Classical sculpture came in the form of portraiture. Emphasizing a realistic approach, the Romans felt that depicting notable men as they were, warts and all, was a sign of character. In contrast, in Imperial Rome, portraiture turned to idealistic treatments, as emperors, beginning with Augustus, wanted to create a political image, showing them as heirs of both classical Greece and Roman history. As a result, a Greco-Roman style developed in sculptural relief as seen in the Augustan Ara Pacis (13 BCE).

The Romans also revived a method of Greek glass painting to use for portraiture. Most of the images were the size of medallions or roundels cut out of a drinking vessel. Wealthy Romans would have drinking cups made with a gold glass portrait of themselves and, following the owner's death, the portrait would be cut out in a circular shape and cemented into the catacomb walls as a tomb marker.

Some of the most famous painted Roman portraits are the Fayum mummy portraits, named for the place in Egypt where they were found, that covered the faces of the mummified dead. Preserved by Egypt's arid climate, the portraits constitute the largest surviving group of portrait panel painting from the Classical era. Most of the mummy portraits were created between the 1 st century BCE and the 3 rd century CE and reflect the intertwining of Roman and Egyptian traditions, during the time when Egypt was under Rome's rule. Though idealized, the paintings display remarkably individualistic and naturalistic characteristics.

Later Developments - After Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

The influence of Classical Art and architecture cannot be overestimated, as it extends to all art movements and periods of Western art. While Roman architecture and Greek art influenced the Romanesque and Byzantine periods, the influence of Classical Art became dominant in the Italian Renaissance, founded upon a revival of interest in Classical principles, philosophy, and aesthetic ideals. The Parthenon and the Pantheon as well as the writings of Vitruvius informed the architectural theories and practice of Leon Battista Alberti and Palladio and designs into the modern era, including those of Le Corbusier .

Greek sculpture influenced Renaissance artists Michelangelo , Albrecht Dürer , Leonardo da Vinci , Raphael , and the later Baroque artists, including Bernini . The discoveries at Pompeii informed the aesthetic theories of Johann Joachim Winckelmann in the 18 th century and the development of Neoclassicism , as seen in Antonio Canova's sculptures. The modern sculptor Auguste Rodin was influenced primarily by the Parthenon Marbles, of which he wrote, they "had...a rejuvenating influence, and those sensations caused me to follow Nature all the more closely in my studies." Artists from the Futurist Umberto Boccioni , the Surrealist Salvador Dalí , and the multifaceted Pablo Picasso , to, later, Yves Klein , Sanford Biggers, and Banksy all cited Greek art as an influence.

Classical Art has also influenced other art forms, as both the choreography of Isidore Cunningham and Merce Cunningham were influenced by the Parthenon Marbles, and the first fashion garment featured in the Museum of Modern Art in 2003 was Henriette Negrin and Mariano Fortuny y Madrazos' Delphos Gown (1907) a silk dress inspired by the Charioteer Delphi (c. 500 BCE) which had been discovered a decade earlier. The legends, gods, philosophies and art of the Classical era became essential elements of subsequent Western culture and consciousness.

Useful Resources on Classical Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

• Treasures of Ancient Greece | 1 of 3 | The Age of Heroes Our Pick BBC

• Seeing the Parthenon through Greek Eyes Joan Breton Connelly, author of "The Parthenon Enigma," joins Jeffrey Brown
• Vestiges of an ancient Greek art form, preserved by catastrophe January 25, 2016

• The Foundations of Classical Architecture: Roman Classicism Talk by Calder Loth
• Greek Art (World of Art) By John Boardman
• Roman Art By Nancy H. Romage and Andrew Romage
• The Art & Architecture of Ancient Greece Our Pick By Nigel Rodgers
• Roman Architecture Our Pick By Frank Sear
• Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques Our Pick
• How the Parthenon Lost Its Marbles Our Pick By Juan Pablo Sanchez / National Geographic Magazine / March 4, 2017
• If It Pleases the Gods By Caroline Alexander / New York Times / January 26, 2014
• Why we're still up in arms about the mystery of the Venus de Milo Our Pick By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / May 11, 2015
• Deep-frieze By Daniel Mendelsohn / The New Yorker / April 14, 2014
• When the Parthenon Had Dazzling Colours Our Pick By Natalie Haynes / BBC / January 22, 2018
• A Look at Emperor Augustus and Roman Classical Style Our Pick By Roderick Conway Morris / New York Times / December 17, 2013
• The Body Beautiful: The Classical Ideal in Ancient Greek Art By Alastair Macaulay / New York Times / May 18, 2015
• The Latest Scheme for the Parthenon By Mary Beard / New York Review of Books / March 6, 2014
• I, Augustus, Emperor of Rome..., at the Grand Palais in Paris, review: 'dazzling and charismatic' By Alastair Sooke / The Telegraph / March 18, 2014
• The top 10 ancient Greek artworks By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / August 14, 2014

Similar Art

Tempietto (1502)

Related artists.

Related Movements & Topics

Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Kimberly Nichols

Best Architecture Essay Examples & Topics

Architecture essays can be challenging, especially if you are still a student and in the process of acquiring information. First of all, you are to choose the right topic – half of your success depends on it. Pick something that interests and excites you if possible. Second of all, structure your paper correctly. Start with an intro, develop a thesis, and outline your body paragraphs and conclusion. Write down all your ideas and thoughts in a logical order, excluding the least convincing ones.

In this article, we’ve combined some tips on how to deliver an excellent paper on the subject. Our team has compiled a list of topics and architecture essay examples you can use for inspiration or practice.

If you’re looking for architecture essay examples for college or university, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ve collected best architecture essay topics and paper samples together with writing tips. Below you’ll find sample essays on modern architecture, landscape design, and architect’s profession. Go on reading to learn how to write an architecture essay.

Architecture Essay Types

Throughout your academic life, you will encounter the essay types listed below.

Argumentative Architecture Essay

This type uses arguments and facts to support a claim or answer a question. Its purpose is to lay out the information in front of the reader that supports the author’s position. It does not rely on the personal experiences of the writer. For instance, in an argumentative essay about architecture, students can talk about the positive aspects of green construction. You can try to demonstrate with facts and statistics why this type of building is the ultimate future.

Opinion Architecture Essay

This essay requires an opinion or two on the topic. It may try to demonstrate two opposing views, presenting a list of arguments that support them. Remember that the examples that you use have to be relevant. It should be clear which opinion you support. Such an essay for the architecture topic can be a critique of architectural work.

Expository Architecture Essay

This writing shares ideas and opinions as well as provides evidence. The skill that is tested in this essay is the expertise and knowledge of the subject. When you write an expository essay, your main goal is to deliver information. It would be best if you did not assume that your audience knows much about the subject matter. An expository essay about architecture can be dedicated to the importance of sustainable architecture.

Informative Architecture Essay

Such essays do not provide any personal opinions about the topic. It aims to provide as much data as possible and educate the audience about the subject. An excellent example of an informative essay can be a “how-to essay.” For instance, in architecture, you can try to explain how something functions or works.

Descriptive Architecture Essay

It’s an essay that aims to create a particular sentiment in the reader. You want to describe an object, idea, or event so that the reader gets a clear picture. There are several good ways to achieve it: using creative language, including major and minor details, etc. A descriptive essay about architecture can be focused on a building or part of a city. For instance, talk about a casino in Las Vegas.

Narrative Architecture Essay

Here, your goal is to write a story. This paper is about an experience described in a personal and creative way. Each narrative essay should have at least five elements: plot, character, setting, theme, and conflict. When it comes to the structure, it is similar to other essays. A narrative paper about architecture can talk about the day you have visited a monument or other site.

Architecture Essay Topics for 2022

• The most amazing architecture in the world and the most influential architects of the 21st century.
• Some pros and cons of vertical housing: vertical landscape in the history of architecture.
• A peculiar style of modern architecture in China.
• The style of Frank Lloyd Wright and architecture in his life.
• New tendencies in rural housing and architecture.
• Ancient Roman architecture reimagined.
• The role of architecture in pressing environmental problems in modern cities.
• Islamic architecture: peculiar features of the style.
• Earthquake-resistant infrastructure in building houses.
• How precise is virtual planning?
• Houses in rural areas and the cities. How similar are they?
• A theory of deconstruction in postmodern architecture.
• The influence of Greek architecture on modern architecture.
• Aspects to consider when building houses for visually impaired people.
• Disaster-free buildings: challenges and opportunities.
• European architectural influence on the Islamic world.
• The architecture of old Russian cities.

In the above section, we’ve given some ideas to help you write an interesting essay about architecture. You can use these topics for your assignment or as inspiration.

Thank you for reading the article. We’ve included a list of architecture essay examples further down. We also hope you found it helpful and valuable. Do not hesitate to share our article with your friends and peers.

412 Best Architecture Essay Examples

Mathematics in ancient greek architecture, the vebjorn sand da vinci project.

• Words: 3579

An Architectural Guide to the Cube Houses

• Words: 3584

The Eiffel Tower as a Form of Art

• Words: 1361

Islamic Architecture: Al-Masjid Al-Haram, Ka’aba, Makka

• Words: 1190

Charles Jencks: Language of Post Modern Architecture

• Words: 2204

The Architecture of Ancient Greece Found in Los Angeles

• Words: 1763

Calligraphy Inscription in Islamic Architecture and Art

• Words: 3269

Comparison of Traditional and Non-Traditional Mosques

• Words: 1611

Skyscrapers in Dubai: Buildings and Materials

• Words: 2468

Stonehenge and Its Significance

Filippo brunelleschi and religious architecture.

• Words: 2121

The Shift From Modernism to Postmodernism

• Words: 1849

Architecture of the Gherkin Building

Context and building in architecture.

• Words: 3367

Traditional Roman vs. Chinese Courtyard House

• Words: 4070

Risks in Construction Projects: Empire State Building

• Words: 2856

Architectural Regionalism Definition

• Words: 3352

Paper Church Designed by Shigeru Ban

• Words: 1665

Monumentalism in Architecture

• Words: 2840

The History of Architecture and It Changes

• Words: 3330

The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright

• Words: 3374

Symbolism and Superstition in Architecture and Design

• Words: 2252

Saint Sernin and Chartres Cathedral

• Words: 1196

Form and Function in Architecture

• Words: 3377

Empire State Building Structural Analysis With Comparisons

Influential architecture: summer place in china.

• Words: 1491

Modern Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier

• Words: 3291

S. R. Crown Hall: The Masterpiece of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

• Words: 2216

Islamic Architectural Design

• Words: 1407

History of Architecture: English Baroque Architecture

• Words: 3073

Ronchamp Chapel From Le Corbusier

• Words: 3434

Louis Sullivan: Form Follows Function

• Words: 1099

Architecture History. Banham’s “Theory and Design in the First Machine Age”

• Words: 1254

Perspective Drawing Used by Renaissance Architects

• Words: 2012

Ancient Chinese Architecture

• Words: 1097

Sydney Opera House

• Words: 2209

The Getty Center in Los Angeles

• Words: 1314

The Parthenon and the Pantheon in Their Cultural Context

• Words: 1416

Architecture in Colonialism and Imperialism

• Words: 2408

Alhambra Palace – History and Physical Description

• Words: 1214

Kidosaki House by Tadao Ando

• Words: 1064

Architecture as an Academic Discipline

• Words: 1375

Postmodern Architecture vs. International Modernism

• Words: 1655

Frank Lloyd Wright and his Contribution to Architecture

• Words: 3401

Saint Peter’s Basilica

• Words: 1932

Modern Architecture: Style of Architecture

Personal opinion on the colosseum as an artwork, the boston symphony hall review.

• Words: 1142

Library Architecture as a Method of Study History and to Understand the Lives of People

• Words: 2005

Gothic Revivalism in the Architecture of Augustus Pugin

• Words: 1704

Ayasofya Building: Enriching Istanbul’s Culture

• Words: 2324

Connections of Steel Frame Buildings in 19th Century

• Words: 2681

The Colosseum: History and Design

• Words: 2774

Urbanism in Architecture: Definition and Evolution

The portunus temple: a creation of the ancient times.

• Words: 1156

Hagia Sophia’s Historical and Architectural Importance

Architecture of le corbusier, gerrit rietveld and frank lloyd wright.

• Words: 1510

Green Design Parameters in High-Rise Buildings in Hot-Humid Climate

Perspective drawing in renaissance architecture, fatimid art and architecture in egypt, the bmw central building: location and structure.

• Words: 2671

UAE’s Traditional Architectural Styles

Baltimore city hall as an example of classical architecture, islamic gardens: taj mahal and alhambra, architectural wonders.

• Words: 1419

Harvard Graduate Center Building and Its Structure

Futuristic architecture: an overview.

• Words: 1740

The Pantheon of Rome and the Parthenon of Athens

Professional and ethical obligation of architecture.

• Words: 2794

Arc de Triomphe. History. Construction

• Words: 2326

Translation From Drawing to Building

• Words: 2289

Architectural Production: Queen Anne

• Words: 2744

Architecture: Kansai International Airport

• Words: 3829

V. Horta’s Tassel Hotel and the Pavilion for Japanese Art by B. Goff

• Words: 1138

The First Chicago School of Architecture

Architecture: kings road house.

• Words: 1117

Pantheon and Arch of Constantine Comparison

Traditional saudi architecture: hejazi architecture.

• Words: 1549

Forum of Trajan and Roman City Building Techniques

Gothic style and cult of the virgin in medieval art, the water cube project and design-build approaches, the question of ornament in architectural design.

• Words: 1971

Chrysler Building in New York City

Fallingwater building interior and exterior, emirates: eco friendly construction.

• Words: 3717

European Influence on the Architecture of the Americas

Columns and walls of mies van der rohe’s barcelona pavilion.

• Words: 1518

Homa Capital Columns’ at Ancient Persian Persepolis City

Modern patio house architecture, frank lloyd wright’s approach to sustainability, the dome of the rock vs. the umayyad mosque of damascus.

• Words: 1506

Greco-Roman Influence on Architecture

The angkor vat temple, cambodia, the architecture of the medieval era: key characteristics, the garden by the bay architectural design, design theory in “ornament and crime” essay by loos.

• Words: 1752

Greek Revival Influenced American Architecture

• Words: 3104

Trinity Church: An Influential Architectural Design

• Words: 1374

The Architectural Design of Colosseum

• Words: 2161

Contemporary Issues in the Field of Architecture That Affect Working

Japanese shrines architecture uniqueness.

• Words: 2280

The Death of Modern Architecture

• Words: 2149

The Evolution of the Greek Temple

• Words: 1934

The St. Louis Gateway Arch

• Words: 1630

Architect of the Future

Centre georges pompidou’s design analysis, “4” wonders of the world, kandariya mahadeva temple and taj mahal: style and meaning.

• Words: 1371

Architecture: The International Style

• Words: 1109

Researching of Deaf Architecture

Roman architecture and engineering, psychological consideration in proposed architectural plan, aspects of organic architectural philosophy, maya lin’s vietnam veterans memorial, the yangzhou qingpu slender west lake cultural hotel, how did adolf loos achieve sustainability, the lovell beach house by rudolph schindler, the st. denis basilica virtual tour, architecture of moscow vs. sankt petersburg.

• Login / Register
• You are here: Books

Art in Architecture

23 October 2012 By Ayla Lepine Books

The reciprocal and sometimes antagonistic relationship of architecture and painting forms the unifying topic of this otherwise uneven collection of essays

Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie does not accommodate art easily. Mies van der Rohe knew what he was doing. Detlef Mertens posits that Mies wanted to ‘support and even provoke the emergence of new ways of displaying and experiencing art, perhaps even new ways of making it’. That may be so, and the gallery’s uncompromising glass grid, its sheer openness, has certainly led to new horizons in curating. But what did Mies have to say for himself about his low-lying glass box and its audacious simplicity? ‘It is such a huge hall and that of course means great difficulties for the exhibiting of art,’ he admitted, ‘I am fully aware of that. But it has such potential that I simply cannot take those difficulties into account.’

Giving uncompromising Modernism the benefit of the doubt, the potential he spoke about was surely a double opportunity for the architecture and the art it would contain. In the 1969 Piet Mondrian exhibition, for instance, a system of white rectangular suspended panels had to be devised to compartmentalise and respond to the glass zone. Mondrian’s own pictures suddenly gained an exceptional conversation partner when inserted as vertical punctuation in Mies’s Berlin structure.

Painting with Architecture in Mind is less about the interface between art and architecture than how painting has dealt with, negated, or invested in architectural spaces and histories. Its scope is diverse. The strongest and most provocative essay in the collection is Eric Alliez and Jean Claude Bonne’s ‘Matisse in the Becoming − Architecture of Painting’, in which still lives and mural projects are interpreted based on Matisse’s own notions of rhythm, colour, space and modernity. Further essays interact with work by Gerhard Richter, Thomas Scheibitz, Pablo Picasso and Michel Majerus. Author Bernice Donszelmann exhibits a stroke of genius in subjecting Binky Palermo’s minimalist interiors to Gottfried Semper’s theories on wall coverings.

Yet, there is one serious drawback to this ambitious collection of scholarly material. Each chapter marshals big-name philosophers and critical theory to advance arguments. Some authors wield these tools with more precision than others, however, and more than one essay is rendered nearly unreadable by sentence structures and methodological assertions so convoluted as to be impenetrable. In a book that aims to clarify complex relationships between painting and architecture over the past century, this approach fails its subjects. More positively, the book’s producers have conceived it as an art object, with a specially commissioned fold-out image by Brad Lochore. A penetrating curiosity about how we perceive built and artistic environments underpins the book’s themes, and the collection is a tough but rewarding read.

Linda Khatir’s essay investigates Pierre Buraglio’s series of ‘windows’ from the early 1980s. Made of fragments of scavenged and modified windows, the art works exist somewhere between painting, sculpture and architecture. Khatir’s jumping off point for an analysis of Buraglio’s motivations is refreshingly direct: ‘we acknowledge the work as a window, even though we know it is not’. A useful comparison can be made with artist Robert Ryman, who insists his paintings ‘don’t really exist unless they’re on the wall as part of the wall, as part of the room’. But when Frank Stella and Jackson Pollock used industrial paints with metallic bases meant for cladding buildings, did their work take on an architectural gloss? There are times when art, architecture and the visual cultures of industry can be blurred to an unhelpful extent. When any given aspect of a picture gets positioned as architectural, it’s necessary to pull back and get intellectual perspective.

Whittaker and Landrum’s collection of essays all insist in their distinctive ways that we must rethink how painters have interacted with architecture in the age of abstraction, Modernism and conceptualism. It brings us into contact with a cohort of iconic and obscure artists whose architectural explorations with pigments and canvas are as diverse as the buildings and traditions they respond to.

Painting with Architecture in Mind

Author: A Landrum and E Whittaker (eds)

Publisher: Wunderkammer Press

Price: £19.99

November 2012

Since 1896, The Architectural Review has scoured the globe for architecture that challenges and inspires. Buildings old and new are chosen as prisms through which arguments and broader narratives are constructed. In their fearless storytelling, independent critical voices explore the forces that shape the homes, cities and places we inhabit.

Join the conversation online

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

The Thin Line Between Art and Architecture: The Search for Architectures Place in the Expanding World of Art.

Related Papers

Amin A.Tafti

Stephen Davies

Brunel University (West London); BST: Vol. 9 no. 1: Body, Space & Technology Journal: Perspectives Section

Barie Fez-Barringten

"What’stheargument;who’sarguing?;and,howdoesresolvingthatarchitectureisthemakingofmetaphorssettletheargument?Throughanalogies,similesandevidence Ipresentargumentssupportingtheresolutionssurroundingthewayarchitectsandurban designersmakemetaphors.Thisisdonebypresentingthethinkingonmakingboth naturalandsyntheticcitiesaswellthedesignofbuildingsandneighborhoods.Cited throughoutarelinguistic,cognitive,psychologicalandphilosophicalmechanismsofthe metaphorandtheirapplicability.Allofthistoreifythestasisofarchitectureasanartbytheinferencethat,asart[A],ittoo,makesmetaphors. Thisargumentisrelvanttocommuncatebetweenunluikepeoples,disciplinesand roles[C]inthecreativeprocess.Therelevanceofthismonographprovidesthe authoritiveevidencedefiningthearchitects,planners,anddesignersscopeofservicesand ownersconceptualbasisforconsideringprojects.Forcognitive,linguistsandotherscientistthismonographprovidestheevidenceforapplicationandoftheory"

New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences

New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences (PROSOC)

The concept of 'Art' in the modern meaning, evaluates within the Enlightenment's seminal World of philosophy. Before the Enlightenment architecture and craft were instinctively united fields of creating, almost impossible to detach one from the other. From the beginning of twentieth century the avant-garde of modern architecture were aware of the growing schism between art and architecture and vice versa. The pioneers were writing manifestos, stating that art and architecture should form a new unity, a holistic entity, which would include all types of creativity and put an end to the severance between "arts and crafts", "art and architecture". Approaching the end, of the first decade of the twenty first century, as communicative interests in all fields are becoming very important, we should once more discuss the relation/ interaction / cross over of art and architecture; where the boundaries of the two fields become blurred since both sides, art and architecture, are intervening the gap between. The aim of this paper is to discuss the examples of both contemporary art and architecture, which challenge this "in between gap."

Journal of Architectural Education

Sarah Deyong

Zeynep Uludağ

In creative thinking, just as in architectural thinking, the context provides the necessary paths for the design. That said, conceptual thinking and theoretical ideas provide more than a mere context for architectural design, in that they help the architect make order out of chaos and create a pattern of order through their intuition and expressions of a culture. Within this explosion of creativity, art can help in the exploration of new means of expression, new materials and new forms, and in this sense, can enhance creative approaches in architectural education and architectural design. Since architecture as a discipline is about the creation and production of space, it has inherent spatial, social and cultural bonds, and as such, is a representation of values, meanings and identities. The concept of representation assumes many meanings. Represent as a noun is picture or sign, while to represent is to convey, to express, to correspond to. 1 In Lefebvre's model, the process of representation is defined according to three concepts or interrelated modes, being spatial practices; representations of space; and spaces of representation. Spatial practices can refer to social space that embraces the production and reproduction of social practices in particular locations. It embodies a close association within a perceived space between daily reality (daily routine) and urban reality (the routes and networks that link the places of work, 'private' life and leisure). 2 Representations of space refer to the conceptualized space that leans towards a system of verbal (and therefore intellectually worked out) signs, 3 and this is the dominant space in any society. Representational space is lived directly through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of 'inhabitants' and 'users', and tends towards coherent systems of non-verbal symbols in the form of signs and codes that overlay physical space, making symbolic use of its objects. 4 In this regard, architecture is a continuous act involving the taking possession, to some degree, of the abstraction of codes, signs and meanings. It mingles with art in a bid to be creative, to be different, and to be new and unique. Just as art, in itself, it is an attempt to bring order out of chaos, the principles of art help architecture not to portray , but to evoke the ideas lost within the chaos of daily life. Accordingly, it focuses on the abstract world of art to realize the truth, and in this respect, architecture is about combining the rational and the irrational. In this sense, space is not only a rational entity, nor is it something that exists at the level of the surfaces that define architecture, or a physical entity that can be measured by dimensions. It is about creating something rational out of many irrational relations and inputs, and about the meanings attributed to spaces within the system of spatial relations within the built environment. Since it is about the patterns of lifestyle, culture, tradition, individuals, beliefs and values, it can be considered intangible, meaningful, conceptual , perceptual and cognitive. In this regard, space is not something confined solely to architecture, being constituted out of some social, cultural, mental and physical processes. It is about the spatial practices, both rational and irrational, that give meaning to a place, which is why architecture is always in search of the genius loci. " How spatial organisation in some sense is a product of social structure " , " how space is socially produced and reproduced " and " how social relations are spatially produced? " have emerged as the most important discussions related to spatial theory over last two decades, having highlighted the significance of space and time as an associate entity rather than two distinct subjects. Studies of time-space relationships in several disciplines, but especially those of geography and history, have begun to emphasize the significance of both spatial and temporal dimensions in social theory, and in this respect, any conceptual framework for understanding spatial consciousness can only be constructed by exploring the relationships between social processes and spatial form. Having roots in ancient history, architecture as a discipline has always been about form, space and order, although the method of designing and producing form differs totally between the ancient and modern times. Form no more follows function, nor is it produced for a specific function. Instead, it is produced in line with the symbolic and conceptual meanings attributed to the form based on a specific social activity. Accordingly, it can be argued that each form of social activity defines its space, meaning that social space is made up of a complex network of individual feelings and images about and reactions towards the spatial symbolism that surrounds the individual. 5 Social space changes with changing social relationships, mental images and the spatial behaviours of individuals in everyday life, and is therefore complex, heterogeneous and perhaps discontinuous, but totally different from the physical space. 6 As a result, we can say that architecture is a social art, and so to understand the spatial form of a building or a city it is necessary to define the social space with reference to some social activity with the symbolic qualities of that form. Yet form is a narrative of meanings generated through explorations of programmes and uses of space, being sometimes decomposition of meanings, and at others, a re-composition of meanings driven from history at different times, like a juxtaposition of layers of a different context. The desire is not for architecture that communicates directly one meaning, but rather for material and spatial forms that produce multiple associations and ambiguous situations. 7 4 3

dapo adegoke

Isabelle L Wallace

The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, ed. C Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns, and Hilde Heynen, London, UK

Bart Verschaffel

This article discusses Architecture as an institutionalized body of knowledge and practice, different from, but related to, engineering and art. It describes how Architecture, as an institution, survives the erosion and critical undermining of its own foundations, and compares its critical potential to the radicalism of the arts.

RELATED PAPERS

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm

Sait Yılmaz

Axel Dessein 张克苏

Giovanni Tuccari

Paris, ORSTOM

Hubert Elingui

Valeria Barbas

Manjunath R

John Fredy Londoño

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Prof. Dr. Michael Wink

Universitas-XX1: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas , ANA BELEN FERNANDEZ SOUTO

Child's Nervous System

Applied Energy

Orhan Ekren

Lukas Klima

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION

Sergio Sousa

Daniel Mota

Advances in educational research and evaluation

Sergei Abramovich

Open Access publications from Tilburg …

Massimo Filippini

Environmental Technology & Innovation

Dr. Salar Ali

Rashmi Pandey

Organizações & Sociedade

Janaina Maria Bueno

Application of Geographic Information Systems

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

W. Van Der Hoek

European Journal of Neurology

Tiziana Colletti

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

POINT: Essays on Architecture 4

Sarah whiting,  series editor.

POINT offers a new cadence to architecture’s contemporary conversation. Each essay in this series hones a single point while situating it within a broader discursive landscape, thereby simultaneously focusing and fueling architectural criticism.

A meditation on how environmental change and the passage of time transform the meaning of site-specific art

A provocative case for historical ambiguity in architecture by one of the field's leading theorists

How digital networks are transforming art and architecture

Architecture's growing intimacy with new types of art

Stay connected for new books and special offers. Subscribe to receive a welcome discount for your next order. 

50% off sitewide with code FIFTY  |  May 7 – 31  |  Some exclusions apply. See our FAQ .

• ebook & Audiobook Cart

Visiting Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion?

You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. If capacity has been reached for the day, the queue will close early.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Art, architecture, and the city in the reign of amenhotep iv / akhenaten (ca. 1353–1336 b.c.).

Taweret amulet with double head

Face from a Composite Statue, probably Queen Tiye

Fragment of a Queen's Face

Pair of Clappers

Akhenaten Sacrificing a Duck

Nose and lips of Akhenaten

Facsimile painting from the 'Green Room' in the North Palace at Amarna

Nina de Garis Davies

Tile with persea fruit and leaves

Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut

Two Princesses

Goblet Inscribed with the Names of King Amenhotep IV and Queen Nefertiti

Talatat with Offerings in the Temple

Blue-painted Storage jar

Scene of Fishing and Fowling

Fragmentary Statuette of a Vizier

Statue of two men and a boy that served as a domestic icon

Torso of Akhenaten

Head from a statuette

Head of Akhenaten Wearing the Blue Crown, traces of a hieroglyph behind the neck

Horses Harnessed to a Chariot

Mold for Cornflower Pendant

Desert Scene with Antelope

Royal Barge at its Mooring

Terminal, possibly for a scepter

Shabti of Akhenaten

Spindle Bottle with Handle

Funerary Figure of Isis, Singer of the Aten

Relief with palace attendant

Jewelry Elements for a Broad Collar

Relief of Queen Nefertiti

Head of a princess from a group statue

Torso of Nefertiti from a dyad holding a stela in front of the bodies

Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)

Trial Piece with Relief of Head of Akhenaten

Canopic Jar (07.226.1) with a Lid Depicting a Queen (30.8.54)

Marsha Hill Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

November 2014

The seventeen-year reign of the pharaoh Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten is remarkable for the development of ideas, architecture, and art that contrast with Egypt’s long tradition.

Shortly after coming to the throne, the new pharaoh Amenhotep IV, a son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, established worship of the light that is in the orb of the sun (the Aten) as the primary religion, and the many-armed disk became the omnipresent icon representing the god. The new religion, with its emphasis on the light of the sun and on what can be seen, coexisted with a new emphasis on time, movement, and atmosphere in the arts. Exceptional as the new outlook seems, it certainly had roots in the increasing prominence of the solar principle, or Re, in the earlier Dynasty 18, and in the emphasis on the all-pervasive quality of the god Amun-Re, developments reaching a new height in the reign of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390–1353 B.C.). Likewise, artistic changes were afoot before the reign of Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten. For example, Theban tombs of Dynasty 18 had begun to redefine artistic norms, exploring the possibilities of line and color for suggesting movement and atmospherics or employing more natural views of parts of the body.

While the art and texts of what is commonly called the Amarna Period after the site of the new city for the Aten are striking, and their naturalistic imagery is easy to appreciate, it is more difficult to bring the figure of Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten himself or the lived experiences of Atenism into focus. The courtiers who helped the king monumentalize his vision refer to a kind of teaching that the king provided, to them at a minimum, and the art and particular hymns or prayers convey a striking appreciation of the physical world.

Beautifully you appear from the horizon of heaven, O living Aten who initiates life— For you are risen from the eastern horizon and have filled every land with your beauty; For you are fair, great, dazzling and high over every land, And your rays enclose the lands to the limit of all you have made; For you are Re, having reached their limit and subdued them for your beloved son; For although you are far away, your rays are upon the earth and you are perceived.

When your movements vanish and you set in the western horizon, The land is in darkness, in the manner of death. (People), they lie in bedchambers, heads covered up, and one eye does not see its fellow. All their property is robbed, although it is under their heads, and they do not realize it. Every lion is out of its den, all creeping things bite. Darkness gathers, the land is silent. The one who made them is set in his horizon.

(But) the land grows bright when you are risen from the horizon, Shining in the orb in the daytime, you push back the darkness and give forth your rays. The Two Lands are in a festival of light— Awake and standing on legs, for you have lifted them up: Their limbs are cleansed and wearing clothes, Their arms are in adoration at your appearing. The whole land, they do their work: All flocks are content with their pasturage, Trees and grasses flourish, Birds are flown from their nests, their wings adoring your Ka; All small cattle prance upon their legs. All that fly up and alight, they live when you rise for them. Ships go downstream, and upstream as well, every road being open at your appearance. Fish upon the river leap up in front of you, and your rays are within the Great Green (sea).

(excerpted from the Great Hymn to the Aten in the Tomb of Aya , as translated in William J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt , edited by Edmund S. Meltzer [Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995])

At the same time, Atenism gave the king himself a divinelike role as sole representative and interpreter of the Aten—as stated elsewhere in the above hymn, “there is no one who knows you except your son”—so that any access to and understanding of the god was mediated through the figure of the king and his family. Although there is no reason to think the king’s self-promotion was only politically motivated, the differentiation of king and gods was altered.

The king’s reign can be divided into two phases: the years before the move to the site of Amarna, when building was centered on Karnak, termed the proto-Amarna phase by scholars who have revealed the significance and course of this period, and the Amarna years. Here, the emphasis will be on the architecture and art associated with these phases. Amarna itself, as an exemplary Egyptian city, requires its own discussion. Work in the last decades has cast fresh light on these subjects, so the focus in the further reading is on items that ground these discussions, rather than in representing the immense topic of Amarna.

The Karnak Years (the Proto-Amarna Phase): Architecture and Art The proto-Amarna phase lasted for about five years. Understanding of this seminal period is aided by the preservation of sculpture dismantled where it stood, and building stones from the Aten’s Karnak complexes systematically reused as packing stones inside the Karnak temple pylons shortly after the Amarna Period. Discoveries of fundamental importance have been made by following the clues these building stones hold about the changes that unfolded at Karnak as Atenism emerged, discoveries contextualized and elaborated in a recent biography of the king.

The king at first continued traditional attentions to Amun-Re, but already within his first year revealed a new focus on the falcon-headed god Re-Harakhti, who was given a long name identifying him with the Aten, although the name was not yet written in cartouches. The king undertook a considerable expansion of an area already devoted to Re-Harakhti on the eastern side of Karnak. Year 4 saw several major happenings, more or less in the following sequence: the Aten’s name with epithets became fixed and immutable, written in cartouches (termed by scholars the “didactic” name), “Living Re-Harakhti who rejoices on the horizon in his name of Shu who is in the Aten”; a representation of the human figure was introduced that was overall more sinuous and heavy in the hips and evolved hereafter to be more so; the Aten’s new icon—a many-handed sun disk represented as very spherical—was created and the falcon-headed image abandoned; Nefertiti emerged as the king’s wife ( 22.9.1 ); and a vast complex was undertaken for the Aten yet further to the east within the Karnak precinct. The focus on Aten corresponded to a radically decreased attention to Amun in particular. By early in year 5, Amenhotep IV had identified a new home for the Aten at the site of Amarna, an area that he claimed belonged to no other god, and by the time his oath was recorded in boundary stelae some time during the ensuing year, his name had been changed to Akhenaten: at that point the focus shifted to the site of Amarna, considered in the second section of this essay.

The new religion unleashed a progression of changes, almost as if by domino effect, in architectural forms and representational organization. Amenhotep IV’s initial constructions in East Karnak had employed the huge blocks typical of traditional Egyptian temple architecture , and on the walls the king officiated before the god depicted as a man with a falcon head. But in year 4, when the sun disk with hands appeared as the god’s new icon expressing the new focus upward toward the sunlight, a large platform reached by a ramp was erected on which the king officiated in the open air . With this emphasis on worship taking place toward the light in the sky, solar worship spaces typically dispensed with the roof. Realizing the walls of the primary god’s main temples no longer needed massive blocks to bear heavy roofing stones, Egyptian architects switched to the small blocks called talatat that characterize constructions of this period. Measuring about 20 1/2 inches long by 10 1/4 deep by 9 1/2 high (26 x 52 x 24 cm) and weighing about 120 pounds, talatat were considered manageable by one worker. In wall scenes, the displacement of the divine image to the top of scenes left the king or the king and queen alone under the Aten’s rays without a divine figure placed in symmetrical opposition, creating a static appearance. This aesthetic quandary played a role in the changes in scene organization that evolved along with new subject matter introduced into temple scenes—scenes of the lives of the royal family, the royal entourage, and surroundings teeming with activity ( 61.117 ; 65.129 ).

To the north of the platform temple, a gigantic court was built that was surrounded by sandstone colossi, depicting the king and probably Nefertiti, with some other smaller royal statuary. The court seems to have been connected with a Heb Sed, or rejuvenation festival, celebrated by the king and the Aten probably again in year 4. Discovered in the early years of the twentieth century, and before Amarna became otherwise well known, the colossi have evoked the radical nature of the Amarna experiment for moderns. The figures have the heavy hips that characterize Amarna depictions. These have been recognized as feminized proportions, and this may have been intended to characterize the king and queen, and indeed the entire world as it is represented in this way in Amarna art, as recipients of life and divine inspiration in relation to the Aten. More difficult to comprehend are the facial features of the colossi: slitlike eyes, swollen noses, and bulbous drooping chins that are dramatically stranger than most faces known from the reign, a difference that has been attributed to an evolution in the art. A recent insight has tamed this appearance in some measure by reminding the modern viewer that these faces, which were on statues that stood plus or minus 15 feet high, were never meant to be seen at eye level as they now tend to be photographed ; rather, they seem to have been carved in this way with the perspective of the viewer far below in mind. With this corrective, the features of the king still strongly suggest a very particular picture of the divine and the king’s relation to it, but are more in accord with the range of variability one sees in the Karnak reliefs of the period. A more coherent picture of Amarna style is the result.

Nefertiti serves as Akhenaten’s religious counterpart from her first appearance in year 4. The representation of their relationship certainly evoked traditional divine pairings. Shu and Tefnut, the children of Re, are alluded to. Scholarship has also drawn attention to Nefertiti’s multifaceted relationship to Hathor, counterpart to Akhenaten in his relation to Re. With the move to Amarna, the royal pair were supplemented by the halo of—ultimately—six daughters.

The Amarna Years: Architecture and Art Having just undertaken the huge complex at Karnak, the king early in year 5 determined on a newer and, indeed, his most remarkable act of devotion to his god, probably spurred on by resistance to his programs at Thebes: he proclaimed the foundation of a new city for the Aten at a site in Middle Egypt now known as Tell el-Amarna. We know these events from a set of fifteen boundary stelae (the number includes one discovered in 2006 by the current expedition to the site). The stelae, marking the first anniversary of the proclamation, stood in the cliffs enclosing the large plain on either side of the Nile at the site. Naming himself Akhenaten and thus referring to the Aten, and abjuring his previous name Amenhotep referring to that god, the king proclaimed the founding and layout of a city he called Akhetaten, or Horizon of the Aten: he prescribed temples for the Aten, a so-called sunshade shrine in the name of Nefertiti, palaces, burial places for the royal family and high officials, and festivals and ritual provisions for the Aten. Over the twelve years between the date of the first proclamation and Akhenaten’s death in year 17 of his reign, this program was largely fulfilled. Some of the major structures are discussed below.

Firm chronological markers for understanding the development of the city are unfortunately few, particularly in comparison to the Karnak years. The gradually increasing size of the royal family—to six daughters—is an indication only, to be used with care. The most generally used marker has been the form of the Aten’s didactic name. A more abstract second version has long been accepted as having been introduced anywhere between year 9 and 12 and may have coincided with more severe measures against Amun. However, the date this name was introduced has been reexamined. Two pieces of evidence argue strongly for a late date: first, the second name appears relatively infrequently, which suggests that it was introduced later rather than earlier; second, the royal tomb, as the place where events represented are most likely to be contemporary with the version of the Aten name inscribed, indicates the change is likely to have taken place after year 12 and even as late as year 14.

In its initial formal plan , the city stretched from north to south along a royal road that led from a huge palace—termed the North Riverside Palace—at the north, through the Central City with the Great Aten Temple, the Small Aten Temple, the Great Palace (the ceremonial palace), and the administrative and provision quarters, to a southern temple for Nefertiti at Kom el-Nana. Over the years, the road to the south was obscured by a growing suburb, but certainly the Royal Road from north to the Central City constituted a sort of processional route where the king and his family in their chariots could be seen progressing to and from the temple. Most of these buildings have been excavated to some degree.

A central structure of the city was the Great Aten Temple, excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1891–92, then again over two seasons by the Egypt Exploration Society expedition that worked at Amarna from 1921 to 1937, and since 2012 as part of the Amarna Project under the direction of Barry Kemp, who has worked at Amarna since 1979. The Metropolitan Museum of Art helps to support this present work at the temple, as related to understanding of our Amarna collections. The temple’s precinct encompassed a vast expanse in which traces of two complexes can be seen, one in the front third and one at the rear. In both areas, there were initial works in mud brick, which were later replaced with stone buildings. Current work at the site has revealed that at least the front building, known as the Long Temple, or Gem-Aten, was substantially rebuilt again fairly late in the reign for reasons that are as yet unclear. These substantial changes over the short span of eleven years suggest the temple was a construction site for most of its existence.

The entire temple was open to the sky. In what we understand as its final state, one entered the temple enclosure through a mud-brick pylon, and advanced through a forecourt filled with numerous large low basins toward two colonnades of huge columns on either side of the axis . Beyond the colonnades stretched a long progression of courts filled with offering tables and punctuated by large altars. Fields of hundreds of offering tables aligned the Long Temple, though whether on both sides simultaneously is not clear ( 21.9.8 ). Then, beyond a huge stretch of ground, unexcavated and more or less featureless to the modern eye, stood a second building known as the Sanctuary of the Great Aten Temple. Within its own walled area, the Sanctuary was raised on a high gypsum cement podium . The building was fronted by a porch with columns and colossi of the king, and within, under the open sky, opened a court with small offering tables and a large altar, surrounded by twelve chapels. The Sanctuary seems to have been completed before the Long Temple, and certainly its plan suggests it was a successor of the Karnak platform temple. Not far outside the Sanctuary enclosure wall was a site where a large stela with an offering list stood on a podium alongside a seated statue of the king. The stela site was on an axis with an unusual entry building in the side wall of the main enclosure wall; it has been conjectured that this entry building allowed access to the stela and statue area, possibly by those wishing to participate in the king’s cult. A butcher yard within the temple enclosure and huge bakeries outside saw to the needs of the Aten cult.

The Great Aten Temple was adorned with reliefs. Some scenes and inscriptions in the Long Temple were spectacularly inlaid with colored stones, glass, and faience; some from the Sanctuary were gilded. Not long after the Amarna Period, the reliefs were removed for reuse as building matrix for other constructions, but the stones left at the site attest to many scenes of presentation of offerings or performance of ritual actions by the king and queen under the Aten’s rays. Scenes of nature and large intimate family tableaux are also attested. Fragments document statues in quartzite, granite, granodiorite, and particularly in beautiful hard white limestone known as indurated limestone, a specialty of the two Aten temples. The Metropolitan Museum has many indurated limestone sculptural fragments from the Sanctuary of the Great Aten Temple, where they were broken up on site by the temple’s destroyers. These indicate that sculptors continued to adopt expressive forms to represent the royal couple’s relation to their deity—the king’s and queen’s narrowed eyes and arching bodies with locked knees evoke a certain otherness, even if we do not understand the direct import of these features. But, in fact, the fragments also show considerable stylistic variability. Poses of the Great Aten Temple statuary as they can be reconstructed are often new to Egyptian art and surely express meaningful ritual actions within the definitions of the new cult: the king and queen as a dyad with their arms raised high before them and tall pillars inscribed with the Aten’s names stretching from their fingertips to toes; the king prostrate before the god; the king with arms raised in adoration ( 26.7.1395 ; 57.180.79 ; 21.9.3 ; 21.9.4 ; 21.9.431 ).

The ceremonial palace—the Great Palace—stood near the Great Aten Temple. This was the largest building in the city, and was elaborately decorated with relief and statuary, fine stone balustrades, stone, faience and glass inlay ( 26.7.942 ), gilding, and wall and pavement paintings. As the current excavator notes, it was designed to impress. This was the ceremonial or reception palace of the royal family, who seem to have lived elsewhere. The palace was entered from the north. Those arriving ascended ramps to pass through a monumental entrance decorated with columns, reliefs, and perhaps seated statues. They then descended ramps into the Broad Court, where great colossi in quartzite and granite stood, preserved only in fragments but reminiscent of those in the Karnak Heb Sed court. At the southern end of the Broad Court was a large porticoed balcony that may have been one of the locales termed a “window of appearance,” where the king and his family appeared to a larger public. The Broad Court complex at the Great Palace has been suggested as a site for official awards and feasting. To the east, the palace adjoined the Royal Road; on the western side, to judge from relief depictions, porticoes lined the riverfront ( 1985.328.15 ).

Less is known about the sunshades—an ancient Egyptian term for a place for sun worship—of the royal women. One at least, the Maruaten, evoked a lush natural setting with water and plants and a sort of island. The Kom el-Nana, certainly Nefertiti’s shrine, has provided evidence of a particular type of statuary associated with Amarna known as composite statuary, where lifelike skin coloring and textures, garments, and poses are mimicked by attaching separate pieces in different stones. Whether composite or no, statues in warm-colored stones such as yellow-brown or deep red quartzite of the king and queen and their daughters, often in groups and often linked by intimate gestures of held hands or interlaced arms, are a type that flourished at the site of Amarna itself, wherein the special intimacy and beauty of the family expresses their status as the beloved children of the Aten ( 2005.363 ; 11.150.26 ).

Reliefs decorated all the temples and palaces, and wall, floor, and ceiling paintings adorned many of the palaces ( 30.4.135 ; 30.4.136 ). Although the buildings were torn down after the end of the Amarna Period, the stone itself was removed to other sites to be used as fill in constructions. So, while it has not yet been possible to reconstruct larger scenes and their coordination with particular spaces as it was at Karnak, some sense of the themes represented is available. The life of the royal family, the beautiful children of the Aten, in the company of their god is central, from intimate depictions of the king and queen with the young princesses, to their movement through the city in chariots to the temples ( 1985.328.18 ), to scenes of ritual and offering under the rays of the Aten ( 1985.328.2 ). Scenes of nature under the Aten’s rays figure largely: dewy grapes ( 1985.328.23 ), gamboling animals ( 1985.328.21 ), startled birds, and scenes in the marsh ( 1985.328.22 ). Ambient activities are represented in similar spirit: busy cleaners and porters at the palace, soldiers sleeping alongside their smoking fires, attendants tending burning coals ( 65.129 ), boat and dock scenes ( 1985.328.15 ).

Amarna as an Egyptian City Not only was Akhetaten the center for worship of the Aten and the dwelling place of the king, it was the home of a large population—an estimated 30,000 people, nowhere signaled in the provisions of the boundary stelae. When the city was abandoned after about two decades, the streets and structures with their archaeological evidence were preserved in the state in which they were left after removal of much of the stonework and destruction of statuary. Because the city was not impacted by use over long periods of evolution, the site constitutes a remarkable laboratory for observation of an ancient society, albeit a very particular one created from the ground up at a specific moment.

A large population of officials and their dependents migrated to the city with the king. Villas of officials were scattered throughout the city; each villa or every few villas had a well, and that nucleus was then surrounded by smaller houses arranged according to the lights of their inhabitants. Amarna’s excavator Barry Kemp has aptly described clusters thus formed as villagelike, and he has referred to the city they formed as an “urban village.” The grouping of smaller houses around an official’s house points to the attachment of dependents to a given official, but also to the fact that the members of the complex were all aware of each other as interdependent in a way common to small villages. These villagelike complexes produced statuary; stone, faience, and glass vessels, jewelry , or inlays; metal items, and the like. Usually several industries operated in the same complex, serving the furnishing and embellishment of the royal buildings and other needs; by providing for these workers, the official heading the complex must have had rights to the things produced, which he then provided toward the court undertakings ( 31.114.2a ; 21.9.43 ; 26.7.1176 ). By contrast, a gridded, officially planned settlement, created probably to house workers on the royal tombs and known as the Workman’s Village, lay out in the desert plain between the city and the eastern cliffs. Houses themselves, from the simplest to the most elaborate, favored a plan with an oblique entry, a central room with a low hearth for reception or gathering, pillared when possible, and bedrooms and workrooms further back. Second stories may have existed, but sleeping might also take place on the roof. Cooking and food preparation seem to have been done in courtyards ( 29.7.1 ; 29.7.2a, b ;  55.92.2 ).

As a beehive of building and production, the city provides many insights into ancient industry and technology, from construction, to manufacture of glass and faience, to statuary and textile production, to bread making. One revelation is the ubiquity of gypsum as a working material. Gypsum can be used as a stone, but its main use at Amarna was as a powdered material, which with various admixtures can produce anything from a hardening plaster, to an adhesive, to a concrete. Gypsum had long been employed in Egypt as a mortar, a ground for painting, and for its adhesive qualities, but at Amarna it was used to create great long foundation levels, to build up platforms, and in a few instances to form large concrete blocks that functioned like stone. It was used as a mortar for talatat and glue for inlay. It may even have been used to create a whole large stela surface in the newly discovered boundary stela H. And it was used to adhere the elements of the composite statuary created at Amarna, and apparently to construct some balustrades from a three-dimensional mosaic of pieces. The combination of flourishing and inventive composite methods with the ubiquitous use of gypsum-based adherents has the appearance of an acceleration of technological change that constitutes a kind of breakthrough, whether or not it had any validity when Amarna and Amarna systems were abandoned.

The city offers a good deal of information about the spiritual concerns of its people, although the disparate evidence leaves many gaps and questions. As for involvement in the official Aten religion and the temples, officials presumably commissioned some of the temple statuary of the royal family or small-scale temple equipment at workshops distributed throughout one whole zone of the city. Some of the society at least also seems to have had particular access to certain parts of the temple: the Stela Emplacement area toward the back is one example. Certain figured ostraka or carved single ears—known elsewhere as dedications asking for a god’s attention to prayers—may likewise be offerings deposited at some locale in the temples ( 66.99.40 ). Moreover, the huge bakeries attached to the Great Aten Temple, along with the many hundreds of offering tables in the temple, point to wide distributions of food, and these could be tied to broad accommodation within areas of the temple enclosure, possibly in connection with the festivals of the Aten promised on the boundary stelae. In their homes, officials might exhibit devotion to the royal family as the children of the Aten, sometimes constructing small chapels in gardens alongside their houses for their own or perhaps neighborhood use. And at least one structure located in the city’s bureaucratic and military district was a sort of neighborhood shrine for a cult of the king. From the perspective of the small finds attached to houses and burials of the wider populace, there is very little overt evidence of attention to the new god, although such attention might not be well manifested in such finds for a variety of reasons. What is clear is that there was no absolute prohibition on other gods: material remains testify to continued interest in household gods like Bes and Taweret ( 21.6.73 ), protector deities like Shed and Isis, and belief in the efficacious magic of female or cobra figurines. The practice of honoring and invocation of important ancestors and probably other figures in the community through statues or stelae in household shrines or elsewhere seems to have pervaded society and points to a better understanding of the phenomenon usually termed “ancestor worship” ( 11.150.21 ; 31.114.1 ).

Recent excavations have revealed the long-unknown cemeteries of the general populace. The royal and elite tombs have long been known: the royal tomb for Akhenaten along with other partly finished tombs lay in the Royal Wadi through the cliffs to the east of the city and probably held the king’s body along with a number of his daughters and his mother, but these interments were removed ( 30.8.54 ; 30.8.372 ; 66.99.37 ); two groups of fine tombs for a number of the great officials lined the cliffs to the east of the city, although most of the owners were not actually buried there before habitation at the site was ended. In contrast, the recently excavated South Tombs Cemetery of the general populace shows ample evidence of use, probably holding about 3,000 individuals. A few of these individuals had a coffin or a stela or a piece of jewelry ( 66.99.38 ); most were simply wrapped, apparently not mummified, in a mat of rushes that served as a sort of coffin, and accompanied by a few pots. While there was certainly no mention of traditional funerary religion involving Osiris in the royal or elite tombs, there was some variability in the South Tombs Cemetery: one burial had a coffin apparently representing the Sons of Horus. The remains present many points of interest, but perhaps most surprising is the evidence of duress and poor diet well beyond that known for other typical New Kingdom populations. The profile of the population in terms of age at death also indicates to researchers that an as yet unidentified epidemic scoured the population. Other cemeteries have been identified, and more excavation is anticipated.

The Last Years Possibly even Akhenaten’s last years and certainly the period after his death give evidence of a troubled succession. Nefertiti, Meritaten, the mysterious pharaoh Smenkhkare, and the female pharaoh Ankhetkhepherure—for whom the chief candidates in discussions so far have been Nefertiti and Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti—and ultimately Tutankhaten (Tutankhamun) all have roles. Energetic scholarly discussion of the events of this period and the identity, parentage, personal history, and burial place of many members of the Amarna royal family is ongoing. It is clear that already during the succession period, there was some rapprochement with Amun’s adherents at Thebes. With the reign of Tutankhaten / Tutankhamun, the royal court left Akhetaten and returned to Memphis; traditional relations with Thebes were resumed and Amun’s priority fully acknowledged. With Haremhab, Akhenaten’s constructions at Thebes were dismantled, and dismantling began at Amarna. Apparently in the reign of Ramesses II, the formal buildings of Akhetaten were completely destroyed, and many of their blocks reused as matrix stone in his constructions at Hermopolis and elsewhere. The site had presumably been abandoned.

Hill, Marsha. “Art, Architecture, and the City in the Reign of Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten (ca. 1353–1336 B.C.) .” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amar/hd_amar.htm (November 2014)

Further Reading

Amarna Project

---. Akhénaton et Néfertiti: Soleil et ombres des pharaons . Exh. cat. Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2008.

Arnold, Dorothea. The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt . Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. See on MetPublications

Freed, Rita E., Yvonne J. Markowitz, and Sue. H. D'Auria, eds. Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen . Exh. cat. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999.

Gabolde, Marc. D'Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon . Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 1998.

Gabolde, Marc, et al., eds. Les Édifices du règne d'Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton: Urbanisme et revolution . Actes du Colloque le 18–19 novembre 2011. Montpellier: -, 2011.

Kemp, Barry J. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People . London: Thames & Hudson, 2012.

Laboury, Dimitri. Akhénaton . Paris: Pygmalion, 2010.

Murnane, William J. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt . Edited by Edmund S. Meltzer. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.

Seyfried, Friederike, ed. In the Light of Amarna: 100 Years of the Nefertiti Discovery . Exh. cat. English version. Berlin: Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2012.

Stevens, Anna. Private Religion at Amarna: The Material Evidence . Oxford: Archaeopress, 2006.

Vergnieux, Robert, and Michel Gondran. Aménophis IV et les pierres du soleil: Akhénaton retrouvé . Paris: Arthaud, 1997.

Additional Essays by Marsha Hill

• Hill, Marsha. “ Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period .” (October 2016)
• Hill, Marsha. “ Egypt in the Late Period (ca. 664–332 B.C.) .” (originally published October 2004; last revised January 2018)
• Hill, Marsha. “ Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1070–664 B.C.) .” (October 2004, last revised March 2018)

Related Essays

• Egypt in the Late Period (ca. 664–332 B.C.)
• Egypt in the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.)
• Kings and Queens of Egypt
• The Amarna Letters
• Ancient Egyptian Amulets
• Egyptian Tombs: Life Along the Nile
• Gold in Ancient Egypt
• Harry Burton (1879–1940): The Pharaoh’s Photographer
• The Housemistress in New Kingdom Egypt: Hatnefer
• The Pyramid Complex of Senwosret III, Dahshur: Temples
• Egypt, 2000–1000 B.C.
• 2nd Millennium B.C.
• Amarna Period in Egypt
• Ancient Egyptian Art
• Architecture
• Deity / Religious Figure
• Egyptian Art in the New Kingdom
• Egyptian Faience
• Egyptian Mythology
• Floral Motif
• Funerary Art
• Immortality
• Inlay / Marquetry
• North Africa
• Painted Object
• Photography
• Wall Painting

Artist or Maker

• Davies, Nina deGaris
• Davies, Norman deGaris

Online Features

• 82nd & Fifth: “Enigma” by Janice Kamrin
• 82nd & Fifth: “Snapshot” by Marsha Hill
• The Artist Project: “Rona Pondick on Egyptian sculpture fragments”

#Mission2.0 is here to disrupt the mundane. Are you? Join Now

• BIM Professional Course for Architects
• Master Computational Design Course
• BIM Professional Course For Civil Engineers
• Hire From Us

Request a callback

• Architecture & Construction
• Computational Design
• Company News
• Expert Talks

The Connection Between Art And Architecture: The Beauty of Synergy

December 27, 2022

Table of Contents

Art and Architecture share a blurred and yet beautiful relationship – a relationship that transcends time and space. It is one of the oldest relationships, which has one elemental thing in common: they both visually communicate a complex mixture of thoughts.

This relationship is one which has travelled across centuries and yet has a spark which makes it special. Art and Architecture share many aspects in common, and these combine to make the connection between them unforgettable. Read on to find out in detail about the same. 

Is Architecture an Art?

Architecture is not only considered an art, but it is regarded as the ultimate form of art by many. It requires so many disciplines to design a structure, and most of those steps are intrinsically artistic in nature. Hierarchy-wise, it occupies the top slot as far as the arts are concerned, by a vast majority of the consuming audience.

Architecture and Art have a deep connection that resonates with authenticity. 

How Do We Define Art?

Art is a medium for the visual representation of beauty, technical aspects, or abstract concepts which depict creative or imaginative essence. This broad definition includes the creative capacity of transforming the mundane into the sublime. Such definitions also mean art covers more than painting, sculpture and architecture; even the digital creations we see today are considered art.

How Do We Define Architecture? 

Architecture is the process of creating buildings, which includes functional and aesthetic components. It brings together an entire gamut of professionals who come together to craft a master plan, which synergizes input of building material and a logical design process leading to the output of a properly constructed building. This end-to-end process defines architecture and its beauty.

Art vs. Architecture: Abstract vs. Practical

Art is a creative process that negates the necessity to be practical or to incorporate rigorous rules. Art has manifested itself in many forms such as music, sculpture, paintings, and pictures. Architecture, on the other hand, is typically a three-dimensional physical construct. While art represents creative freedom and breaking the norms, architecture always has certain practical forces behind it. The practicality is further enforced by the famous phrase of Louis Sullivan, Form Follows Function, which many architects had diligently followed for decades since the beginning of the Modernist movement. The purpose and the functions of the building should be the starting point and the main essence, while everything else is secondary.  However, the avant-garde style of the late 20th century saw architects embracing the art in architecture. The building is no longer a machine: the art in architecture has allowed architects to use artistic expressions to shape the emotions of its users, creating a sense of comfort and community.

Additive and Integrated Art

The second approach is an integrated one, the art in architecture quite literally. This absolutely needs to be done during the early stages, as the art is part of the architecture itself. For example, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Medical Campus Parking Structure in Willowbrook, California, an artist was hired to do an installation that was the main feature in the façade. Thousands of painted aluminium panels speak to the history and community, while also creating a standard for public art on campus. In the best project, the architecture can support art and vice-versa.

Find more innovative facades here - 10 Fascinating Parametric Facade Design Projects From Around The World. 

How Are Architecture and Art Similar?

Both art and architecture are designed with the same basic organisational principles, aesthetically based elements, and perceptual interaction in mind. When we look at art and architecture history, we notice that many individuals were both architects and artists as there is much overlap between the two principles. Architecture and art are both culturally and historically significant.

How Does Art Affect Architecture?

Difference between Art and Architecture

The main difference between Art and Architecture is that Art is a process of creating things of extrinsic value through emotional or aesthetic appeal and Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing, and construction. An architect may or may not consider art in architecture, but he/she can still design and plan construction for a building that is responsive and effective in design.

The appreciation for art is creating a change in the architecture scene, blending art and architecture through a mixture of digital tools. Parametric design is an example of exploring artistic creativity blended with technology for better building design . 

Do You Need Art for Architecture?

Yes, art is needed for architecture. As reiterated earlier, the designing of a product or system requires artistic principles. Art also enables the mind to see things differently and to have a counter-intuitive approach, which determines the foundational essence of architecture as well.

A Connection that can’t be explained

Despite the differences between Art and Architecture, it can’t be denied that there is a connection which binds these two disparate forces together. And it just continues to grow with time, and consolidate itself into an unbreakable bond. This relationship brims with potential at the advent of technology, but that is another story altogether. Keep an eye out for the next story on our Resources . In the meantime, if you want to create aesthetically pleasing and functional buildings, Master Computational Design with real-world application to create art and architecture at the same time.

Related Topics

• Architecture and Construction
• design careers
• future tech

Subscribe to Novatr

Always stay up to date with what’s new in AEC!

Get articles like these delivered to your inbox every two weeks.

Related articles

Top 7 Computational Design Courses for Architects to Elevate Their Career in 2024

Pragya Sharma

September 5, 2023

10 min read

How BIM is Enhancing Landscape Architecture: A Comprehensive Guide

January 31, 2024

Highlighting Differences between Computational Designer and Traditional Architect

10 modern pavilion architecture examples around the world {2024}.

July 26, 2023

Ready to skyrocket your career?

Your next chapter in AEC begins with Novatr!

As you would have gathered, we are here to help you take the industry by storm with advanced, tech-first skills.

Dare to Disrupt.

Join thousands of people who organise work and life with Novatr.

Join our newsletter

We’ll send you a nice letter once per week. No spam.

• Become a Mentor
• Careers at Novatr
• Events & Webinars
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

©2023 Novatr Network Pvt. Ltd.

All Rights Reserved

Home / Essay Samples / Visual Arts / Architecture / Art in Architecture

Art in Architecture Essay Examples

Art and architecture in the golden age of justinian.

The Eastern Roman Empire prospered during the fifth and sixth centuries, while invasions and religious controversy racked the Italian peninsula. In fact, during the sixth century under Emperor Justinian, I and his wife, Empress Theodora Byzantine political power, wealth, and culture were at their peak....

The Major Advancements in Venice Architecture and Literature

Venice, Italy, is a unique location due to its natural protection of being surrounded by water. This made it easy to become a heart of a busy trade area. This added large amounts of wealth to the city. “This led them to build a great...

Analysis of Centraal Beheer Offices Created by Herman Hertzberger

In 1967, there was an international competition for the new headquarters of the Amsterdam City Hall. A vast number of architects from all around the world came together to propose their designs to come up with the solution to the political-social situation in the city....

The Important Role that Art and Architecture Have Played in Imperial Propaganda

The art and architecture has played an important role in the imperial propaganda or the glorification of secular rulers. Different rulers during their reign had used iconography to set up their power to an expanding empire that influenced general people. For example, the Romans beautifully...

Mosques Art and Architecture

Over the past few centuries, mosques have become the heart of Islamic life throughout the world. They were built in order to deepen Islamic worship and knowledge, while also giving them the ability to deeply connect with Allah and have the opportunity to unify in...

Simulation of Respiratory Function

The aim of Station 5 laboratory is to observe the effects of changes in breathing pattern on blood gas tensions using the MacPuf programme. In order to do so we examined 6 variables: alveolar oxygen pressure, arterial oxygen pressure, arterial oxygen saturation, arterial oxygen content,...

Analysis of Architecture in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire, Islamic-run superpower was created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia which grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th-16th century. The Ottoman flourished for more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when...

The Evolution of Islamic Architecture

Nature has been one of the most influential themes and a constant source of inspiration in the decorative world. Most famous artists have contributed their entire life studying nature and deriving beautiful forms out of it. Islamic motifs are one of the best examples of...

Frederick Law Olmsted and Landscape Design

Landscape design had importance in urban environments particularly after the Industrial Revolution because of how it had helped people to see how there was more to a landscape design then how much thought was put in to them. Landscape design which is also known as...

The Impact of Art on the European Renaissance Architecture

The transition to European Renaissance is a quite noticeable change for all civilizations. It transferred Europe drastically from the enhancement in technology, beliefs, philosophies, education, art and architecture, history, and agriculture. Many Westerns strongly deny that Arabs, especially Muslims, had played an important role of...

Trying to find an excellent essay sample but no results?

Don’t waste your time and get a professional writer to help!

• Interior Design Essays
• Taj Mahal Essays
• Graphic Essays
• Statue of Liberty Essays
• Burj Khalifa Essays
• Construction Management Essays
• Green Building Essays
• Modern Architecture Essays
• Pyramids of Giza Essays
• Art Nouveau Essays

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->