Ancient Through Medieval Architecture - AP Art History

The three "classical orders" applied to columns in Ancient Greek architecture are Doric, Ionian, and Corinthian, going from least to most ornate. The Ionic column is most easily distinguished by its capital, or the top of the column. On every Ionic column, a scroll-shaped ornamentation is placed at the top portion of the column.

Columns in the Doric order sit directly on the stylobate without a base. The other two Classical Greek orders, Ionic and Corinthian, both employ bases.

Often found in Ancient Greek architecture, female figures used as part of or in place of plainer columns are known as caryatids.

Tuscan columns are the standard type of Etruscan column. They closely resemble Doric columns, but are usually made of wood, have a base and are not fluted along the shaft.

The "cella" is the central room or chamber of an ancient temple; often this is where the cult statue of the god or goddess would be set up.

The triangular gable over a major architectural element is called a pediment. In Classical and especially Greek temples, the pediment is decorated with a sculpture that tells a story or a myth. The pediment is the defining architectural feature of the Classical temple, and it also shows up a lot in Greek Revival architecture in Europe and the United States.

The use of different architectural orders on each level of a building is called the progression of orders. In Classical architecture, each "order" refers to a particular style, identifiable mostly by the profile and proportions of the columns. The progression of orders takes these structural elements and uses them as decorative elements, especially in Roman and Neoclassical architecture.

In Greek and Roman architecture, a circular building is called a tholos. The tholos (plu. tholoi) is more common in Greek architecture than in Roman architecture; normally they were used for circular temples or shrines. In the Mycenaean tradition, the term "tholos" refers to a kind of circular, beehive-shaped tomb.

This is the definition of an oculus, and can be found in the Pantheon and other Roman & Greek buildings.

The only other answer that is an open design is the rose window, but those are not found in the top of a dome.

The apse and ambulatory are specific areas in a basilica plan church, not a part of a dome.

The impluvium is an indented/sunken area in a structure to collect rain.

Cathedrals, and many churches, built in Western Europe during the Middle Ages were usually set out in a cruciform, or cross shape. Chartres Cathedral, while featuring a wider transcept, or shorter branching of the cross, follows this pattern as well. Chartres Cathedral differed from other Gothic cathedrals in having a more uniform height for its arcade, triforium, and clerestory levels, the arches on the interior's walls.

Stained glass, semi-circular arches, and groin vaults are all contributions of the Romanesque architectural movement, which preceded Gothic architecture. Deliberately incomplete architectural elements are a feature of Baroque architecture. Gothic architecture is responsible for the flying buttress.

A finial is a crowning ornament on a pinnacle, tower, or roof of a building.

The Flamboyant (or Late) period of Gothic architecture contains a combination of tracery and ogee arches. "Flamboyant," from the French word for flaming, denotes its highly decorative style.

The depressed arch was much different from the other arches found in Gothic architecture. It was designed to look as though it had been flattened by a great pressure, and was very wide. There is no such thing as an Italian arch.

Triglyphs and metopes are a characteristic of the doric order temple, but were abandoned by the time the ionic order became the favored architectural tradition in favor of an uninterrupted frieze that could house relief sculpture.

The Doric order was heavy and squat. It was followed in the fourth century by the Ionic, which boasted more slender columns and longer proportions. It was considered more aesthetically pleasant than the Doric order, so Classical Greeks desired it more than the Doric order at the height of the artistic tradition from this period.

You can see that the building is Ionic by noting the bases on the columns (the larger circles around the outside of the circles that denote columns). Most other buildings on the acropolis were made of limestone, but the small size of this temple allowed architects to use pentelic marble.

There is evidence that the white piece found in Greece were actually brightly colored, giving us an image of Greece that is much different than the white marble we think of when we think of Classical Greece.

Temples epitomized the Greek way of life. They formed a balanced and aesthetically pleasing background to the daily lives of the Greeks, not necessarily places of active worship for the masses. They were built to be seen from outside, where their harmony spoke of the rationality of life.

There is a long-standing myth that the Romans invented the arch. This is simply not true, arches can in fact be found among ancient Greek ruins. They were mostly used underground. While the Romans didn’t invent the arch, they were the first to put it to wide use.