THE

ARCHITECTURAL
ARTS
 What is Architectural arts?

- The art and technique of

designing and building, as
distinguished
from the skill associated with
construction.
 Because many of the visual arts are found in caves and rock shelters that
show signs of humans habitation or use, it is spectulated that architecture
also arose at the same times, when humans first lived in natural sites, like
caves and rock shelters. Possibly like the gorillas. But these habitations
were temporary; humans were nomadic, moving from place to place in
search of food. They gathered fruits and hunted animals, including
megafauna, like the woodly mammoth. Then followed the variety of hunts
and called vernacular architecture. The emergence of architecture has
been associated with the settling down of people and the development of
villages, where people lived permanently.
 Elements of Architecture
Architecture easily falls under the category of visual arts. In fact the elements of the
visual arts-line, color, pattern, shape, volume, value and light play important roles in
architecture. The basic plan for any building, the architectural plan is drawn with lines.
Architecture involves manipulation of space. Organizing pinciples from the visual arts-
balance, rhythm, proportion, scale, emphasis, unity, and variety play a role.
We will single out some visual elements as especially relevant to architecture
while line is used to make architectural plans translated to steal, concrete, stone, or
other building materials. The public buildings constructed in the philllippines during
the american colonial era (1898-1945) are marked by vertical columns, and vertical
rectangular windows and doors.
 LIGHT
Light is an important and creative element in
architecture. Light is directed in a structure to
create areas which give life to surface. The
placement of windows and other apertures like
skylights, and transparent or translucent
transcom build up the light profile of a
structures interior. Lights intensity is modified
to make living more comfortable.
 COLOR
Color is another expressive element in
architecture. Aside from colored glass that
filters light, building surfaces have
color from the material used. Granite
comes in a variety of natural colors-black
fleckedwith gold, reddish,tan,gray,ocher,
and white.
Color pigments can be mixed with cement
to color it so that there will be no need to
apply a coat of color when the cement
is dry.
PRINCIPLES OF
COMPOSITION
The principles of composition that apply the visual arts are also relevant to
architecture. Balance refers to visual equilibrium so that architectural pats are
distributed visual weight. Like the visual arts, architectural balance can be
symmentrical, asymmetrical, or radial. Symmentry is the most common and
found in institutional buildings like churches, mosques,city and town halls, state
capitols,and like. Assymetry is more common in domestic architecture, Radial
balance is seen in structures with an elliptical or circular plan.
PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
Rhtym is a repetition of elements at set intervals, Rhytym like
pattern goes beyond the visual but is an organizing principle in
architecture. For instant, the intervals between post in a building
organizes space but is also a technical necessity if the structure is
to be strong and resist earthquakes.
Unity and variety, seemengly opposites, work together to make
architecture vibrant. Unity pulls together, to break what could be
monotony, variety introduces contrasts and conterpoints that do
not disrupt the unity of piece.
ART, SCIENCE, AND
TECHNOLOGY
What distinguishes architecture apart from the visual arts is that buildings
have to work. “A house is a machine for living”. An architect does not work alone
but with a team of which the technoligical experts are the engineers with varios
specialization for its realization, that is, from moving plan to reality, and architect
relies on host of industries that provide for the hardware, plumbing, electrical
needs, and other needs in a project.
But more than science and technology, which is invisible in built structure
and is its notice when it doesn’t work,like when toilets clog, elevators stall, roofs
leak or the basements flood, architect is an art.
BUILDING SYSTEM
Technology and its advances are found in architectural building
systems and structures. This building system are analogous to the
media of the visual arts . Just as the ideas, concepts, and subject
matter of the visual arts are made visible by the media, so is
architecture made visible by building systems and structures.

Building system have to be contend with gravity. As well as rises

higher, it has to constructed in a way that will keep it from falling. Since
architecture incloses both horizontal and vertical space, a system must
be developed to keep a roof up
 The chinese wood frame structure that allows the building
of tile roofs curving outwards with a flare, employsa system
posts and lintels of diminishing width. It is a variation of the
post and lintel structure. The wood frame uses dovetails
and bevel splices to connect timber. Wooden dowels are used
to peg timber, preventing rot from corroding metal parts,
had iron nailsbeen used. aoane of the surviving chinese
architectural manuals, Yinghao Fashi details the intricate
woodwork used by the chinese. The work illustrated with
woodcuts and dates to the Song Dynasty.
 RECENT METHODS AND MATERIALS
Steel frame construction using I beams that are arrived
and soledered together ushered the pre-World War II
building boom in high-rise structures. This method build
the landscape of manhattan,C where the drive to build the
tallest and the highest buildings or skyscrapers
challenged architects and engineers to overcome the
dangers caused by earthquake and winds. The tallest
building of that era was the empire state building
constructed between 1930 and 1932 in new york.
 A variation of reinforced concrete used in horizontal beams
prestressed. Prestressed concrete is made in in factories and the
delivered on site as prefabricated beams.

Truss and geodesic construction uses triangles, usually made of wood

or steel, for the truss. The skeletal stucture
C of the truss allows for light
but wide spans anis used in plane hangars, sports arenas, coverd courts,
and auditoriums for its roofing and post system of material. Geodesic
construction was pioneered by the american R. Buckminster Fuller, who
designed and built the united states pavilion expo ‘67 in montreal,
Canada. Using triangles he built a huge steel and glass dome that
enclosed the pavilion.
 ENVIRONMENT AND ARCHITECTURE
Environment refers to the physical and natural surroundings in which a
building or structure is situated. It includes natural elements such as
infrastructure, roads, and buildings.
C
Architecture, on the other hand, is the art and science of designing and
building structures that are aesthetically pleasing and functional. It
involves the planning, designing, and construction of buildings, as well as
the consideration
of various factors such a cultural, historical, social, and environmental
aspects.
 Therefore, environment and architecture are closely
related, since architects must consider the
environment in which a building is to be constructed
when designing it. They must
C also ensure that the
buildings design and construction are in harmony with
the environment, while taking into account the impact
of the building on the environment.
 ORNAMENTATION
Ornamentation can be defined as visual components of a building not
necessary for its structure or structural integrity. This includes window
dressing, relief and carvings, decorations on corbels, doorway and doors,
colors and finishes of ceiling, walls, and floors and the like.
C

Ornamentation it is influenced by prevailing trends and tastes when the

building is planned and build.
The architect as well as the client have strong inputs on what ornaments
will be used. Some ornamentation help classify a structure under
categories of style.
- The Doric
- Ionic
- Corinthian
- Composite and Tuscan columns define the classical style.

- Art Nouveau uses sinuous lines dirived from nature; hence, Vinces,
C
leaves, and flowers are the Diri Ionic, Corinthian, composite, and
Tuscan columns define the classical style. Art Deco builds on Art
Noveau but stylizes nature by emphasizing and simplifying geometic
shapes. The clean and no nonsense lines of the international style
swept architecture during the post World War II Era of the 1950s and
1960s.
SUBJECT MATTER AND ARCHITECTURAL FORMS

-The subject matter of all architecture is space but how that

space is used or functions, or where it appears in human
history has provided distinctionsC among works of architecture.

These distinctive categories are called forms.

- Architectural forms may be divided into two categories:

Private and Public
PRIVATE SPACE are generally residences where people dwell for an extended period
of time. The spaces are human in scale and if the residences are clustered as
apartments in a high rise building, we enter a personal space beyond the common
spaces.

PUBLIC BUILDING are generally large and commodious. It can take in many people at
one given time. Its occupants are transitoryC staying in the building to transact their
business and leaving as soon as that is done.

Philippine Architectural Forms

The CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art (Volume 3) lists architectural
forms; They are classified according to the categories listed below.
C
JOURNEY THOUGH TIME:
CLASSICAL WEST, GREECE AND ROME
-The art history of the West begins with the Greek and Roman civilization
of the Mediterranean. Greco-Roman culture and civilization and along
with the Judeo-Christian tradition are you fountainheads of Europe
cC
culture. From Greece came the concept of democracy, rule by leaders
chosen by people through participative voting.
The Romans passed on their genius at organization, at creating a
coherent organizational structure that would be emulated by kingdoms
and empires and by the emerging Christian Church in the first century.
The Romans passed on "the rule of law", the need to write down laws
that covered all the details of common life.
The Judeo-Christian tradition revolutionized the concept of God
with practical consequences to daily life. From poly theism or
belief in many gods, in this tradition, God is believed to be one.
This one God unlike the polytheism of Greece and Rome is
benevolent.
cC

Morality's basis on a principle of human equality and dignity

because all were created in the "image and likeness of God"-as
expressed in Genesis 1:27.
Good and bad were not determined by humab means but by
following the divine commandments.
Rome built a network of colonies linked by highways that allowed the
quick march of soldiers, pedestrians,carts,chariots,horses,and camels as a
means to control the empire so that no place was that remote from
Rome.The road network was also the pathway of trade and with it came
the cultures of Europe and Asia.Wherever Roman colonies were set up
they were laid in following a grid,defined by two roads intersecting at right
angles the cardo or main street and theC decumanus or market street.

Rome built a network of colonies linked by highways that allowed the

quick march of soldiers, pedestrians,carts,chariots,horses,and camels as a
means to control the empire so that no place was that remote from
Rome.The road network was also the pathway of trade and with it came
the cultures of Europe and Asia.
Rome built a network of colonies linked by highways that allowed the
quick march of soldiers, pedestrians,carts,chariots,horses,and camels as
a means to control the empire so that no place was that remote from
Rome.The road network was also the pathway of trade and with it came
the cultures of Europe and Asia.Wherever Roman colonies were set up
they were laid in following a grid,defined
C by two roads intersecting at
right angles the cardo or main street and the decumanus or market
street. The other innovation was cement called pozzolana, which was the
mortar used for stone work. This assured the Romans long and
continuous walls and vaults that spanned ever increasing widths, such as
the Termi de Caracalla.
During that historical period dubbed as the Dark Ages, culture
was not entirely extinguished. "Dark" , this period was also the
time of gestation, when tribal cultures mixed with late Roman
culture that marked the Middle Ages. Greece and Rome left the
West with a dark legacy, as both depended on slaves to function.
Slaves could hope to be free if they
C pleased the master or did
something extra ordinary.

A Tran Chian gladiator, he was captured by the legions and

trained as a gladiator under Lentulus Batiatus in a school near
Capua.
-The Legacy of Greece
For philosophy,we have the works of earlier Greek philosophers left as
fragments and the full dialogues of Plato from the classical period.
Since Plato's teacher was Socrates, who plays a leading role in the
dialogue. We gave glimpse of Greek politics from The Republic, a
dialogue.
C
Mathematics and science, we have Euclid's elements. Euclid lived in
Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy. The following works of Euclid
have survived, Phenomena, on spherical astronomy and optics, on
human's sight and perspective. Archimedes was a mathematician,
physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer.
 Aegean Art
Ancient Greek art is customarily dated to c. 11th century BCE. Before that
art in the Greecian lands and islands surrounding the peninsula is
designated as Aegean art. Three strands of Aegean art are known:
Cycladic (3000-1100 BCE), Mycenaean C
(c. 1600-c.1100 BCE), and Minoan
(c. 3650-1450 BCE). Cycladic culture in the Aegean Islands left behind
stylized sculptures of males and females, group and animal sculptures,
and seated figures playing the lyre. Mycenae, the traditional home of
Agamemnon, left behind images of warfare, such as frescos, gold death
masks, and the Lion Gate of the Citadel. Minoan culture flourished in
Crete and the Aegean islands.
Greek art is divided into the archaic period (eighth century-480 BCE), the classical
period (c. 500-336 BCE) and its final development as Hellenistic art, the art after
Alexander the Great (336-323 BCE) to the end of the Roman empire (5th century
BCE).The archaic period (from the Greek archon, meaning elder) began in the 8th
century BCE and ended with the second Persian invasion of Greece (479 BCE).
During the archaic period the foundations of classical period were laid as politics,
stoppedwarfare, international statecraft, economy
C and culture developed.
It was also during this period when the Olympic Games (776 BCE) were established to
The arts of architecture, painting, sculpture, coinage, and pottery left evidence of their
existence.
The Temple of Apollo in Paestum, Magna Graecia in Italy was built-similar to the
temples of the later classical era.
Greek Religion
The Greeks created gods in their own image, unlike the Egyptians who used unhuman
statues. They were polytheists, believing in many gods controlling nature's forces. The
Greeks believed that the world created the gods, with heaven and earth preexisting
the Titans and the Greek gods of Olympus being their grandchildren. The elder gods,
C
Cronus, were supreme for countless ages, but a revolt in heaven led to the death of
Cronus. The gods set themselves up on Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece,
known as the Olympians. The entrance to this heavenly realm was a gate of clouds
maintained by the Seasons. Within the gods, they dwelt, drinking nectar and eating
ambrosia, while Apollo played the lyre. The Olympians ruled through Zeus, Poseidon,
and Hades, with Zeus becoming lord of heaven, Poseidon as lord of the sea, and Hades
as the underworld.
The 12 Olympians were a family consisting of Zeus, his brothers Poseidon
and Hades, Hestia, and Hera. Zeus had children such as Ares, Apollo,
Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis, and Hephaestus. Pallas Athena was the
goddess of wisdom, while Eros was a lesser god of passionate love. Hebe,
the rainbow goddess, married Heracles, and Iris was a divine messenger. In
Olympus, the Graces and Muses lived, with Aglaia, Euphro syne, and Thalia
being daughters of Zeus. Clio was the Cgoddess of history, Thalia of comedy,
Terpsichore of dance, Calliope of epic poetry, Erato of love poetry,
Melpomene of tragedy, and Ourania of celestial objects. There were other
gods of ancient Greece; some were earlier deities, the earth gods, ke
Demeter (Cec), the goddess of the harvest and corn, Gaia, mother earth;
Dionysus (Bus) god of wine Aeolus was king of the winds, who lived in the
island of Aeolia. He very of the gods and controlled the four winds:
Boreas (Aquilo), the north wind bought winter: Zephyr (Favonius), the
west wind; Notus (Auster), the south wind Furus the cast wind. The
Greek world was filled with supernatural creatures, including satyrs,
centaurs, gorgons, and fates. Polytheism, unlike monotheism,
accommodated and syncretic gods, with the Olympians replacing older
gods as supreme power. The Romans adapted the Greek pantheon but
added their own gods, such as Lares Cand Penates, who were household
gods. The Numina were connected to the household, with Terminus,
Priapus, Pales, Sylvanus, Saturn, and Janus. Greco-Roman mythology has
enduring influence in Western culture, with figures and stories depicted
during classic, Baroque, and Revivalist eras. Western artists often
reference these myths, and even filmmakers are reviving ancient myths
like Hercules and Clash of Titans.
AXIAL AGE
Greece's classical period, from the 4th to the 5th century
BCE, was part of the "Axial Age" (also known as the Axis
Age) from the 8th to 3rd century BCE. This era saw an
explosion of verifiable knowledge,
C including the birth of
Confucia, Lao-Tse, Upanishads, Buddha, Zarathustra, Old
Testame prophets, Greek philosophers, dramatic writers,
mathematicians, and historians. The cause of this sudden
explosion is uncertain and debated.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
During the classical period, Athens was the most important city-
state, ruled by Pericles, who built the icon buildings and reliefs of
the Acropolis. The Acropolis was inhabited since the 4th century
and was restored by Cimo and Themistocles. During the "Golden
Age of Athens," major temples likeC
the Parthenon were rebuilt,
including the statue of Athena Parthenos, made of 1140 kilos of
gold and ivory. The gold represented a significant part of Athens'
treasury, and the Greek geographer Pausanias described Athena
as "made of ivory and gold." The Parthenon housed Athena
Parthenos' statue, which was a testament to Athens' rich history.
SUMMARY
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) defined architecture as a
masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in
light, creating beautiful forms that are distinct and tangible. Architecture
is a visual art that uses elements of visual arts like line and color, and
principles of design like unity and variety. It is also a practical art that
C
combines art and science, with science and technology developing
structural systems that improve architecture. Today's architecture
addresses environmental concerns and ensures buildings are "green."
The form of architecture depends on how space is used, and the
Philippines has evolved its own forms that address human and
community needs, incorporating local and foreign influences from both
East and West.
 Structural System
Greek public architecture evolved from simple wooden structures.When
the post-and lintel system of wooden structures were translated into
stone,the posts were made of large cylindrical pieces or drums that when
placed on top of each other and tappered just as a tree trunk would.Each
capital had two parts,the lower calledC echinus;and the upper, a square
piece of stone,called abacus,on which the lintel rested.The lintel that run
around the perimeter defined by the standing columns,on which the roof
rested was called entablature.Above it was the frieze,decorated by the
sculpture relief,which in the Doric Order is devided into sections by the
sections called metopes and alternated with three vertical bars,the
triglyph.
The whole public structure rested on the crepidoma,a
foundation of masonry,which had three steps.The
topmost level,the stylobate, supported the
columns.Columns were also built within the
building,such that inner columns,were
C taller that the
outer column because of the slope of roof.
Some architects named in this period besides Phidias and
his assistant were Ictinus and Callicrates.Hippodamus of
Miletus is mentioned as a town planner and architect.
Painting
Polygnotus(5th century BCE) was a painter from Thasos but was adopted by the
Athenians and made a citizen.He was the sin of a painter,Aglaophon,who was also his
mentor.We know about Aglaophon's paintings from Quintillan,who praises them for
the simplicity of their coloring.Apelles of Kos was an artist of the 4th century BCE.What
we know about him comes from the Pliny the Elder's Natural History,that gives the
C
date for Apelles to the 12th Olympiad (332-229 BCE).
Apelles worked as a court painter of Philip II of Macedon,father of Alexander.His works
were brought to Rome by Julius Caesar and hung in his home on the Palatine Hill but
we're destroyed by fire.
The mosaic depicting Alexander's battle with Dairus at Issus in the house of the Faun
at Pompeii is believed to have been based on a painting by Apelles or by another artist
named Philoxenus of Eretia.
Philoxenus of Eretia was disciple of
Nicomachus of Thebes.Pliny claimed that
he painted the battle between Alexander
and Dairus I for King
C

Cassander.Nicomachus of Thebes was

mentioned by Vitruvius who notes that his
fame was less that his contemporaries.
Sculpture
Statuary was made in two common ways:casting bronze or sculpting
marble.Bronze statues from the past are not as numerous as the statues
carved from stone.Marble statues of the classical era,like the archaic,were
painted in the brilliant colors.The geometrical rules that governed the
design of statues was covered in the previous chapter when proportion
C
was discussed.
Statues had as subject matter the gods,singly,or with another
god;athletes,some engaged in the various sports and important historical
figures,like Pericles, Alexander the Great and the philosophers,
Socrates,Plato,and Aristotle.
By the classical era, sculptors had captured the contours and details of the
human body that gave the sculptures a convincing look.
For more numerous are stone sculptures, usually marble or
limestone.Some stone works are copies of lost originals,like the
Discobolus of Myron (460-450 BCE),a sculpture of an athlete
about to throw a discus.The original bronze statue is lost but
numerous life sizes and smaller scaled Roman copies are known.
C

Archermus belonged to a family of sculptors.His father Micciades

and his son's,Bupalos and Athenis were sculptors of
marble.Archermus is said to have been the first to sculpt Nike and
Eros with wings.
Pottery
The Greeks used various materials like metal, glass,and stone for storage but far more
common ways pottery.Pottery is also one of the most abundant preserved visual arts.
Some 100,000 pieces have been recovered and a classification of them is made
according to type and chronology.The categories are not derived from ancient Greek
sources,but are categories invented by scholars and archaeologists who classified
them.
Theses general categories of pottery according to the use are helpful in organizing
data:
1.storage and transport vessels.amphora - for wine usually with the capacity of under
0.5 ton,pithos - with a larger capacity rather than amphora,between 0.5-2.5 ton,pelike
- similar to the amphora but had a flanged bottom so it could stand; decorated with
human figures,hydria - for water and pyxis - a circular container with a lid used by
women for keeping cosmetics, jewelry and trinkets.
2.Mixing vessels,mainly for male drinking parties,krater - a large mixing
vase to water down wine and dinos - a mixing bowl or cauldron.

3.Jugs and cups several types of kylix (chalice) - usually a shallow,footed

cup with two handles and cups; kantharos - a tall drinking cup with pair
of handles;phiale - a libation bowl;skphos - a deep wine cup,two-handed
and low flanged base or none;oinochoe - a wine jug and loutrophos - a
jar with an elongated neck.
4.vases for oil, perfumes, cosmetics lekythos - a large,long necked jug
with a handle attached to the neck aryballos - a small, globular flask that
could be hung with a strap on the wall or the waist of a person aryballoi -
in different and imaginative shapes were made by potters,like three
cockle shells,owl, hedgehog,Janus face,and human foot alabastron -
could be pottery or glass,used for perfume and massage oils;gad a
narrow body,round bottom, narrow neck and broad and splayed mouth.

Pottery is divided into five style periods:

1.Protogeometruc,from c.1050 BCE
2.Geometric,c.900 BCE
3.Late Geometric or Archaic,c.750 BCE
4.Black figure,c.7th century BCE and
5.Red figure,c.530 BCE
Music
Ancient music was instrumental or sung or both.The ancient
instruments can be divided into string,wind,and percussion.Visual
evidence for music comes from pottery.
A common string instrument was the lyre;it was plucked and had a
tortoise shell(chelys)as sound box.It had seven or more strings.The lyre
was used to accompany oneself or others for recitation and song.The
kithara was held upright when used and struck with plectrum.The
barbiton was a taller lyre.
ans was also used.
Wind instrument were the aulos,a twin pipe,like oboes,
joined together with a mouth band that it possible to
play both pipes together.The panpipes, also known as
panflute and syrinx.
The hydraulis was like a modern-day pipe but was
operated using water columns that change the pitch of
the pipe and controlled by the keyboard.The salpinx was
a brass instrument used for military signals.A curved
trumpet,called bukani by the Greeks and cornu by the
Romans was also used.
DANCE
Dance is usually associated with rituals like the Dionysiakos for the festival
of Dionysus a circle dance called choreia is mentioned by Homer. Sons
artie festival dances are: the carpaea, cordax, hyporchema, korybantes,
pyrrhichios, and syrtos. The Greek plays had a chorus that sang and
danced in tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. The chorus of between 12
and 50 participants danced, sang, and spoke in unison. They were
sometimes masked like the actors of the play. The chorus narrated the
background and other information necessary to follow the storyline. They
commented on the action, like the spectators, but they also acted like a
corporate actor that moved the story forward.
THEATER
Because of Aristotle and extant plays by the likes of Euripides and Sophocles, we have
information about the Greek theater. We also know the physical shape of a theater
from existing remains. A typical theater was built on a hillside to take advantage of its
slope. It had three parts: the koilon, where the audience sat in tiered seating in a
semicircular plan; the skene, a building that was the backdrop of the theater and the
orchestra, where the chorus danced and sang.

The theater was built large for the players on stage and for the audience, which could
number to around 14,000. Earlier theaters had seats of wood; later special stone
seats were made. The front seats were reserved for the priests and prominent
people. These permanent structureS were called prohedria.
Hellenistic Art
The Hellenistic era was rooted in Alexander the Great and his conquest of
the Middle East all the way to the boundaries of India. It happened in a
short time, from 334 to 323 BCE. By age 32, Alexander died but already
set up satellite towns under his generals in the areas he conquered. In
these lands evolved what had come to be known as Hellenism.
There are varieties of Hellenistic art like those that developed in Egypt and
the Buddhist-Greek art of Gandara in present-day Afghanistan, but this
section will focus on the Roman variety of Hellenistic art because more
than other cultures, it was the Romans that absorbed Greek influence the
most. This happened because Rome conquered Greece.
The decisive battle occurred in Corinth in 146 BCE.
While the Hellenistic era is dated from Alexander's death in
323 BCE until the Roman conquest of the Macedonian
territories in 31 BCE, this span of time reflected the politics of
the age, Culturally and artistically, however, it can be said that
Hellenistic influence did not end with the Roman conquest; but
lasted until 330 CE when Constantine the Great moved the
capital of the Roman Empire, calling it Nova Roma and later
Constantinople, Romans easily absorbed Greek culture,
adapting Greek philosophy and developing their own, like
Stoicism, and using Greek as the common language of daily life
and trade.
Architecture
Greek ideas of town planning using a grid were adapted by the Romans
as well as many of its public building types, like the temple and the
amphitheater. But the Romans added their own. The basilica, a
rectangular building with semicircular apses at the shorter end and an
entrance at the center, was the court of law and the place for
transacting business with the government. The forum was the Roman
version of the agora; which the Romans enhanced theirs with covered
corridors defining the forum's perimeter. The decumanus or market
street had covered area market stalls.
INFLUENCES IN WESTERN ARCHITECTURE
The fountainhead of Western culture is the Greco-Roman and the Judeo-Christian. From the Greeks,
the West inherited democratic ideals, the love for learning, and the principles of art and design. The
Romans inherited the Greek tradition but added their own genius at organization and construction,
introducing two pivotal innovations- -the semicircular arch and cement. They built a bureaucracy that
ruled an empire effectively. The Judeo-Christian tradition taught that there is only one God who
created the universe, Humans as God's image and likeness" had dignity and were all equal. God's plans
rather than man's design was supreme.
The Greek introduced construction in marble for their temples and building using the post-and-lintel
system. The Romans, capitalizing on the structural strength of the arch, built a variety of buildings like
palaces, baths and law courts. The arch also spanned chasms and was used to transport water through
aqueducts. Romans inherited much of Greek culture including its religion and its arts. The visual arts in
the form of mosaics, fresco and encaustic portraits, sculpture, music, dance and theater flourished in
Greece and Rome, where art was everywhere.
Visual Arts
Roman sculpture is based on the Greek; in fact, many Roman sculptures in marble are
copies of the Greek, some of which are lost. Romans were fond of Hellenistic era
works-when inventive and dramatic statuary in exaggerated and emotive poses were
sculpted.
These sculptures went beyond the contrapposto stance of the free-standing or in the
round statuary- -sculptures portrayed gestures and movement. The sculptures
Laocoon and his Sons, Dying Gaul, and Nike of Samothrace, are examples of dramatic
statuary in the Hellenistic Period.
The Romans, especially of the imperial period, loved portrait sculpture. Emperors and
their families and retainers were depicted either in the round or in relief. The Romans
used mosaics to decorate floors, walls and ceiling vaults and frescoes to decorate
walls. Roman mosaics date to the second century BCE. Mosaics are constructed by
embedding tesserae on a cement base.
 THANK YOU!!
REPORTERS:

Ambong, Joanna
Gan, Kyla Faith
Occida, Raah
Sumugat, Antonilla
Villarta, Marilyn