The Roman temple was not, like the Greek, approached on all sides by a low flight of steps, but raised on a high platform (podium) with a staircase in the front; in many cases the cellar was placed in order to house the divine Etruscan triads (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, etc.) and this cellar was faced by a deep portico, which often occupied half the platform and thus resorted to the outer structure the canonical length of the classic temple. This high podium is a first step in the development of building in a vertical direction whereby the Romans paved the way for medieval and more particularly Gothic architecture. The round temple which originated in the primitive Latin hut, was adopted for the house of the king and for the ancient cults of Vesta and of Hercules. Another specific achievement of the Roman architect was the application of the arch the vault, and the dome. The aesthetic effect of curves was well understood by the Romans; and they were the inventors of those decorative combinations of the Greek orders with the arcade, of which the more famous- the Triumphal Arch and the Arcade order had a far reaching influence.
The Romans also excleed in the creation of huge public spaces and buildings, and successive emperors tried to outdo their predecessors in constructing ever more grandiose monuments: forums (open meeting places); basilicas (roofed buildings for public assembly); temples (often in imitation of Greek models,with their Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns); circuses (huge arenas for chariot races - the Circus Maximus was 2,000 feet long and accomodated a quarter of a million people); theaters; public baths; and triumphal arches.
Many of these great buildings survive today These two pages look at one of the Romans' greatest achievements.
The Colosseum was built in the first century A.D., and still stands in the center of modern Rome.
VAULTS
The Colosseum, which seated 50,000 spectatores for gladiator combats and other spectacles, had three tiers of arched arcades on the outside and a honeycomb of arched, vaulted passageways in its vast structure. A vault is simply an arch extended lengthwise, and a semicircular one like the Romans used is a barrel vault. The later Romans discovered that one vault could cross another at right angles and still stand up; this cross vault could cover a large square area successfully, supported only at the corners on columns.
Outside, the first three levels of arcades are faced with Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns.
Inside, the spectator galleries seated the most important people at the bottom, the least at the top.
The Colosseum was dedicated by Emperor Titus in A.D. 80 with 100 days of games. Two years later Emperor Dominitian added the top, Corinthian, story.
Дата добавления: 2015-01-07; просмотров: 34 | Поможем написать вашу работу | Нарушение авторских прав |