Astillero Elbert Leo D.

August 11, 2008

EC ENGLCOM

The Art in Culture

Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society" as said by Williams,

Raymond. It manipulates every aspect in the lives of the society and it shapes that society into

something that is far more imaginative and civilized. It scoped through all that is possible to man

and to everything that is unseen or untouched by man; beliefs, art, behavior, institutions and

much less the knowledge that each and everyone of man has received from their ancestry. Within

the world of different men, they seek to show and flourish these aspects and create a wide range

of original designs and some pave ways to improve the cultures that is already present. This can

be seen between the two leading civilizations in the classical age: Greeks and Romans.

One aspect that can really be appreciated in Greece is their magnificent temples and its

extrinsic design. This may be due to the brilliant minds of Greek architects. The Greeks were

born artistic and this enabled them to create simple yet soothing sights within their kingdom.

Because of Greece’s beauty, Greek architecture stands alone in being accepted as beyond

criticism, and therefore as the standard by which all periods of architecture may be tested.

Roman architecture is based on advanced engineering and interior designs. Although they

have laid their foundation through the Greeks, these Romans enabled their brilliant minds to

create a more forward variation leading to a greater and vast civilization. As it can be seen in

some parts of Europe, Roman architecture is mostly described as an art of shaping space around

ritual.
 Since Roman architecture is based on Greco architecture, it may be hard to distinguish

both with how you look at them. Temples of the Roman civilization was exactly copied from the

Greeks’ temples. Even the tiniest detail was engraved in all Roman temples. The columns that

they used were also the same. All three orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, were used but the

Corinthian order was widely used because of its extravagant design. The goals of these two

civilizations were clearly seen. It was to create beauty and grace to the city and to make a place

of worship to the gods. They made their buildings a work of art. Both strived for perfection. In

making these monuments and buildings they needed something that is sturdy and strong. The

Greeks used marble to create the smooth and perfect texture of the structure and so did the

Romans. Although the Romans did copy the form of Greek architecture, they did create a rather

different style of engineering and designs.

As Roman architecture is firmly rooted on the style of Greco-Architecture, both Greek

and Roman architecture has their differences. One major difference between Greek and Roman

architecture is their purpose for making those marvelous structures. The Greeks have a good

reason to build a beautiful piece of architecture; to worship the gods. The most beautiful

structures found in Greece are mainly composed temples dedicated for their gods like the temple

of Hephaestus and The Parthenon. The gods were the main driving force behind any major

architecture in the Hellenistic period. This was not true with the Romans. They did build temples

for their gods but the Roman architecture was relevantly seen in public dwellings such as

basilicas and forums. Most of the temples in Rome are duplicates of the Greek temples and yet

they differ in some way. Greeks only put gods in their temples which the statues are underneath

the heavenly sky while the Romans would not only place their gods in the temples, they would
include their emperors and sometimes they would place purely their emperor’s statue inside the

temple. The Greeks would consider their artwork as a dedication to the gods. This can easily be

seen through the ornateness of its exterior. The Grecians made it as a form of sculpture for its

beauty to be viewed by all from the outside. The Romans on the other hand had different cultures

from the Greeks. Although they maintained the beauty of their architecture the same way as the

Grecians did, the true art lies within the bounds of their architectural walls. They were more

concerned of the beauty that needs to be captured from the inside. From lighting to colorful

murals and works of art painted in the walls, they wanted to create a vast array of colors that

burrows deep in the hearts of man and capture their souls. The basilicas in Rome are perfect

examples on how the Romans would demonstrate their artistic capabilities. This is all important

since their buildings were meant as gathering places for the public. There are also the market

places and bathhouses that are made pleasing to the eyes of men in the inside rather than the

outside. The Greek and Roman architecture did not only differ on why they were built but also

on how they were built. The Greeks used a simple method in building their structures through

what we call as the “post and lintel system” or “trabeated form”. This is done by supporting the

horizontal member (lintel) with two vertical posts. If we try to visualize it, it is just the same as

the Stonehenge. One disadvantage of this type of engineering is that the weight of the load

(lintel) is limited and there should have only a small space between the two posts. On the other

hand, since the Roman buildings were mainly built for the public, the trebeated form posed a

problem with the scale of the structure. The Romans had to find a way to make their buildings

bigger for more people who can dwell in it, let’s say, the market places of the basilicas. The

column was a great way to do it. Although, to do that, they would need a considerable amount of

columns that would carry the load and that would just crowd the place. The Romans needed
something that is sturdy and occupied less space. Then, the arch was born. The use of arches did

the trick to support large establishments. This enabled more space and a larger building to be

carried by a single base. This resulted to the dome which is a network of arches. This can be seen

by The Pantheon, a circular dome that was the temple to the gods. The Romans and Greeks also

differed in the material they used. Greeks had an abundant supply of marble and this gave the

smoothest surface finish. Although they did not like the color depicted by the marble, they just

painted it. The Romans would have used marbles but they had to get supplies outside the city and

carry it back. Instead, they made concrete to be used as the material for making their walls. The

style of Greece is also different from Rome in a way that the Greeks, consciously or

unconsciously, practiced extreme simplicity in art, and the fine-grained marble that they worked

encouraged the tendency to leave purity of outline to speak for itself. “The perfection of Greek

art lies in its simplicity. The Greeks were artists by nature, and Greek art was the outward

expression of the national love of beauty.” Thus, whether on the grand scale of a temple

building like the Parthenon or in the single human figure as the Hermes of Olympia, they were

content with beauty unadorned by distracting ornament. On the other hand, the Romans would

never seem to have been satisfied till they had loaded their monumental buildings with every

possible ornamental addition. Here too the influence of material is apparent; for concrete

demanded a disguise, and coarse limestone did not permit of delicate purity of line; and thus

called for extraneous ornament, so the Romans completed the magnificence of their monuments

by a wealth of decoration. “The characteristic of Roman art lies in its forcefulness. The Romans

were rulers by nature, and Roman art was the outward expression of the national love of power.”

just as expressed by the Coliseum or the Basilica of Constantine formerly known as Temple of

Peace.
 Architecture is not just a design given into a structure. It is the ingenuity and brilliance of

the human mind; great scientific marvels that shakes the very hearts of man. It is a form of art

that tells stories of the culture of a civilization. In the Philippines, one can see that most Basilicas

are variations from Spanish Basilicas and this implies that the Philippines were colonized by the

Spaniards. Architecture also serves as a form of art that pleases the eyes of those who marvel at

its magnificence. The architecture has been seen as a pleasing and soothing sight to behold. This

is not just a form of decoration but also a glimpse of the future. Architecture has given men a

start of new ingenuity just as the Romans built the arches only after the Greeks started the

foothold under it through the columns.

Reference List

Antiques Digest, Roman Architecture- Comparative Analysis, retrieved from http://www.old

andsold.com/articles22/architecture-43.shtml

Comparison of Greek and Roman Architecture. 2005. 1902 Encyclopedia, [Online].

http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/A/ARC/architecture-065.html

Free Essay, Roman Architecture, retrieved from http://www.freeessays.cc/db/5/avk21.shtml

Google Answers, Ancient Greece and Rome, retrieved from http://answers.google.com/

answers/threadview?id=161945

Perry, Marvin (1989). A History of the World, Manila: National Book Store.