I'm going to, I'm going to skip a couple

of centuries and take us from the 8th

century B.C. to the 6th century B.C. and
talk about what was the greatest
architectural project
in the 6th century B.C. Just a few words
about what was going on in the
6th century B.C. those who are ascendant
in
the 6th century B.C. were essentially the
Etruscans.
The Etruscans lived in what is known
as Etruria, they were quite advanced
civilization
prior to the Roman period, lived in
Etruria which is which is essentially
Tuscany today.
Etruscan.
Tuscany.
Tuscany today.
So, the area around Florence and so on and
so forth is where many of these
individuals lived.
They became a quite powerful civilization
and
they were able to use that power to gain
ascendancy also in Rome itself.
And there's a period in which there was a
succession of Etruscan kings who were
who were leading Rome and these Etruscan
kings
you know eventually kicked out by the
Roman's.
But at this time in the 6th century they
were extremely important and it was under
Etruscan supervision and patronage that a
big, a major
temple began to be put up in Rome in the
6th century BC,
precisely in 509.
It was dedicated in the year 509 BC, as
you can see from the monument list.
The temple in question
was the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
Capitolinus.
Now, that is a mouthful and I don't want
you to have to necessarily remember all of
that.
Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus.
So we will call him, we will call this
temple for all intents and purposes, the
temple of Jupiter OMC, Jupiter OMC,
Optimus Maximus Capitolinus.
The top, the top of the temple of Jupiter
OMC was dedicated again in the year 509
B.C. and
it was dedicated to Jupiter but also to
his female companions, Juno and Minerva.
And when we think of those three, when
those three are joined
together, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, they
are known as the Capitoline Triad.
Because their main temple was on the
Capitoline Hill in
Rome, and we will see the Capitoline Triad
not only honored
in this temple, but in other temples.
I showed you one on Tuesday in
Pompeii, for example, the so-called
Capitolium in Pompeii.
That honored Jupiter, Juno and Minerva,
you'll see that when a temple honors
the three of them it has implications for
the architecture of that building, for
the design of that building, we'll talk
about that right now and in a
few minutes but I want you to be aware of
what the Capitoline Triad
is, so it's all three of them honored
together although Jupiter
is always considered supreme when, when
ever those three get together.
So we have a temple here that we have to
think of in large part as an Etruscan
Temple put up during the time of the
Etruscan Kings dedicated in 509,
but one that is beginning to have the
impact of Rome and will itself have a
very strong impact on Roman temple
architecture.
We're going to focus quite heavily today
on Roman temple architecture and
then of course return to it sporadically
in the course of this
semester as we moved through and looked at
other temples like the
Pantheon and like others that were put up
in the Roman proviences.
The temple of Jupiter OMC was built on the
Capitoline hill in Rome,
so one of the other major seven hills.
So while the hill of the Palatine
was basically the residential section of
Rome at
this juncture, the Capitoline hill became
its
religious center, where its main temple
was placed.
The temple of Jupiter was located on the
hill, was
located on the hill at about the position
of one of the palaces that's there now.
We mentioned last time, and any of you
who've been to Rome know this well,
that the Capitoline Hill was redesigned in
the Renaissance by none other than
Michelangelo himself.
It was Michelangelo who was responsible
for creating the
oval piazza that is at the center of the
Cap-,
Cap-, Capitoline Hill, which was then
recall-, renamed the
Campidoglio of Rome, and they're these
three palaces, designed also
by Michelangelo.
The Capitoline, the conservatory, and the
senatorial
palaces, that serve today as two museums,
or a joined museum, one on either side,
and a governmental building in the back.
And you can see that very well here.
So this is the Capitoline Hill as it looks
today, as redesigned by Michelangelo,
but in Roman times, it was the location,
or from the 6th Century BC
on, it was the location of the temple of
Jupiter OMC, the
chief temple of ancient Rome, the most
important temple of ancient Rome.
What did that temple look like?
And again, it, this is extremely
important, not only for
it but for the rest of Roman temple
architecture over time.
We have, believe it or not, we have quite
a bit of evidence.
It's complicated
by the fact that this temple burned downed
quite a number of times throughout its
history.
We know it was still standing by the way
in the 4th century AD, when it was
described
by a very famous writer, but, so it had
a very long history, but it burned down
several times.
And it was rebuilt several times.
And each time it was rebuilt, it obviously
was rebuilt in a new style.
You know, whatever was au courant.
At that time,
so it changed considerably.
And, nonetheless, we do have quite a bit
of information about it.
As far as we can tell, when it was
put up in 509 B.C., it looked something
like this.
What you're seeing here is a restored view
and a plan of the temple in 509 B.C.
and, it's never too soon in a course on
architecture to learn how to read a plan,
and how to read a restored view or a
so-called axonometric view.
And I have put on, you probably haven't
had
a chance to look yet but I've put up on
the website for this course, both under
announcements and
also in the online forum section, a couple
of sheets.
That you will be, I think will be very
helpful to you,
that have terms and concepts, you know, it
has different kinds of
you know, it has different kinds of
vaulting,
and different kinds of masonry, and also
tells
you the difference between an axonometric
view, and a plan and so on and so forth.
I really urge you to print those out,
look through them in the beginning of the
semester,
we do have to spend a lot of time on what
things are called, but once we
do that for a couple of weeks, we'll be
done with it and you'll know all the
basic terms and we'll be able to go on
from there, but I think you'll find those
handouts extremely helpful.
So, as we look at what we have here, I
think you can see by looking at the plan.
That what we are dealing with is a
rectangular structure.
The rectangular structure has a deep porch
and these circles are columns, so with
free standing columns in that porch.
It has a single staircase at the front.
Having a single staircase rather than one
that encircles
the building gives the building a focus,
there's
a focus on the facade for this structure.
You can also see that the back wall is
plain.
The back wall is plane and the cella, C,
E, L, L,
A which is the central space of the inside
of a temple
is divided into three parts, so a tri part
type cella, and
why was there a tri part type cella, you
know, the answer because
there were three gods there was Jupiter,
Juno, and Minerva
the Capitoline Triad, each one had his own
little cella.
With Jupiter obviously in the center
flanked
by his two ladies one on either side.
So whenever you see a building with a
triple cella, you're
going to know that's a that's a temple of
the Capitoline Triad.
We can see from the outside of the
structure, the restored view.
That it had a quite
tall podium.
The podium was in fact 13 feet tall.
Pretty significant, 13 feet, foot tall.
Podium right here.
And here you also see again the single
staircase in the front.
The facade orientation, the deep porch,
the free standing columns in that porch.
And the triple entrance way, into the
three cellas of the structure.
So that's the basic plan.
Let me also mention
the materials for the temple of Jupiter
OMC in the 6th century
B.C. because technology is an import is
important in any course on architecture.
We know and think back to what we already
know about the huts the,
the building material used here was wood
for the columns
and the superstructure, just as we saw in
the Palatine huts.
Wood for
the columns and the superstructure.
Mud brick, not wattle and daub, but mud
brick for the podium and for the walls.
And then the structure had quite a bit of
decoration.
You don't see it here, but quite a
bit of decoration, sculptural decoration
in ancient times.
And this was made out of terracotta.
So wood, mud brick and terracotta were the
materials
used for this particular building.
Oh I meant to show you, sorry, let me just
go back for a second.
The only reason that the the other plan is
on the
screen, the one at the left this is a plan
of an
Etruscan tomb, the tomb of the shields and
seats from Travettori, second
half of the 6th century BC, which is on
your monument list.
I only bring it to your attention
because it's interesting that the
Etruscans also divided
the main space of that tomb into three
spaces.
three, separate spaces up at the top,
tripartite and also gave it
a, a, a single staircase, which gave it a,
a facade orientation.
I just mention that because we'll see that
those partic, that
those that especially that focus on the
facade is an Etruscan
element that is picked up by the Romans.
Roman architecture is very much an
architecture of facades, of the
front of buildings, with the focus on the
front of buildings.
And I wanted to make sure that you knew
that
not only in temple architecture but also
in tomb architecture
under the Etruscans that was a an approach
that they
already took and that was adopted from
them by the Romans.
Another view also of the plan
just so you can see it again straight up.
With the focus on the facade, the
single staircase, the deep porch, the free
standing
columns in that porch, and then the tri
part tide division and the flat back wall.
I think it's important that this juncture
to make a distinction between the most
important Etruscan temple, namely the
che-, Temple of Jupiter OMC, and you
see a model of that here.
And the most important, Greek, ancient
Greek temple.
The Parthenon in Athens.
The Parthenon in Athens dates, as you
probably know, to the fifth century B.C.,
this to the sixth century B.C., so they
are not exactly contemporary, but roughly
in contemporary to one another.
And as you look at this, I think you
can see for yourselves although I will
point,
point out the major distinctions between
the two.
And this is going to be very, very
important for today.
For today's lecture, but also in the
future.
Because what we're going to see is that
the Romans.
When the Romans began to build their
own religious architecture, they looked
back to
what had been done by the Greeks and what
had been done by the Etruscans.
They picked and chose what they liked in
each and they brought that together
in an entirely new creation.
They mixed it up with their own culture,
their own religion, brought it together an
entirely new creation and created
something distinctive
that we know of as the Roman temple.
So what are the, what are the differences
between the two?
We've already talked about the main main
features of the Etruscan temple, but, with
what,
what are, what are, what, what are the
main features of the Greek temple, the
Parthenon?
I think you can see that while
superficially, they look alike, they
have columns that support a triangular
pediment and so on and so forth.
The major differences are, and you can't
see
all of those here, but the major
differences are
that instead of standing, sitting on a
high
podium, Greek temples sit on a much lower
podium.
They have a staircase that encircles the
entire building.
No facade orientation there.
No single staircase
on the front.
The stairs encircle the entire building as
you can kind of see here.
And there is a single cella, they never
used
the triple cella as we see in the
Capitoline temple.
And and the major difference between the
two perhaps is the fact,
that this building is built out of stone,
out of marble.
The Greek building is built out
of marble.
The Greeks using marble magnificently.
In the 5th and even 5th century B.C. and
even before that.
So, no, no, no ordinary old wood columns
and mud brick for them.
They were using marble.
So when we begin to see the Romans, and
we'll see that today, using stone for
their temple architecture.
They are doing that under the very strong
influence
of Greece.
And that's extremely important in any
assessment of early Roman religious
architecture.
Another view, and its the one that you
have
also one on your monument list, showing
the Capitoline Hill
in Roman times showing you the situation
of the
temple of Jupiter OMC in relationship to
the other buildings.
They were up on top of the capitol line
hill.
Mostly religious structures, but I just
wanted you to see that it
did not stand alone.
Not all of these were built in the 6th
century B.C. already.
But over time an accretion of other
buildings.
Here, you actually see the temple in a
somewhat later version, because
as I mentioned, it burned down and it was
rebuilt, many, many times
but you also can see here, this is just
useful in terms of
Roman religious practice The altar is
located not inside the temple, but
outside.
The religious service actually took place
outside.
The priest would officiate outside the
temple, and in fact, very
few were allowed to go inside to see the
sacred cult statues.
That was pretty much left for the priest
and the priesthood.
Just again, to underscore the importance
of Google
Earth for anyone who was not here on
Tuesday.
I mentioned at that time that you can not
only go
and fly over Rome as it looks today, via
Google Earth,
but they have just recently in the
last few months, introduced an ancient
Rome version.
So you can go and but you click the
right button you ca-, it click your mouse
in such
a way, you can find that you that the
whole
city will be a completely recreated into
the ancient city.
And I just wanted you, it's much more
abstract.
But nonetheless, it gives you a sense of
what
many of these buildings look like in
ancient Roman times.
And this is a screen shot of the
Capitoline Hill as
it appears in the Google Ancient Rome
version of of Rome.
You can't do this for the other cities at
this juncture, just for the city of Rome.
But it's great fun to do.
And also very informative.
Now what is actually left of the Temple?
Of we know, we've looked at the
Campidoglio,
we see Michelangelo's buildings are up
there now.
What is actually left of the Temple of
Jupiter OMC?
Well, you're looking at it right here.
It's the podium of the Temple still
survives, that
13 foot tall podium of the Temple of
Jupiter.
We think this is a quite early podium,
maybe not as early as the 6th century BC.
But a very early podium from the temple
upon which the structure was built.
You can get a sense of the height of these
things.
And again,
a characteristic of Etruscan temple
architecture, and, as we shall see,
of most Roman temple architecture is to
have a very high podium.
We can see that podium here.
And we can see what, how it is made,
technically.
You can see, it is made up of a series of
rectangular blocks
that are placed one, next to one another,
and on top of one another.
This is technically called ashlar masonry.
Ashlar masonry, to build a to build a
wall, with this, these kinds of
rectangular blocks.
pile, piled one on top of another.
It's Tufa stone in this particular case,
once again, which was natural.
A Tufa stone natural to Rome.
TUFA.
and, this, this, Ashlar masonry, again,
a building technique that was particularly
popular
in the fifth and fourth and third
centuries B.C. in Rome.