Art 111 Contrast Compare

The two pieces of art that I have chosen are “The Temple of Zeus at Olympia” and “The Missouri State Capitol”. I will be focusing on the pediments of each structure. The Temple of Zeus at Olympia can be found on page 156 of our text book (Adams p. 156) and the Missouri State Capitol can be found in my hometown of Jefferson City, Missouri. Not only did I choose these two architectural creations for their beauty, but also because of the similarity of the two.

Olympia, known as the home of the ancient Olympics and home of the colossal, architectural temple dedicated to Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. “The massive Temple of Zeus, the most important building in the Altis, standing in its very centre, is the largest temple in the Peloponnese, considered by many to be the perfect example of Doric architecture” (http://www.olympia-greece.org/templezeus.html). (Peloponnese, is a peninsula and region in southern Greece.) The architect that designed the temple was Libon of Elis, it is unknown who the sculptors were for the statues in the pediments. Built by the Eleans, construction began 470 BC and was completed before 456 BC. Financing for the construction was from the city of Elis. Elis controlled the Olympian Games through most of the history of the games due to the fact that Elis had defeated the nearby rival city of Pisa, which also had attempted to control the Games. Elis used the treasures from the war to pay for the construction. The temple was built of local shell limestone and covered by imitation marble stucco, also made of limestone. Built

on a crepidoma, (platform, usually consist of 3 levels) that stood 2.5 meters and was 27.68 by 64.12 meters in size. The temple itself stood 20 meters high with six columns on each short side and thirteen along each of the long sides, each column standing 10.5 meters high forming the peristyle (colonnade). Made in the Doric order, the columns had no bases and only simple capitals.

Although local...