Roman architecture in the capital, Italy and western territories is also different from Greek tradition. This is manifested in people's increasing interest in architectural decoration. Although Greek architecture uses decorative columns, local coloring and temple relief always keep its appearance and interior gloomy, but the interiors of porches, palaces and houses are more vivid because of the pictures on the walls and mosaic patterns on the floor. The Romans paid more attention to the external beauty of architecture, especially the external decoration. Under the rule of the Romans, this hobby gradually spread to eastern Greece. As mentioned earlier, under the influence of Italy, this hobby has been fully exerted in the capital and its surrounding areas. Here, the Taolian style, Ionian style and Corinthian style are still adopted, and the latter is especially loved by people because of its colorful appearance. In addition, there are Tuscan columns and composite columns. At the same time, the chances of using colored marble, especially columns, have greatly increased. Romans also paid more attention to interior decoration. The floor is a decorative marble slab, or the wall composed of geometric figures or inlaid with various patterns is covered with marble or covered with various murals. The ceiling is often painted with pictures, sometimes covered with exquisite and coordinated plaster relief, and the statue further adds the decorative color of the building.
The organizational ability of the Romans led to the development of standardized architectural styles in the field of architecture. For example, the basic unit of the ancient Roman frontier defense system was composed of a series of fortresses, which were rectangular with right-angle passages and the headquarters was built in the central area. However, its scale and materials-using wood or stone concrete (rarely brick) as the wall often change. Usually, these forts are connected with a series of watchtowers by roads, but in relatively barren areas, they are connected by continuous walls. Hadrian's Great Wall in northern England is the most prominent existing example. Towns also need high walls to protect them. These walls with towers and doors are generally made of stone, with gravel or concrete as the core, occasionally with cement as the core and brick as the surface outside. The city of Rome ordered by Orian is an example. Although such large-scale defense systems are based on practicality, they also show a severe beauty like other practical buildings and bridges, aqueducts and roads.
In the aspect of town planning, they adopted the grid street layout of Hippodamia style that the Greeks used from time to time since the 6th century BC, but they standardized this layout to some extent according to the layout principles of their own military camps. They put the focus of urban layout on two streets, one is north-south and the other is east-west. The two streets intersect at right angles in the market (or square) and lead to the city gate. Ironically, this form of planning cannot be adopted by an ancient city with irregular development like Athens or Rome itself, so it can only be used in new residential areas.
Square (or market) is a major feature of ancient Roman architecture. It is customary to leave a large open space as a square in the center of the residential area. Build temples and houses around the open space for public transactions and legal management institutions. When residents raise enough funds, this kind of market or square becomes very huge. Nowhere can the square be compared with that in Rome. Caesar, followed by Augustus, Vespegian, Dumisan, Nolva and Trajan, demolished some densely crowded residential suburbs and built a series of large-scale and magnificent markets and squares. These buildings are made of concrete, temples, courthouses, a garden and a Greek-Roman library, with a war memorial standing in the middle, all of which look pleasing to the eye.
Byzantine architecture
The Byzantine Empire existed in 330- 1453 and reached its peak in the 5th and 6th centuries. Its territory once included the Balkans, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, North Africa, Italy Peninsula and Sicily. Byzantine architecture inherited the oriental architectural tradition of this period, transformed and developed some elements of ancient Roman architecture, and formed a unique style, which had a great influence on the architecture of many countries in the East and West, especially the Orthodox countries. Roman architecture, Serbian architecture and Russian architecture are all closely related to it.
The Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople (532-537) embodies the characteristics of Byzantine architecture. Its outstanding feature is the structural system of covering a circular dome on a square platform. The dome is supported on several independent piers through a special component-sail arch, supplemented by cylindrical dome and other measures to achieve mechanical balance. Hagia Sophia is huge, with a large dome with a diameter of 3 1 m and 40 small skylights in the lower part. Different from the dome built by the Romans on the cylindrical solid wall, with this structure, the dome can be used on various regular polygon planes, so that there is a concentrated composition inside and outside the building. It became the pioneer of memorial architecture in Europe later.
Another feature of Hagia Sophia is its magnificent interior decoration. The key parts are inlaid with colored glass and lined with gold and colored marble walls, which is in sharp contrast with the simple masonry surface outside. The changes inside the church are mysterious, and the sparkling mosaic enhances this effect. Porphyry or marble is mostly used as the internal load-bearing member, and the column head is directly transformed from cylindrical to square, with a layer of bucket-shaped column head cushion stone attached to it. Adding copper hoop under the stigma and above the column base is not only the need of structure, but also enhances the decorative effect.
Gothic architecture
When human society came to the late Middle Ages, a revolution was brewing in the art world. The outstanding representatives of art in this period are Gothic art and Renaissance art ... and its architectural art is unique. Here, there is reverence for God and pursuit of humanity in architecture, and architecture has become a unique artistic expression. People often say that "architecture is flowing music" is the architecture from this era.
In architecture, the first typical example of Gothic art appeared in ile-de-france, a rich and prosperous area in the north of Paris. There is a kind of limestone for building, which is durable and simple to make. 1140-1144, an unknown architect rebuilt the choir of Saint-Denis Church near Paris. He may be the founder of Gothic art style. Since then, French cities have been competing to build or rebuild cathedrals of this style.
Gothic style has been widely adopted in Europe since ile-de-france. William, the architect of Sans, France, began to design Shetbury Cathedral in 1 174, Lincoln Cathedral broke ground in192, 1 184 and 1245 Welsh Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. In Germany and other German-speaking countries, in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, this style has also been inherited and developed. However, in Spain and Italy, although this style was adopted, it lost its most obvious characteristics and gradually merged with local architectural traditions.
Gothic artistic style varies not only from place to place, but also from time to time. For example, church architecture in Britain has undergone several stages of change, from early and middle English style to gorgeous style, and then to vertical style. However, the uniqueness of Gothic art and its closely related forms are always international.
Different from the society that pursues strict feudal hierarchy, the society where Gothic art tradition prevails is full of vitality. The citizen class composed of businessmen and craftsmen is a free man in the city. They don't have to be loyal to a feudal Lord, such as France and Britain. Their power is concentrated in the hands of a powerful king, which means that business life will no longer be destroyed by militant nobles, so trade is booming. These emerging cities are aware of the influence they can exert. The power of priests is becoming more and more obvious, because those bishops, abbots, priests and monks are constantly in conflict with the nobles at that time, and they try to expand their influence on secular things and believers' souls in their struggle. The main source of the conflict in this period was the dispute over the appointment of bishops, that is, the church and the state competed for the appointment of bishops.
Promote the formation of architectural atmosphere of Gothic church. First of all, people sincerely want to glorify God and declare their faith in Christianity. Secondly, in a powerful city, bishops and wealthy citizens feel it necessary to build tall churches, which can be seen from a distance above ordinary buildings. They are very proud of it because it will shock and fascinate the whole world.
It is these ideas that inspired the architectural form of Gothic churches. The vertical form of this building can be seen as a symbol of rising to God on earth. In form, they are complex and exquisite. Although they are dull in appearance, they are rich in nuances. In order to greatly increase the visual effect, a series of new technical means have been adopted. In particular, the use of pointed cross vault, pointed arch instead of round arch, and the use of arch blocks, such as Notre Dame de Paris. At that time, people all over Europe experienced many difficulties and sacrifices in order to build these brilliant ode to God. The architecture of these churches is almost a miracle. At that time, funds came from donations, and many people volunteered to provide labor. In chartres, citizens put on tired horses and pushed building materials to the construction site by themselves. In order to build a church, all groups in the whole society undertake obligations. There are many such examples, and the results are really unforgettable.
The standard internal form of the church is a Latin cross, which runs east and west, and the altar is placed in the easternmost part-pushed to Jerusalem. The cruciform church can be subdivided into three parts. The middle part is called nave, which is higher and wider than the corridor on the flank. Looking down from the nave of the Gothic church, people will feel extremely sublime. One of the reasons is that nave itself is high (often as high as 40 meters); Secondly, it is caused by the height-width ratio of the nave, which is above 1∶3, resulting in amazing vertical effect.
The shorter cross-shaped part of the church, the shaft gallery part, separates the seats of the nave and choir from the high altar. The shaft gallery is usually divided into three corridors, the two sides of which are slightly more prominent than the longitudinal part of the church.
Just like the main part on the west side of the church, it also has an axial corridor with majestic doors, towers usually arranged on both sides, and ornate doors, which are the characteristics of Gothic churches.
Gothic structure uses columns and walls to transfer the weight of the church to the external foundation, thus ensuring that the walls no longer support the whole church. Therefore, even if many huge windows and arches are built on the wall, the wall is still safe and reliable. Windows are made up of lightweight frames through which stained glass can be installed-this is a completely Gothic invention. Even if the walls of Gothic buildings are demolished, the main structures such as columns, ribs and gables will still be perfectly preserved, which is completely different from the whole reinforced concrete construction of modern buildings. In a typical Gothic cathedral, there are exquisite colonnades with spires on both sides of nave, and above them are four-column colonnades, or three-way arcades, because it is usually divided into three parts, supported by small columns, and three-way arcades are often located above the top of the corridor. This is the case with Cologne Cathedral, whose outer wall is perforated, thus providing an additional light source.
The light shone through the large glass windows with different patterns and colorful colors, illuminating the upper part of the church and the whole choir seat. Windows usually have a straight mullion, which is divided into two or more small arches and supported by slender columns. The upper part of each window is usually made into a ring hole embedded with leaf decoration. The stained glass of Gothic churches is dazzling, mostly blue, ruby red, violet and especially green. The light came in from these windows, and the whole church was full of dazzling colors, mysterious and awe-inspiring, as if the building itself was unique, which made the believers feel detached from the world. In the past, stained glass was only used to decorate the palace of God, and people used this method to publicize the glory of God.
The appearance of a typical Gothic cathedral has the same characteristics as its interior-light, vertical and inserted into the sky. This is because they are vertical stripes and figures, not parallel lines. A series of main doors, windows, arches and statues broke the tight structure of the outer wall, thus forming a large area of space and producing a sense of floating beyond the world. The tower due west gives the impression that the whole building is rising.
A typical feature of Gothic church is the flower window, which is round and separated by delicate stone ribs, like spokes. This implies that the sun symbolizes Christ and the embedded round flowers represent the Virgin Mary. As a light source, when the sun is shining, especially on the high altar, this round flower window can produce a particularly touching color effect. Outside the building, elegant window grilles can make the surrounding facade look particularly light and elegant.
The facade of the Gothic church in the west has the following characteristics: slender columns support the pointed arcade and connect the towers on both sides. This may reduce the heaviness of the appearance of stone buildings, and sometimes it is used to repair some niches to place statues. Above the nave outside the building, the roof slopes sharply to the top. The highest part of the arched buttress is integrated with other buttresses and the top of the corridor. According to the relative position of the corridor wall on the west side of the building, the arches can form oblique angles or right angles, and the number of rows can also be changed. Rows of stacks are often covered with small minarets engraved with plant patterns such as leaves, flowers and buds. On the surface, the function of these small minarets is to enhance the rising sense of the building and make it look bright and elegant. But its real function is to transmit pressure downward through the joint between the ladder and the vertical stack to prevent the stack from leaning outward. Cut a groove on the top floor of the arch pile as a drainage pipe.
Although secular images are often seen in Gothic churches, the structure and carvings of buildings, such as large statues, low reliefs, spires, columns and battlements, all contain sacred enlightenment. They are mainly religious, and these statues are like encyclopedias of images on stones.
Another feature of Gothic architecture in decoration is reflected in the decoration of the main entrance. These doors are recessed. Some deep holes are cut obliquely with thick stones, and there is a statue at the bottom of each hole. The upper part is integrated with the arch decoration, engraved with bas-relief and figurines. There is also a statue on the pillar separating the entrance. In the late Middle Ages, the sculptures around the main entrance adopted natural images, such as flowers, grass and trees.
This cathedral is perhaps the highest achievement of Gothic architects. However, in addition to bishops and wealthy cities, there were some patrons behind the representative architects at that time, who tried to glorify God by building new churches. Architects are also entrusted by religious groups, especially powerful religious groups like Benedict and Sist, to build forts and palaces for nobles and kings.
During the Gothic period, the architectural concepts of general churches and cathedrals were the same. Its grass-roots plane is a Latin cross, and the relationship and proportion of each part also show a towering trend. When building, domes with crossed spires, arches, arch blocks and other cribs are also used. However, there are also a few churches that are rarely decorated because they are remote or because their teachings are simple.
Of course, the characteristics of medieval architecture described above are weakened in some aspects, which is due to regional changes; On the other hand, when Gothic art flourished in European countries for centuries, its style itself was constantly changing.
In modern times, especially in the middle and late19th century, many places in Europe began to imitate or be inspired by Gothic style. This is especially true for church buildings, which can be identified from the following aspects. For some buildings, they are not formed by local changes left over from the Middle Ages, but complete buildings, and the consistency of their own styles is reflected in a neo-Gothic style. Some buildings are located far away from the urban centers and villages built in the early Middle Ages, which more truly reflects this point.
The art of church architecture has become a model of other architectural forms and promoted the formation and development of other arts, such as castles, houses, bridges, chambers of commerce and city halls. Towers are usually built on it to add a little grandeur. Hospitals funded by charities are no exception. This kind of building is usually built on a solid wall. The streets in the city are narrow and tortuous, and the layout changes with the extension of the terrain. When building houses, stone usually replaces wood as the main building material, especially for nobles. At that time, houses often needed fortification, and their narrow ends could lead directly to the street, and the entrances were often decorated with colors. On the ground floor is an arcade street, where there are shops and storerooms, and rich families live on it.