Art History Comparcomparisons Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Art History Comparcomparisons - Assignment Example To achieve this inspiring effect, each building makes heavy use of stairs to gain entry and tall columns representing the measurements of the Golden Rule to express both their impressive size and their perfection of form. Despite the fact that the Altar of Zeus was built with the Parthenon in mind, builders opted to use Ionic columns that were considered more modern than the Doric style used in the earlier building. In addition to the actual construction, both structures use life-sized or taller statues to celebrate the greatness of the civilization that constructed it while also telling the story of the gods as a means of honoring the power and wisdom of the ruler of the day. The Parthenon’s friezes depicted scenes of battles between the gods and mythological races such as the giants and the centaurs, as well as the defeat of the Amazons and what is believed to be the citizens of Troy, images that are repeated by obvious Parthenon inspiration in the Altar of Zeus. However, the Altar of Zeus concentrates on depicting scenes from battles between the gods and the giants, rather than illustrating scenes with the other races. The buildings might have been used in different ways as well. While the use of the Parthenon is in some debate, definitely used as a treasury and possibly also as a temple, the Altar to Zeus was built specifically to be a temple. Comparing these two images, there are several immediately obvious similarities, most prominent being the large domes of each, the vertical columns and the predominantly square base structure. There remain some significant differences as well. Even though the dome of the Church of Hagia Sophia seems to be larger, thanks to the emphasis it receives by the vertically reinforcing influence of the tall windows along its sides, the dome of the Pantheon is actually somewhat larger, having been considered the largest dome in architecture.  Ã‚