What is the purpose of the Triglyph?

What is the purpose of the Triglyph?

Triglyphs. Triglyphs are an aesthetic feature of Doric temples that do not serve any function besides design. The triglyph is meant to represent the end of a wooden beam, which would have supported the weight of the roof in pre-historic Greek buildings.

What are metopes and triglyphs?

The triglyphs were the ends of the wooden beams of the roof, and the metopes were the spaces between the beams. When architects began building stone temples, they wanted them to look familiar, so they kept the pattern, even though it had nothing to do with the structure anymore.

What is a metope in architecture?

In classical architecture, a metope (μετόπη) is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a building of the Doric order.

What is the meaning of metope?

Definition of metope : the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze often adorned with carved work.

What is Triglyph architecture?

Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are called metopes.

What was a tholos used for?

In the Mycenaean period, tholoi were large ceremonial tombs, sometimes built into the sides of hills; they were beehive-shaped and covered by a corbeled arch. In classical Greece, the tholos at Delphi had a peristyle; the tholos in Athens, serving as a dining hall for the Athenian Senate, had no outside columns.

What’s the difference between frieze and metope?

Metopes (rectangular slabs carved in high relief) were placed above the architrave (the lintel above the columns) on the outside of the temple. The frieze (carved in low relief) ran around all four sides of the building inside the colonnade.

What is the difference between a frieze and a metope?

Where are Metopes found?

The “Metopes of the Parthenon” are the surviving set of what initially had been 92 square carved plaques of marble. They were originally located above the columns of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens.

How do you pronounce metope?

Starts here1:00How To Say Metope – YouTubeYouTube

What is triangular pediment?

Pediment: Triangular piece just under a pointed roof; a triangular part at the top of the front of a building that supports the roof and is often decorated; triangular gable between a horizontal entablature and a sloping roof; a large triangular structure built over a door or window as a decoration.

Is the Pantheon a tholos?

The upper part of the US Capitol is a tholos. The Panthéon in Paris is also topped by a tholos.

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