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Etruscan Architecture
Etruscan architecture was created between about 900 BC and 27 BC, when the expanding civilization of ancient Rome finally absorbed Etruscan civilization. The Etruscans were considerable builders in stone, wood and other materials of temples, houses, tombs and city walls, as well as bridges and roads. The only structures remaining in quantity in anything like their original condition are tombs and walls, but through archaeology and other sources we have a good deal of information on what once existed. From about 630 BC, Etruscan architecture was heavily influenced by Greek architecture, which was itself developing through the same period. In turn it influenced Roman architecture, which in its early centuries can be considered as just a regional variation of Etruscan architecture. But increasingly, from about 200 BC, the Romans looked directly to Greece for their styling, while sometimes retaining Etruscan shapes and purposes in their buildings. The main monumental forms of Etru ...
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Tomba Dei Rilievi (Banditaccia)
The Tomb of the Reliefs ( it, Tomba dei Rilievi) is an Etruscan tomb in the Banditaccia necropolis near Cerveteri, Italy. It was discovered in 1847 and has been dated to the end of the 4th century BC. It is a unique example of an Etruscan tomb which is decorated with stucco reliefs instead of the usual frescoes. Description The tomb belonged to the Matuna family according to inscriptions inside the chamber. The rectangular chamber is entered through a steeply descending stepped dromos. The center of the room is surrounded by a raised platform, which is separated by low ledges into 32 spaces to depose the dead. Above these are 12 oblong niches carved in the walls, which provided space for more deceased. The niches are modeled after beds with stucco pillows. The central niche in the rear wall is deeper, which allowed for a deceased couple to be placed side by side. Below this central niche are reliefs of Kerberos and an unidentified demon from the underworld. The demon has a ...
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Acroterion
An acroterion, acroterium, or akroteria is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed at the outer angles of the pediment is an ''acroterion angularium'' (' means ‘at the corners’). The acroterion may take a wide variety of forms, such as a statue, tripod, disc, urn, palmette or some other sculpted feature. Acroteria are also found in Gothic architecture. They are sometimes incorporated into furniture designs. Etymology The word comes from the Greek ' ( 'summit, extremity'), from the comparative form of the adjective ' (, 'extreme, endmost'). It was Latinized by the Romans as '. ''Acroteria'' is the plural of both the original Greek and the Latin form. According to Webb, during the Hellenistic period the winged victory or Nike figure was considered to be "the most appropriate motif for figured akroteria.” Image ...
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Ancient Egyptian Architecture
Spanning over three thousand years, ancient Egypt was not one stable civilization but in constant change and upheaval, commonly split into periods by historians. Likewise, ancient Egyptian architecture is not one style, but a set of styles differing over time but with some commonalities. The best known example of ancient Egyptian architecture are the Egyptian pyramids, while excavated temples, palaces, tombs, and fortresses have also been studied. Most buildings were built of locally available mud brick and limestone by levied workers. Monumental buildings were built using the post and lintel method of construction. Many buildings were aligned astronomically. Columns were typically adorned with capitals decorated to resemble plants important to Egyptian civilization, such as the papyrus plant. Ancient Egyptian architectural motifs have influenced architecture elsewhere, reaching the wider world first during the Orientalizing period and again during the nineteenth-century ...
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Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture consists of shallow grooves running along a surface. The term typically refers to the grooves (flutes) running vertically on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications. If the hollowing out of material meets in a point, the point (sharp ridge) is called an arris. If the raised ridge between two flutes is blunt, the ridge is a . Purpose Fluting promotes a play of light on a column which helps the column appear more perfectly round than a smooth column. As a strong vertical element it also has the visual effect of minimizing any horizontal joints. Greek architects viewed rhythm as an important design element. As such, fluting was often used on buildings and temples to increase the sense of rhythm. It may also be incorporated in columns to make them look thinner, lighter, and more elegant. There is debate as to whether fluting was originally used in imitation of ancient woodworking practices, mimickin ...
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Doric Order
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns. Originating in the western Doric region of Greece, it is the earliest and, in its essence, the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above. The Greek Doric column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, dropping straight into the stylobate or platform on which the temple or other building stood. The capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained. Above a plain architrave, the complexity comes in the frieze, where the two features originally unique to the Doric, the triglyph and gutta, are skeuomorphic memories of the beams and retaining pegs of the wooden constructions that preceded ...
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Tuscan Order
The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but with un-fluted columns and a simpler entablature with no triglyphs or guttae. While relatively simple columns with round capitals had been part of the vernacular architecture of Italy and much of Europe since at least Etruscan architecture, the Romans did not consider this style to be a distinct architectural order (for example, the Roman architect Vitruvius did not include it alongside his descriptions of the Greek Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders). Its classification as a separate formal order is first mentioned in Isidore of Seville's ''Etymologies'' and refined during the Italian Renaissance. Sebastiano Serlio described five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book of ''Regole genera ...
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Corinthian Order
The Corinthian order ( Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. In Ancient Greek architecture, the Corinthian order follows the Ionic in almost all respects other than the capitals of the columns. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon: the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders. This architectural style is characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. There are many variations. The name ''Corinthian'' is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth, although the style had its own model in Roman practice, following precedents set by the ...
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Ionic Order
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite order. Of the three classical canonic orders, the Corinthian order has the narrowest columns, followed by the Ionic order, with the Doric order having the widest columns. The Ionic capital is characterized by the use of volutes. The Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform while the cap is usually enriched with egg-and-dart. The ancient architect and architectural historian Vitruvius associates the Ionic with feminine proportions (the Doric representing the masculine). Description Capital The major features of the Ionic order are the volutes of its capital, which have been the subject of much theoretical and practical discourse, based on a brief and obscure pas ...
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Aeolic Order
The Aeolic order or Aeolian order was an early order of Classical architecture. It has a strong similarity to the better known Ionic order, but differs in the capital, where a palmette rises between the two outer volutes, rather than them being linked horizontally by a form at the top of the capital. Many examples also show simplified details compared to the Ionic. "Proto-Aeolic" capitals of Southern Levant Decorated stone structures reminiscent of the Aeolic order, widely known as "Proto-Aeolic" or "Proto-Ionian" capitals, were especially common in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Capitals of this style were discovered in royal buildings and fortified city gates. They were built up for some ashlar masonries, an architectonic style reserved to Israelite royal structures. One of them is 110 x 28 x 60 cm of dimension and also differs from the canon for its ornamental details, showing a triangular shape in the center as the point of juncture of the capital volutes. Prot ...
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Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico anno 2013, datISTAT/ref> Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throug ...
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Talamone
Talamone is a town in Tuscany, on the west coast of central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Orbetello, province of Grosseto, in the Tuscan Maremma. Talamone is easily reached from Via Aurelia, and is about from Grosseto and from Orbetello. Geography The village lies on a rocky promontory, which lies on the southern border of the Maremma nature reserve, in a dominant position along the whole stretch of coast arriving at Mount Argentario. The surrounding area is characterized by the presence of vegetation typical of Mediterranean scrub and long sandy beaches, lined by pine trees. History An ancient and flourishing city already during the Etruscan period, which saw a decisive battle in 225 BC between Roman and the Celtic armies who were heading for Rome. Talamone was razed to the ground by Sulla for the support that its citizens gave to Marius in his attempt to march against Rome after the return from his African exile. Like Orbetello, the late Middl ...
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Luna (Etruria)
Luni is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of La Spezia, in the easternmost end of the Liguria region of northern Italy. It was founded by the Romans as Luna. It gives its name to Lunigiana, a region spanning eastern Liguria and northern Tuscany (province of Massa-Carrara). The commune was known as Ortonovo (from the name of one of its current ''frazioni'') until April 2017. It is now named after the ''frazione'' of Luni. Geography Located in a plain near the Tyrrhenian Sea and close to the borders with Tuscany, Luni is crossed by the river Magra and lies between Sarzana (7 km in north) and Carrara (5 km in south). It is 4 km far from Ortonovo, 15 from Massa and 30 from La Spezia. The village is served by the National Highway 1 "Aurelia", crossed at Luni Mare by the A12 motorway and counts a railway station on the Pisa-Genoa line. History Classical Period Luna was the frontier town of Etruria, on the left bank of the river Macra (now Magra), ...
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