Wonders _
Temple of Zeus at Olympia (Scale Model)
Before the construction of the temple of Zeus, the only temple at Olympia in the Peloponnese was the Heraion. The temple of Zeus at Olympia was constructed between 470 and 456 B.C. It was built using funds provided by the Elean defeat of neighboring Pisa, an example of the ongoing struggle for power in ancient Greece. The architect was a local man named Libon, and he designed the structure in the pure Doric style. The temple stood on a three step stylobate with a masonry ramp leading up to the center of the east facade. There were six columns on each facade and thirty-four in the entire colonnade. The temple was constructed of local limestone coated with a fine white stucco and had marble roof tiles.
While it is known that the sculptor Pheidias made the giant chryselephantine statue of the god for the temple's interior in the 430s, less is known about the sculptors responsible for the pediments and the metopes in the porticos at either end of the building. Pausanias provides us with an invaluable description of the metopes and pediments, but it seems that his identifications of the master sculptors are unlikely on chronological grounds. The pediments measured approximately 80' long by 10' tall by 3' deep. Such large pediments created two problems; the first was to support the weight of the sculptures, and the second was to produce a unified design which would fill even the narrow areas without a huge discrepancy in scale The pedimental sculptures show a real break with the themes and compositional style of the archaic tradition, such as those seen at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. As with most Greek sculpture, the original appearance was completely different from what we see today, because many details were added to the stone in paint. At Olympia it seems that the backgrounds of the pediments were also painted in blue.
Although an earthquake destroyed the temple in the fifth century A.D., many of the marbles were reused as building materials and were recovered by excavators in the nineteenth century. Although many of the pieces are in fragments, they give us a good sense of the overall effect of the sculptural program. The simple, direct, and clearly articulated qualities of early classical sculpture made it very effective for storytelling, and at either end of the temple of Zeus we see the representation of narratives which were probably quite familiar to the Greeks visiting Olympia in ancient times.
Temple of Zeus at Olympia (Scale Model)
Before the construction of the temple of Zeus, the only temple at Olympia in the Peloponnese was the Heraion. The temple of Zeus at Olympia was constructed between 470 and 456 B.C. It was built using funds provided by the Elean defeat of neighboring Pisa, an example of the ongoing struggle for power in ancient Greece. The architect was a local man named Libon, and he designed the structure in the pure Doric style. The temple stood on a three step stylobate with a masonry ramp leading up to the center of the east facade. There were six columns on each facade and thirty-four in the entire colonnade. The temple was constructed of local limestone coated with a fine white stucco and had marble roof tiles.
While it is known that the sculptor Pheidias made the giant chryselephantine statue of the god for the temple's interior in the 430s, less is known about the sculptors responsible for the pediments and the metopes in the porticos at either end of the building. Pausanias provides us with an invaluable description of the metopes and pediments, but it seems that his identifications of the master sculptors are unlikely on chronological grounds. The pediments measured approximately 80' long by 10' tall by 3' deep. Such large pediments created two problems; the first was to support the weight of the sculptures, and the second was to produce a unified design which would fill even the narrow areas without a huge discrepancy in scale The pedimental sculptures show a real break with the themes and compositional style of the archaic tradition, such as those seen at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. As with most Greek sculpture, the original appearance was completely different from what we see today, because many details were added to the stone in paint. At Olympia it seems that the backgrounds of the pediments were also painted in blue.
Although an earthquake destroyed the temple in the fifth century A.D., many of the marbles were reused as building materials and were recovered by excavators in the nineteenth century. Although many of the pieces are in fragments, they give us a good sense of the overall effect of the sculptural program. The simple, direct, and clearly articulated qualities of early classical sculpture made it very effective for storytelling, and at either end of the temple of Zeus we see the representation of narratives which were probably quite familiar to the Greeks visiting Olympia in ancient times.