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Digital Field Trip

Cynthia Castaneda Galvan

DeVry Univeristy
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Introduction

I visited the Met Digital Museum for this assignment and selected a piece of

architecture specific to the Greek Period for reflection. The piece of architecture selected for

the assignment is the Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis. The current paper

will examine its history and detailed overview.

History and Origin

The artifact selected for reflection from the digital field trip is 'Marble column from

the Temple of Artemis at Sardis', which was retrieved from

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/26.59.1

The column served as a support for the Temple of Artemis; which was located in

Sardis (modern day Turkey). It was an iconic column that used to stand over 50 feet high as

part of the Artemis temple. This piece of art specifically belongs to the Hellenistic period,

and dates back to 300 B.C. (Artemis, 2017).

This column belonged to the temple of Airtimes, which was the fourth largest Greek

Ionic temple in the world. Further, this temple was devoted to worship the Greek Goddess,

Artemis, who was the Goddess of virginity, chastity the hunt, the moon and the natural

environment (The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, 2017).

Specifications

The medium employed in the sculpture is marble. The height of the column is

approximately 143 inches or 361 cm, this approximates to 11.9 feet. The material used is

marble. Marble was a commonly used material in the Greeks; classical as well as Hellenistic

era. The reason of using marble was because it could be sculpted beautifully and had a

lustrous finish (Sakoulas, 2016).

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The column is beautifully and skillfully handcrafted by the Greeks. There is a distinct

carvation on the capital of the column. Similarly, there is an extensive and elaborate carving

on the torus or foliated base, which comprises of vegetal scale-like pattern (The Met's

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, 2017).

It appears that the column does not belong to the outer colonnade, since it is slightly

smaller as compared to others found on the site. It is possible that the column belonged to the

the cella (inner room) of the temple, or was located in the inner back porch, since it does not

match with other columns found in various parts of the temple (Sakoulas, 2016).

Similarity to Modern Architecture

The Greek architecture continues to influence the modern artists and architects. One

modern building that features similar columns with carvings on the capital as well as the base

is The New York Public Library (https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/6591543_f520.jpg).

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be said that the presence of the Temple of Artemis is a depiction

of the extent of how far the Greek civilization and culture extended throughout Europe and

Asia Minor. It also shows the skills and craftsmanship of the Greeks. It left a lasting

impression and influenced many works of art and architectures in the time to follow. And

also, continues to do so today.

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References

"Artemis." Artemis. Accessed November 05,

2017. http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Artemis/artemis.html

"Marble Column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of

Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History. Accessed November 05, 2017. http://metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/26.59.1

Sakoulas, T. "History of Greece: Hellenistic." History of Greece: Hellenistic. Accessed

November 10, 2016. http://ancient-greece.org/history/helleninstic.html