Mnesicles

Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis

Mnesikles ( Greek Μνησικλής ) was a famous architect in Athens in the 5th century BC. At the time of Pericles .

His most famous work are the Propylaea of the Athens Acropolis , which dates from 437 BC. BC to 432 BC Were built. Mnesikles showed himself in his Propylaea as a bold innovator, who not only combined the outer Doric order in a previously unknown way with the Ionic pillars of the processional way. With his two-winged design, which integrated complicated room sequences and cited elements of temple architecture, he created a completely new and viewer-oriented architecture, which later prepared plazas from the Hellenistic period in particular . With his multi-layered doorway, designed through optical refinements, he made the ascent of the Acropolis into a staging that found its climax when walking through the reference to the statue of the Phidiasian Athena Promachos : the view of the visitor was revealed in the entrance axis of the doorway, the monumental and golden shiny image of goddess.

literature

Walter Hatto Gross : Mnesikles 3. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 1373.
Gottfried Gruben : The temples of the Greeks. 3rd, revised edition. Hirmer, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7774-3120-6 , pp. 178-188.

Remarks

↑ Plutarch , Pericles 13, 7; Valerius Harpokration sv Προπύλαια ταῦτα

personal data
SURNAME	Mnesicles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Architect in Athens
DATE OF BIRTH	5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.

[1] Plutarch , Pericles 13, 7; Valerius Harpokration sv Προπύλαια ταῦτα