Philippeion
The Philippeion ( ancient Greek Φιλιππεῖον ) was a 338 BC. Chr. By Philip II. In the sanctuary of Olympia donated rotunda , which was completed by his son Alexander the great . It stood in the northwest of the Altis of Olympia and was used to set up a group of statues by the sculptor Leochares , which represented Philip and his family.
history
“(In the Altis) there is also a rotunda called a» Philippeion «. On the roof of the Philippeion is a poppy seed capsule that holds the roof beams together. The building is to the left of the exit next to the Prytaneion. It was built of burnt bricks and is surrounded by pillars. It was built by Philip after the defeat of the Greeks at Chaironeia. Statues of Philip and Alexander are set up here, as well as of Amyntas , Philip's father. These works are also made by Leochares and are made of gold and ivory, as are the statues of Olympias and Eurydice . "
This is the only surviving ancient information about the building: a round building near the exit at the Prytaneion of Olympia, built by Philip II after his victory at Chaironeia in 338 BC. It served the self-portrayal of Philip and his family, whose gold and ivory statues by one of the leading sculptors of the time, Leochares , were placed inside the rotunda. Since Philip II died in the same year, the building must have been completed under his son Alexander the Great , but the time of completion is unknown. At the time of Pausanias, the statues of both women had already been brought to the neighboring Heraion , only the male family members could still be seen in the Philippeion. The fate of the building is unknown until late antiquity . After the earthquake of 300 AD, the building appears to have stood still, but it was obviously deliberately destroyed with Theodosius II's edict to close the pagan shrines in 435 AD. Traces of fire on structural members of the roof, re- use of other structural members during the conversion of Phidias' workshop into a church at the beginning of the 5th century bear witness to the destruction soon after the edict was issued. Towards the end of the 5th century, lion-head gargoyles of the rotunda were installed in the shop front of a wine press. Numerous column drums were discovered in late antique walls, parts of the stepped building were found in the "Spolia House" west of the Leonidaion .
Research history
In the third year of the excavations carried out by the German Empire, the first foundation blocks of a rotunda, immediately recognized as the Philippeion, were uncovered in 1877, which was excavated by February 1878. The excavation contract with the Greek government stipulated that duplicates could be ceded to the German Reich with the consent of Greece, which in this case happened. The steps of the substructure, some fragments of pillars and Sima as well as a pillar base came to the Berlin museums in 1889 . The pieces were brought back to Olympia on permanent loan in 2002 for partial reconstruction. The results of the excavations of 1877/78 were published by Friedrich Adler in 1892 . A renewed examination of the structural members by Hans Schleif and Willy Zschietzschmann led Schleif to a reconstruction that deviated from Adler's suggestion, especially the roof solution.
In 1957, Alfred Mallwitz brought together all the identified structural elements of the Philippeion for the first time. Investigations of the column drums in 1988 brought decisive knowledge about the former column height of the circular hall of the rotunda. Targeted preparatory work for a - meanwhile implemented - partial reconstruction of the Philippeion was tackled in 1999 after a long period of planning. As part of this, all structural members were inspected and measured again.
Building description
A sufficient number of structural elements has been preserved from the rotunda in order to be able to largely reconstruct its former appearance. Various building materials were used for the Philippeion. A large part of the structural members was made from a porous but finely divided shell limestone found in the vicinity of Olympia. For some components, such as the columns, a pure limestone is used, while Parian marble was used for the step structure and roof edge . The roofing itself was made of clay tiles.
Layout
The rotunda rose on two concentric foundation rings for the outer column position and the core structure. The foundations rested on a layer of pebbles , but could not prevent subsidence and faults in the terrain, which was exposed on the one hand to regular earthquakes and on the other hand to the floods of the Alpheios . The outer ring was 2.33 meters wide at the level of the uppermost layer , known as Euthynterie , and was made up of three rows of 36 limestone slabs. The inner ring was 1.22 meters wide.
A three-tiered base made of Parian marble lay on the outer ring. The step height increased from the lower with 25.3 centimeters to the middle with 27.8 centimeters to the final and the stylobate forming upper step with 29.8 centimeters. Two flat strips called fascia, the lower one slightly sloping inward, adorned the upper edge of each step, the end faces of which were additionally decorated with a decorative mirror framed by hems. The mean step depth was 33 centimeters.
At its outer edge, the first step, the stones of which all had an " E " as a stone carving mark, has a radius of 7.62 meters. On the stylobate step, 18 columns rose with a center distance to the center of the building of 6.38 meters.
A marble paving was laid between the stylobate and the toichobat wall foot of the core building after a change in plan, which can be clearly seen in the structural members. Because for the flush laying of the tiles, the profile of the already bricked toichobat and the lower edge of the orthostats above had to be worked off, so that a 1.5 centimeter high shadow gap resulted between the marble profile blocks and the orthostats. The outer orthostats were worked under 18 centimeters and lost more than 50% of their support.
The interior of the rotunda had a radius of about 3.48 meters. The location of the entrance is indefinite. If the building was previously interpreted as a treasure house , an entrance to the south was reconstructed as a consequence, since all of the treasure houses of Olympia open to the south. However, a late Roman hall building directly south of the Philippeion does not allow such a reconstruction, so that today one assumes an opening to the east, which was also implemented in the re-erection, possibly with a slight deviation to the south. The door width was at least 1.85 meters.
Inside was the base of the group of statues, of which five pedestals and capstones each still exist. The inlets do not seem to have been intended for gold and ivory pictures. Rather, they were probably used to hold marble plinths, which would then have to be connected with corresponding marble sculptures.
Elevation
Ring hall
The 18 columns of Ionic order of the ring hall rose on a special form of Ionic bases , which were formed from a square plinth with an edge length of 93.2 centimeters, followed by a throat and a final bead. Of the 18 bases that were once made of pure limestone and are 47.5 centimeters high, 15 are still detectable. They carried the approximately 4.76 m high column shafts with their 24-ionic, separated by a narrow web fluting . Apart from the Philippeion, only the marble columns of the honorary monument for Ptolemy II and his sister Arsinoe II in Olympia have this number of fluting. The lower diameter of the column shafts worked with a slight entasis of 4 millimeters was 64 centimeters. They carried 32.93 centimeters high Ionic capitals with closely spaced volutes , whose slightly fluted volutes called canal ended in strongly protruding volute eyes. Gusset palmettes next to the curls were painted on.
On the following entablature, architraves and a flat, smooth frieze were worked from a workpiece 80.7 centimeters high. The architrave was divided into two fascias both inside and outside. On the inside of an expansive ionic was located at the position of the outer frieze Kyma that of the overlying ceiling cassette handling mediated. On the outside, a tooth cut with the following geison closed the frieze zone.
The marble edge of the roof had lion's head gargoyles , the Sima itself was painted with an anthemic frieze, and the curved front tiles had palmettes painted on them. The actual roof covering was made of clay tiles and was crowned by the poppy capsule mentioned by Pausanias.
A stone coffered ceiling closed off the access between the column position and the core structure at the top.
Core construction
The wall of the core building rose on a 98.5 centimeter high orthostat layer, which was formed from two shells and was 71.2 centimeters wide. On top of that, laid in strict concordance of the joints, lay eleven layers of wall, the thickness of which decreased slightly from 49.1 centimeters to 47.0 centimeters. Contrary to the information given by Pausanias, who here again provides dubious evidence of his eyewitness, the wall was made of blocks. The wall was crowned by a 55.5 centimeter high wall architecture.
Apart from aesthetic and structural reasons, the joint concordance was important because of the interior design. Because inside the building, half-columns of the Corinthian order were attached to the wall . Among other things, a fragment was found with a quarter base so that the stone cut lay in the axis of the half-columns. The base probably consisted of a sequence of bulge-throat-bulge, whereby the lower bulge is only developed, but not preserved. The half-columns were crowned by specially made Corinthian capitals. Since the height of the capital exceeded the height of the wall layers, the half-column pieces of the wall layer were worked off in the area of their attachment and the capitals were dowelled with the wall stones. The capitals had two wreaths of leaves at the bottom, and a volute developed from the side calyxes that grew towards the corners of the capitals. An inner volute directed towards the center of the capital was still missing. Instead, their position was taken by a broad sheet of paper. The capital is thus in a tradition that can also be observed in the temple of Athena Alea in Tegea , which was built a little earlier, and the Temple of Zeus in Nemea, which was around the same time as the Philippeion .
The number and distribution of the half-column structure is not entirely certain. The required joint concordance allows the wall surface to be divided into nine equally large wall fields. Older reconstructions were based on nine Corinthian half-columns as a dividing element. However, the reconstruction of the door area seems to suggest that the width of the door with all the decorative elements of the reveal took up more than one wall field, so that one of the half-columns was probably abandoned in favor of the door and only eight columns divided the wall. The lintel seems to have been laid directly under the surrounding wall architecture, so the door height was approximately 4.73 meters. The window openings taken into account in older reconstructions cannot be proven in the archaeological findings.
Opposite the entrance was the statue base of the ruling family. With a height of at least 1.56 meters, it was significantly higher than the orthostatic layer on the wall. The exact arrangement of the statues, their order, cannot be conclusively determined. However, since both his parents and grandparents were represented alongside Alexander, he himself will have taken the center of the arrangement.
Draft and position
The construction of the Philippeion is unusual in many ways. Not only is it a representative of the already rare design of the tholos with a ring hall, as it is otherwise only represented in this early form in Epidaurus and a few decades earlier in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia in Delphi . The selected Ionic order of the ring hall is only encountered here in Olympia. The arrangement of the Corinthian interior order on a high parapet-like base zone is also a special form and is reminiscent of the blended architecture of Macedonian galleries , while the interior columns were otherwise at best placed on a bench-like elevation.
The design and conception of circular buildings surrounded by columns are not a trivial challenge. With rulers and compasses as basic design tools, only certain regular polygons can be designed, including a 16-, 17- or 20-corner, but not an 18-corner as the basis of a round building with 18 columns evenly spaced, as represented by the Philippeion; even a 26-sided structure like the one for the building in Epidaurus cannot be obtained in this way. A simple angle division was also not possible, since the 360 ° angle system was probably only in the 2nd century BC. Was introduced by Hypsicles . Presumably they proceeded in different steps that complemented and corrected each other until the radially dividing design lines for the position of the columns, but also the panel joints, and ultimately also the wall blocks laid in strict concordance, were determined via a circle obtained with a compass.
Remarks
- ↑ Ernst Curtius , Friedrich Adler (Ed.): Olympia. The results of the excavation organized by the German Reich. Text volume 2. Berlin 1892, p. 94 f.
- ↑ Thomas Völling: "New must from old lion heads". An early Byzantine room from the old excavation in Olympia. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute. Athenian Department , Vol. 111, 1996, pp. 391-410, p. 408.
- ^ Alfred Mallwitz (edited by Klaus Herrmann ): Report on the work in Olympia from 1977 to 1981. Olympiabericht 11, 1999, p. 6.
- ↑ Volker Kästner: The Berlin excavations in Olympia. In: Museum journal. Issue 1, Berlin 2001, pp. 52–54, p. 53.
- ^ Friedrich Adler: Philippeion.
- ^ Hans Schleif: The Philippeion. Building description. ; Willy Zschietzschmann: The Philippeion. Building history.
- ^ Emil Kunze : Report on the work in Olympia in the years 1956 to 1958. In: Report on the excavations in Olympia. Volume 7. de Gruyter, Berlin 1961, p. 24.
- ^ Klaus Herrmann: Report on the work in Olympia in the years 1982 to 1999. In: Report on the excavations in Olympia. Vol. 12. de Gruyter, Berlin 2003, p. 64 f.
- ^ Klaus Herrmann: Report on the work in Olympia in the years 1982 to 1999. In: Report on the excavations in Olympia. Vol. 12. de Gruyter, Berlin 2003, p. 65.
- ↑ Hajo van de Löcht: The Philippeion of Olympia. A partial reconstruction.
- ↑ Klaus Herrmann: On the use of the Parian marble in the sanctuary of Olympia. In: Dimitris Schilardi, Dora Katsanopoulou (Ed.): Paria Lithos - Parian Quarries, Marble and Workshops of Sculpture. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Archeology of Paros and the Cyclades, Paros 1997. Athens 2000, p. 385 f.
- ^ Wolfram Hoepfner : Two Ptolemy buildings: the Ptolemy consecration present in Olympia and a building project in Alexandria. Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Athenian Department, Supplement 1. Mann, Berlin 1971.
- ↑ Ulrich Sinn : The architectural consecration gifts in the Zeus sanctuary at Olympia - perspectives of the interaction between archeology and building research. In: Report on the 39th Conference for Classical Studies and Building Research. Habelt, Bonn 1998, p. 18.
- ↑ Georges Roux : L'architecture de l'Argolide aux IVe et IIIe siècles avant J.-C. Boccard, Paris 1961, pp. 373-375; Heinrich Bauer: Corinthian capitals of the 4th and. 3rd century BC . Chr releases of the German Archaeological Institute, Athenian department, Supplement third man, Berlin 1973, p 96. 142-143; Ralf Schenk: The Corinthian Temple until the end of the Principate of Augustus . Leidorf, Espelkamp 1997 pp. 7-8.
- ↑ Hans Lauter : The architecture of Hellenism. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1986, p. 176.
- ↑ Hajo van de Löcht: The Philippeion of Olympia. A partial reconstruction. 2008, pp. 55-63.
literature
- Friedrich Adler : Philippeion. In: Ernst Curtius , Friedrich Adler (Ed.): Olympia. The results of the excavation organized by the German Reich. Text volume 2. Berlin 1892, pp. 128-133; Panel volume 2, Berlin 1896, panels 79–82 ( digital copies ).
- Hans Schleif : The Philippeion. Building description. In: Olympic Research. Vol. 1. De Gruyter, Berlin 1944, pp. 1–24, plates 1–21.
- Willy Zschietzschmann : The Philippeion. Building history. In: Olympic Research. Vol. 1. De Gruyter, Berlin 1944, pp. 24-52.
- Florian Seiler: The Greek Tholos. Zabern, Mainz 1986, pp. 89-103.
- Hajo van de Löcht: The Philippeion of Olympia. A partial reconstruction. Dissertation at the University of Karlsruhe, 2008 ( digital publication ).
Web links
Coordinates: 37 ° 38 ′ 19.3 " N , 21 ° 37 ′ 45.8" E