Vitruvius and the Greek Doric temple: comparing the textual source and the archaeological evidence

• Autor(a) principal: Duarte, Claudio Walter Gomez
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Classica (Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.classica.org.br/classica/article/view/854
• topic: Vitrúvio; templo dórico; arquitetura grega; proporções; módulos; Vitruvius; Doric temple; Greek architecture; proportions; modules

Vitruvius attested in his treatise On Architecture that he learned his trade from the Greek masters. In book 4, he taught how an architect who wishes to build a Doric temple should proceed. He presents a scheme of rules based on the module, which shall be the measure that standardizes the entire building system. Assessing whether Greek temples really follow their principles has always been something that fascinated archaeologists, since the proportions are very controversial. We aim here to discuss the historical description of the Doric temple and to confront it with a sample of 63 buildings (6th-2nd century BC). For this, we have covered several passages of the treaty. The data reveal that in the sample we have several examples that meet Vitruvius’ recommendations; however, they do not apply to most cases. This was already expected, since it presents a rigid design scheme, and the treaty was written only at the end of the Roman Republic, ca. 27 BC.