What are metopes made of?

The metopes of the Parthenon are carved panels of a soft stone called marble that was very popular due to its workability and natural beauty. The metopes are carved in high relief.

What Triglyphics mean?

: a slightly projecting rectangular tablet in a Doric frieze with two vertical channels of V section and two corresponding chamfers or half channels on the vertical sides.

What is the purpose of triglyphs?

Triglyphs. Triglyphs are an aesthetic feature of Doric temples that do not serve any function besides design. The triglyph is meant to represent the end of a wooden beam, which would have supported the weight of the roof in pre-historic Greek buildings.

Where do triglyphs come from?

The triglyphs were the ends of the wooden beams of the roof, and the metopes were the spaces between the beams. When architects began building stone temples, they wanted them to look familiar, so they kept the pattern, even though it had nothing to do with the structure anymore.

What does the pediment mean?

1 : a triangular space that forms the gable of a low-pitched roof and that is usually filled with relief sculpture in classical architecture also : a similar form used as a decoration.

What is a Opisthodomos used for?

Architecturally, the opisthodomos (as a back room) balances the pronaos or porch of a temple, creating a plan with diaxial symmetry. The upper portion of its outer wall could be decorated with a frieze, as on the Hephaisteion and the Parthenon.

Who first use the word pediment?

This architectural element was developed in the architecture of ancient Greece. In ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and later architectural revivals, the pediment was used as a non-structural element over windows, doors and aedicules.

What does a metope mean in classical architecture?

Freebase(2.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition: Metope. In classical architecture, a metope is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a building of the Doric order.

Which is the most famous example of a metope?

Metopes often had painted or sculptural decoration; the most famous example are the 92 metopes of the Parthenon marbles some of which depict the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. The painting on most metopes has been lost, but sufficient traces remain to allow a close idea of their original appearance.

What is a metope in a Doric frieze?

Metope In classical architecture, a metope is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a building of the Doric order.

Where do the metopes and the triglyphs come from?

They started as a natural part of wooden temples, back in the Dark Ages when people in Greece were building temples out of logs. The triglyphs were the ends of the wooden beams of the roof, and the metopes were the spaces between the beams.