Idea and Visuality in Hellenistic Architecture: A Geometric Analysis of Temple A of the Asklepieion at Kos

by John R. Senseney

Hesperia, Volume 76, Issue 3
Page(s): 555-595
Stable URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2972/hesp.76.3.555
Publication Date: 2007

Period: Hellenistic
Site: Kos
Subject: Architecture; links between geometric design and role of visuality

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ABSTRACT:The author uses analytic geometry and AutoCAD software to analyze the plan of Temple A of the Asklepieion at Kos, revealing a circumscribed Pythagorean triangle as the basis for the plan's design. This methodology and its results counter earlier doubts about the application of geometry to Doric temple design and suggest the existence of an alternative to the grid-based approach characteristic of Hellenistic temples of the Ionic order. Appreciation of the geometric system underlying the plan of Temple A leads to a consideration of the role of visuality in Hellenistic architecture, characterized here as the manner in which abstract ideas shared by architects and scholars conditioned viewing and influenced the design process.