June 07, 2005

Obscure Architect of the Day!

In a bit of change of pace from obscure architectural terms, today we have--

PYTHIOS (fl. 353-334 B.C.). Architect and theorist working in Asia Minor. With Satyros he designed and wrote an account of the most famous and elaborate sepulchral monument of antiquity, the richly sculpted Mausoleum built for the Carian satrap Mausolos at Halicarnassus and numbered among the seven wonders of the world (begun before 353 B.C. and finished after 350; scuptured fragments now in the British Museum). He was also the architect of the large temple of Athena Polias at Priene (dedicated 334; fragments now in Berlin and British Museum) in which the Ionic order was thought to have achieved its canonical form. In a treatise on this building (known to Vitruvius but now lost) he extolled the perfection of its proportions, criticized the Doric order and, apparently for the first time, recommended a wide training for the architect who, he said, 'should be able to do more in all the arts and sciences than those who, by their industry and exertions, bring single disciplines to the highest reknown'.

From the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, 3rd Edition.

Whew! Lot's of information in there, so I figured I would just add in links to all the various interesting stuff. Just click on the links in the text to see what all is being talked about.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 7, 2005 10:41 AM
Comments