Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?

Highlights of Greek Architecture in the Carnegie Institute

Sphinx on the Votive Column of the Naxians

The Hall of Architecture in the Carnegie gives us a whirlwind tour of Western architectural history from Egypt to the Renaissance, through the medium of life-size plaster casts. Above, the sphinx on the Votive Column of the Naxians at Delphi. It originally stood on a column more than thirty feet high, and the Carnegie’s cast is elevated to give viewers an approximation of the angle at which the sculpture was meant to be seen.

Sphinx from the front
Façade of the Temple of Athena Nike

The façade of the Temple of Athena Nike, a textbook Ionic temple, and the model for many a mausoleum in Pittsburgh cemeteries.

Porch of the Maidens

The Porch of the Maidens, whose caryatids were much imitated in the Renaissance.

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One response to “Highlights of Greek Architecture in the Carnegie Institute”

  1. von Hindenburg

    While touring here the other day, I heard a woman loudly and apparently sincerely complaining about how the museum had ‘stolen’ these treasures from other countries, apparently having managed to avoid reading any sign on the way in. Seeing how some of the other galleries have removed even more older art and replaced it with, among other things, a metal pole leaning against a corner, a blank canvas, the poorly-formatted date FEB.29,1988, and a room dedicated to criticizing Andrew Carnegie (including an ‘installation’ that is nothing but a megaphone blaring verifiably false information about the Fukushima nuclear accident)… It seems likely that the final end of the Hall of Architecture will come due to concern over the mental anguish that it causes visitors who assume that the pieces were stolen from other lands and the fact that we must accommodate their viewpoints.

    Nothing turns me into a parody of a crotchety DOGE supporter like visiting the museum.

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