Compare and Contrast Essay: Gloucester Cathedral and Temple of Bacchus

There are some ancient buildings demonstrating state of the art architectures spanning across Europe. Some of them are the Gloucester cathedral and Temple of Bacchus. Gloucester Cathedral is located in a place called Gloucester, England. Its length is 53 meters, which is 17 feet. It has only one tower. It was founded by an Anglo - Saxon prince, Osric as a religious house. He funded its construction for such a purpose. It is estimated to have existed for an approximate of 1000 years having been built in a year from1089 - 1499, using stones. Its eastern had gotten ready for dedication in 1100.with its body getting completed at around 1130 AD. It was originally referred to as Cathedral church of Saint Peter before being renamed Gloucester Cathedral. It was constructed using Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. The ancient Roman architectural style was widely used in Western Europe and involved the arches which were semicircular, active pillars, and thick walls, high-quality buildings, symmetrical layouts and massive towers. The Gothic kind of architecture later replaced it and was characterized by pointed arches, used from about 12th century AD (Hansen, Niels Chr, Makiko Sadakata et al., 8).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Besides, the temple of Bacchus is a temple built to the Roman wine god, Bacchus, of the Romans, using ruble stones. It is located in Baalbek town, Lebanon. It is 31 meters in width and 69 meters long and was built by King Antonio Pius to act as a worshipping ground for the god of wine and ecstasy, Bacchus. It was built in the architectural styles namely; Ancient Roman Architecture and the classical architecture. Also, it measures eight columns wide and 15 columns long. Its dedication to the god of wine - Bacchus - is indicated by the evidence representation of a story of its youth. It is because the Romans and Phoenicians revered gods which were similar to Bacchus, the Shadrapa. Its entrance, which is 11 meters high, is decorated with vines and grapes. It is followed by two smaller gates that lead into rooms in the second flow (Hansen, Niels Chr, Makiko Sadakata, et al.,11). The columns fixed to the wall surrounds the cult room. It has two divisions, the upper and lower parts, both at the back and is accessible by use of stairs. Its parapets have been decorated by dancing Maenads, further ascertaining that it is a temple of Bacchus. A crypt, where the cultic vessels have been kept, is found below the higher part of the temple.

The temple is finely decorated with baroque decoration, giving it an impressive look. Cities financed it. All through the ceiling of the corridor that is between the columns and its outer wall, it is decorated with pictures representing crowned ladies, each in turn representing the cities which contributed in financing its construction. In its entrance has a lintel above that has excellent eagle - representing Jupiter, which holds a heralds staff that symbolizes Mercury in the middle of two cupids that represents Venus.

Conclusion

There are some differences between the temple of Bacchus and Gloucester cathedral. Temple of Bacchus is 69 meters long while Gloucester cathedral is 53 meters long. Also, Temple of Bacchus was constructed using rubbles while Gloucester cathedral was constructed using stone (Postle, Martin, and Robin Simon, 15). The purpose of Gloucester cathedral was to act as a Christian worship center whereas Temple of Bacchus was meant for the symbolic preservation belonging to the god Bacchus. Both of them are ancient structures constructed using Roman architectural styles.

Works cited

Hansen, Niels Chr, Makiko Sadakata, and Marcus Pearce. "Nonlinear changes in the rhythm of European art music: Quantitative support for historical musicology." Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 33.4 (2016): 414-431.

Postle, Martin, and Robin Simon, eds. Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting. Yale Center for British Art, 2014.