For the purposes of this argument, I define the change from sculptural to painterly taste in mathematical terms. Throughout this discussion, I will demonstrate how the application of curvature, entasis, and proportional adjustments in architecture resulted in a shift from a sculptural (i.e. Building upon Haselberger’s recent inclusion of optical measures within the broader Vitruvian concept “detractions and additions”, optical measures will be considered here within an interdisciplinary artistic and philosophical discourse comprised of painting and sculpture, and in an historical sequence extending from the Classical to the Hellenistic period (Haselberger 1999, pp. These issues had up to that point been primarily considered within an architectural and mathematical discourse.
When the physical evidence for such measures was found at the Parthenon in the early 1830s, a heated debate rose within the scholarly community, primarily on the intentionality of optical measures and secondarily on their origins, purpose, effects and meaning. Barely noticeable to the modern eye, the curvature of stylobate and entasis, contraction, inclinations, and enlargement of columns were already known from Vitruvius. Optical measures, such as curvature, entasis and other Greek temple refinements were broadly defined as subtle deviations from the straight outline and surface, from the strictly vertical and horizontal arrangement of forms, and from the equal dimensions of similar elements.
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