Fragmentary Excess: Body, Text, Receptacle Main Menu

Architecture

22450 Nullification Notification
The temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens is a prime example of architectural excess, as well as a nearly perpetual fragment, with its fitful construction lasting 650 years. The satirist Lucian even wondered if it would ever be completed (Icaromenippus, XXIV). 

The tyrant Hippias began construction of this colossal temple c. 520 BCE, but it was left unfinished with his expulsion in 510 BCE. Only the platform and a few columns were completed until Antiochus IV resumed construction in 174 BCE. It was again abandoned, however, with his death in 164 BCE. Emperor Augustus intended to complete the Temple of Olympian Zeus during his reign, but there is no record of work until it was finished and dedicated by Hadrian in 132 CE. These 19th-century platinum prints capture the deteriorating temple in a ghostly open space, as if echoing Lucian’s musing about whether it would ever be completed. 

These two examples of architectural decoration, a Phrygian or Lydian architectural fragment from Gordion, and a fragment of a floor mosaic from Carthage represent two types of architectural space that are often broken and fragmented even before the destruction of the entire structure. The mosaic, removed from the foundation of the building contains part of a guilloche border, which likely framed a figural scene. Thus, these objects are not only small pieces of physical buildings, but also fragments of decorative programs.

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