Like most Roman and Greek architecture, the Colosseum has the basic principles of Large scale, and for the public. Although we are baffled nowadays on how these huge structures came to be in relatively a short amount of time given their technology, it is still one of the grandest ancient structures today, in line with the pyramids. Like the Parthenon, the Colosseum of Rome had an immense amount of detail and consideration in it's placement and design. The Romans took a lot of pride in their architecture and art, and it shows. A lot of the realistic and ornate detail of the Roman empire's creations was lost after the beginning of the middle ages. It is astounding that these structures have stood the test of time and be in relatively good condition. I'm amazed on how much planning must have gone in to this arena of public spectacle. If it took them 10 years to build it, I wonder how long it took them to plan it out! From consideration to the statues in each of the arches, to the underground pulley system, it's amazing how the Romans of the first century did this with only a minimal amount of technology.
Along these lines, lets talk about Notre Dame and the church of St. Ignatius in Rome. It seems to me that in painting, artist of the time really enjoyed the idea of making a structure or canvas larger than it seems. In St. Ignatius' church, we have a similar motif on the ceiling as the Sistine chapel, in where a large scene is depicted, but with an incredible amount of detail in making that space look infinite. My guess is that these churches didn't have the money or space to create monuments like the Notre Dame, so in order for it to look grander, they made the illusion of a bigger space instead.
As for the Notre Dame, I don't believe there is a more incredible and more well preserved piece of architecture anywhere in Europe. I recently played a game called Assassins creed: Unity, in where you play in a to-scale replica of Paris during the 10 year period of the french revolution. Now it is an amazing game for several reasons, but my favorite is that every building is exactly how it is in real life. So in this game, I have had the opportunity to climb to the top of Notre Dame, simple district homes, other churches of the time, and see paris in the late 1700's. Every stone, every minaret and window is an exact replica. It's hard to explain so the link below is actual gameplay of the main character climbing to the top of this famous church. In my eyes this is a perfect example of Art and Technology in play.
(if you skip to 1:00 that's where he starts to climb)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1KPOEtoISE
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