GrecoRoman
Classical Greek architecture, like the prototypical Parthenon, incorporate architectural sculpture in a fairly narrow set of standard, formal building elements. The names of these elements still comprise the usual vocabulary for discussion: the pediment, the metope, the frieze, the caryatid, the quadriga, acroteria, etc.
Greek examples of architectural sculpture are distinguished not only by their age but their very high quality and skillful technique, with rhythmic and dynamic modeling, figural compositions in friezes that continue seamlessly over vertical joints from one block of stone to the next, and mastery of depth and legibility.
The known Greek and Roman examples have been exhaustively studied, and frequently copied or adapted into subsequent neo-classical styles: Greek Revival architecture, usually the most strict; Neoclassical architecture; Beaux-Arts architecture with its exaggerated and romantic free interpretations of the vocabulary, and even Stalinist neo-classical architecture like the Central Moscow Hippodrome adapted to a totalitarian aesthetic. These re-interpretations are sometimes dubious, for instance, there are many modern copies of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, like the National Diet Building in Tokyo, despite the fact that all classical descriptions of the Mausoleum are vague.
Read more about this topic: Architectural Sculpture