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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-08 15:21:12 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-08 15:21:12 -0800 |
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diff --git a/75561-h/75561-h.htm b/75561-h/75561-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9508ab8 --- /dev/null +++ b/75561-h/75561-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5703 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Some Old Masters of Greek Architecture | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} + +hr.r10 {width: 10%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 45%; margin-right: 45%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +ul.index { list-style-type: none; } +li.ifrst { + margin-top: 1em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} +li.indx { + margin-top: .5em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right; padding-left: 1em;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; + color: #A9A9A9; +} /* page numbers */ + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +.fs70 {font-size: 70%} +.fs80 {font-size: 80%} +.fs130 {font-size: 130%} +.fs150 {font-size: 150%} + +.no-indent {text-indent: 0em;} +.bold {font-weight: bold;} +.wsp {word-spacing: 0.3em;} +.lh {line-height: 1.5em;} + +p.drop-cap { + text-indent: 0em; +} + +/* p.drop-cap:first-letter +{ + float: left; + margin: 0em 0.1em 0em 0em; + font-size: 250%; + line-height:0.85em; +} */ + +.upper-case +{ + text-transform: uppercase; +} + +img.drop-cap +{ + float: left; + margin: -0.5em 1em 0 0; +} + +p.drop-cap:first-letter +{ + color: transparent; + visibility: hidden; + margin-left: -1.5em; +} + +h2 {font-size: 130%; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; word-spacing: .3em;} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent1 {text-indent: -2.5em;} +.poetry .indent20 {text-indent: 7em;} +.poetry .indent26 {text-indent: 10em;} + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp10 {width: 10%;} +.illowp100 {width: 100%;} +.illowp25 {width: 25%;} +.illowp50 {width: 50%;} +.illowp85 {width: 85%;} + +.pageborder {width: 500px; border: 1px solid; padding: 10px; margin: auto;} +.pageborder2 {width: 485px; border: 1px solid; padding: 10px; margin: auto;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75561 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_f000" style="max-width: 44.4375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_f000.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">TROPHONIUS SLAYING AGAMEDES AT THE TREASURY OF HYRIEUS.</p> +</figcaption> +</figure> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h1> +SOME OLD MASTERS<br> +OF GREEK<br> +ARCHITECTURE</h1> +<br> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp">By HARRY DOUGLAS</p> + +<p class="center no-indent fs80 wsp"> +CURATOR OF <img style="width: 1%" src="images/i_f001-3.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> +<br> +KELLOGG TERRACE</p> +<br> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp10" id="decoration" style="max-width: 24.25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/decoration.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> +</figure> +<br> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent fs80 wsp">PUBLISHED AT THE<br> +QUARTER-OAK<br> +GREAT BARRINGTON,<br> +MASS., 1899 <img style="width: 1%" src="images/i_f001-4.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center no-indent wsp"> +<em>Copyright, 1899</em>,<br> +<span class="smcap">By</span> HARRY DOUGLAS.<br> +</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter pageborder"> +<div class="pageborder2"> + <figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_f003-1" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_f003-1.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> + </figure> +</div> +<br> + +<div class="pageborder2"> + <div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_f003-2.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="drop-cap"> + </div> + <p class="drop-cap fs150"> + TO EDWARD<br> + FRANCIS<br> + SEARLES</p> + <br> + <p class="center no-indent">WHOSE APPRECIATION OF THE HARMONIES OF ART, AND<br> + WHOSE HIGH IDEALS OF ARCHITECTURE HAVE FOUND<br> + EXPRESSION IN MANY ENDURING FORMS, THIS BOOK IS<br> + RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.<br> + </p> +</div> +<br> + +<div class="pageborder2"> + <figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_f003-3" style="max-width: 61.6875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_f003-3.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> + </figure> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="r10"> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> temptation to wander, with all the recklessness +of an amateur, into the traditions of the best architecture, +which necessarily could be found only in the history +of early Hellenic art, awakened in the author a +desire to ascertain who were the individual artists +primarily responsible for those architectural standards, +which have been accepted without rival since their creation. +The search led to some surprise when it was found +how little was known or recorded of them, and how +great appeared to be the indifference in which they +were held by nearly all the writers upon ancient art, +as well as by their contemporary historians and biographers. +The author therefore has gone into the field +of history, tradition and fable, with a basket on his arm, +as it were, to cull some of the rare and obscure flowers +of this artistic family, dropping into the basket also +such facts directly or indirectly associated with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span> +architects of ancient Greece, or their art, as interested +him personally. The basket is here set down, containing, +if nothing more, at least a brief allusion to no less +than eighty-two architects of antiquity. The fact is +perfectly appreciated that many fine specimens may +have been overlooked; that scant justice has been done +those gathered, and that the basket is far too small to +contain all that so rich a field could offer.</p> + +<p>This book, therefore, aims at nothing more than a +superficial glance at the subject, and the author will be +content if he has accomplished anything toward bringing +those great geniuses of a noble art into a little +modern light, who have been left very much to themselves +in one of the gloomiest chambers of a deep +obscurity.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class="autotable lh"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdr fs70">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">1. <span class="smcap">Popular Appreciation of Architects</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">2. <span class="smcap">Mythical and Archaic Architects and Builders</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">3. <span class="smcap">Originators of the “Three Orders,”</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">4. <span class="smcap">Early Grecian Architects</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">5. <span class="smcap">Architectural Epoch of Pericles</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">6. <span class="smcap">Architects of the Age of Pericles</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">7. <span class="smcap">Later Greek Architects</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">8. <span class="smcap">Alexandrian Era, and Roman Spoliation</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">9. <span class="smcap">Alexandrian Architects</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Index of Architects and Architectural Sculptors</span>,</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br> +<span class="smcap fs70">The Popular Appreciation of Architects.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-o.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Of</span> all the fine arts none more completely answers +for its <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">raison d’être</i> than architecture. In this +art alone do we find the harmonious mingling +of æsthetical fancy with utilitarian purpose. It is this +feature of usefulness that completes its well-rounded +perfection, rather than detracts from it, and dignifies +its mission of existence. Architecture, in its capacity +to draw to its enrichment the other arts, may be compared +to the polished orator, whose purpose is to sway +the judgment of his audience by forensic effort, embellishing +his language with the flowers of rhetoric, adapting +his gestures to graceful emphasis, and controlling +his voice to suit the light and shade of his thought. So +sculpture has been stimulated by architecture and has +contributed to its ornamentation; painting has been +invoked to the highest accomplishments, and music has +awakened within its walls voice and harmony. “The +progress of other arts depends on that of architecture,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span> +Sir William Chambers very truly says. “When building +is encouraged, painting, sculpture, gardening and +all other decorative arts flourish of course, and these +have an influence on manufactures, even to the minutest +mechanic productions; for design is of universal advantage, +and stamps a value on the most trifling performance.”</p> + +<p>It is perhaps not a little odd that despite its pre-eminent +importance, and the high rank which it has ever +assumed, from that early time when the first rays of +dawning civilization began to warm the latent germs of +culture and refinement in human nature, to the present +day, it is the only art that has not, with very rare and +isolated exceptions, stamped renown upon those who +have practised it as a profession, and lifted the artist +into the lasting remembrance and gratitude of the admirers +of his works. How greatly the painter, the +sculptor, the musician, are identified with their arts, and +the products of their brush, chisel or pen! how great has +been their praise, how lasting and unstinted the esteem +in which they have been held! but how reserved has +been the applause that has encouraged the architect who +has given to the world the grand and noble results of his +skill and genius, and how soon he himself has been forgotten! +It happens only too often that it is the name of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span> +the distinguished painter that stamps the value of his +canvas rather than the merits of the picture itself. The +title of a beautiful piece of sculptured marble is not +asked with greater eagerness than that of the artist who +created it. Bach and Beethoven and Mozart are played +and sung to the popular audiences rather than their +fugues, their sonatas and their symphonies.</p> + +<p>But what is known of the artists who have reared the +greatest monuments of enduring architecture? Their +personality, and even their names, appear to have faded +from popular recollection. This seems to have been +the fact from the earliest days of the art in Greece and +Rome to the present time. The exceptions are so rare, +throughout all the intervening ages, and the waving +prominence of the art, that they might almost be numbered +upon the fingers of a single hand.</p> + +<p>The reader, if he is not a professional architect, or +an amateur who has read deeply in his favorite subject, +can arrive at the truth of this seemingly exaggerated +statement, if he will lay aside this book for a moment +and try to recall the names of the designers of some of +the more conspicuous monuments of architecture he has +visited at home or abroad.</p> + +<p>“I will erect such a building, but I will hang it up +in the air,” exclaimed Michael Angelo when he saw the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> +dome of the Pantheon at Rome. The reader may remember +this boast of the great Renaissance genius, the +fulfilment of it in the colossal dome of St. Peter’s, and +be satisfied that his memory has captured one architect +of celebrity. If the beautiful Florentine campanile of +Giotto looms up in his recollection he will think at once +also of that early artist, but perhaps not more so in connection +with that ornate tower than in association with +the Pre-Raphaelites. Of course, he will not overlook +Inigo Jones, whose very name is stamped upon the +memory by reason of its peculiarity, or Sir Christopher +Wren, the creator of St. Paul’s, and the British idol. If +he is an admirer of the picturesque architecture of +Venetian churches and palaces, the Italian Palladio +may not escape him; and if of French Renaissance, the +Louvre façade will possibly suggest Perrault, and the +Parisian roofs Mansard. If he is a native of our +“Modern Athens,” of course, the peril in which the +classic front of the State House rested for a time, at +the hands of a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fin de siècle</i> legislature, will not permit +him to forget Bulfinch, and Trinity Church will bring +to memory the only Richardson. But aside from a few +names such as have been mentioned, with possibly a +sprinkling of others fixed in the memory, by incident +or association, the average reader, however well acquainted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> +he may be with the numerous luminaries of the +other arts, will be unable to say who was responsible for +the beauty and nobility of many buildings that have individualized +the cities and towns of their location to the +art-loving world. Who, for example, can tell of the +authors of the cathedrals at Milan and Siena, Cologne +and Strassburg, Rheims and Amiens, Wells and Litchfield; +the Giralda at Seville; the Church of the Invalides +at Paris; the Strozzi Palace at Florence; the Henry +VII. chapel at Westminster Abbey; the much and justly +admired south façade of the old City Hall in New York; +Grace Church in that city; the Capitol building in +Washington, or that model of colonial architecture in +America, the Executive Mansion?</p> + +<p>It is not, however, the purpose to here speculate too +extensively upon the apparent lack of justice on the +part of the general public which has been done the +architects of all climes and times, but to gather together +a few facts concerning the Old Masters of early Grecian +architecture that are not popularly known, and recall +some of the leading lights of that art so inimitably practised +by the Hellenic people during their progress from +archaic darkness to the zenith of their æsthetic culture.</p> + +<p>It is but repeating a well-worn truth to say that the +influence of the early Grecian architects upon the followers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> +of their art in all countries of recognized civilized +enlightenment, throughout the ages that have succeeded +them, has been an almost dominant one. Robert Adam, +the architectural authority in the time of George III., +says, in the introduction to his work on the ruins +of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian: “The buildings +of the ancients are in architecture what the works +of nature are with respect to the other arts: they serve +as models which we should imitate and as standards by +which we ought to judge; for this reason they who aim +at eminence, either in the knowledge or practice of +architecture, find it necessary to view with their own +eyes the works of the ancients which remain, that they +may catch from them those ideas of grandeur and +beauty which nothing, perhaps, but such an observation +can suggest.”</p> + +<p>It is equally true that no country that has experienced +an evolution in intelligence and culture, during the +twenty-five hundred years that have fled since the time +of Pericles, has succeeded in introducing any new school +of architecture, that has not been compelled to draw +upon ancient Greece for many of the most important +and essential features of the art it could only modify, +but never wholly re-create.</p> + +<p>The Gothic, or pointed-arch style, that sprung into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> +such beautiful being in the thirteenth century, and +reigned a queen within the Christian countries of +Europe for several centuries thereafter, came more +nearly answering for an original scheme of architecture +than perhaps any other of equal importance, and yet had +it been deprived of the Grecian props that helped to sustain +it, it must have fallen to the ground.</p> + +<p>In the Gothic the effort was made to incline the inherited +principles of architecture more closely toward +the spiritual progress of the people, but when at last it +had run its course, and was dethroned, owing to a realization +of the fact that even a closer allegiance to classic +models could be made to answer still better spiritual +requirements, how completely did the artistic temperament +of the people revert to Greece and Rome, as the +light of their returning inspiration and truth appeared +with the dawn of the sixteenth century. Renaissance +architecture and Renaissance art swept Europe like a +wave, and the people turned with reactionary enthusiasm +to the ancient standards of art, as they did to the +study of classic authors, and to the writing of even +Greek and Latin verses.</p> + +<p>The debt of gratitude, therefore, which posterity has +owed the originators in ancient Greece of the three +noble orders of architecture—namely, the Doric, Ionic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +and Corinthian—can scarcely be overestimated, for it +is to those three orders or styles that all subsequent +architects have turned for the fundamental truths of +their art. They may not have followed each or all with +conventional strictness; but they have not succeeded in +escaping from borrowing many of the features there +everlastingly fixed by the unerring geniuses of classic +times.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent26">“Famous Greece!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That source of art, and cultivated thought,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which they to Rome, and Romans hither brought.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The uses to which the Greek and Roman architectural +forms, principles and ornaments have been put since the +birth of the Renaissance have broadened largely, and +would seem to preclude any possibility of their ever +again falling into even partial desuetude. It is not only +in the more pretentious buildings, monuments and ornamental +structures that abound so plentifully in the populous +and wealthy cities that classic models and features +are so liberally employed, but even the unpretentious +and simple rural homes cannot escape their use. +What is more common than the Doric mutule or +Corinthian modillion, so frequently seen in the cornices +of modern houses, or the Ionic dentils that show their +teeth below a piazza roof or over the door casing of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +colonial dwelling? The various combinations of the +fret, the egg and dart, the bead and fillet, the honeysuckle, +the acanthus and many other Grecian <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">motifs</i> of +ornamentation, are met with constantly, not only in +buildings of a public or private nature, but in furniture +and fresco, in interior decoration, and in enhancing the +attractiveness of almost any article of use or ornament. +Even the simple ogee moulding, which is employed, if +nowhere else, about the door panels of the humblest +abode, is classic in its origin, and had its archetype in +the entablatures of those stately and beautiful temples +dedicated to the pagan gods of ancient Greece.</p> + +<p>It must not be inferred, however, that all the individual +features employed in the Greek orders found +their birth in the brains of Hellenic architects. Sir +Jeremy Bentham says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“From Egypt arts their progress made to Greece,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Wrapt in the fable of the Golden Fleece.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>This statement, however, though poetical, is much +too sweeping to be literally correct as to architecture. +The Greeks borrowed a little—a very little—not only +from the Egyptians, but from the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, +the Persians, and other western Asiatic races as +well; but so altered what they had borrowed, so refined +it and entwined it with original conceptions of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> +their own, that the captive features could have returned +again to their native lands without fear of detection. +Indeed as to the origin of some of the architectural features +which the Greeks are supposed to have taken from +the countries of a more unrefined people to the south +and east of them, and especially as to the volute, so conspicuous +in the Ionic capital, which is supposed to have +been a Persian conception, there is much dispute.</p> + +<p>Professor T. Roger Smith, of London, very truly observes: +“We cannot put a finger upon any feature of +Egyptian, Assyrian or Persian architecture the influence +of which has survived to the present day, except +such as were adopted by the Greeks. On the other +hand, there is no feature, no ornament, nor even any +principle of design which the Greek architects employed +that can be said to have now become obsolete.”</p> + +<p>In discussing the three primary orders of which mention +has been made, and to which he adds the Tuscan and +Composite, both of Italian or Roman origin, and closely +dependent upon the original three, Sir William Chambers +remarks: “The ingenuity of man has hitherto not +been able to produce a sixth order, though large premiums +have been offered, and numerous attempts been +made by men of first-rate talents, to accomplish it. Such +is the fettered human imagination, such the scanty store<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> +of its ideas, that Doric, Ionic and Corinthian have ever +floated uppermost, and all that has been produced +amounts to nothing more than different arrangements +and combinations of their parts, with some trifling +deviations scarcely deserving notice; the whole tending +generally more to diminish than to increase the +beauty of the ancient orders.... The suppression +of parts of the ancient orders, with a view to produce +novelty, has of late years been practised among us +with full as little success; and although it is not wished +to restrain sallies of imagination, nor to discourage +genius from attempting to invent, yet it is apprehended +that attempts to alter the primary forms invented by +the ancients, and established by the concurring approbation +of many ages, must ever be attended with dangerous +consequences, must always be difficult, and seldom, if +ever, successful.” Thus is seen the marvellous discretion +and judgment exercised by the Grecian architects +in selecting from contemporary art that alone which +was best to perpetuate, and thus is well expressed in the +statement of indisputable fact, a tribute to their originality +and creative genius.</p> + +<p>And who were these Old Masters of classic architecture—older +in point of service to their art by thousands +of years than Giotto and Raphael and Michael Angelo<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> +and Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, and many +others who might be mentioned, and who in campanile +and cathedral, in public building and private palace, in +monument and mausoleum, have proved themselves +justly entitled to the laurels with which they have been +crowned, but who nevertheless are but disciples of Hellenic +and Roman masters? Where do we find the +biographies of the original Old Masters of architecture +recorded? Where can we turn to read of their lives, of +their deeds and achievements, of their aspirations and +ambitions, of their shortcomings and their foibles? +Where are written down those anecdotes and incidents +of personal interest, so entertaining in association with +their works or their art? What, in fact, were their +names? There is comparatively little recorded of the +lives of the Greek and Roman architects with which to +answer these questions; strange as it may appear, even +their names are unfamiliar, and in many important instances +are forgotten altogether. Among that large +galaxy of brilliant men which Greece in her prime produced, +who figured prominently in almost every walk +of life, who were great in war and in peace, in philosophy +and poetry, in satire and history, in oratory and +valor, and as great, if not greater than in all, in statuary +and sculpture—a galaxy clinging to the memory in all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +ages of human progress, because never excelled, the +name of a Grecian architect is a strange sound, and does +not ring in tune, if it is ever heard at all, with the +names enrolled upon the list of Greek immortals.</p> + +<p>The sculptors and statuaries of ancient Greece are +especially well remembered in the popular mind, and +Myron and Phidias and Praxiteles and Polycletus call +for no introduction to the ordinarily informed lover of +art; not so the designer of the Parthenon or the Temple +of Theseus, or the Erechtheum, or the Choragic monument +of Lysicrates. It is strange that the artist who +modelled or chiselled a bull or a cow or a Faun or a +nude Venus, or any pagan god or goddess, however +much we may praise the excellence of his skill, should +be remembered by posterity, while the artist, his contemporary, +who designed the most beautiful and graceful +buildings of all time, which in their glory were the +pride of their people, and which in their decay and ruin +are still the loadstones that attract pilgrims from the +most distant lands, is forgotten, and, it would appear, +denied almost the humblest mention. Can it not be +said of the Grecian architects, as well as the Grecian +sculptors, that under the magic of their touch “Stones +leap’d to form, and rocks began to live”? Were not the +temples they reared in all the pride of surpassing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> +beauty, which tempted the sculptor’s caress on frieze +and pediment, and which gave shelter to those works of +the statuary’s art which Shakespeare recalls so vividly +when he draws the simile:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent20">“They spake not a word.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But, like dumb statues, or unbreathing stones,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stared at each other, and look’d deadly pale,”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="no-indent">as much entitled to give immortality to their creators +as the works, however competitive, of other branches of +art to their authors? And still so incidentally and indifferently +have the historians and biographers of their +time alluded to the Grecian architects, that little or +nothing is to be found to quench that desire to know of +them personally, which an interest in their grand +achievements may well awaken.</p> + +<p>Did we not know it to be otherwise, we might think +that they, too, were like the poor architect of whom +Goethe speaks: “He is employed in lavishing all the +luxury of his fancy upon halls from which he is to be +ever excluded, and display his ingenuity in bestowing +the utmost convenience upon apartments he must not +enjoy.” But it does not appear that any social discrimination +was exercised against the Greek architects to +cast a shadow upon their present or future fame.</p> + +<p>It is popularly believed that the great buildings of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> +ancient world were very long in the process of construction—that +they, in fact, took many decades and sometimes +even hundreds of years to complete. If this were +true it might in a measure explain the obscurity in +which their architects have been left, inasmuch as the +original designer of the building might have been forgotten +ere the last of his successors had finished the work +he had undertaken. But this is not altogether the fact. +Even the pyramid of Cheops—that colossal marvel of +the creative genius of man—we are informed by some +authorities took but thirty years to construct, ten of +which were given to the building of a road leading to +the site of the pyramid, for the greater facility in handling +the huge blocks of stone to be used. Neither were +the temples and public edifices of Greece and Rome, as +a rule, long in building, being generally undertaken and +finished during the influential period of a public man’s +career, or the reign of a single emperor. There were, of +course, exceptions to this rule, as, for example, the temple +of Apollo at Delphi, that erected to Diana at Ephesus, +and that dedicated to Jupiter at Athens; but in nearly +all such instances it will be found that the temples were +destroyed and rebuilt during the long interval which is +supposed to have passed from the time when their foundations +were first laid, to that which found them again<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> +in all respects completed structures; or, if not destroyed +and the work undertaken anew, the delay was caused by +some political influence which contributed to check the +continuous prosecution of the work, implying no procrastination +on the part of the original builders. But +even in the most of such cases the names of the various +architects who were from time to time associated with +the work are at least known, if their biographies are +not more fully recorded.</p> + +<p>It may be stated broadly that both the Greeks and the +Romans were rapid builders when the size of their edifices +is taken into account. Especially is this true of +the time of Pericles, if we are to believe the testimony of +Plutarch: “Every architect strived to surpass the magnificence +of design with the elegance of execution, yet +still the most wonderful circumstance was the expedition +with which they [the buildings] were completed. Many +edifices, each of which seemed to require the labor of +successive ages, were finished during the administration +of one prosperous man.” And the great biographer also +adds: “... Hence we have the more reason to +wonder that the structures raised by Pericles should be +built in so short a time, and yet built for ages, for each +of them as soon as finished had the venerable air of antiquity; +so now they are old they have the freshness of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> +a modern building. A bloom is diffused over them +which preserves their aspect untarnished by time, as if +they were animated by a spirit of perpetual youth and +unfading elegance.”</p> + +<p>Another mistaken idea is that the sculptors of ancient +times were also architects. Some instances occur where, +like the Italian, Michael Angelo, a prominent sculptor +of Greece or Rome, made architecture one of his accomplishments, +but they were not as numerous as they are +supposed to have been, and the rule seems to be the reverse: +that the sculptors of antiquity had no technical +knowledge of architecture, and that the arts were quite +as distinctly practised as professions in early times as +they are to-day.</p> + +<p>There remains to be presented only one other reason +for the indifference shown the early architects by their +contemporary writers and public, which is so well expressed +by an English historian in his discussion of the +Coliseum at Rome, that it may well be quoted as a type +of the excuse offered by apologists of the same class: +“The name of the architect to whom the great work of +the Coliseum was entrusted has not come down to us.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +The ancients seem themselves to have regarded this +name as a matter of little interest; nor in fact do they +generally care to specify the authorship of their most +illustrious buildings. The reason is obvious. The forms +of ancient art in this department were almost wholly +conventional, and the limits of design within which they +were executed gave little room for the display of original +taste and special character.... It is only in +periods of eclecticism and Renaissance, when the taste of +the architect has wider scope and may lead the eye instead +of following it, that interest attaches to his personal +merit. Thus it is that the Coliseum, the most conspicuous +type of Roman civilization, the monument +which divides the admiration of strangers in modern +Rome with St. Peter’s itself, is nameless and parentless, +while every stage in the construction of the great Christian +temple, the creation of a modern revival, is appropriated +with jealous care to its special claimants.” In +other words, the pupil is a fitter artist to awaken the +personal interest of those who admire his works than his +master; and the revived imitation of more consequence +to the public than the original model. If this were true, +why should the Coliseum, “the most conspicuous type +of Roman civilization,” upon which the pilgrims of the +North, as we are informed by Gibbon, based the longevity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> +of Rome itself, when in their rude enthusiasm they +gave expression to the proverb, “As long as the Coliseum +stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, +Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the world will fall,” +<em>divide</em> the admiration of the stranger with St. Peter’s? +Should it not, rather, be subordinate to the Christian +cathedral of Bramante, Raphael and Michael Angelo? +Is there not a touch of the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">reductio ad absurdum</i> in this +argument? Such reasoning does not seem to be quite +obvious upon other grounds as well. If it is the fact +that the ancients regarded the names of their architects +as of little interest, and their buildings as wholly conventional, +why does Vitruvius speak of four of the principal +temples of Greece as “having raised their architects +to the summit of renown”? Why is it that Rhœcus +and Theodorus, Ictinus, Mnesicles, Dinocrates, Detrianus, +Apollodorus and many other architects—to whom +more particular mention will be made later—are remembered +in ancient history with more or less circumstantiality, +not only in association with their works—all +conventional, if we are to accept this writer’s judgment—but +also on account of their individual merit, +while the architects of the buildings which departed +most from that same conventionality, both in plan +and detail, as, for example, the Erechtheum, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> +original Odeon of Pericles and even the Coliseum +itself, where:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Firm Doric pillars formed the solid base,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">The fair Corinthian crown the higher space,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And all below is strength, and all above is grace,”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="no-indent">are lost in the ocean of oblivion?</p> + +<p>Do not our modern authors overlook the fact that the +architects of their own age share, as a rule, in the same +popular indifference, and that the period of revival is no +exception to the period of inception; that the one has +inherited from the other not only the forms and principles +of its art, but the same neglect of its artists?</p> + +<p>Whether this is true or not, the fact must remain and +be accepted with patience or impatience, as we please, +that there is little preserved for us by the ancient writers +in respect to their architects. Two rather conspicuous +exceptions, however, occur to this general rule in respect +to Pausanias, the Lydian, and Vitruvius Pollio, the +Roman.</p> + +<p>Pausanias lived toward the close of the second century +after Christ. He was a great traveller and a close +observer, his observations having been confined principally +to works of art, such as public buildings, temples +and statues, which he mentions in direct and simple language. +He visited most of the states of Greece at a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +time when that country was still rich in her treasures of +art, and what he has to say of what he saw there would +tend to indicate that while he was by no means a critic +or a connoisseur, he was still a faithful and minute recorder +of what appealed to his taste or excited his curiosity.</p> + +<p>Vitruvius, however, was not only a writer on architecture, +but a professional architect as well, who resided +in Rome about a century earlier than Pausanias, or in +the time of Augustus. He is practically the only writer +of his time who has given us technical information concerning +the ancient buildings. Vitruvius wrote his +treatises upon architecture at a very advanced age, and, +it would appear, much in defence of the pure Greek +models which were even in that time being corrupted. +The frankness with which he hopes for fame by reason +of his book, and exposes his poverty as well as the unprofessional +practices of his brother architects, is not the +least attractive feature of his discourse: “But I, Cæsar,” +he exclaims, “have not sought to amass wealth by the +practice of my art, having been contented with a small +fortune and reputation, than desirous of abundance accompanied +by a want of reputation. It is true I have +acquired but little, yet I still hope, by this publication, +to become known to posterity. Neither is it wonderful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> +that I am known to but few. Other architects canvass +and go about soliciting employment, but my preceptors +instilled into me a sense of the propriety of being requested +and not of requesting to be entrusted, inasmuch +the ingenuous man will blush and feel shame in asking +a favour; for the givers of a favour, and not the receivers, +are courted. What must he suspect who is solicited +by another to be entrusted with the expenditure of his +money, but that it is done for the sake of gain and emolument? +Hence, the ancients entrusted their works to +those architects only who were of good family, and well +brought up, thinking it better to trust the modest than +the bold and arrogant man. These artists only instructed +their own children or relations, having regard to their +integrity, so that property might be safely committed to +their charge. When, therefore, I see this noble science +in the hands of the unlearned and unskilful of men, not +only ignorant of architecture, but of everything relative +to buildings, I cannot blame proprietors who, relying +on their own intelligence, are their own architects; since, +if the business is to be conducted by the unskilful, there +is at least more satisfaction in laying out money at one’s +own pleasure rather than at that of another person.”</p> + +<p>Vitruvius also epitomized in his books on architecture +much that had been written prior to his time by his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> +professional brethren of Greece and Rome, and so preserved +something of what otherwise might have been entirely +lost.</p> + +<p>Allusion has been made to these two writers with +some particularity, for the reason that they will be more +quoted than any others in the course of this volume, but +it must not be inferred that they are alone responsible +for all the knowledge which has come down to us respecting +the Greek and Roman architects, little and unsatisfactory +as it is.</p> + +<p>Although it has been shown that the historians and +biographers of ancient Greece made no attempt to +treat architects with especial favor, it would not be +just, however, to close this chapter without quoting +from Homer to prove that lie, at least, could rank them +as among those who, by serving the people in the highest +sense, were entitled to unusual hospitality:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“... What man goes ever forth</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To bid a stranger to his house, unless</div> + <div class="verse indent1">The stranger be of those whose office is</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To serve the people, be he seer, or leech,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Or architect, or poet heaven-inspired,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Whose song is gladly heard?...”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> +<br> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> There is an old ecclesiastical tradition, which is much doubted, +that the architect of the Coliseum was a Christian by the name of +Gaudentius, who suffered martyrdom in its arena, and that the services +of thousands of Jews contributed to its erection.</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br> +<span class="smcap fs70">The Mythical and Archaic Architects and +Builders.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-h.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">History</span> does not probe so deeply into the +earliest annals of the races that inhabited the +Peloponnesian peninsula, that it does not +show them to have been pre-eminent as builders; nor +does it follow the ancient Greek people throughout the +long ages that spanned their evolution and decadence, +that it does not find them in all the stages through which +they passed, leaving at least some of their walls, temples +or monuments to resist the ravages of all time, and the +decaying influences of the elements. They built, therefore, +not only well, but perhaps better than they knew, +and have proved that if the creations of their intellects +were immortal, as we know, the works of their hands +were not altogether perishable.</p> + +<p>The Pelasgic tribes, who were the first of which +there is any record to have inhabited Greece, were +great wall-builders, and past-masters of defensive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> +architecture in those early ages. Although we may +not have the names of the individual architects +among them, we have their racial works still before +us to evidence the fact that whoever the architects +were, they knew their business eminently well. The +Acropolis at Athens possesses the finest example that remains +of Pelasgic mural work, in the fortified retaining +wall which surrounds it, and which is sometimes called +after the race that built it, the Pelasgicum.</p> + +<p>It is claimed also by some authorities that the Pelasgi +were the original architects and builders of the “Long +Walls” that connected Athens with her seaport gates, +and of such parts of the peribolus as were not the authentic +work of the builders under Themistocles and +Cimon, and subsequent architects to be hereafter mentioned.</p> + +<p>The Cyclopes, who belonged to Pelasgic times, were +likewise remarkable wall-builders, lending their name +to a kind of mural work in a manner original with them, +and having the attributes of great solidity and endurance. +The ruins of houses and other structures erected +by them have been found also at Tiryus and Mycenæ, +on the plain of Argos.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the circuit wall at Tiryus, Pausanias +describes it as being “composed of unwrought stones,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> +each of which is so large that a team of mules cannot +even shake the smallest one;” and of Mycenæ, the more +important city, a short distance from Tiryus, where the +circular treasury of Atreus and other evidences of Cyclopean +architecture have been excavated by Dr. Henry +Schliemann, Euripides asks the question: “Do you call +the city of Perseus the handiwork of the Cyclopes?”</p> + +<p>Modern archæologists are inclined to the opinion that +the Cyclopean builders were not, as originally supposed, +the one-eyed giants whom Ulysses encountered in his +voyages, as related in the Homeric legends, but an entirely +distinct Thracian tribe, which derived its name +from king Cyclops. After being expelled from Thrace, +where were their early homes, they migrated to Crete +and Lycia; thence following the fortunes of Prœtus, and +giving him protection with the gigantic walls which they +constructed as against Acrisius, his twin brother, who +was very quarrelsome, as twin brothers not often are.</p> + +<p>These Cyclopean walls, which are still to be found +throughout Greece, as already stated, and also in some +parts of Italy, were made of huge, uncut polygonous +stones, sometimes twenty or thirty feet wide, piled upon +each other without cement, frequently irregularly, with +smaller stones filling up the interstices, but occasionally +in regular horizontal rows. There were, in fact,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> +not only several kinds of these walls, but several eras +in which they were built as well.</p> + +<p>It is not, however, the intention here to discuss the +nature and extent of the Pelasgic and Cyclopean constructions, +it being sufficient to recall the fact that so far +as the Pelasgians generally are concerned, they were not +only the progenitors of most of the early architectural +monuments of eastern Europe, but were skilled in the +arts and learned in the fables of the gods as well, bequeathing +both religious rites and many arts to their +children, the Greeks. It remains only to add, also, that +so closely were they identified with the art of building +that it is believed their very name is derived from their +leading pursuit, for it is thought that the term Pelasgi +may be interpreted to mean “stone-builders” or “stone-workers.”</p> + +<p>In this allusion to the Pelasgians as builders, it was +stated at the outset that the names of the individual +architects among them are not known; this was perhaps +unfair to Æacus, if he can be ranked as an architect, and +who is classed as a Pelasgian, although of divine parentage.</p> + +<p>Æacus was a son of Jupiter by Ægina, daughter of +the river god, Asopus, and, like the Cyclopeans, he was +particularly expert in the matter of walls. He was as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> +well a very just and pious individual or myth, who was +frequently called upon to hold the scales of justice, not +only as between mortals, but also immortals. He was +born on the Island of Ægina, the temporary residence +of his mother, after whom it was named. At the time +of his birth the island was uninhabited. This very unpleasant +condition of isolation for the mother and son +was quickly remedied by Jupiter, who changed the ants +that abounded there into men, placing Æacus over them +as king.</p> + +<p>Æacus always kept on the very best of terms with the +gods, propitiating them in many ways, and at last becoming +a great favorite with them. Indeed, so strong +was his influence in celestial circles that at one time +when Greece was afflicted with a drought, in consequence +of a murder that had been committed, the Delphic oracle +declared that the only person who could help the situation +at all was Æacus. He was accordingly appealed +to and persuaded to petition the gods for relief. The +result was that his petition was favorably answered. +Æacus thereupon erected a temple to Zeus Panhellenius +on Mount Panhellenion to show his gratitude, and +possibly to keep himself in that position where he might +trespass upon the good-nature of his heavenly friends +again at some future time, should there be necessity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> + +<p>Æacus surrounded his island with high walls to +protect his people against pirates. It is probable that +these walls attracted the admiration of Apollo and Neptune, +and prompted them to retain the professional +services of their builder to assist them in erecting the +walls of Troy. But here it was that Æacus failed, for +as one diamond can only be accurately judged when +placed in comparison with another diamond, so Æacus, +however successful he may have been as a wall-builder +by himself, was outclassed when he came into competition +with the occult knowledge of Apollo and Neptune.</p> + +<p>The story is that when the Trojan walls were completed, +three dragons appeared and rushed upon them +to test their strength. The two dragons which attacked +those parts of the walls built by the celestial associates +of Æacus had their heads broken for their pains, but the +one which flew at the mortal’s share of the work made a +hole in the wall which let it into the city. Apollo at once +prophesied that Troy would eventually fall through the +hands of the Æacids, which prophecy, of course, proved +true. Whether this failure had anything to do with the +future of Æacus or not, it would be difficult to say, but +the fact is that after his death he became one of the three +judges in Hades, with special jurisdiction over the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> +Europeans, which necessarily insured his being overworked +until the end of time.</p> + +<p>With a people possessed of so large and varied an +assortment of deities, suited to every possible human +need and shade of mortal endeavor, it would be strange +indeed if there was not some mythical or legendary +character among the Greek gods to preside over architecture, +if not as a distinct art, at all events in +association with some of its kindred branches. That +the Greeks did not ignore such a necessity is found to +have been the case, and the great Dædalus rises most +admirably to the occasion in personifying the early +infancy of architecture as well as sculpture and wood-carving.</p> + +<p>Dædalus, like most of his spiritual relations and associates, +led a life of much romance and adventure, not unmixed +with hardship and trial. He was either a native +Athenian or Cretan, a point upon which there is some +dispute, as well as upon another involving his parentage. +It is perhaps sufficient to know that Dædalus flourished +in the age of Minos and Theseus, and was introduced +more or less into the legends pertaining to those two +early characters.</p> + +<p>It is upon Dædalus that responsibility must rest for +the first introduction of jealousy into the personality of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> +artists, a vice, by the way, which they have never been +quite able to shake off from his time to the present. +Dædalus was rather sorely afflicted with this unfortunate +trait, and to its early exhibition is due much of his subsequent +misfortune. It was in connection with his devotion +to sculpture that his jealousy first involved him +in trouble. He became very expert as a carver generally, +and undertook to instruct his nephew Perdix in the art. +In due time and under the careful tutorage of his +uncle, Perdix also became proficient, and in a moment +of inspiration is said to have invented that very useful +tool of the mechanic, the saw. This it was that excited +Dædalus, who, in a fit of jealous rage, threw his nephew +over the Pelasgic walls of the Acropolis, killing him instantly +as he supposed.</p> + +<p>Dædalus was, of course, condemned to death for this +unseemly and cruel manifestation of envy, but managed +to escape and fly to Crete. There his professional reputation +had preceded him, and he obtained the friendship +of king Minos. In Crete he developed his latent architectural +skill, and built a very elaborate and intricate +dwelling for the hideous monster Minotaur, since known +as the celebrated labyrinth at Cnossus. The story of +how Theseus, with the connivance of Ariadne, the +charming daughter of Minos, slew this monster, is one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +of the most thrilling of the mythological legends, and is +quite familiar.</p> + +<p>Just how Dædalus incurred the displeasure of Minos +does not seem to be very clearly stated by the early authorities. +It appears that he was in some way entangled +with the creation of a wooden cow, also with Pasiphaë, +the wife of Minos, and even with the birth of the horrible +Minotaur. Possibly it may have been Minos who +this time became jealous. However that may be, the +friendship which had existed between Dædalus and the +king finally became strained, and the former was compelled +to fly the country, which he did in a very literal +way, as king Minos had seized all the ships on the coast +of the island, cutting off, in consequence, the only means +of escape. The architect, however, possessed much ingenuity +and inventive genius of his own, even to a more +marked degree than that manifested by the nephew he +had dropped over the Athenian precipice, and with the +aid of some feathers, a little wax, and Pasiphaë, who secretly +contributed her assistance, he manufactured a +pair of wings for himself, and another pair for his son, +Icarus, who was with him at the time. Thus it will be +seen that the first flying machines were invented by an +architect.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p032a" style="max-width: 42.1875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p032a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">THE FLIGHT OF DÆDALUS AND ICARUS.</p></figcaption> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>When the father and son started for Sicily, over the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>Ægean sea, like a pair of huge birds, Dædalus flew conservatively +and cautiously, being careful not to rise too +near the sun, where it was supposed by the ancients to +be very hot; but Icarus, with the spirit of youth and the +enjoyment of the exhilaration consequent upon the novelty +of his method of locomotion, gave a deaf ear to the +protests of his father, and, in emulation of Apollo, +soared so high that the sun melted the wax in his wings. +His feathers flew off, and down he dropped into the +waves below. He was drowned, and that part of the +Ægean sea into which he fell was afterward called the +Icarian sea, in commemoration of this unfortunate accident, +which Darwin has so well described in verse:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“... With melting wax and loosened strings,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Sunk hapless Icarus on unfaithful wings;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Headlong he rushed through the affrighted air,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">With limbs distorted and dishevelled hair;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">His scattered plumage danced upon the wave,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And sorrowing Nereids decked his watery grave.</div> + <div class="verse indent1">O’er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And strewed with crimson moss his marble bed;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Struck in their coral towers the passing bell,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And wide in ocean tolled his echoing knell.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Dædalus, who could not stop to rescue his son, continued +steadily on his course, and, attempting no experiments +with his frail wings, finally landed safely in +Sicily, where he established himself again, professionally,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> +under the royal patronage of Cocalus, king of the +Sicani. Here he did most excellent work, until king +Minos, his old enemy, found him out, and began to make +it unpleasant for him again. Minos, hearing that +Dædalus was in Sicily, sailed with a great fleet to that +island, but fortunately for the architect, his enemy was +murdered as soon as he arrived there by Cocalus or his +daughter. In the mean time Dædalus, anticipating the +trouble that was in store for him, again made an escape, +this time to Sardinia, where he tarried a while, but +finally visited other countries, notably Egypt.</p> + +<p>These are the substantial facts of Dædalus’s career, as +contained in the earlier legends, but later Greek writers +tell a much more fanciful and improbable story of his +life, which there is no urgent necessity to believe, as the +one mentioned is quite fanciful enough and probably +more authentic. They say, among other things, that +Dædalus was an astrologer, and that he taught his son +that science, who, soaring above plain truths, lost his +wits and was drowned in an abyss of difficulties.</p> + +<p>Dædalus may have been an astrologer and may have +been other things as well, but that he was an architect +cannot be doubted from the fact that so many buildings +are ascribed to him. Among his works may be mentioned +the Colymbethra, or reservoir in Sicily, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> +which the river Alabon flowed into the sea; another +an impregnable city near Agrigentum, in which was the +royal palace of Cocalus; still another a cave in the territory +of Selinus, in which the vapor arising from a +subterranean fire was received in such a way as to answer +for a vapor bath. He enlarged the summit of +Mount Eryx for a foundation for the temple of Venus, +and he is said to have been the author of the temples of +Apollo at Capua and Cumæ, and the temple of Artemis +Britomartis in Crete. In Egypt he was the architect +of a very beautiful propylæum, or vestibule to the temple +of Hephæstus at Memphis, for which he was rewarded +by being permitted to erect in it a statue of himself, +the work of his own hands.</p> + +<p>As a sculptor he also executed many works of art—but +the architectural side of his career can only be considered +here. It will not be out of place, however, to +mention some of the inventions ascribed to him to assist +the mechanic. It is claimed for him that he was an +expert carpenter, having been taught that trade by +Minerva, and that he originated the axe, the plumb-line, +the auger and glue.</p> + +<p>Dædalus, in fact, seems to have personified the earliest +Grecian art, and his name, which, when translated, signifies +“ingenious,” or “inventive,” stands for that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> +period in Greece when form and shape and expression +were given inanimate substances by the use of tools +and mechanical appliances.</p> + +<p>When Dædalus threw his nephew over the high walls +of the Acropolis, and naturally thought that he had killed +him—an opinion in which it is apparent the people of +Athens shared—he was very much mistaken, for Minerva, +the patron goddess of the city, realizing what a +great mistake it would be to allow so bright and promising +a young man to go to an early death, exercised her +magic, and saved him by changing the falling artisan +into a bird, which was given his name, “Perdix,” or, as +translated, Partridge.</p> + +<p>To Perdix, who was especially skilful as a worker in +wood, is attributed, in addition to the invention of the +saw, suggested to him by the backbone of a fish or the +teeth of a serpent, it would be difficult to say which, the +chisel, the compasses and the potter’s wheel. Whether +he invented any of these things after he became a partridge +or not is another mythical uncertainty, but probably +not, as his changed condition and feathers would +have made it very awkward for him to have done so, although +most anything was possible in those days.</p> + +<p>Perdix is also called Talos by some writers, and Pausanias +mentions him by still another name, Calos, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +states that after his death he was buried somewhere on +the road leading from the theatre in Athens to the +Acropolis.</p> + +<p>It might be interesting, but certainly a task beyond +the scope of this book, to mention all the mythical personages +of the archaic or early period of Grecian art, +who were in a way more or less remote, responsible for +special features of artistic treatment that graced the +buildings of that time, such, for instance, as Dibutades, +who was the first to make masks on the edges of gutter +tiles. Dibutades was a sculptor, and the idea which he +originated is said to have been suggested to him by +seeing his daughter trace the lines of her lover’s profile +around the shadow which it cast upon a wall. He filled +in the lines with clay, and, moulding it to the face, gave +to the world the art of modelling.</p> + +<p>Among the artists belonging to the Dædalien, or legendary +period of Greece, who may be classed more distinctively +as architects, however, were Polycritus, who +had to do with the building of the town of Tanagra by +Poemander, and Pteras, who was supposed to have been +the architect of the second temple to Apollo at Delphi. +The legend is that the first temple was made of branches +of the wild laurel from Tempe, and that Pteras constructed +the second of wax and bees’ wings—rather an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> +unsubstantial building material, it might be inferred. +Eucheir, a painter, and Chersiphron and Smilis, architects +and statuaries, are also of this traditional period, +and were representative of skill in their arts.</p> + +<p>All these names, however, although supposed to have +been originally purely mythological, were probably later +assumed by or given to mortals who were specially expert +in the particular branch of art which the name +taken suggested. These individuals, to complicate matters, +no doubt, became entangled with the early mythological +stories, and finally lost their identity completely, +or to such an extent as to make it quite impossible to +separate the fact from the fiction in their respective +cases.</p> + +<p>An illustration of such a confusion is to be found in +respect to the architects, Rhœcus and Theodorus, who +had to do with the building of the temple of Hera at +Samos, for the worship of which goddess Samos was +celebrated, and who, in association with Smilis, were the +architects of the labyrinth at Lemnos.</p> + +<p>The writers who have mentioned these artists are +quite numerous, and have so differed in respect to their +dates, and confounded the accounts of their careers and +achievements, that it is difficult to sift anything like a +satisfactory story from the confusion created. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> +most probable deduction that has been made, however, +is that Rhœcus flourished about 640 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and was a son +of Phileas of Samos; that Theodorus, the architect, was +his son, and that another Theodorus, a statuary, sometimes +mistaken for the architect, was a nephew of the +architect Theodorus, the son of Telecles, also a gifted +sculptor, and a grandson of Rhœcus.</p> + +<p>The temple of Hera, alluded to as the work of the +father and son, was three hundred and forty-four feet +long by one hundred and sixty feet wide, and, according +to the “Antiquities of Ionia,” a decastyle, dipteral +structure, or possessed of a double row of columns composed +of ten columns in each row. Pausanias thinks +that the temple was of very great antiquity, a fact apparent +to him from the statue of Hera which it contained, +which was made by Smilis, of wood, as were the +early statues of Greece.</p> + +<p>The Lemnian labyrinth, according to Pliny, contained +fifty columns and innumerable statues, and had +very remarkable massive gates, so delicately poised that +a child might open or shut them. Modern travellers +have had difficulty in finding any trace of this labyrinth, +although there is little doubt that it once existed. +It is not to be classed with the more visionary labyrinth +in which the Minotaur was caged.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p> + +<p>It is claimed for both Rhœcus and Theodorus that +they were the first to invent the art of casting statues in +bronze or iron, but as this art was known before their +time by the Phœnicians, it is likely that they were responsible +for nothing more than having introduced it +into Greece. This is probably true also of other early +mythical characters of Greece, to whom is attributed +certain inventions in the arts which have been found +since to have existed much earlier than their time in +Egypt or elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Theodorus is also credited with having been the architect +of the old Scias at Sparta, and of having advised +the use of charcoal beneath the foundation of the temple +dedicated to Artemis, at Ephesus, as a remedy against the +dampness of the site. Theodorus was a great admirer of +his father and of the temple to Hera, which they built +together. He attested his appreciation of the latter by +writing a book descriptive of it.</p> + +<p>As for Smilis, who belongs to the mythical period, +and whose name when translated stands for “a knife +for carving wood,” or “a sculptor’s chisel,” he is also +accredited with having been the first to devise the art of +modelling in clay. He is to be classed more as a sculptor +than an architect, but of an inferior standing to +Dædalus. In fact, his only connection with architecture,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> +according to Pliny, seems to have been his association +with Rhœcus and Theodorus in the building +of the labyrinth at Lemnos. It is possible that even +here he was employed more in the line of a sculptor +than in lending any professional assistance as an architect.</p> + +<p>Pausanias mentions a pupil of Theodorus of Samos, +who, it would appear, achieved considerable distinction +both as an architect and sculptor, but more especially in +the latter capacity. His name is given as Gitiadas, and +his birthplace as Lacedæmon, where he flourished about +724 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, as stated by some authorities, but much later +according to others. The architectural work for which +he receives credit was the temple of Athena Polionchos +at Sparta, which, it is said, was constructed entirely of +bronze. It also contained a bronze statue of the goddess +of Gitiadas’s own workmanship, and many bas-reliefs +representing the labors of Hercules, the exploits of the +Tyndarids, Hephæstus releasing his mother from her +chains, the Nymphs arming Perseus for the expedition +against Medusa, and other mythological subjects, all +executed in the same metal. This extensive use of +bronze suggested the name “Brazen House,” which was +given the temple. It would seem that Gitiadas was possessed +of other accomplishments, and served Minerva<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> +with equal distinction as a poet, writing his poems all in +the Doric dialect.</p> + +<p>A still stranger <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">compôte</i> of fact and fable, of +hypothesis and conjecture, of celestial and terrestrial +biography, is to be found in the accounts of the brothers +Agamedes and Trophonius, who were the architects of +the great temple of Apollo at Delphi, and of the treasury +of Hyrieus, king of Hyria in Bœotia.</p> + +<p>The temple to the beautiful and accomplished son of +Jupiter and Latona, the god of music and prophecy, as +well as other things of equal or less consequence, was the +fourth to be erected upon the same site on Mount +Parnassus, in the ancient city of Delphi, known to the +older poets as Pytho, a name derived from the serpent +Python which Apollo slew. In this temple, which was +the first of the four to be built with stone, the others +having been constructed out of the branches of the bay +tree and other equally perishable materials, dwelt the +much respected and frequently consulted Delphic +Oracle. The spot in the temple from which the +prophetic vapor issued to inspire the priestess with +second sight was said to be the central point of the +earth, and that where the two eagles despatched by +Jupiter to ascertain that point met and fell.</p> + +<p>Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, who gave mouth to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +the oracles, sat on a sacred tripod placed over the opening +from which the vapor issued, and gave forth her +words of wisdom in prose or poetry as the occasion demanded. +If in prose, her prognostications would be immediately +verified, and if in verse some time must +elapse before they could be fulfilled. Pythia was not +always on duty, but could be consulted only on certain +days during the month of Busius in the spring.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt but that she made some very remarkable +prophecies, but, alas! it is also recorded that, +like some of the political oracles of these degenerate +times, her prophetic vision was not infrequently influenced +by “a previous interview.” A notable case of +this kind was that in which the Alemæonidæ were entangled; +who for political reasons and effect rebuilt the +same temple after it was destroyed by fire in the year +548 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, as we shall see later.</p> + +<p>But we have drifted from the subject. It is claimed +by some that Agamedes was the son of Stymphalus, who +was murdered and had his body cut up in pieces, and a +grandson of the old ancestor of the Arcadian Arcas, who +in turn was a son of Zeus. Others say that the father +of Agamedes was Apollo, and his mother was Epicaste, +and still others are of the opinion that his parents were +none other than Zeus himself and Iocaste, another name<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> +for Epicaste, and that Trophonius was his son. All this +genealogy is, however, disturbed if we accept the more +probable one, that he was a son of Erginus, king of +Orchomenus, and that he was a brother of Trophonius. +By the way, Trophonius is also said to have been a son +of Apollo. When these two young men attained to +manhood they became very expert in the art of building +temples to the gods and palaces for kings. Thus +having established enviable reputations in their profession, +they were retained to plan and supervise the +works mentioned.</p> + +<p>It is in respect to these architects that the first authentic +account of a misunderstanding as to professional +compensation is related. It must not be thought that +because some of the early architects were related to +the nobility of Mount Olympus, they were any the less +mercenary than are architects in our own time, or were +any more inclined to work for nothing than are their +professional descendants of to-day.</p> + +<p>Plutarch tells us that Agamedes and Trophonius, +after working hard upon the Delphic temple, and not +receiving any pay, began to lose faith in the mortals who +were backing the undertaking. As they grew more and +more dubious about their compensation, and possibly +having notes or bills to meet, they finally decided to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> +appeal directly to Apollo, in whose glorification the +shrine had been built.</p> + +<p>Apollo, who was consulted through the Delphic +Oracle, informed them that he must have time to think +the matter over. In other words, he could not be hurried +in his decision, but would give them an answer at the +end of seven days. It is not unlikely that the Oracle +saw an occasion here where it might be a matter of +financial prudence to consult with the other side before +rendering a decision. However that may be, the two +architects were told that Apollo wished that they should +spend the intervening time in “festive indulgence.” +Thinking from this, quite naturally, that they were in +the good graces of the god, and suspecting no ungodly +duplicity, Agamedes and Trophonius set about to enjoy +themselves according to the most liberal interpretation +of their instructions. The result was that at the end +of the seventh day they were found dead in their beds, +whether from too much festivity on their part or too +much duplicity on the part of the Oracle, no one knows, +but the inference is conclusive that as they were dead it +was not necessary to give them the professional compensation +they had been so anxiously demanding.</p> + +<p>Cicero tells the story a little differently, and eliminates +the question of compensation from it. He says that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +they consulted Apollo to know what in his opinion was +“best for man”? This being a much easier question to +handle, Apollo took but three days to answer it, but the +consequences of the consultation to poor Agamedes and +Trophonius were quite as disastrous. It may be that, +taking everything into consideration, it is best for man +to be dead, but most architects don’t think so, and had +Agamedes and Trophonius anticipated such an answer, +it is probable that they would have asked no questions.</p> + +<p>Pausanias relates an altogether different legend and +connects it with the treasury of Hyrieus, which Agamedes +and Trophonius built, instead of with the temple +of Apollo. The story by Pausanias would tend to show +that these architects were even more mercenary than +Plutarch has given us to understand they were.</p> + +<p>It seems that in constructing the treasury they contrived +to have a stone so placed that it could be taken +away from the outside of the building at any time, and +thus offer an entrance to the vaults. No one of course +had any knowledge of this secret entrance but themselves. +In consequence, after the building was finished, +and it was used for the purpose for which it was intended, +these two covetous brothers carried away from +time to time goodly portions of the treasure as it was deposited. +The king soon heard that there was a leak in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> +his treasury, and that he was losing money rapidly. He +was naturally annoyed and much perplexed when he +found that the locks and seals of his treasure house remained +intact and uninjured. He thereupon set a +trap to catch the thief. Just what kind of a trap +it was is not explained, but after some little time +Agamedes was caught, and Trophonius, finding his +brother ensnared, cut off his head, to save his own, +doubtless, and prevent the discovery of his association +in the robbery. This very unfraternal act of Trophonius +was not allowed to go unpunished, however, and +Apollo, or some other god, caused him to be swallowed +up in the grove of Lebadea.</p> + +<p>Pausanias further states that Erginus, the father of +Agamedes, was known as the “Protector of Labor,” that +Trophonius was called the “Nourisher,” and that Agamedes +had the reputation of being the “Very Prudent +One.” There can be no doubt about Agamedes’s prudence, +such as it was.</p> + +<p>Trophonius, it appears, had a still further career after +his death, as an oracle, conducting his business from the +spot where he was swallowed up in Lebadea. He was +especially prophetic in matters relating to futurity. +Those desiring to consult him were conducted to a +cavern, and furnished with a ladder, by means of which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> +they could descend into it. They were then given the +information for which they were in quest, either by +means of their eyes, or their ears, or such of their senses +as the occasion seemed best to suggest. Some say that +one of these visitors, after having gone into the cave, +and being treated in this way by the oracle, returned +never to smile again; but Pausanias contradicts the +story.</p> + +<p>There is another belief in regard to these architects +which must be simply alluded to. It is that Agamedes +and Trophonius were deities of the Pelasgian times; +that Trophonius was a giver of food from the bosom of +the earth, and for that reason was worshipped in a +cavern, and that Agamedes was not the wretched thief of +Pausanias, but, on the contrary, a very generous character, +who gave liberally from underground granaries.</p> + +<p>A parallel to the story of the robbery of the treasury +of Hyrieus by Agamedes and Trophonius is told by +Herodotus in respect to the two sons of the builder +of the treasury of the Egyptian king Rhampsinitus. +These two young men, it seems, were also caught, while +pilfering, in a trap, described with great circumstantiality +by the “Father of History.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br> +<span class="smcap fs70">The Originators of the Three Orders.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-w.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Who</span> were the originators of the three great +and primary orders of Grecian architecture is +still a question which the discussion of the +legendary and mythical architects, which has been +briefly entered into, has not answered. It may be assumed +inferentially that as the earliest of the Greek +temples which have been referred to as the works of the +progeny of the gods were in the Doric style, the pagan +deities of Greece may claim some share of credit for +having introduced that noble design to the world. The +Ionic and Corinthian styles, however, are still to be +accounted for, and as there is good ground to assume +that they made their advent into architectural art at +much later dates no celestial origin can be claimed for +them.</p> + +<p>Vitruvius, in relating his account of the origin of all +three orders, alludes more directly to the birth of the +Doric, and tells a story so picturesque and entertaining<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> +of the other two that although recognizing how well it +may be known to the professional architect, it is difficult +to resist the temptation to give it here entire:</p> + +<p>“Dorus, the son of Hellen, and the nymph Orseis, +reigned over the whole of Achaia and Peloponnesus, and +built at Argos, an ancient city, on a spot sacred to Juno, +a temple which happened to be of this order. After this +many temples similar to it sprung up in the other parts +of Achaia, though the proportions which should be preserved +in it were not as yet settled.</p> + +<p>“But afterward when the Athenians, by the advice +of the Delphic Oracle in a general assembly of the different +states of Greece, sent over into Asia thirteen colonies +at once, and appointed a governor or leader to each, +reserving the chief command for Ion, the son of Xuthus +and Creusa, whom the Delphic Apollo had acknowledged +as son, that person led them over into Asia, and occupied +the borders of Caria, and there built the great +cities of Ephesus, Miletus, Myus (which was long since +destroyed by inundation, and its sacred rites and suffrages +transferred by the Ionians to the inhabitants +of Miletus), Priene, Samos, Teos, Colophon, Chios, +Erythræ, Phocæa, Clazomenæ, Lebedos and Melite. +The last, as a punishment for the arrogance of its citizens, +was detached from the other states in a war levied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> +pursuant to the directions of a general council; and in +its place, as a mark of favor toward King Attalus and +Arsinoë, the city of Smyrna was admitted into the +number of Ionian states, which received the appellation +of Ionian from their leader Ion, after the Carians and +Lelegæ had been driven out.</p> + +<p>“In this country, allotting different spots for sacred +purposes, they began to erect temples, the first of which +was dedicated to Apollo Panionios, and resembled that +which they had seen in Achaia, and they gave it the +name of Doric, because they had first seen that species +in the cities of Doria. As they wished to erect this +temple with columns, and had not a knowledge of the +proper proportions of them, nor knew the way in which +they ought to be constructed, so as at the same time to +be both fit to carry the superincumbent weight and to +produce a beautiful effect, they measured a man’s foot, +and, finding its length the sixth part of his height, they +gave the column a similar proportion—that is, they +made its height, including the capital, six times the +thickness of the shaft, measured at the base. Thus the +Doric order obtained its proportion, its strength, and +its beauty from the human figure.</p> + +<p>“Under similar notions they afterward built the +temple of Diana, but in that, seeking a new proportion,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> +they used the female figure as the standard; and for the +purpose of producing a more lofty effect they first made +it eight times its thickness in height. Under it they +placed a base, after the manner of a shoe to the foot; +they also added volutes to its capital, like graceful, curling +hair, on each side, and the front they ornamented +with cymatia and festoons in the place of hair. On +the shafts they sunk channels, which bear a resemblance +to the folds of a matronal garment. Thus two orders +were invented, one of a masculine character, without +ornament, the other bearing a character which resembled +the delicacy, ornament and proportion of a female.</p> + +<p>“The successors of these people, improving in taste, +and preferring a more slender proportion, assigned +seven diameters to the height of the Doric column and +eight and a half to the Ionic. That species, of which +the Ionians were the inventors, has received the appellation +of Ionic.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p052a" style="max-width: 39.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p052a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">THE ORIGIN OF THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL.</p></figcaption> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>“The third species, which is called Corinthian, resembles +in its character the graceful and elegant appearance +of a virgin, in whom, from her tender age, the +limbs are of a more delicate form, and whose ornaments +should be unobtrusive. The invention of the capital of +this order is said to be founded on the following occurrence: +A Corinthian virgin, of a marriageable age, fell +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>a victim to a violent disorder. After her interment her +nurse, collecting in a basket those articles to which she +had shown a partiality when alive, carried them to her +tomb, and placed a tile on the basket for the longer +preservation of its contents. The basket was accidentally +placed on the root of an acanthus plant, which, +pressed by the weight, shot forth, toward spring, its +stems and large foliage, and in the course of its growth +reached the angles of the tile, and thus formed volutes +at the extremities. Callimachus, who for his great ingenuity +and taste was called by the Athenians Catetechnos, +happening at this time to pass by the tomb, +observed the basket and the delicacy of the foliage which +surrounded it. Pleased with the form and novelty of +the combination, he constructed from the hint thus +afforded columns of this species in the country about +Corinth.”</p> + +<p>The comments of Sir Henry Wotton in his “Elements +of Architecture,” written in England during the latter +part of the sixteenth century, upon this legendary account +of the source of the three orders given by Vitruvius, +are sufficiently attractive and quaint in language +and spelling to warrant their being quoted also:</p> + +<p>“The Dorique order is the gravest that hath been +received into civil use, preserving in comparison of those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> +that follow a more <em>masculine aspect</em> and little trimmer +than the Tuscan that went before, save a sober garnishment +now and then of <em>lions’ heads</em> in the <em>cornice</em> and of +<em>triglyph</em> and <em>metopes</em> always in the <em>frize</em>.... To +discern him will be a piece rather of good <em>heraldry</em> than +of <em>architecture</em>, for he is knowne by his place when he +is in company and by the peculiar ornament of his +<em>frize</em>, before mentioned, when he is alone.... The +<em>Ionique order</em> doth represent a kind of feminine slenderness; +yet, saith Vitruvius, not like a housewife, but in +a decent dressing hath much of the <em>matrone</em>.... +Best known by his trimmings for the bodie of this <em>columne</em> +is perpetually <em>chaneled</em>, like a thick-pleighted +gowne. The <em>capitall</em>, dressed on each side, not much +unlike women’s wires, in a spiral wreathing, which they +call the <em>Ionian voluta</em>.... The <em>Corinthian</em> is a +columne lasciviously decked like a courtezan, and therefore +in much participating (as all inventions do) of +the place where they were first born, Corinth having +beene, without controversie, one of the wantonest towns +in the world.”</p> + +<p>As for the Composite order, which, as has been already +stated, is but a mixture of the Ionic and Corinthian, +it would seem that Sir Henry has very little +patience. He says with a contempt which he makes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> +little effort to conceal: “The last is the <em>compounded +order</em>, his <em>name</em> being a briefe of his <em>nature</em>: for his +pillar is nothing in effect but a <em>medlie</em>, or an <em>amasse</em> of +all the preceding <em>ornaments</em>, making a new kinde of +stealth, and though the most richly tricked, yet the poorest +in this, that he is a borrower of his beautie.”</p> + +<p>There are those who in relentless search for truth +at the expense of sentiment and poetry would spoil the +pretty story which Vitruvius tells of the invention of +the Corinthian capital by claiming for Egypt the distinction +of being the mother-country of the order, and +ascribing to that form of the Egyptian capital that bells +out toward the abacus, and which is surrounded by open +lotus leaves, as the archetype of the last of the three +Grecian orders. There is, however, more probability to +the story of Callimachus than there is similarity between +the Egyptian and Corinthian capitals, in our +opinion.</p> + +<p>If we accept Callimachus as the originator of the +Corinthian, although there does not appear any name +of an architect to receive the individual credit for the +invention of the Doric order, we may as well accept the +deduction which Vitruvius draws in respect to Hermogenes, +an Ionian architect, who is said to have flourished +about 600 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and credit him at the same time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +with being the first to introduce the feminine proportions +and attributes into his art, and with having perfected, +if he did not originate, the queenly Ionic order.</p> + +<p>“When Hermogenes was employed to erect the temple +of Bacchus at Teos,” says Vitruvius, “the marble was +prepared for one in the Doric style; but the architect +changed his mind, from the idea that other proportions, +afterward called Ionic, were more suitable for the purpose, +almost inducing the inference that Hermogenes +was the inventor of those delicate proportions; he appears +unquestionably to have displayed great skill and +ingenuity in all his designs, and to have entertained the +opinion that sacred buildings should not be constructed +with Doric proportions, as they obliged the adoption of +false and incongruous arrangements.”</p> + +<p>Another fact which Vitruvius does not touch upon +might tend to point to Hermogenes as the originator of +the Ionic order. He was a native of Alabanda in Caria, +and if it is true, as some authorities believe, the volute +was an ornament in early use in Asia Minor, he was +doubtless familiar with it; and, appreciating its graceful +possibilities, introduced it into the matronly Ionic.</p> + +<p>Hermogenes is conceded to have been one of the most +celebrated architects of antiquity. In addition to the +temple of Bacchus which he designed for Teos, one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +the eastern Ionian cities, and the birthplace of Anacreon, +as well as other noted ancient characters, he +erected in the city of Magnesia, in Lydia, a temple to +Diana in the Doric order. About each of these temples +he wrote a book, both of which were still in existence +in the time of Augustus. In one he described the temple +to Diana as a pseudodipteral, or false dipteral temple, a +form which he invented. It is called false or imperfect +because of the economy of the inside row of columns on +each of the long sides of the cell, the outside row being +allowed to remain. The effect from a distance was the +same as a double row, while considerable expense was +saved. The temple to Bacchus he described as a monopterus, +or a round temple, having neither walls nor +cell, but merely a roof sustained by columns.</p> + +<p>Hermogenes’s great ambition appears to have been +a desire to foster and encourage the use of the Ionic +order in preference to the Doric for temple construction. +In this opinion he was later sustained by Tarchesius, +another writer on architecture, who may be dated as +sometime later than 470 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and by Pytheus, whom +we shall meet again as one of the architects of the tomb +of Mausolus.</p> + +<p>Although Vitruvius mentions the origin of the Corinthian +order in close connection with that of the Doric<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> +and Ionic, it must be borne in mind that Callimachus, +whom he credits with the Corinthian, was a much later +artist than Hermogenes. The use of the Corinthian +column by the architect Scopas in the temple of Athene +at Tegea in 396 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, has led to the inference that Callimachus +must have lived prior to that date, and the fact +that he gave to that style of architecture the appellation +of Corinthian, that he was a native of Corinth. Lübke, +in his “Outlines of the History of Art,” however, does +not give to Callimachus the full and undisputed credit +for originating the Corinthian style, claiming that the +order existed before his time, although he does not mention +when or where. Lübke would interpret the story +of Callimachus and the basket as meaning that it was +he who gave to the capital its final perfection. It is +somewhat strange also that although Callimachus is +conceded to have been the first to develop this order, if +he did not absolutely invent it, there is no mention of +any building having been designed by him in the Corinthian +style.</p> + +<p>There seems to be little dispute over the fact that +Callimachus was neither as a sculptor nor an architect +to be placed in the van of the distinguished artists of +early Greece. As a sculptor, in which capacity he is +best known by his works, his style was stilted and artificial,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> +rendered so by the artist’s disposition to be finicky +and fastidious in his execution. Indeed, he is said to +have been unwearied in polishing and perfecting, and to +have sacrificed the grand and sublime in the exercise +of too great refinement and purity. Callimachus was +never satisfied with himself, and possibly on that account +others were not satisfied with him, as a certain +degree of self-esteem is necessary to invite public approval. +The Greeks gave him a name, based upon his +peculiarities, which Pliny has translated as “<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Calumniator +Sui</i>.” His faculty for invention was evidenced +in other respects also, as he is credited with having originated +the art of boring marble, and Pausanius describes +a golden lamp which he invented, and which he dedicated +to Athene, which when filled with oil burned +exactly a year without going out.</p> + +<p>It may be said broadly of the Grecian people in their +employment of the three grand orders of architecture +that the first two—namely, the Doric and Ionic—more +closely harmonized with the dignity and nobility +of their national character. In fact, Greece arrived at +the pinnacle of her civilization and brought her philosophy +of human existence not only in theory, but in +practice, to its highest ideals before the Corinthian +order of architecture appeared to claim a share in her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> +artistic reputation. The stately solidity of the Doric +and the graceful purity of the Ionic lent the perfection +of architectural framework to the mental strength and +loftiness of ideal of the Hellenic people. They seemed +to accord with the philosophy that was originally +preached from under the shadow of their pediments and +entablatures. We can almost see the doubting and +mystified Theon stepping from the Doric portico where +Zeno held forth, to compare that philosopher’s stoical +dogmas with the doctrines of Prudence preached in the +Ionic-encompassed garden of Epicurus, by a philosopher +ever destined to be misconstrued and wrongfully +interpreted.</p> + +<p>“All learning is useful,” taught Epicurus; “all the +sciences are curious; all the arts are beautiful; but +more useful, more curious and more beautiful is the +perfect knowledge and perfect government of ourselves. +Though a man should read the heavens, unravel their +laws and their revolutions; though he should dive into +the mysteries of matter, and expound the phenomena +of the earth and air; though he should be conversant +with all the writings and sayings and actions of the +dead; though he should hold the pencil of Parrhasius, +the chisel of Polycletus or the lyre of Pindar; though +he should be one or all of these things, yet not know the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> +secret springs of his own mind, the foundation of his +opinions, the motives of his actions; if he hold not the +rein over his passions; if he have not cleared the +mist of all prejudice from his understanding; if he +have not rubbed off all intolerance from his judgments; +if he know not to weigh his own actions and the actions +of others in the balance of justice, that man hath not +knowledge, nor, though he be a man of science, a man +of learning or an artist, he is not a sage. He must sit +down patient at the feet of Philosophy. With all his +learning he hath yet to learn, and perhaps a harder task, +he hath to <em>un</em>learn.”</p> + +<p>The Corinthian order, on the other hand, notwithstanding +all its charm, beauty and variety, seemed to +lack that steadfastness of character which bound so +firmly the other two orders to the hearts of the Grecian +people, and was never admitted into their fullest trust +and confidence. Indeed, it is generally conceded that +the Corinthian model grew in favor as the architectural +art of Greece declined; and only when Greece, losing +her autonomy, began to lose her ambition and intellectual +greatness and independence. It reached its fullest +vogue with the later or Greco-Roman architects, who +sacrificed much of purity in art for lavish and sightly +display. With the Greeks the Corinthian was sparingly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> +employed, and generally called upon for their smaller +and less important buildings; on the other hand, with +the Romans, enriched by additional features and ornamentation +of their own, it became the favorite order, +not alone for portico and temple, but for public and +private buildings of every nature.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="i_p062" style="max-width: 57.4375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p062.jpg" alt="Three columns"> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br> +<span class="smcap fs70">Early Grecian Architects.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-i.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> the year 548 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> the great temple to Apollo +at Delphi, the work of the legendary architects +Agamedes and Trophonius, was destroyed by +fire. Of the four temples to the same deity that had +been reared upon the same site, this was the first in +which marble was employed as a building material. +Naturally the question will present itself, how could +a temple built of marble be destroyed by fire? The +answer is, that while the main walls of the cell and the +columns, entablatures, pediments and other exposed +parts of the early Greek temples were built of marble, +stone or sun-dried bricks, the roofs were generally of +wood, and were heavily timbered, sometimes calling for +great strength to support marble tiles. Much of the +interior building material was also of wood, as well as +the statuary with which the earlier temples were lavished +and enriched. Thus if fire was started within +the building, either by accident or, as not infrequently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> +happened, by the hand of an incendiary, there was sufficient +combustible material for it to feed upon and to +heat the entire structure, reducing the otherwise enduring +marble to crumbling lime.</p> + +<p>The temple of Apollo having been thus destroyed, +the much revered and highly respected Oracle was left +without shelter and a place of business. This state of +things of course could not long be allowed to continue, +and the Amphictyons, a legislative body, having under +its special care the Delphic temple, at once came to the +front and ordered a new temple built at a cost of about +$300,000. One-fourth of this sum was to be paid by +the Delphians and the remaining three-fourths were +to be contributed by the other cities of Greece and those +nations which were in the habit of consulting the Oracle—a +very proper distribution of the expense, considering +how extensive and widespread was the renown and appreciation +of the priestess. Amasis, King of Egypt, +volunteered a thousand talents of alumina, thus showing +what his feelings were in the matter, and the Alcmæonidæ, +one of the oldest and most aristocratic families +of Athens, undertook the contract, it is hinted, mainly +for political reasons. This may be true, as they were +much involved in local politics, especially with the banishment +of Pisistratus, the tyrant, and they may have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> +seen an opportunity in the rebuilding of this temple to +make themselves very popular. They certainly went +about it in the right way to achieve such a result, and +did actually gain much influence by their generosity +and the broadminded manner in which they disregarded +the strict terms of the contract to do handsomer and +better work than it called for. One particular illustration +of their liberality has attracted the attention of the +historian: it was the building of the temple in Parian +marble, instead of Porine stone. While the Alcmæonidæ +were prosecuting the work in this generous spirit, +they did not neglect their fallen enemies, the Pisistratidæ, +and threw out occasional innuendoes to the effect +that the Pisistratidæ could tell more about the origin +of the fire that destroyed the late temple than they evidently +cared to, thereby intimating a crime as against +their rivals that it might have been difficult to have +proved. They even won the Oracle to their side by +similar simple and ingenuous methods, with the result +that ever afterward the Oracle did not hesitate to speak +a kind word for the Alcmæonidæ and favor their native +city, Athens.</p> + +<p>The architect of this new temple was Spintharus, a +Corinthian. As nothing further seems to be known of +him, we have been somewhat particular to mention the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> +importance of this work, to show that Spintharus was +an artist who stood very high in his profession at the +time. But as the temple was one of the longest in +process of construction, taking about seventy-two years +to complete, it is not likely that Spintharus lived to +enjoy the full fruition of his work.</p> + +<p>It may be of interest to add that no structure of its +kind throughout all Greece was made the depository of +richer or more extensive treasure than this temple to +Apollo at Delphi, a fact not to be marvelled at if we +do not lose sight of the Oracle. We have already seen +how it excited the cupidity of the brothers Agamedes +and Trophonius. What they appropriated to themselves +from the rich vaults of its predecessor was, however, +comparatively insignificant to the wholesale robberies +that went on from time to time of the fifth temple designed +by Spintharus. Herodotus says that the wealth +of Delphi was better known to the Persian Xerxes than +were the contents of his own palace, and that after +forcing the pass of Thermopylæ he detached a portion +of his army to capture Delphi. It failed to do so, only +through the interposition of the Oracle or some other +deity. Many years afterward the Phocians plundered +the temple of what might be represented by $10,600,000 +of our money. Still later the Gauls also made a rich<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> +haul, which the Romans afterward found in their city of +Tolosa unexpended, probably because there was so much +of it; and Nero is said to have taken from it five hundred +bronze statues at one time.</p> + +<p>But these robberies fade into insignificance when the +insult heaped upon the Delphians and their Oracle by +Constantine the Great is recalled. This Roman vandal +not only removed the sacred Tripod and Brazen Column +which supported it, but degenerated their use to the +adornment of the hippodrome of the new city he built +on the Bosphorus. The Brazen Column may still be +seen in Constantinople, but the sacred Tripod has disappeared +forever. There is a little story connected with +a first disappearance of the Tripod that may be worth +the telling. It was lost at sea, but afterward recovered +by some fishermen. When Pythia was asked to decide +to whom it should be given, her answer was that it +should be bestowed upon the wisest man in Greece. +Accordingly it was sent to Thales of Miletos. He, however, +was too modest to retain it, and passed it over to +Bias as a wiser man; Bias was also embarrassed by the +selection, and presented it to another of the Grecian +sages; he to still another, and so on, until it had made +the circuit of pretty much every person in Greece with +any claim at all to superior wisdom. Finally, however,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> +it came back once more to Thales, who successfully +ended its itinerary by dedicating it to the Delphic +Apollo.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest of the great temples to be erected +in the Ionic order was that begun in the Ionian city of +Ephesus in Asiatic Greece by Ctesiphon, a Cretan +architect born in Cnossus, and his son, Metagenes. This +temple was erected to the glory of the many-breasted +and mummy-like appearing Artemis, a goddess peculiar +to the Ephesians, whom the Greek colonists there doubtless +inherited from the Asiatic races that preceded them +in their Ionian settlement. There was nothing of the +graceful, virgin-like characteristics of Apollo’s sister, +the Arcadian Artemis, in this Ephesian goddess, but the +Ionian Greeks were quite partial to her, attended her +with eunuch priests, and built in her honor this temple, +so grand and magnificent that it was regarded as one +of the seven wonders of the world.</p> + +<p>Before alluding to some of the interesting facts that +have been preserved concerning the early history of this +great temple it may not be out of place to touch upon +a custom which prevailed in Ephesus in respect to the +employment of architects, which Vitruvius relates. He +says: “In the magnificent and spacious Grecian city of +Ephesus an ancient law was made by the ancestors of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +the inhabitants, hard in its nature, but nevertheless +equitable. When an architect was entrusted with the +execution of a public work, an estimate thereof being +lodged in the hands of a magistrate, his property was +held as security until the work was finished. If, when +finished, the expense did not exceed the estimate, he was +complimented with decrees and honors. So when the +excess did not amount to more than a fourth part of the +original estimate, it was defrayed by the public, and no +punishment was inflicted. But when more than one-fourth +the estimate was exceeded, he was required to +pay the excess out of his own pocket.”</p> + +<p>The honest Vitruvius almost sighs as he adds: “Would +to God that such a law existed among the Roman people, +not only in respect to their public, but also of their private +buildings, for then the unskilful could not commit +their depredations with impunity, and those who were +most skilful in the intricacies of the art would follow the +profession! Proprietors would not be led into an extravagant +expenditure, so as to cause ruin; architects +themselves, from the dread of punishment, would be +more careful in their calculations, and the proprietor +would complete his building for that sum or a little +more, which he could afford to expend. Those who can +conveniently expend a given sum on any work with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> +pleasing expectation of seeing it completed would cheerfully +add one-fourth more; but when they find themselves +burdened with the addition of half or even more +than half of the expense originally contemplated, losing +their spirits and sacrificing what has already been laid +out, they incline to desist from its completion.”</p> + +<p>There are, perhaps, some people even at the present +time who can be found to echo these sentiments of Vitruvius, +and exclaim: Would to God that such a law existed +among the American people, especially in New York +and Chicago!</p> + +<p>Theodorus of Samos, it will be remembered, laid the +foundation of the temple to Artemis of Ephesus in the +year 600 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> To guard against the destruction of the +temple by earthquakes, a marshy site was chosen, and +Theodorus insured a firm foundation, by using charcoal, +which was rammed down solidly, and then covered with +fleeces of wool. Ctesiphon and his son did not, however, +begin the superstructure until about forty years +later.</p> + +<p>The dimensions of the building were very extensive, +and although the architecture was full of grandeur, +grace and beauty were not sacrificed. The length was +four hundred and twenty-five feet; the width two hundred +and twenty feet. One hundred and twenty-seven<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +Parian marble columns, each sixty feet in height, surrounded +the cell in double rows, sixteen appearing in the +front and rear façades, and forty each on the sides. Herodotus +states that most of these columns were presented +by the rich Crœsus, and some by other kings. The cell, +according to some authorities, was devoid of a roof, but +Mr. Wood, in his “Discoveries at Ephesus,” indicates +otherwise. The whole edifice, both exteriorly and interiorly, +presented great richness and elaboration of +carving. The shafts of the columns in front of the +building were carved in relief, in three broad bands, to +nearly half their height, and those in the rear, in one +band, to about one-quarter of their height. The frieze +and pediments were also worked out by the chisel of the +sculptor in designs of great and imposing beauty.</p> + +<p>Many of the stones used in the building were very +massive. An idea of how huge some of these blocks were +may be gathered from the fact that the architrave +alone contained pieces of marble thirty feet long, and +that Ctesiphon and Metagenes were forced to invent +special machinery and contrivances to convey the stones +for the columns to the building from the quarry eight +miles distant. Vitruvius explains these contrivances as +follows: “He [Ctesiphon] made a frame of four pieces +of timber, two of which were equal in length to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +shafts of the columns, and were held together by the two +transverse pieces. In each end of the shaft he inserted +iron pivots, whose ends were dovetailed thereinto, and +run with lead. The pivots worked in gudgeons fastened +to the timber frame, whereto were attached oaken shafts. +The pivots having a free revolution in the gudgeons, +when the oxen were attached and drew the frame, the +shafts rolled round, and might have been conveyed to +any distance. The shafts having been thus transported, +the entablatures were to be removed, when Metagenes, +the son of Ctesiphon, applied the principle upon which +the shafts had been conveyed to the removal of those +also. He constructed wheels about twelve feet in diameter, +and fixed the ends of the blocks of stone whereof the +entablature was composed into them; pivots and gudgeons +were then prepared to receive them in the manner +just described, so that when the oxen drew the machine +the pivots, turning in the gudgeons, caused the wheels +to revolve, and thus the blocks, being enclosed like axles +in the wheels, were brought to the work without delay. +An example of this species of machine may be seen in +the rolling stone used for smoothing the walks in +palæstræ. But the method would not have been practicable +for any considerable distance. From the quarries +to the temple is a length of not more than eight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> +thousand feet, and the interval is a plain without any +declivity. Within our own time, when the base of the +colossal statue of Apollo in the temple of that god was +decayed through age, to prevent the fall and destruction +of it, a contract for a base from the same quarry was +made with Pæonius. It was twelve feet long, eight feet +wide, and six feet high. Pæonius, driven to an expedient, +did not use the same as Metagenes did, but constructed +a machine for the purpose by a different application +of the same principle. He made two wheels +about fifteen feet in diameter, and fitted the ends of the +stone into these wheels. To connect the two wheels he +framed into them, round their circumference, small +pieces of two inches square, not more than one foot +apart, each extending from one wheel to the other, and +thus enclosing the stone. Round these bars a rope was +coiled, to which the traces of the oxen were made fast, +and as it was drawn out the stone rolled by means of the +wheels; but the machine, by its constant swerving from +a direct, straightforward path, stood in need of constant +rectification, so that Pæonius was at last without money +for the completion of his contract.” The uninitiated +who have speculated as to how the ancients succeeded in +moving and transporting considerable distances such +huge blocks of stone, without the assistance of our modern<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> +machinery and contrivances, are given in this quotation +from Vitruvius some hint as to the ingenuity and +inventive ability of the early architects and builders.</p> + +<p>The temple, however, was slow in building, and Ctesiphon +and Metagenes, after writing a book on their great +architectural work, passed away in due course of time. +Their places were filled by other architects, of whom +there is no record, but Demetrius, a priest of Diana, together +with Daphnis and Peonius, Ephesian architects, +finally completed the work some two hundred and +twenty years after it was begun by Ctesiphon and his +son. In the course of that long interval, Scopas, an +architectural sculptor of Paros, of whom there will be +more to relate as we go on, contributed one column, +which was regarded as so beautiful that it was accepted +as a model for those that followed.</p> + +<p>Together with its architectural glories, the interior +was made a depository for many of the finest works of +the great artists of antiquity, and Scopas is said to have +introduced Caryatides here. This is doubted, but he +certainly furnished a very grand statue of Hecate; and +Praxiteles, with his almost equally gifted son, adorned +the shrine.</p> + +<p>Tradition relates that upon the very night that the +great Alexander was born, the Ephesian temple was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +destroyed by fire, through the rapacious greed for +notoriety of one Herostratus. This antique fire-bug, +when put to the torture for his crime, confessed that his +only object was to gain immortality for his name, an +ambition which he succeeded in accomplishing through +the stupidity of the states-general of Asiatic Greece. +They decreed that the name of Herostratus should never +be mentioned, and of course it always was, as all the +contemporary historians felt impelled to record the fact +that a man by the name of Herostratus was not to be +mentioned, and to give the reasons therefor, and much +more about Herostratus which, had there been no +decree, might have been left unsaid. The result was and +has been that a crank of antiquity has lived by name +for twenty-five hundred years, and is quite likely to live +for as many more.</p> + +<p>When Alexander the Great reached maturity, doubtless +feeling the depression consequent upon having his +advent into the world which he was destined to dominate, +associated with the destruction of so magnificent a +temple to the Asiatic Diana, offered, it is said, to pay the +cost of its restoration, provided—there is frequently a +proviso coupled with these liberal offers—provided his +name should be inscribed on the new edifice. While the +Ephesians were made glad by the offer, they did not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> +readily fall in with the proviso. The cleverness of their +diplomatic reply, however, appealed to the susceptible +side of Alexander’s human nature, and effected a compromise. +They told the Macedonian that “it was not +right for a god to make offerings to gods.”</p> + +<p>The architect for the new temple was the great favorite +of Alexander and his fellow-countryman, Dinocrates, +who it is said rebuilt the edifice on even a more extravagant +scale than was the first. Much of the marble and +sculpturing of the old temple entered into the new, and +the painters, statuaries and sculptors of the time again +lavished upon it their best art. The walls were embellished +from time to time by Parrhasius and Apelles; and +Timarete, the first female artist of note of whom there +is any record, contributed a picture of the honored Artemis. +It is related that the folding doors or gates of this +new temple were made of cypress that had been allowed +to season for four generations, and that when the pieces +of cypress wood were glued together the glue was allowed +to remain for four years to harden. Mutianus, a Roman +architect, states that when he found them, which was +four hundred years afterward, they were as fresh and +beautiful as when new.</p> + +<p>Some remains of the splendor of this pagan temple +are still doing architectural duty. The great dome of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> +the beautiful Byzantine church of Santa Sophia in Constantinople, +now a Turkish mosque, is supported by +columns of green jasper, brought from the Ephesian +temple by the Roman Emperor Justinian, and two of +the pillars in the cathedral at Pisa are also from the +same source.</p> + +<p>There is some confusion as to the works of art and +decorations associated respectively with the two temples +just described which it would be vain to attempt to +clear up, believing that it matters but little, inasmuch +as it is not likely that Herostratus could have destroyed +completely the first temple, and that the services of +Dinocrates were engaged more in the line of making +good the damage done than in erecting an entirely new +edifice. The upper colonnades of Corinthian columns, +however, which Mr. Wood shows as appearing in the +interior of the temple, are clearly the work of Dinocrates.</p> + +<p>Demetrius, the priest of Diana, and his associates, +Peonius and Daphnis, the three architects who completed +the first Artemesian temple, having flourished +over two hundred years after the foundation of that +structure was laid, are not, of course, to be classed among +the earlier of the Grecian architects, and, properly, +should not be treated under this heading; but as they are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> +all grouped together in the erection of another great +Asiatic-Greek temple, and are not further met with, it +may be just as well to add what there is in respect to +them at this time.</p> + +<p>The temple referred to was that dedicated to Apollo +in the Ionian city of Miletus, not far distant from the +scene of the joint labors of these architects at Ephesus. +Its order was also Ionic, and although not as large as +that to Artemis, it could have been very little, if any, +inferior to it in columnar effect and general impressive +beauty, if not grandeur. It was three hundred and two +feet in length by one hundred and sixty-four feet in +width, and, like the temple at Ephesus, was surrounded +by double rows of columns, each column, however, being +sixty-three feet in height. Indeed, Strabo, the celebrated +Roman traveller and geographer, who visited the +ruins of the temple during the first century before the +Christian era, testifies that “it is the greatest of all +temples,” and adds that it remained without a roof “in +consequence of its bigness”; but this allusion to its roofless +condition is probably due to the fact that the building +was never wholly completed. Pausanias also gives +it high praise, and speaks of it as one of the wonders of +Ionia, and Vitruvius numbers it “as one of the four +temples which had raised their architects to the summit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> +of renown”<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>—a renown, it would seem, that has been +very much begrudged them, as the literature of their +time furnishes practically no data in regard to them +personally, and what estimate can be formed of them is +wholly based upon the importance of their works.</p> + +<p>Peonius, we are told, was an Ephesian, but as to even +the nativity of the other two architects we are in the +dark, although Daphnis is supposed to have been a Miletian. +There is also some little uncertainty as to the +exact date when they exercised their profession, but it +is probably safe to say that it was sometime within the +first half of the fourth century before Christ.</p> + +<p>Two columns of the great temple to Apollo have stood +proudly against the attacks of time, and although scarred +by their long battles, are yet evidencing the glories of a +structure of which they were once but an insignificant +part.</p> + +<p>In the year 555 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> there lived four architects, to +whose skill was entrusted the building of a temple that +should be in all respects worthy to stand for the respect +due the dignity, power and extreme longevity of the +great Olympian Zeus—the king-god of the Greeks.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> + +<p>The foundation for this shrine was laid in the time +of Pisistratus, a tyrant of Athens, who contributed several +architectural works to that city, but whose several +banishments greatly interrupted their building. This +was particularly the case with the great temple to Zeus. +However, it was sufficiently advanced for Pisistratus to +dedicate it before he fell from power. It has been stated +that it was due to the genuine dislike which the Athenians +felt for Pisistratus and his sons, who succeeded +him, that four hundred years were allowed to flow by +before the temple was finished. This is hardly just to a +ruler of great loyalty to his native city, and of unquestioned +integrity in the discharge of his public duties. +It is more probable that the delay was due to the animosity +of the rival Athenian family of Alcmæonidæ, +who, piqued by jealousy, fanned a flame of opposition +to the works of Pisistratus that continued for several +centuries.</p> + +<p>Antistates, Antimachides, Calleschros and Porinus +were the four architects engaged by Pisistratus, who, +like their professional brothers employed on the temples +of Diana, Apollo and Ceres, were, according to Vitruvius, +entitled to immortality for the grandeur of their +works, but about whom there is no other information +to be given.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p> + +<p>This temple to Jupiter was not built upon the Acropolis +at Athens, like that to the patron goddess of the city, +Minerva, but upon a raised peribolos within the city +below, and on the site of an earlier temple to the same +god, erected in the time of Deucalion, but which had +perished from the ravages of ages.</p> + +<p>It was like most of the early Doric temples, of peripteral +construction, or surrounded by columns on all four +sides. Aristotle, who saw it before it was finished, was +so much impressed by its size that he compared it to the +Pyramids; and one of his scholars remarked that +“though unfinished, it called forth astonishment, and +when finished would be unexcelled.”</p> + +<p>Perseus, king of Macedonia, and Antiochus Epiphanes +of Syria (176-164 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>) finally finished the cell +and placed the Corinthian columns of the portico, employing +for the purpose a Roman architect of great skill +by the name of Cossutius. It was then, probably, that +Livy made the remark “that among so many temples this +is the only one worthy of a god.”</p> + +<p>Sylla, however, when he laid siege to Athens, some +forty years later, robbed the temple most unmercifully, +carrying away with him many of the columns to Rome. +But his work of destruction was more than compensated +for by his successor, Hadrian, two hundred years still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +later, under the immediate direction of the celebrated +Roman architect, Luigi Cannia. Hadrian, in his love +of great architectural effects, was inspired to beautify +the peribolos with a peristyle one hundred rods in +length, and his architect contributed a new section to +the temple itself, and added three grand vestibules.</p> + +<p>The sacred enclosure, after Hadrian had finished it, +which had a circumference of about twenty-three hundred +feet, was ornamented by statues, contributed in +great numbers by different cities. The length of the temple +at this time, according to Stuart, was, upon the upper +step, three hundred and fifty-four feet, and its breadth +one hundred and seventy-one feet. The columns, which +surrounded the cell, now all Corinthian, numbered one +hundred and twenty-four, all of Pentelican marble, of +which there are sixteen still standing. In the pronaos, +or inner portico, Hadrian caused to be placed four +statues of himself, two in Thracian and two in Egyptian +marble, which were, perhaps, three more than a moderately +modest man might have felt necessary.</p> + +<p>Another gorgeous temple to the great Jupiter was begun +about five years later than that at Athens by the +architect Libon, an Eleian, in Olympia, which Lysias +speaks of as “the fairest spot in Greece.” In Olympia +the spiritual and physical natures of the Grecian people<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> +may be said to have combined in the perfection of development. +Here the glories of the body, the capabilities +of the finest muscular strength and athletic action, +were exhibited in gymnasium and stadion, and here the +religious spirit of the people arose to the fullest intensity, +and as though doubly inspired by the action and +strength of the perfect body, found expression in temple +and sanctuary.</p> + +<p>So great was the reward, so enthusiastic the reception +accorded the champions in the athletic games of Olympia, +that they call forth a protest from the sensitive +Vitruvius, who seems to feel that the honors conferred +upon them should have been reserved for the literary +lights of the time. “The ancestors of the Greeks,” he +complains, “held the celebrated wrestlers who were victors +in the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean +games in such esteem that, decorated with the palm and +crown, they were not only publicly thanked, but were +also, in their triumphant return to their respective +homes, borne to their cities and countries in four-horse +chariots, and were allowed pensions for life from the +public revenue. When I consider these circumstances, I +cannot help thinking it strange that similar honors, or +even greater, are not decreed to those authors who are +of lasting service to mankind. Such certainly ought to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> +be the case; for the wrestler, by training, merely +hardens his own body for the conflict; a writer, however, +not only cultivates his own mind, but affords every +one else the same opportunity, by laying down precepts +for acquiring knowledge and exciting the talents of his +reader.”</p> + +<p>So attractive was this spot on the banks of the Alpheus +in Ellis, in natural charm, as well as in the purposes for +which it was visited, that it is here, as nowhere else in +Greece, with the possible exception of the Acropolis at +Athens, the Grecian architects lavished their best skill +and best illustrated their appreciation of the fact, that +the effect of fine buildings is greatly augmented by +grouping them gracefully together in one place, producing, +as it were, an architectural picture. “Many objects,” +says Pausanias, “may a man see in Greece, and +many things may he hear that are worthy of admiration, +but above them all the doings at Eleusis and the +sights at Olympia have somewhat in them of a soul +divine.”</p> + +<p>The worship of Zeus was an old worship in Olympia, +so that when Libon was entrusted with authority to erect +a new temple to that deity, out of the spoils taken in +subjugating the Pisans and other neighboring cities +which had revolted from the Eleans, he gave free reign<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> +to his art, and produced a Doric temple which rivalled +that in Athens, though not as large.</p> + +<p>Pausanias informs us that the Olympian temple was +two hundred and thirty feet long, ninety-five feet wide +and sixty-eight feet high; that it was surrounded by +marble columns and covered with marble cut in the form +of tiles. The front and rear pediments were adorned +with sculpture, as well as the metopes of the frieze. The +interior was of two orders of columns supporting lofty +galleries, through which there was a passage to the +throne of Jove “glittering with gold and gems.”</p> + +<p>It was this temple of Libon’s that became, soon after +its completion, the casket which held the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chef d’œuvre</i> +of Phidias, the colossal statue of Jupiter carved in ivory +and gold, of which Quintilian observes that it added a +new religious feeling to Greece. The story is well +known how Phidias, being asked by his nephew Panænus, +a painter, who assisted him in the decoration of the +temple, how he could have conceived that air of divinity +which he had expressed in the face of this noble statue, +replied that he had copied it from Homer’s description +of the god. Jupiter was presented naked to his waist, +but draped from his girdle down. The significance of +this was that the great Jove, knowing himself to be of +heavenly origin, thought it best to conceal himself in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> +part only from man. He was also given a beard for the +reason that the Greeks, clinging to the Oriental notion, +believed that beards carried with them an air of majesty; +an idea, by the way, which was not shared in by the +Romans, who spoke with derision of their bearded forefathers, +and permitted the wearing of beards only to +those who were in disgrace, and to poor philosophers, +who probably, like our poor modern poets, found a visit +to the barber’s an unnecessary and expensive luxury.</p> + +<p>Rome during these early times, and before she had +awakened to the cultivation of the arts at home, was +prone to borrow from Greece the talent of which she +was in need. It was about this time that we find the +first record of such a call made by Rome upon her eastern +neighbor for architects. The demand was answered +by the two architectural sculptors Damophilus and +Gorgasus, who were imported by the Dictator Posthumius +to erect two temples in Rome, one to Castor and +Pollux or, as some authorities assert, to Liber and Libera +(Bacchus and Proserpine), which stood near the Forum +and Temple of Vesta, and the other to Ceres, on the +slope of the Aventine hill, near the Circus. These temples +were vowed by Posthumius, in his battle with the +Latins, 496 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and were dedicated by Viscellinus some +years later.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> + +<p>Before closing this chapter, in which the attempt is +made to gather together some of the earlier architects of +Greece, it may be as well to include within it a number +of such artists who though not rising to the highest +fame, or who were not connected with the most elegant +buildings of their time, nevertheless had the good fortune +to have their names preserved in history.</p> + +<p>Pliny tells a rather amusing and interesting account +of such an architect by the name of Bupalus, who probably +flourished about the year 524 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> He is said to +have come from a very old family of artists who exercised +the art of the statuary from the beginning of the +Olympiads; but as Pliny simply speaks of him as an +architect and artist, but does not mention any building +attributed to his skill, he becomes a subject for notice +only in connection with the Iambic poet Hipponax, +whom he used his art to torment. Pliny relates that +Bupalus and his brother Athenis amused themselves by +making caricatures of the satirical poet. Hipponax was +undersized, thin and ugly, and probably, like the modern +poet Pope, suffered his physical defects to give him a +cynical view of life. The caricatures of the playful +Bupalus and Athenis naturally affected unpleasantly his +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">amour propre</i>, and he employed the weapon at his command, +his ironical pen, to strike back at his tormentors,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> +with the result that he gave them a good pen lashing in +a satirical poem, in which he also chastised his Ionian +brethren for what he considered their effeminate luxury. +In the same poem, also, he did not spare his own parents, +and it is said that he even had the temerity to ridicule +the gods.</p> + +<p>There is, of course, always some one to start the story +that a woman is at the source of all the infirmities that +any particularly conspicuous man suffers from, and +there are those who claim that Bupalus did not originate +the trouble, but that it started through the fact that the +architect had a very beautiful daughter of whom Hipponax +was greatly enamored. Like the earlier Iambic +poet Archilochus, who got into a similar scrape, the +girl’s father refused to permit his daughter to marry a +poor little withered poet, with the result that the poet’s +life was ever after embittered. How very bitter Hipponax +became, especially against the ladies, is illustrated +by a remark which is attributed to him: “There are,” +he said, “only two happy days in the life of a married +man—that in which he receives his wife, and that in +which he carries out her corpse.”</p> + +<p>After his death Leonidas of Tarentum, in an elegant +epigram, warned travellers not to pass too near his tomb, +lest they rouse the sleeping wasp. The grave of Hipponax,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> +by the way, instead of being covered with ivy and +roses, like that of a mild poet, was planted with thorns +and thistles.</p> + +<p>Pausanias mentions several of these more obscure +architects. Agnaptus was one, who built a porch in the +Altis, or wall at Olympia, called afterward by the Eleans +the “porch of Agnaptus,” and Antiphilus, Pothæus and +Megacles were three other waifs on our sea of oblivion. +They were responsible for the Treasury of the Carthaginians +also at Olympia. Pyrrhus, with his two sons, +Lacrates and Hermon, built the Olympian Treasury of +the Epidamnians. There were ten of these Treasuries, +by the way, raised by different states, which were not +only architecturally very beautiful, but which contained +statues and other offerings of great value.</p> + +<p>Strabo mentions an architect and sculptor by the +name of Hermocreon, who designed a gigantic and beautiful +altar at Parium on the Propontis in Asia Minor; +and Eurycles, a Spartan architect, who built the baths +at Corinth, and “adorned them with beautiful marbles,” +must not be overlooked, although he may have been of +a much later date.</p> +<br> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> The other three temples which Vitruvius praised thus highly +were those to Diana at Ephesus, Jupiter Olympus at Athens, and +Ceres at Eleusis.</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br> +<span class="fs70 smcap">THE ARCHITECTURAL EPOCH OF PERICLES.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-t.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> age of Pericles was so distinctively an era +in the advancement of the arts, especially architecture, +not alone in the city where Athene shed +her divine intelligence and tutelary influence with generous +favor, but throughout all the Hellenic states, and +has left so many models and criterions for the architects +of all time to follow, that a few words in reference to +Pericles himself and the sculptor Phidias, into whose +hands he entrusted the direction of his public buildings +and the adornment of Athens, may be admissible, before +we consider the architectural geniuses who sprung forward +to meet the great requirements of the time.</p> + +<p>Pericles was a descendant of that noble and refined, +if sometimes unfortunate, house of Alcmæonidæ, which +did so much for the Delphic temple of Apollo, and a son +of Xanthippus, the victor of Mycale, and Agariste, niece +of Cleisthenes, founder of the later Athenian constitution. +The date of his birth is not known, but that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> +early evinced a leaning toward the fine arts and philosophy +is recorded. Under Pythocleides he studied music, +under Damon political science, under Zeno philosophy; +but it remained for the erudite Anaxagoras to give the +final burnish to his character and thought. He was +therefore, both by birth and disposition, as well as cultivation, +possessed of a mind singularly comprehensive +in its grasp of the advantages which the arts of peace +could contribute to the progress of his people, and naturally +turned his attention to their exploitation and development, +when he became dominant in the year 444 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> +His rule of peace lasted but thirteen years, or until the +breaking out of the Peloponnesian war, but was crowded +with numerous artistic and architectural triumphs.</p> + +<p>That he may have gone a step too far in the encouragement +of pleasure and the peaceful virtues among a +people of warlike antecedents and a future before them +of foreordained defence and conquest, if not final defeat, +may be a subject for speculation; but that he gave +an impetus to literature and art, and by the fervent +warmth of his patronage fostered the growth of genius +in a way that had not been equalled before his time, and +which has never been excelled since, is the principal reason, +doubtless, for his immortality.</p> + +<p>His head was abnormally long, a defect which the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> +artists of his time invariably corrected with a helmet +when painting or sculpturing his portrait, and the contemporaneous +comic poets and satirists as continually +ridiculed in verse and jest. Speaking of his eloquence +and powers of persuasion, Thucydides relates a pleasant +story in respect to his dexterity in this regard. When +Archidamus, king of the Lacedæmonians, asked Thucydides +whether he or Pericles was the better wrestler, +he replied: “When I have thrown him and given him +a fair fall, he, by persisting that he had no fall, gets the +better of me, and makes the bystanders, in spite of their +own eyes, believe him.” But in other respects his +physique was well proportioned and his bearing noble +and commanding. His manner was dignified and reserved, +his eloquence strong, fearless and convincing, +and his general appearance such as to inspire the people +to compliment him with the name “Olympian Zeus,” a +character in which his portrait was also painted by his +favorite, Phidias.</p> + +<p>An English writer well says that the age of Pericles +was “the milky way of great men,” for it was certainly +clouded to whiteness with intellectual stars. The names +associated with this era are not only among the most +celebrated in all Grecian history, but among the most +renowned that have sprung forward in the history of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> +all the world. Poets, philosophers, dramatists, musicians, +sculptors, painters, architects, not only arose +in great numbers under his fostering encouragement, +but to the highest eminence in their respective avocations. +In fact, it seems as though the human plant +that had long been growing, strengthening and broadening +upon Hellenic soil had suddenly sprung into the +fullest flower and enveloped itself in intellectual +beauty.</p> + +<p>The Athens which we so frequently see pictured in +all her restored architectural grace and grandeur, the +Athens which from her Acropolis of chiselled white so +proudly surveys the Ægean sea and surrounding plains, +is the Athens of Pericles, noblest of all cities in the pursuits +of virtue, of beauty and contentment, and in the +pure realization of that happiness which the practice +of the arts alone can afford.</p> + +<p>The budding of Athenian architectural magnificence +may be said to have begun under Themistocles and +Cimon, the immediate predecessors of Pericles, but not +to have ripened and flowered in its perfection until his +advent into power. Then it was that the task of building +a city in every way worthy of the people who had +proved their prowess before the Persian hosts in war, +and who in peace could delight in the musical poems of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> +Homer, was pushed to a speedy realization with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>Nothing in all the biography of Pericles has contributed +so greatly to the perpetuity of his fame as this +attention which he gave to the development of the architectural +magnificence of Athens. “That which gave +most pleasure and ornament to the city of Athens,” says +Plutarch, “and the greatest admiration and even astonishment +to all strangers, and that which now is Greece’s +only evidence that the power she boasts of and her +ancient wealth are no romance or idle story, was his +construction of the public and sacred buildings. The +materials were stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony and +cypress-wood; the artisans that wrought and fashioned +them were smiths and carpenters, moulders, founders +and braziers, stone-cutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers, +painters, embroiderers, turners; those again +that conveyed them to the town for use, merchants and +mariners and ship-masters by sea; and by land, cartwrights, +cattle breeders, wagoners, rope-makers, flax-workers, +shoemakers and leather-dressers, road-makers, +miners. And every trade in the same nature, as a captain +in an army has his particular company of soldiers +under him, had its own hired company of journeymen +and laborers belonging to it banded together as in array,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> +to be, as it were, the instrument and body for the performance +of the service. Thus, to say all in a word, +the occasions and services of these public works distributed +plenty through every age and condition.”</p> + +<p>“Architecture,” says Robert Adam, “in a particular +manner depends upon the patronage of the great, as they +alone are able to execute what the architect plans.” This +being so, the architects of his time had in Pericles a +patron in every way worthy their best efforts. Indeed, +so ambitious was he to grace the city of his nativity with +all the beauties of architecture that his enemies found +here a pretext for censure, and complained that he spent +too much of the public treasure for such a purpose. He +met the criticism, however, with the argument that those +who pursued the arts of war should not be the only ones +to receive support at the expense of the state, but that +those who possessed the skill and industry of true artists +and artisans were quite as much entitled to public encouragement +and support as the soldier.</p> + +<p>This answer for a time appeased the clamor of the +opposition, which had been set up against what they +would lead the people to believe was extravagance and +wastefulness on the part of Pericles. But it soon broke +out again. When finally it became no longer bearable, +Pericles addressed his accusers and said: “If you think<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> +that I have expended too much let the money be charged +to my account, not yours, <em>only let the new edifices be inscribed +with my name and not that of the people of +Athens</em>.” It is to the credit of the Athenians that their +pride was touched by the words of their ruler and their +cupidity restrained. They at once replied that Pericles +might spend as much of their money as he pleased, and +they even went further, and insisted that he should not +spare the public treasury in the least. Like all great +men, Pericles was assailed in a variety of ways. When +his enemies did not accomplish their purpose in bringing +him to public disgrace by one method of assault, they +tried another. We have seen how they failed in one instance; +another was similar in accusing him, in complicity +with Phidias, of appropriating to his own use the +public treasure, donated to pay for the golden plates on +the chryselephantine statues of the latter’s creation. +But this charge also not proving successful, they attacked +his religious character, strange as it may appear, +when it is remembered how deeply he was interested in +erecting temples of pagan worship. But he survived the +slanders of his time and continued his aims and purposes +in life, content, doubtless, that posterity should judge +him aright, as did the majority of the people of his own +time. His last words are perhaps the best epitome of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> +his life’s work: “No Athenian ever put on black +through me.”</p> + +<p>Teleclides has put into verse the great surrender +which the Athenian people appeared finally to make to +Pericles of their rights in peace and war:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The tribute of the cities, and, with them, the cities too,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To do with them as he pleases, and undo;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">To build up, if he likes, stone walls around a town;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And, again, if so he likes, to pull them down;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Their treaties and alliances, power, empire, peace and war,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Their wealth and their success forevermore.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>As already stated, in no branch of the arts did the age +of Pericles make a deeper and more lasting impression +than in that of architecture. Although the Doric order +was employed many hundred years before his time, and +the Ionic scarcely less many, yet the finest types of each +and the examples of these orders which stand for their +most perfect and artistic development are to be found +in the Acropolis at Athens in the time of Pericles, the +Parthenon serving as the criterion of one and the Erechtheum +as the model of the other. That these orders +should have been brought to such perfection and endowed +with their crowning dignity and grace, must +alone prove without further argument, if need be, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> +the architectural talent and artistic sense of the age was +incomparable.</p> + +<p>The part which the great sculptor Phidias played in +the art drama of his time has been already alluded to, +but not sufficiently, perhaps, to exclude a further reference +to him.</p> + +<p>The comparison has often been made between Phidias +and the talented revivalist of the fifteenth century, +Michael Angelo, and a casual consideration of the two +eminent artists would indicate that it was a proper one. +They were both sculptors, both painters, both engravers +(Phidias of gems), but they were not both architects, as +is erroneously assumed. As to the respective degrees +of talent which each manifested toward the branches +of art which he professed, they also differed widely. In +sculpture the school of Michael Angelo will not outlive +that of Phidias, but in painting, especially in its application +to mural decoration, the Greek must bow to the +Italian. In architecture also Phidias possessed none +of the technical knowledge and skill which in Michael +Angelo enabled him to suspend the great dome of St. +Peter’s “as if in the air,” and which was so important a +factor in his long artistic career, manifested in other +ways as well, and gaining for him perpetual applause. +However, the two artists may be well compared, inasmuch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> +that they both created epochs of their own; and +both excelled in exhibiting a noble understanding as to +the high and exalted possibilities of art that has never +been equalled.</p> + +<p>Phidias’s comprehensive grasp of broad artistic effects +had as much to do, probably, with gaining for him +the favor of Pericles as his technical skill. Quintilian +calls him the “Sculptor of the gods.” He realized the +greatness of large things and could calculate their power +in influencing the imagination and understanding. He +was once invited, together with his contemporary artist, +Alcamenes, to design a statue of Minerva, destined to be +placed upon a high column. When both statues were +finished and exhibited, that made by Alcamenes was at +once preferred on account of its elegance of finish, while +that by Phidias was rejected as being rough and crude. +Phidias, however, insisted that each should be shown +from the high pinnacle upon which it might ultimately +be placed. When this was done all the elegant graces +of the statue of Alcamenes were lost to sight, as well +also the apparent roughness of that by Phidias, which +now took on the perfect proportions he had foreseen. +This story will serve to illustrate the breadth of his +artistic discernment.</p> + +<p>Of all the artists of his time, Phidias was by far the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> +best gifted to have placed in his hands, by Pericles, the +supervision of the public buildings of Athens, and to +have entrusted to his discretion and judgment the planning, +posing and arranging of the grand architectural +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mise en scène</i>, which his patron had determined should be +set there. If Phidias did not draw the actual plans of a +building or other structure, his judgment could indicate +its order, its location and such other characteristics it +should possess to harmonize with the features with which +it was to be associated. He could group the majestic +masonry of his time in grand display, could beautify it +with his own chisel, and could form and mould the complete +architectural picture. If he was not the architect +of the Parthenon, he at least enhanced its effect with +the magnificence of his sculpturings and designs in the +metopes of the frieze and the tympanums of the pediments, +some of which are still to be seen among the +“Elgin marbles” in the British Museum, of which +Canova remarked they would alone compensate for a +visit to England. It is not improbable, also, that he may +have suggested the Caryatides of the Erechtheum, and +proved to the Egyptians, from whom the architectural +idea was borrowed, how far more beautifully and gracefully +such figures could be carved in Athens than on the +banks of the Nile.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p> + +<p>There can be no doubt as to the value of statuary, +which was the special province of Phidias, in enhancing +the <em>ensemble</em> of Grecian architectural grouping, and +particularly valuable was the colossal figure of Minerva +Promachus in contributing to the grandiose effect of +the Athenian Acropolis. This noble work of Phidias +was seventy feet high and made entirely of bronze, said +to have been taken from the Medes, who disembarked at +Marathon. The colossal goddess stood exposed, and in a +position where, in looking far away over the Ægean +sea, she might be an inspiration to the returning Athenian +mariner, and where, in glancing from her lofty eminence, +“she seemed, by her attitude and her accoutrements, +to promise protection to the city beneath her, and +to bid defiance to her enemies.”</p> + +<p>Another architectural statue, if it may be called such, +was that of the same goddess, in gold and ivory, which +dominated the interior of the Parthenon. This work of +Phidias, second only in beauty and size to the chryselephantine +statue of Jupiter at Olympia, is said to have +cost $465,000. The figure of Minerva was forty feet +in height, and was presented standing in a tunic which +reached to her feet. A casque covered her head, her +right hand held a spear, and her left a figure of Victory. +The exquisite workmanship of the carving on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> +buckler resting at the feet of the deity came near involving +Pericles and Phidias in another web of trouble, +for it was asserted that the sculptor had introduced his +own portrait and that of his patron among the combatants +of a battle between the Athenians and Amazons, +there portrayed. The captious objection was set up that +such a liberty was insulting to Athene. Phidias, as related +by some writers, was cast into prison for this act +of impiety, and died there. Others claim, however, that +this was not so, but that Phidias, before sentence could +be passed, fled to Elis, where he at once entered upon +the work of modelling the great statue of the Olympian +Jupiter.</p> + +<p>In respect to both statues, he was implicated with +Pericles, as accused by his enemies, with pilfering the +gold donated for their construction. These various accusations +have led to considerable confusion in respect +to much of his personal history and final end, and although +it was proved by removing the gold plates and +weighing them, that he was not guilty of the alleged +crime, it is very probable that his death was as much due +to disappointed hopes and mortification consequent upon +the false charge as it was to any public executioner of +the time.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br> +<span class="fs70 smcap">THE ARCHITECTS OF THE AGE OF PERICLES.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-i.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">It</span> is not the intention, in recalling some of +the more conspicuous architects who flourished +in the time of Pericles, to confine them +to those only who were directly in his employ, but to +group together all who became prominent factors in +the architectural development of that age, both for +some years before and after Pericles’s reign of power.</p> + +<p>To have carried forward the many important works +which the great leader instituted, and which were advanced +with a precision and rapidity remarkable for +that or any other time, considering their size and importance, +the skill and services of many architects were +brought naturally into requisition. As a result we have +the record of an unusually large number of such artists, +and in respect to a few some little specific data relating +to their lives. The architects, however, of many of the +most important works are unknown.</p> + +<p>If we approach Athens, like the Attic mariner of old,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> +through the Piræus, one of its sea gates, we are attracted +at once to the beautiful architectural display which this +seaport town, some five or six miles distant from the +Grecian metropolis, presents. The entrance to the harbor +was ornamented with two lions, and the harbor-basin +was fringed with magnificent colonnades and +porticos, which disguised the warehouses and bazaars. +Within the town were numerous temples, two theatres +and other buildings of artistic effect and merit.</p> + +<p>The road to Athens lay between massive fortified +walls having a width of fifteen feet at the top, and built +to a height of sixty feet. They were known as the “Long +Walls,” and they enclosed a space about the Piræus, said +by Thucydides to have been not less than one hundred +and twenty-four stadia in circumference, or about fifteen +miles.</p> + +<p>It is only just to state that the walls which led from +Athens to Piræus, as well as those which connected it +with the other sea gates of Munychia and Phalerus, were +originally planned and partly executed under Themistocles +and Cimon. Themistocles intended to construct +these walls to a height of one hundred and twenty feet; +but Pericles deemed this entirely unnecessary, and cut +the height in two, as we have seen. He also added a third +wall between that running to the north of the Piræan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> +fortifications and that reaching to the Phalerum. Socrates +speaks of having heard Pericles mention this wall +to the people.</p> + +<p>The architects for much of this massive mural work +were Hippodamus and Callicrates, and because Pericles +did not hurry them to the same extent that he hurried +others engaged in perhaps less important, if more decorative, +undertakings, Cratinus, the satirist, ridiculed +the slowness of the work, while aiming a sly shaft of +irony at Pericles’s oratorical gifts:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Stones upon stones the orator has pil’d</div> + <div class="verse indent1">With swelling words, but words will build no walls.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Hippodamus was one of the geniuses of his day, and +has been called the “Wren of his age.” Perhaps it would +be more fitting to speak of Sir Christopher Wren as the +Hippodamus of <em>his</em> time, inasmuch as the architectural +achievements of the Greek were on a much more magnificent +scale than those of the Englishman. Among +some of the conspicuous works credited to him was the +grand Athenian Agora, or Forum, which was made up +of a rich assemblage of colonnades, temples, altars and +statues, all taking his name as the Hippodamæa. But +whether he is to be credited with being more especially +a civil engineer than an architect may be inferred from +his work at the Piræus and in laying out entire cities.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> + +<p>He was called the “Excentric Architect” doubtless +because he mingled with the practice of his profession a +desire to be considered as thoroughly versed in all the +physical sciences, a personal affectation which caused +him to be ranked among the sophists. It is claimed +that it was against Hippodamus that Aristophanes +aimed much of his wit.</p> + +<p>Hippodamus was the son of Euryphon of Miletus, +one of the most famous of the Greek physicians and +among the first to have knowledge of the difference between +the veins and arteries, and the uses of each. As +to his early education and advantages we are not informed, +he being referred to by early writers only in a +professional way.</p> + +<p>Besides his employment upon the “Long Walls,” the +Agora and other edifices, Pericles engaged his talents, +as we have intimated, in laying out the port of Piræus, +which he did, with broad streets and avenues intersecting +each other at right angles across the city. This +plan of street construction he also introduced in other +cities of Greece and her colonies with which he had to +do, especially at Thurü on the site of the ancient +Sybaris, which he visited with the Athenian colonists, +and later at Rhodes. This last-mentioned city, which +in the age of Pericles was one of the most beautiful,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> +regular and prosperous of the times, was almost wholly +the work of Hippodamus.</p> + +<p>Callicrates, who assisted Hippodamus with the “Long +Walls,” was also an associate of Ictinus, perhaps the +greatest architect of his time, in the building of the +Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis. The architect +Callicrates should not be mistaken for the Lacedæmonian +sculptor of the same name who achieved great +celebrity for his skill in carving the most minute objects, +and of whom it is related that he made ants and +other insects in ivory which were so very small that +their limbs could not be distinguished by the naked eye. +This seems all the more remarkable when it is remembered +that the ancients had no magnifying glasses.</p> + +<p>A walk of five or six miles under the shadows of the +tall walls of Hippodamus and Callicrates to view the +greater architectural glories of the city of Athens in the +time of Pericles will doubtless repay us. While this +queen city of the ancient world is enrobed in many triumphs +of the builder’s art, we will probably pass them +all by for the time being to examine more carefully the +gems that stand forth from the Acropolis, glittering +under the blue Grecian sky like white jewels in the +proud city’s coronet.</p> + +<p>This magnificent citadel, protected by Pelasgian walls<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> +and dedicated to the pagan deity Minerva, could be +entered but upon one side, the western, where the massive +gate or vestibule of the Propylæa occupied the centre. +Fragments of this great gate still give evidence +to the modern traveller of its former stately splendor.</p> + +<p>“Here,” says Bishop Wordsworth, “above all places +at Athens, the mind of the traveller enjoys an exquisite +pleasure. It seems as if this portal had been spared in +order that our imagination might send through it, as +through a triumphal arch, all the glories of Athenian +antiquity in visible parade. It was this particular point +in the localities of Athens which was most admired by +the Athenians themselves; nor is this surprising; let us +conceive such a restitution of this fabric as its surviving +fragments will suggest—let us imagine it restored to its +pristine beauty—let it rise once more in the full dignity +of its youthful nature—let all its architectural decorations +be fresh and perfect—let their mouldings be again +brilliant with their glowing tints of red and blue—let +the coffers of its soffits be again spangled with stars, +and the marble antæ be fringed over as they were once +with delicate embroidery of ivy-leaf ... and then +let the bronze valves of these five gates of the Propylæa +be suddenly flung open and all the splendors of the interior +of the Acropolis burst upon the view.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> + +<p>If this imaginative restoration of the sublimities of +the Propylæa is not sufficient to excite some interest in +the building and the slave-born architect who was its +creator, let the glowing words of Symonds be added, +which refer not only to the grand vestibule itself, but to +the Panathenaic processions which were wont to pass its +gates.</p> + +<p>“Musing thus upon the staircase of the Propylæa we +may say with truth that all our modern art is but as +child’s play to that of the Greeks. Very soul-subduing +is the gloom of a cathedral like the Milanese Duomo +when the incense rises in blue clouds athwart the bands +of sunlight falling from the dome, and the crying of +choirs upborne on the wings of organ music fills the +whole vast space with a mystery of melody. Yet such +ceremonial pomps as this are but as dreams and shapes +of visions when compared with the clearly defined +splendors of a Greek procession through marble peristyles +in open air beneath the sun and sky. That spectacle +combined the harmonies of perfect human forms +in movement with the divine shapes of statues, the radiance +of carefully selected vestments with hues inwrought +upon pure marble. The rhythms and melodies +of the Doric mood were sympathetic to the proportions +of the Doric colonnades. The grove of pillars through<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> +which the pageant passed grew from the living rocks +into shapes of beauty, fulfilling by the inbreathed spirit +of man nature’s blind yearning after absolute completion. +The sun itself, not thwarted by artificial gloom +or tricked with alien colors of stained glass, was +made to minister in all his strength to a pomp the +pride of which was a display of form in manifold magnificence. +The ritual of the Greeks was the ritual of +a race at one with nature, glorying in its affiliation to +the mighty mother of all life, and striving to add by +human art the coping stone and final touch to her +achievement.”</p> + +<p>The Propylæa stretched in all about one hundred and +seventy feet across the western side of the citadel, and +was entirely built of Pentelic marble. In the centre was +a portico sixty feet broad of six fluted Doric columns, +each column thirty feet in height, and all supporting a +noble pediment. From this portico projected on either +side a wing, entered through three Ionic columns. Six +Ionic columns assisted in supporting the roof of the +vestibule. The marble beams of this roof were from +seventeen to twenty-two feet in length and correspondingly +solid. The ceiling was richly carved and ornamented. +Immediately in the rear of the Ionic columns +and at the end facing the Acropolis stood the terminal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span> +wall, with its five bronze gates, the centre one, which +was the largest, being sufficiently broad to allow the +passage of a chariot or other such vehicle. Beyond this +wall and its gates was the posticum, adding eighteen +feet to the depth of forty-three feet which the building +otherwise possessed. The temple of the “Wingless +Victory,” and the “Painted Chamber,” containing the +finest works of the painter Polygnotus, as they have +been named, formed the wings, which presented unbroken +walls to the front, relieved only by the four +Ionic columns that supported the graceful entablature +and pediment of the temple of Niké Apteros on the +right.</p> + +<p>As the building was begun in the year 437 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and +was entirely completed within a period of five years, and +was one of the most imposing structures of its day, Pausanias +is led to reflect that, “in felicity of execution and +in boldness and originality of design, it rivalled the +Parthenon.” Lübke’s comment on the structure is: +“Thus in this building the idea of fortress-like defence, +as well as festive welcome, was equally expressed. Especially +admirable, however, was the rich ceiling of the +great three-naved court, both on account of the bold span +of its beams and the magnificent decoration of the spaces +between them (the coffers), which were brilliant with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> +gold and colors.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The Ionic form of the columns in the +interior also corresponded with this festive, cheerful +character; while the two rows of columns on the outside, +together with the rest of the exterior of the building, +exhibited the seriousness and dignity of the Doric +style.”</p> + +<p>Thus has much been quoted in description and eulogy +of this noble piece of architecture; would that as much +might be quoted in respect to the talents and career of +its gifted designer, but of him there is only the shadow +of comment, from which it is possible to weave but the +faintest fabric of certainty concerning his life.</p> + +<p>His name was Mnesicles, and we are told that he was +a slave born in the household of Pericles. That he +should have been chosen to create so important an +architectural work speaks for the privilege which the +humblest born might hope to attain in rising to positions +of trust and prominence in the days of that great +leader. Mnesicles early manifested an aptitude for +architecture, and was permitted by his illustrious patron +and owner to exercise his talent in the erection of buildings +of inferior consequence before being entrusted with +more ambitious works. The Propylæa was not the only +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>work of magnitude upon which he was engaged, nor was +it the most beautiful, in the judgment of some critics, +although the most important, for he was the architect as +well of the graceful Doric temple of Theseus, which has +always been regarded as one of the finest architectural +conceptions the ancient city of Athens possessed.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p112a" style="max-width: 41.25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p112a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">THE FALL OF MNESICLES FROM THE PROPYLÆA.</p></figcaption> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>An incident in his life which awakened the affectionate +interest of Pericles and the solicitude of the +goddess Athene, whom he was serving so well, is told +by Plutarch and other early biographers. It is in effect +that while inspecting the almost completed work of the +Propylæa he fell from the summit of the pediment and +was most severely injured. He was taken at once to the +house of Pericles, where he received the personal attention +of the great ruler. It was while he lay at death’s +door that it is said Minerva appeared to Pericles in a +dream, and told him to administer to Mnesicles a medicine +distilled from the wall-plant pellitory. This was +done, and the life of the architect was spared. The only +other fact associated with the life of Mnesicles which +has been preserved to us is one mentioned by Pliny to +the effect that the sculptor Stipax of Cyprus made a +statue of the architect which became very celebrated in +its time, and which was called <em>Splanchnoptes</em>. It was +given this name because it represented a person roasting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> +the entrails of the victim at a sacrifice, at the same time +blowing the fire with his breath. There is nothing suggestive +of the architect in question or his profession, but +it is supposed to have been a statue of Mnesicles, from +the fact that Pliny speaks of the subject as having been +a slave of Pericles, who was cured of the wounds received +in a fall from the Propylæa by an herb which Minerva +had suggested should be given as a medicine. It is unfortunate +that the statue has not survived to give us +some idea of the features of at least one of the great +architects of antiquity. Some recent discoveries on the +Acropolis have, however, brought forth fragments which +are supposed to have been parts of the base.</p> + +<p>If there is any one of the Greek architects of the time +of Pericles who can be said to have secured for himself +a degree of popular notoriety throughout subsequent +ages it is the accomplished Ictinus, the chief architect +of the Parthenon and the designer of at least two other +conspicuously beautiful buildings of which we know—namely, +the temple of Apollo Epicurus, near Phigalia +in Arcadia, and the temple of Ceres and Proserpine at +Eleusis. It is, no doubt, due, however, to his connection +with the Parthenon that his fame has so long endured.</p> + +<p>As already stated, Callicrates assisted in the building<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> +of the Parthenon, and Phidias contributed the designs +for the relief carvings in the pediments and metopes, +executing much of the work with his own hands. Although +Vitruvius says that “both Ictinus and Callicrates +exerted all their powers to make this temple +worthy of the goddess who presided over the arts,” it is +not likely that Callicrates’s share in the work was equal +to that of Ictinus, but was confined more to the heavy +masonry, and in offering to Ictinus such advice as he +might seek in giving to the building the greatest substantiality +and permanency.</p> + +<p>The Parthenon, which, among the several masterpieces +of the Acropolis, must be acknowledged the greatest, +stood upon a rocky elevation in the citadel, which +so far elevated the structure as to bring the pavement +of the peristyle upon a level with the capitals of the +columns of the eastern portico of the Propylæa. This +was the same site which had been occupied formerly by +an earlier temple to Minerva, known among the Athenians +as the Hecatompedon on account of its proportions.</p> + +<p>The Parthenon of Ictinus is said to have cost one +thousand talents, or what would be equal to about +$1,100,000 of our money. It was begun the year 422 +<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and completed at the expiration of sixteen years.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> +It conformed to the usual shape of the Greek temples, +being rectangular and peripteral. The length from east +to west was two hundred and twenty-seven feet and +seven inches, the width a little over one hundred and one +feet. The Doric order was employed for the exterior, +the columns which surrounded the cell on all sides being +thirty-four feet in height, with a diameter of six feet at +the base. There were forty-six of these columns, springing +directly from the stylobate or steps, all fluted with +twenty channels, and each carrying its share of a very +beautiful entablature. The gables or pediments at each +end of the temple were of flat pitch. The total height of +the building from the steps to the top of the gables was +sixty-four feet. White marble from Mount Pentelicum, +“wrought,” as Mr. Kinnaird expresses it, “with the exquisite +finish of a cameo,” was the material employed for +the entire structure, with the exception of the supporting +timbers of the roof, which were wood covered with +marble tiles.</p> + +<p>The interior, to quote Mr. Kinnaird again, “enshrined +the chryselephantine colossus with all its gorgeous +adjuncts, and comprised sculptural decoration +alone for one edifice exceeding in quantity that of all +recent national monuments; consisting of a range of +eleven hundred feet of sculpture and containing, on calculation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> +upward of six hundred figures, a portion of +which were colossal, enriched by painting and probably +golden ornaments. Here has been really verified the +prediction of Pericles that, when the edifices of rival +states would be mouldering in oblivion, the splendor of +his city would be still paramount and triumphant.” In +respect to the richness of its interior treasures, very +much the same idea is expressed by Bishop Wordsworth, +who says, in the course of his description of the building: +“It would, therefore, be a very erroneous idea to +regard this temple which we are describing merely as +the best school of architecture in the world. It was also +the noblest school of sculpture and the richest gallery of +painting.”</p> + +<p>The cleverness of the architects in insuring to the +Parthenon, after its completion, the appearance of absolute +harmony of proportion in all its outward lines, is +one of their best claims to that celebrity which they have +justly earned. As it goes so far toward illustrating their +great professional skill, the reader may be interested in +reading the language used by Professor Roger Smith of +London in explaining the measures adopted by Ictinus +and possibly Callicrates also, to correct the optical defects +which the Parthenon might otherwise have possessed +when completed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> + +<p>“The delicacy and subtlety of these [optical illusions] +are extreme, but there can be no manner of doubt that +they existed. The best known correction is the diminution +in diameter or taper, and the <em>entasis</em> or convex curve +of the tapered outline of the shaft of the column. Without +the taper, which is perceptible enough in the order +of this building, and much more marked in the order of +earlier buildings, the columns would look top-heavy; +but the <em>entasis</em> is an additional optical correction to prevent +their outline from appearing hollowed, which it +would have done had there been no curve. The columns +of the Parthenon have shafts that are over thirty-four +feet high, and diminish from a diameter of 6.15 feet at +the bottom to 4.81 feet at the top. The outline between +these points is convex, but so slightly so that the curve +departs at the point of greatest curvature not more than +three-quarters of an inch from the straight line joining +the top and bottom. This is, however, just sufficient to +correct the tendency to look hollow in the middle.</p> + +<p>“A second correction is intended to overcome the apparent +tendency of a building to spread outward toward +the top. This is met by inclining the columns slightly +inward. So slight, however, is the inclination, that +were the axes of two columns on opposite sides of the +Parthenon continued upward till they met, the meeting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> +point would be 1952 yards, or, in other words, more +than one mile from the ground.</p> + +<p>“Another optical correction is applied to the horizontal +lines. In order to overcome a tendency which +exists in all long lines to seem as though they drop in +the middle, the lines of the architrave of the top step +and of other horizontal features of the building are all +slightly curved. The difference between the outline of +the top step of the Parthenon and a straight line joining +its two ends is at the greatest only just two inches.”</p> + +<p>Still another correction which Professor Smith alludes +to, in respect to the vertical proportions of the +building, he does not discuss more than to say: “The +small additions, amounting in the entire length of the +order to less than five inches, were made to the heights +of the various members of the order, with a view to +secure that from one definite point of view the effect of +foreshortening should be exactly compensated, and so +the building should appear to the spectator to be perfectly +proportioned.”</p> + +<p>The Parthenon was not, as is popularly supposed, a +temple for the worship of Minerva. The sanctuary for +that particular purpose was in the Erechtheum, a triple +temple, located upon the Acropolis not very far distant +from the Parthenon, and having wings dedicated respectively<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> +to Minerva Polias, to Erechtheus or Neptune, +wherein was a well of salt water, and to the Nymph +Pandrosus, daughter of Cecrops. The Parthenon, however, +served as a national treasury and repository for +the valuable offerings to the goddess, as well as “a central +point for the Panathenaic festival,” where prizes +might be distributed to the victorious competitors. Indeed, +the decorations of Phidias would tend to corroborate +this inference, as the sculptured low relief of the +frieze represented the Panathenaic procession. The +rich relief carvings in the tympanums of the front and +rear pediments of the building, also by Phidias, the designs +of which may be found described in almost any +work on Grecian art, have been reproduced in some of +the vignettes of this book.</p> + +<p>In alluding to the Erechtheum, which, like the Parthenon +and the Propylæa, still presents shapely and +beautiful ruins to grace the Acropolis, attract the tourist +and lend to the lover of art the best criterion of the +ideal age of Grecian architecture, we must mourn the +fact that the architect who designed this magnificent +example of the Ionic order is not known, and it is not +likely that he ever will be. The building was not +finished at the time of the death of Pericles. Because +of an inscription found in the Acropolis, and now in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> +British Museum, containing the particulars of a minute +professional survey of the unfinished parts, made by an +Athenian architect named Philocles, in the year 336 +<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, this architect has been given by some the credit of +having been the author of the entire structure; but that +he could not have been is clearly proven by the known +fact that much of the temple was constructed, as we have +stated, in the time of Pericles, or about one hundred +years earlier. Nothing further, by the way, is known +of Philocles than is here given.</p> + +<p>About two thousand years had passed without that +great leveller Time or the corroding influences of the +elements marring to any very serious extent the beauty +and completeness of the Parthenon, during which period +it had suffered two changes most antagonistic to its original +purpose, having been transformed at one time into +a Christian church and at another into a Turkish +mosque. In respect to the first transformation, it is well +to note that the significance of its name was not +wholly lost in the change. Parthenon means Virgin, +and the Christians called the church into which they +turned it the Church of the Blessed Virgin. It was seen +entire by Spon and Wheeler in 1676. But when the +Venetians, in their war with the Turks, eleven years +later, besieged the citadel, they threw a bomb upon the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> +roof of the noble structure, which, passing through it, +ignited the powder which had been stored in the building +by the Turks. The result was an explosion which +divided and reduced the temple to its present condition, +save for further depredations which seem hardly creditable. +The iconoclastic Turks found this pride of Pericles +most useful as a quarry upon which to draw for +much of the material used in their own buildings, and it +is to be regretted also that Lord Elgin should have found +it necessary to enrich a distant museum in London with +many of its most beautiful carvings, adding further +desecration to “what Goth and Turk and Time had +spared.” Vitruvius informs us that Ictinus, in collaboration +with another architect, not otherwise mentioned, +wrote a book upon the Parthenon, his greatest masterpiece.</p> + +<p>After searching the world over for her dear, lost +daughter, the beautiful Proserpine, who had been spirited +away to the realm of Pluto, Ceres finally gave up +the quest and mournfully settled down at Eleusis, a city +in fertile Bœotia, about fourteen miles from Athens. +Here was erected in her honor and in memory of Proserpine +an Ionic temple by the people for whom she became +sponsor. The Persians, during their invasion of Attica, +burned the temple, but Pericles caused it to be rebuilt,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> +and selected Ictinus as the architect. He erected a handsomer +structure in the Doric style, which, it is said, was +without exposed columns.</p> + +<p>Whether Ictinus lived long enough to complete the +temple to Ceres and Proserpine or not, or was called +away for other purposes, is not known, but it appears +that other architects were associated with its design and +erection, both before as well as after his connection with +it. Corœbus is mentioned also as an architect, in the +employ of Pericles, who began the work on the mystic +cell, but that his sudden death resulted in the substitution +of Ictinus. It is more probable, however, that +Ictinus had previously furnished the design of the building +and that Corœbus had been merely acting under +his supervision. Following Ictinus was another Athenian +architect appointed by Pericles, and the designer +of the demos of Cholargos. He is said to have built +the pediment of the temple with the timpanum open, +according to an ancient fashion, in order to light the +cell, which, if Strabo is to be believed, was capable of +accommodating thirty thousand persons.</p> + +<p>In the time of Demetrius Phalereus, the immediate +successor of Alexander, Philo, or Philon, as his name is +sometimes written, a very eminent architect, also of +Athens, was engaged to add a portico of twelve Doric<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> +columns to this temple of Ceres. That Metagenes of +Xypete, and son of Ctesiphon, who has already been +discussed in our allusion to the temple of Diana at +Ephesus, should be mentioned as the architect who completed +the entablature and an upper row of columns to +this Eleusian temple, is probably a mistake. The time +of Metagenes was, as we have seen, much earlier (about +560 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>), and while he might have been engaged upon +the first temple to Ceres at Eleusis, it is quite impossible +for him to have been employed by Pericles in the building +of that with which Ictinus had to do.</p> + +<p>When Alaric, the German, made his angry invasion +into Greece in 396 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, because refused command of +the armies of the Eastern empire, he destroyed very +many works of Greek art, and this temple among them +was one of the unfortunates that assisted to satiate his +wrath.</p> + +<p>The third important work with which Ictinus is reported +to have been connected was the Doric temple to +Apollo in the village of Bassæ, near Cotylion, in Arcadia, +which was known as the temple to Apollo Epicurus +(the Preserver). Pausanias speaks of this as +being next to that at Tagea, the finest temple in the +Peloponnesus “from the beauty of its stone and the +symmetry of its proportions.” This temple is still a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> +beautiful ruin, thirty-four of the original thirty-eight +columns of the peristyle standing. The structure, which +in the interior possessed two rows of columns in the +Ionic order, was originally admirably planned for +sculptural decoration and statuary and held many fine +specimens of the handiwork of Phidias and his school. +Some of the carvings of the frieze and other parts of +the building, which are to be seen in the British +Museum, are spoken of by Lübke as the boldest and +most animated compositions among all that is preserved +to us of the productions of Greek art.</p> + +<p>On the southeast slope of the Acropolis Pericles +caused to be erected a building which departed broadly +from the prevailing rectangular construction of the +time. In was oval on plan, Doric in order, and its portico +was enclosed by thirty-two columns. The most +original feature of the building, however, was the roof, +which was constructed in the shape of a cone and was +supported by rafters formed of the masts of the ships +captured in the Persian wars. From just above the +cornice of the drum there projected around the entire +roof a row of windows which may possibly be credited +with being the archetypes of our modern dormer windows. +This building was called the Odeum, or, as it is +now termed, the Odeon, and was devoted to music.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> + +<p>Cratinus, the comic poet, who had levelled his satire +at Pericles when building the “Long Walls,” found in +the roof of the Odeon, the idea for the cone shape of +which, by the way, it is claimed the architects borrowed +from the pavilion of the King of Persia, another +mark for his shafts of ridicule. He sings:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“As Jove, an onion on his head he wears;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">As Pericles, a whole orchestra bears;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Afraid of broils and banishments no more,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">He tunes the shell he trembled at before.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The allusion to an onion by Cratinus is explained +when it is remembered that on account of the peculiar, +long shape of his head the poets of Athens called Pericles +<em>Schinocephalos</em>, or squill-head, from <em>schinos</em>, a +squill, or sea-onion. Another version of Cratinus’s +satire is given thus:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“So, we see here,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Jupiter Long-pate Pericles appear,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Since ostracism time he’s laid aside his head,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And wears the new Odeum in its stead.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Music received a considerable share of attention in +the education of the Greeks, and such was the influence +which it is said to have possessed over the physical as +well as the mental nature of the people, that it was +credited with being an antidote for many of the infirmities +of the body as well as the mind. The Odeon was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> +therefore an institution of considerable importance in +Athens. Here Pericles conducted in person the musical +contests between the Choruses which the wealthy +citizens of Athens instituted, and awarded to the winners +the tripod-trophies, which as marks of special +honor they were permitted to place upon their monuments. +A street in Athens was devoted almost entirely +to these choragic monuments, many of which were architecturally +most beautiful.</p> + +<p>The architect of the Odeon of Pericles is not known, +but after its destruction by Aristion in the Mithridatic +war, it was rebuilt by Ariobarzanes II, Philopator, +king of Cappadocia, in the original form, who employed +for the purpose the brother Roman architects, +Caius and Marius Stallius, together with a third architect +by the name of Menalippus, who recorded their +connection with the building upon the base of a statue +which they erected in honor of their patron Ariobarzanes. +It is said that on certain days this later Odeon +was used as a grain market.</p> + +<p>If in the Parthenon on the Acropolis the acme of +Doric magnificence was reached by Ictinus and Callicrates, +there was another temple located below the +Acropolis, which by many is ranked as the peer of the +Parthenon, in its perfection of Doric symmetry and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> +grace. This was the building to which allusion has +already been made as another example of the genius and +skill of Mnesicles, the slave-architect of the Propylæa. +It was dedicated to the founder of Athens, the adventurous +Theseus, and stood not only as a temple in his +honor, but as a mausoleum for his ashes.</p> + +<p>Wordsworth, whose words of praise for the Propylæa +have been quoted, is also enthusiastic in his admiration +of this second example of the skill of the talented +Mnesicles: “Such is the integrity of its structure and +the distinctness of its details that it requires no description +beyond that which a few glances might supply. Its +beauty defies all; its solid yet graceful form is, indeed, +admirable; and the loveliness of its coloring is such +that from the rich, mellow hue which the marble has now +assumed it looks as if it had been quarried not from the +bed of a rocky mountain, but from the golden light of an +Athenian sunset.”</p> + +<p>Although the temple of Theseus was one of the more +modest Athenian temples in point of size, it has always +ranked as one of the most perfect of the Attic-Doric +order, and stands to-day as one of the least dilapidated +among all that have existed of the beautiful edifices of +ancient Greece. Indeed, as it was supposed to have been +begun before the Parthenon, or in the time of Cimon, it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> +is claimed by some writers that Ictinus took it for his +model, although the Parthenon was about twice as large.</p> + +<p>The Theseum was surrounded by columns, six at the +front and rear and thirteen on either flank. It was forty-five +feet wide by one hundred and four feet long. The +building material was Pentelican marble, which in the +course of the centuries has taken on the soft yellowish +tinge which Bishop Wordsworth refers to. Ornamental +sculpturing was more sparingly employed than upon the +Parthenon or some of the other structures of the time, +but such as was used was so judiciously handled as to +give the very noblest results. The sculpturing in the +metopes of the frieze and on the pronaos was the work +of Phidias.</p> + +<p>It was built after the battle of Marathon, and, it +would seem, after an awakening on the part of the +Athenians to that high sense of obligation toward their +early hero, Theseus, which had slumbered for centuries. +It was due to the Delphic Oracle that his remains were +brought back to Athens from their long banishment in +the island of Scyros, and given honorable burial, the +son of Miltiades being selected to execute the Oracle’s +decree. The occasion was made one of festivity and rejoicing, +and the entombment in the beautiful new temple +one of sacrifice and solemnity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p> + +<p>In closing this brief reference to the Theseum, the +graceful lines from Haygarth’s Greece, which so beautifully +applaud it, may well be quoted:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Here let us pause, e’en at the vestibule</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Of Theseus’s fane—with what stern majesty</div> + <div class="verse indent1">It rears its pond’rous and eternal strength,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Still perfect, still unchang’d, as on the day</div> + <div class="verse indent1">When the assembled throng of multitudes</div> + <div class="verse indent1">With shouts proclaim’d th’ accomplish’d work and fell</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Prostrate upon their faces to adore</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Its marble splendor. How the golden gleam</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Of noonday floats upon its graceful forms,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Tinging each grooved shaft, and storied frieze</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And Doric triglyph! How the rays amidst</div> + <div class="verse indent1">The op’ning columns glanc’d from point to point</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Stream down the gloom of the long portico;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Where, link’d in moving mazes youths and maids</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Lead the light dance, as erst in joyous hour</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Of festival! How the broad pediment,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Embrown’d with shadow frowns above and spreads</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Solemnity and reverential awe!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Proud monument of old magnificence!</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Still thou survivest, nor has envious time</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Impair’d thy beauty, save that it has spread</div> + <div class="verse indent1">A deeper tint, and dimm’d the polished glare</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Of thy refulgent whiteness. Let mine eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Feast on thy form, and find at every glance</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Themes for imagination, and for thought;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Empires have fallen, yet art thou unchang’d;</div> + <div class="verse indent1">And destiny, whose tide engulphs proud man</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Has roll’d his harmless billows at thy base.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p> +<p>In the brilliant galaxy of great architects and sculptors +of this age, none shines more deservedly conspicuous +by reason of true merit and noble purpose than Polycletus +of Argos, who is remembered more as a statuary +than by reason of his achievements in architecture. He +exercised his art between the years 452 and 412 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, +and, like his distinguished contemporaries, Myron and +Phidias, was a pupil of the Argive sculptor, Agelades. +His celebrity has been compared to that of his most famous +brother pupil, Phidias, for the reason that while +Phidias gave the ideal standard in the portrayal of +deities, Polycletus created for all ages the perfect canon +of the human form in art. This he expressed in the +figure of a youth holding in his hand a spear, which was +called the Doryphorus. In this figure the sculptor laid +down the rules of universal application with regard to +the proportions of the human body in its mean standard +of height, breadth of chest, length of limbs and so on. +Socrates, according to Xenophon, went so far as to +place Polycletus on a level as a statuary, with Homer, +Sophocles and Xeuxis in their respective arts.</p> + +<p>A similar anecdote to that told of Phidias, when he +listened to the criticisms of the public upon his colossal +statue of the Olympian Zeus, is also related of Polycletus. +He is said to have made two statues, one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> +which he perfected according to his own ideals, and the +other he exhibited to the public and altered according to +the suggestions volunteered. In due time he exhibited +both publicly side by side. The one he had himself +made was universally admired, while that which he had +changed to suit the popular fancy was condemned. +“You yourself,” he exclaimed, “made the statue you +abuse, I, the one you admire.”</p> + +<p>One of his most celebrated works was the chryselephantine +statue of Hera, executed in his old age to +rival the Athene and Zeus by Phidias. Strabo considered +that this statue equalled in beauty those of +Phidias, though it was surpassed by them in costliness +and size. In the respect that Polycletus followed the +Homeric description of Hera, and presented the goddess +clothed from her waist down, he may be said to have +followed the precedent of Phidias; in other respects, +however, he drew upon his own fancy. Juno was seated +upon a golden throne; her head was crowned with a +garland on which were worked the Graces and the +Hours; in one hand she held the symbolical pomegranate +and in the other a sceptre surmounted by a cuckoo, a +bird sacred to Hera on account of having herself been +changed into that form by Zeus.</p> + +<p>As an architect Polycletus will be found as the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> +designer of the theatre at Epidaurus, where was also +located the beautiful temple dedicated to Æsculapius, +and which Pausanias pronounced to be superior in symmetry +and elegance to every other in Greece and Rome. +It was capable of accommodating twelve thousand spectators, +and its ruins, as well as those of the white marble +circular Tholus, by the same artist, are still to be seen +in an unusual condition of preservation.</p> + +<p>Among the other architects who have been variously +mentioned as having pursued their profession toward +the close of this century, but who can hardly take equal +rank with those already alluded to, may be mentioned +Eupolinus, an Argive artist, who rebuilt the great +Heræum at Mycenæ after its destruction by fire in the +year 423 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, the entablature of which was ornamented +with sculptures representing the wars of the gods and +giants and the Trojan wars; Cleœtas, who was one of +the assistant architects under Phidias, and whose chief +claim to distinction is based upon his construction of +the starting place in the Olympian Stadium, and Democopus +Myrilla, who built the theatre at Syracuse. Vitruvius +also speaks of an architect and author of about this +time—namely, Silenus—who wrote on the Doric order.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to close this chapter, in which but very +superficial reference has been made to the architectural<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> +lights of the golden age of art in Greece, without glancing +back at the magnificent city of Athens, the grand +product of much of their creative skill, with feelings of +regret that with all her numerous and noble monuments, +dedicated to gods and men, there is not one that bears +the imprint of its creator. We see in this glance forest-like +colonnades of glittering white columns; we see the +House of the Five Hundred Senators, the Tholus, the +Hall of Hermæ, the Agora, the Pnyx, “where the +Athenian orator spoke from a block of bare stone;” the +Stoic Hall, in which philosophy was taught; the Prytaneum, +where the loved laws of Solon were preserved; the +Lyceum, with its hundred columns from Lydia; the +Theatre of Bacchus and the Mausoleum of Tolus. We +see temples innumerable, the grandest of all those to +Jupiter and Theseus; but others of fascinating merit, +those of Ceres and of Cybele and of Mars, and of Vulcan, +of Venus, of Æacus, of the Dioscuri, of Hercules, +of Diana Agrotera, of Bacchus Lunnæus, of Æsculapius, +of Eumenides, and that to Glory, erected with the booty +from the glorious field of Marathon, wherein stood the +Venus of Phidias; and we see the Acropolis towering +above all, lending other magnificent architectural triumphs +to the ensemble; and although we see slabs +among them “inscribed with the records of Athenian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> +history, with civil contracts and articles of peace, with +memorials of honors awarded to patriotic citizens or +munificent strangers,” we find no monument, whether +in the time of Pericles or later, inscribed with the name +of Ictinus, or Hippodamus, or Callicrates, or the poor +slave, Mnesicles, who was saved by Minerva to be forgotten +by man.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p135" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p135.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> +</figure> +<br> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> The decoration referred to was the work of the distinguished +painter Protogenes.</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br> +<span class="fs70 smcap">LATER GREEK ARCHITECTS.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-t.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> first architect as well as artist of decided +merit who arose to historic distinction at the +beginning of the later Attic school, or that +which followed immediately upon the school of Phidias, +and one of the first to treat the Corinthian idea, then +flowering into favor with originality and artistic skill, +was the deserving and accomplished Scopas. Reference +has already been made to this artist in connection +with the temple of Diana at Ephesus, for which, it is +said, he furnished the most beautiful of all the numerous +columns with which that temple was enriched. This +statement is made without prejudice to the great Praxiteles, +who was contemporaneous with Scopas, and who +excelled him as a statuary, if he did not compete with +him as an architect.</p> + +<p>A mistake of Pliny, which assigned Scopas to an +earlier age, has finally been corrected, and it has been +settled that the period when he exercised his art was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> +between the years 395 and 350 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> Scopas was a +native of Paros, a subject island of Athens, and sprung +from a family which for several generations before his +advent into the world had practised the plastic arts. His +descendants also walked in the same artistic paths of +life for many generations. Like Polycletus, with whom +he is most favorably compared, the architectural side +of his career was greatly eclipsed by that which displayed +his genius as a sculptor.</p> + +<p>His statues were numerous, and fortunately many of +them still exist scattered in various European museums +and galleries. Among such of his works considered the +most interesting is the well-known series of figures +representing the destruction of the sons and daughters +of Niobe. In the time of Pliny these statues stood in +the temple of Apollo Socianus at Rome, and it was then +a question whether they were the works of Scopas or +Praxiteles. In fact, many of the former’s finest efforts +have been attributed to the latter artist. Of this group +Schlegel says: “In the group of Niobe there is the +most perfect expression of terror and pity. The upturned +looks of the mother, and mouth half open in +supplication, seem to accuse the invisible wrath of +Heaven. The daughter clinging in the agonies of +death to the bosom of her mother, in her infantile innocence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> +can have no other fear than for herself; the innate +impulse of self-preservation was never represented in a +manner more tender or affecting. Can there on the +other hand be exhibited to the senses a more beautiful +image of self-devoting, heroic magnanimity than Niobe, +as she bends her body forward that, if possible, she may +alone received the destructive bolt? Pride and repugnance +are melted down in the most ardent maternal love. +The more than earthly dignity of the features is the +less disfigured by pain, as from the quick repetition of +the shocks she appears, as in the fable, to have become +insensible and motionless. Before this figure, twice +transformed into stone, and yet so inimitably animated—before +this line of demarcation of all human suffering +the most callous beholder is dissolved in tears.”</p> + +<p>Another highly esteemed work of Scopas, which Pliny +says stood in the shrine of Cneius Domitius in the Flaminian +circus in Rome, represented Achilles conducted +to the island of Leuce by the divinities of the sea. It +consisted of figures of Neptune, Thetis and Achilles +surrounded by Nereids sitting on dolphins and other +large fish, and attended by Tritons and sea monsters. +In the opinion of Pliny, these figures alone would have +been sufficient to have immortalized the artist, even if +they had cost the labor of his entire life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span></p> + +<p>His statues of Venus, are, after all, perhaps the most +remarkable of his works in sculpture. One of these +statues, if not the original, is supposed to have been the +prototype of one of the most celebrated and beautiful +portrayals of that charming deity in the world to-day. +Another to which Pliny gives particular prominence +was that in which the goddess is presented nude and +which was found in the temple of Brutus Callaicus in +Rome. This statue, he adds, “would have conferred renown +upon any other city, but at Rome the immense +number of works of art and the bustle of daily life in a +great city distracted the attention of men.” It is probably +this work of art, which is thought by some to have +been superior to that by Praxiteles, which, with some +modifications, is credited with being the model after +which Cleomenes fashioned the celebrated Venus de +Medicis. Pausanias and Pliny mention also other portrayals +of Venus by Scopas, but it is left to Waagen and +some other critics to ascribe the celebrated statue of +Aphrodite, in the Louvre in Paris, and known as the +Venus de Milo, to this great sculptor and architect.</p> + +<p>It is foreign to the purpose, however, to devote too +much space to this side of the art life of Scopas, but in +treating of his connection with the magnificent mausoleum +which Artemesia erected at Halicarnassus, to her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> +husband, Mausolus, king of Caria, it will be argued +doubtless that the work of this artist on that famous +mortuary monument, which ranked as one of the seven +winders of the world, was more in the line of a decorative +sculptor than of an architect.</p> + +<p>In this undertaking Scopas was associated with three +other architectural sculptors—namely, Bryaxis, Timotheus +and Leocarus—all of whom were Athenians. Each +took as his special work the decoration of one side of the +building, Scopas choosing the east or principal façade. +The north and south sides had a width of about sixty-three +feet; the east and west were not quite so wide.</p> + +<p>Before outlining further the principal characteristics +of the building, it is only fair to say that the professional +architects to whom is due the credit for the plan of the +structure were Phileus, an Ionian whose name Vitruvius +spells in a variety of ways, and Satyrus, whose +native city is not given, but who, according to the same +authority, wrote a description of the mausoleum. +Phileus was also an author on architecture, having written +a volume on the Ionic temple of Athene Polias at +Priene, of which he was the designer, and which was +one of the most renowned buildings in Asia Minor, and +a treatise on the mausoleum, which was also located in +that part of the globe. As for Satyrus, whatever may<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> +have been the other public buildings of which he was the +architect, there is no record.</p> + +<p>The mausoleum had a total height of one hundred +and forty feet, and in general appearance combined +orientalism in tomb-structure with the perfections of +Grecian architectural grace and elegance. The tomb +was contained within a rectangular substructure. Above +was an Ionic peristyle temple with nine columns on each +side and eleven at the ends. The frieze was elaborately +carved and decorated, and the roof, which was pyramidal +in form, gave the oriental cast to the entire building. +At the apex of the roof was a colossal marble +quadriga, in which a statue of the deceased king +Mausolus appeared. It is said that in the sculptures +and carvings of the different sides the respective +artists strove to rival each other, and that although +queen Artemesia died before the tomb was finished +the four artists were so interested and absorbed in their +work that they determined to complete it at their own +risk.</p> + +<p>Up to the twelfth century after the Christian era +this grand tomb stood in a fairly good state of preservation, +but soon after fell to pieces, and was used from +that time as a quarry by the Knights of St. John, from +which they took stone for the castles they built on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> +site of the old Greek Acropolis. Later still much of the +marble was taken to repair their fortifications, and it is +even said to make lime, showing to what ignominious +uses the very greatest of architectural glories may finally +come. However, some of the carvings have been redeemed +from the fortification walls and unearthed from +other places in Budrun, the modern Halicarnassus, to +find a final resting place, let it be hoped, in the British +Museum. These rescued pieces of marble, of which +there are perhaps sufficient to reconstruct a quarter of +the whole frieze, though they are not continuous, are +pronounced by competent judges to be specimens of the +work of the different artists, but there is no means of +determining which of them, if any, came from the chisel +of Scopas.</p> + +<p>The temple of Athene Alea at Tegea in Arcadia, often +a sanctuary for fugitives from Sparta, was an architectural +creation of Scopas, which it would appear belonged +to him exclusively. Of all the temples in the +Peloponnesus this is said by Pausanias to have been the +largest as well as the most magnificent. That observant +traveller, however, must have been carried away somewhat +by his enthusiasm over its architectural attractions +in ascribing to it such great size, as its dimensions +were not more than one hundred and sixty-four by seventy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> +feet, being very much smaller than other Grecian +temples.</p> + +<p>The temple which Scopas built was not the first to +the goddess to occupy the same site, but followed a very +much more ancient one, which was destroyed by fire in +the year 394 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> The tendency to introduce the Corinthian +order, which followed after the Peloponnesian +wars, and which continued to grow as Greece became +more and more intermixed with Roman ideas, is here +early displayed. The columnar arrangement of the +temple was unusual; for the outside the Ionic style was +used, there being six columns at each end and fourteen +on the sides; but on the inside the Doric order was employed +surmounted by the Corinthian. Both pediments +of the building were sculptured by Scopas or from his +designs under his immediate supervision. The pediment +over the front portico portrayed the chase of the +Calydonian boar, and that in the rear the battle of Telephus +with Achilles; both being, according to Pausanias, +very animated compositions. The statue of the goddess +Athene Alea, contained in the cell, was carried off by +the Emperor Augustus and placed at the entrance of his +new forum in Rome. Some fragments of the pedimental +sculptures have been discovered and placed in +the British Museum.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span></p> + +<p>To Scopas, in co-operation with Praxiteles, is also +attributed the graceful and beautiful Choragic monument +of Lysicrates, at one time called “the lantern of +Demosthenes,” from the mistaken supposition that the +great orator used it as a study—a very strange use when +it is remembered that the little structure possessed +neither doors nor windows. In its day this monument +was the pride of the street of Tripods, and it still stands +one of the best preserved evidences of the taste and skill +of its designers.</p> + +<p>In this monument the Corinthian style of decoration +is displayed in its perfection of grace, better, perhaps, +than in any other structure of that early time which is +known to us. Stuart describes it as follows: “The +colonnade was constructed in the following manner: +six equal panels of white [Pentelic] marble, placed +contiguous to each other on a circular plan, formed +a continued cylindrical wall, which of course was +divided from top to bottom into six equal parts by the +junctures of the panels. These columns projected +somewhat more than half their diameters from the +surface of the cylindrical wall, and the wall entirely +closed up the intercolumination. Over this was placed +the entablature and the cupola, in neither of which +any aperture was made, so that there was no admission<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> +to the inside of this monument, and it was quite +dark.”</p> + +<p>The “flower,” or crowning ornament of the monument, +was a particularly graceful and beautiful arrangement +of acanthus leaves and volutes, and the roof +was worked out with great delicacy and originality in +the form of a thatch of laurel leaves and Vitruvian +scrolls. If there was any apportionment of the work +on this monument between Scopas and Praxiteles, it +would be interesting to know what it was.</p> + +<p>Of the other architectural sculptors associated with +Scopas in the adornment of the tomb of Mausolus none +is mentioned as having had any other connection with +architecture in a similar way, but all were statuaries of +distinction and high merit, who executed works in marble +or bronze, or both, that gave them prominence in +their art. Among other works by Bryaxis were five colossal +statues in the island of Rhodes, of which the celebrated +“colossus of Rhodes,” however, was not one, and also a +statue of Apollo, which was destined for the temple of +Daphnis near Antiochus. The story is related that +Julian the Apostate wished to render to this figure +peculiar worship and homage, but was prevented from +so doing by a miraculous destruction of the temple and +statue by fire. Clement of Alexandria asserts that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> +Bryaxis was the artist of many works ascribed to Phidias.</p> + +<p>As to the share which Timotheus took in the decoration +of the mausoleum there is dispute among the Greek +authorities, some ascribing his work to Praxiteles; but +there does not seem to be any just foundation for the +supposition that the sculpturing on the south side of the +tomb was by any other hand than that of Timotheus. +As one of the great statuaries of the later Attic school +he was also among the most prominent, his figure of +Artemis being deemed worthy to be placed by the side +of the Apollo of Scopas, and the Latona of Praxiteles +in the temple which Augustus erected to Apollo on the +Palatine. Other statues of conspicuous merit are also +ascribed to him by Pausanias and Pliny.</p> + +<p>Leochares, the last of the quartette, was also inferior +only to Scopas and Praxiteles in his school of art. He +was particularly skilful with portrait-statues, the most +successful of which were those of Philip of Macedon, +Alexander his son, Amyntas, Olympias and Eurydice, +all of which were made of ivory and gold, and were +placed in the Phillippeion, a circular building in the +Altis at Olympia, erected by Philip in celebration of +his victory at Chæroneia. But the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chef d’œuvre</i> of +Leochares was a bronze statue of the rape of Ganymede.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> +Pliny says of this work that the eagle seemed to be sensible +of what he was carrying and to whom he was bearing +the treasure, taking care not to hurt the boy through his +dress with his talons. The original statue was frequently +copied both in marble and on gems, several of +which copies are still extant: one in the Museo Pio-Clementino, +another in the library of St. Mark in +Venice, and still another figures in Stuart’s Athens, as +an alto-relievo found among the ruins of Thessalonica.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp25" id="i_p147" style="max-width: 23.8125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p147.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br> +<span class="smcap fs70">THE ALEXANDRIAN ERA AND ROMAN SPOLIATION.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-t.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">That</span> epoch in the art life of the Hellenic people +associated with the influences arising out of the +career and conquests of Alexander the Great, +which we have now reached, was one scarcely inferior +in interest to that of the time of Pericles. Overflowing +as was the great Macedonian leader’s love of art and +great as was his ambition to leave behind him lasting +monuments that should fittingly stand for the artistic +culture of his time, still, for reasons arising partly out +of his own career and partly from the ever-changing impulses +of human feeling and taste, the art culture of his +time must bow to the superiority of that of the time of +Pericles, if, in respect to those other features of his +leadership and accomplishment, to which history gives +a superior rank, his genius is eclipsed by none in the +chronicles of civilization.</p> + +<p>Alexander’s short life, so active in conquest and war, +and so much of it passed away from European associations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> +or even the influences of colonial Greece, necessarily +gave him little time for indulgence in the arts at +home, while it permitted him to manifest it to some +considerable extent in founding cities and rearing temples +in foreign lands. To this self-imposed banishment, +accompanied, as it was, by large armies brought from +Greece and her colonies, and the intermixing of her +people with foreigners of new tastes and habits of mind, +may be attributed that change of art feeling at home +which began to assert itself about this time. On the +other hand, however, its effect was beneficial to the conquered +countries in introducing a more elevated art +standard than had existed within them before.</p> + +<p>Personally, Alexander manifested a keen appreciation +of the arts; whether founded upon the same sincerity +as that which appeared more natural to the character +of Pericles is a question; but we find that Praxiteles, +Lysippus and Apelles, the great artists of his +time, were no less publicly honored or more highly flattered +than were Phidias or Polycletus in the days of +Pericles. It is related as an evidence of Alexander’s enthusiasm +for art, that he compensated Apelles for his +celebrated portrait of him by ordering that the artist’s +reward should be <em>measured out in gold</em> instead of being +<em>counted</em>, an order which perhaps quite as much illustrated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> +the theatrical impulses of which he could be +guilty as the calm expression of a genuine appreciation.</p> + +<p>Even had Alexander been spared, and had returned +to Greece to continue a long life of usefulness to his +people, instead of having been cut off in his prime at +Babylon, although he might have done much more for +art than he did, still he could not have accomplished for +it what had been attained by Pericles. This may be +argued from his birth, schooling and the stronger trend +of his mind, which led in very different directions. +The Macedonian had not certainly the traditions of art +culture in his veins, as was the case with the more polished +Athenian, and being fonder of the dazzlement of +pomp and show, natural to a leader who from infancy +had been almost continuously associated with the accoutrements +and regalia of armies, it is not likely that whatever +he might have accomplished for art more than that +which he actually did, would have manifested that +purity of ideal, as well as refinement of execution which +so marked and dignified the work of Pericles.</p> + +<p>As there is always some time which must elapse before +the tide, having reached its flood, turns once more +to slowly ebb, so was there a time to be expressed in a +few years when the plastic arts of Greece, reaching their +highest development in the age of Pericles, remained<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> +stationary, before ebbing away to so-called Roman degeneracy, +and the mixed influence of various comparatively +uncultured nationalities.</p> + +<p>The Alexandrian epoch marks the beginning of this +turning-point. The decadence took almost as many successive +generations to the time when Corinth was sacked +by the Romans in 146 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and the Italian soldiers +cast their dice upon the pictures of Aristides, as it had +taken to advance in the earlier ages of Greece, to the time +when the chryselephantine statues of Zeus and Athene, +by Phidias, were the recognized perfect standards of +godlike majesty and beauty, and the Doryphorus of +Polycletus was accepted as the criterion of human grace +and proportion.</p> + +<p>Of course the standard by which the perfection of +architectural dignity and purity can be measured is +largely one of individual taste and preferment, as is +sometimes evidenced by the conflicting judgments of +the best critical authorities, but if we accept the conclusions +of centuries of the highest criticism, we must be +prepared to concede that the arts to which we refer +reached their zenith as stated. However, the expression, +Roman degeneracy, is much too severe a one, if taken +in other than a comparative sense; for, whatever Grecian +architecture may have lost in ideal æstheticism by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> +reason of Roman interference, it must be granted the +Romans that their own evolution in the appreciation of +the arts and the accomplishments of architecture resulted +in a magnificence which, when compared with our +own time, gives them rank second only to the Greeks, +from whom they borrowed so much, and whom they did +not scruple to rob of nearly all their portable art treasures. +“Among the innumerable monuments of architecture +constructed by the Romans,” says Gibbon, “how +many have escaped the notice of history, how few have +resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet +even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy +and the provinces would be sufficient to prove that those +countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful +empire. Their greatness alone or their beauty might +deserve our attention; but they were rendered more interesting +by two important circumstances, which connect +the agreeable history of the arts with the more +useful history of human manners. Many of these works +were erected at private expense, and almost all were +intended for public benefit.”</p> + +<p>But the burnishing of the Romans to the high polish +which they finally attained in the arts was a slow process, +and one which met with many interruptions, according +as their rulers were individually affected by a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> +love of the artistic—a fact which in itself would show +that art was not an inherent quality in the Roman +nature to the like degree that it was in that of the Greek. +To admire the Grecian æsthetic culture was at first considered +an evidence of effeminacy, and even Cato exclaimed +against the arts not seventeen years after the +taking of Syracuse. The Consul Mummius, in 146 +<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, some hundred years later, after the battle which +resulted in the capture of Corinth, proved very conclusively +that he had very little appreciation of the merit of +the treasures he found there, for he not only destroyed a +great many, but shipped to Rome many more, for the +simple reason that, recognizing how much they were +prized by the Corinthians, he wisely saw that they might +be useful in Rome. This sacking of Grecian cities was +quite popular, and the Roman generals, in their conquests, +seemed to strive which should bring away to +Rome the greatest number of statues and pictures. The +elder Scipio despoiled Spain and Africa, Flamius Sylla +and Mummius exported shiploads of the art of Greece, +Æmilius despoiled Macedonia, and Scipio the younger, +when he destroyed Carthage, transferred to Rome the +chief ornaments of that city.</p> + +<p>In fact, the Roman generals were remarkable as art +pilferers, using the spoils not alone to adorn their public<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> +buildings and institutions, but in some instances their +private houses and palaces as well. It is related of +Scaurus that he embellished his temporary theatre, +erected for a few days’ use, with no less than three thousand +statues. He also returned to Rome with all the +pictures of Sicyon, one of the most eminent schools of +painting in Greece, on a pretence that they would compensate +for a debt due the Roman people. From this +habit of drawing on foreigners it finally came to pass +that private citizens took the fever and entered upon the +luxury. None was earlier in the field than the Luculli, +particularly Lucius Lucullus. Julius Cæsar was personally +a great collector, his hobby being gems, while his +successor, Augustus, displayed an acute interest in Corinthian +vases.</p> + +<p>Augustus did much for the architectural adornment +of Rome, and his much-quoted remark to the effect that +he found Rome a city of bricks and left it one of marble, +was, to a great degree, true. In fact, Augustus manifested +an æsthetic nature in many respects. Spence +says, speaking of the arts, that “the flavor of Augustus, +like a gentle dew, made them bud forth and blossom; and +the sour reign of Tiberius, like a sudden frost, checked +their growth, and killed all their beauties.” Men of +genius were flattered, courted and enriched under Augustus,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> +as they were some four hundred years’ earlier in +Athens under Pericles, with the result that Vergil, +Horace, Ovid and other poets of the greatest merit +sprung forward. Rome became in this age the seat of +universal government also, its wealth was enormous, its +architectural decorations numerous and splendid, and +even its common streets were decked with some of the +finest statues in the world. Other great architectural +epochs of Rome were those of the time of Trojan and +Hadrian. But as evidence of the intermittent character +of her art development, very little was realized, as very +little could be expected under the reigns of such monsters +as Tiberius, Caligula and Nero. To Nero, however, +we must accord some little credit in having built a +very remarkable architectural composition, although undertaken +for no public benefit, but to satisfy his own +profligate vanity. His “Golden Palace,” built under +the direction of the architects Celer and Severus, the +most eminent of their time, was ranked as the most “stupendous” +structure of its kind in all Italy. The palace +was built after the conflagration during which Nero is +supposed to have amused himself with a violin. Tacitus +tells us that it was ornamented in every part with +“pearls, gems and the most precious materials,” especially +gold, which was used in reckless profusion. In<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> +the centre of a court adorned with a portico of three rows +of lofty columns, each row a mile long, stood a colossal +statue of that colossal sensualist and wicked monarch, +which was one hundred and twenty feet in height. Vespasian +tore down the whole of this piece of architectural +vanity, restored the land which it had occupied and by +which it was surrounded to the people from whom it +had been stolen, and erected in its place the great public +Coliseum and the magnificent Temple of Peace.</p> + +<p>In alluding to the public palaces of amusement, Curio, +a Roman Prætor, some few years before the Christian +era, is said to have built two wooden theatres close together, +which turned on pivots. During the day they +were turned away from each other, and different plays +were performed in each; then, with all the spectators, +they were turned together, forming an amphitheatre in +which combats took place. The zeal of the Roman architects +to win popular favor by something novel and striking +was often very great. In Pompey’s theatre water +was made to run down the aisles, between the seats, in +order to refresh spectators in the heat of summer.</p> + +<p>But that the Roman architects were not always as +careful in the inspection of the buildings under their +supervision as they should have been, and, like some of +our modern architects, permitted their works to be used<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> +when in an unsafe condition, is shown from the unfortunate +catastrophe which resulted in the unexpected +tumbling to pieces of the theatre of Fidenæ near Rome. +This accident happened in the reign of Tiberius, and +the name of the architect who suffered banishment for +his neglect was Attilius. The theatre was built of +wood, and out of fifty thousand people who were injured +in the collapse twenty thousand are said to have +died.</p> + +<p>Of all the Roman emperors none is more interesting +to the student of Grecian architecture than Hadrian, +who was a great admirer of Greece, seeking to introduce +the Hellenic institutions and modes of worship in Rome, +as well as the art, poetry and learning of Greece. He +also undertook to restore Athens, which had suffered +greatly during the four or five hundred years which had +elapsed between his time and that of Pericles, to something +of her former architectural grandeur. Pope’s +couplet might have been Hadrian’s inspiration:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“You, too, proceed! make falling arts your care,</div> + <div class="verse indent1">Erect new wonders and the old repair.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Indeed, he caused to be inscribed upon the Arch of +Honor, which he erected in Athens, after the restoration, +two inscriptions which, if not in the best of taste, were +in harmony with their author’s self-love, of which he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> +possessed no inconsiderable share. Upon that side of +the arch which faced the ancient city he wrote: “This +is Athens, the old city of Theseus,” and on that which +fronted upon the new city of his restoration and adornment +was inscribed: “This is the city of Hadrian, and +not of Theseus.” In other words, the visitor was expected +to make his own comparison and perhaps draw +the conclusion intimated that Theseus was not, after all, +to be compared with the Roman Hadrian.</p> + +<p>Hadrian’s particular penchant was architecture, and +his predominant vices were vanity and jealousy, both of +which were manifested in his practice of that art. The +magnificent villa which he erected at Tiber, where he +spent his declining years, and the ruins of which even +now cover a space equal to a large town, would indicate +this, as well as the grandiose mausoleum which towered +high above the banks of the Tiber at Rome, and which +is now depleted of much of its statuary and ornamentation, +the Christian church of Saint Angelo. The treatment +which he accorded Trajan’s great architect, the +accomplished Apollodorus, is still another evidence of +his vanity.</p> + +<p>Hadrian, like Louis I. of Bavaria, found delight in +practising personally the profession of architecture, and +drew plans of buildings, which the people thought was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> +unbecoming a prince. Possibly this objection was raised +to discourage their ruler rather than the more truthful +one that his plans were not up to the high standard of +his time. However that may be, he insisted upon their +being executed, and it is said was rather pleased if the +architects found fault with them. But this was not the +case with Apollodorus, whether because of what he had +accomplished for his predecessor Trajan, or because of +professional jealousy.</p> + +<p>Apollodorus was the architect of the Trajan column, +composed of only twenty-four stones, although one hundred +and twenty-eight Roman feet in height, and the +square which surrounded it, considered the most beautiful +assemblage of buildings then known. The relief +carvings which were wound spirally around the Trajan +column like a ribbon, represented the incidents of +the expedition against the Darians. The column supported +a statue of Trajan, which Pope Sextus V. substituted +for one of Saint Peter. A greater absurdity can +hardly be conceived than that of placing a peaceful +apostle over the warlike representations of the Dacian +war.</p> + +<p>Apollodorus was also the architect and engineer of the +great bridge which stretched across the Danube in lower +Hungary, which was formed of twelve piers and twenty-two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> +arches, said to have been the grandest use of the +arch in such works. Each arch was sixty feet wide and +one hundred and fifty feet high. The total height of +the bridge was three hundred feet and its length a mile +and a half. Hadrian destroyed this magnificent work, +some say through fear of its use by barbarians, others +through jealousy. Perhaps the circumstances attending +the death of Apollodorus would point to the second reason +as the true one.</p> + +<p>Hadrian had made the drawings of the double temple +of Venus at Rome, which he submitted to Apollodorus, +doubtless for his commendation rather than his criticism. +The architect saw at a glance that the sitting +figures of the two goddesses, Roma and Venus, which +the Emperor had introduced in the little temple, were +out of proportion, and so large that if they stood up they +would bump their heads against the roof, if they did not +take it off entirely. He called the Emperor’s attention +to this fact with the result that Hadrian became very +angry, or pretended to be so, and Apollodorus lost his +head for his frankness.</p> + +<p>The favorite architect of Hadrian was Detrianus, to +whom he entrusted many of his most important undertakings. +We find that he restored the Pantheon of +Agrippa, the Basilica of Neptune, the Forum of Augustus<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> +and the Baths of Agrippina. As original works +he designed the Mausoleum of Hadrian, to which we +have already alluded; the bridge of Ælius, ornamented +with its covering of brass, and supported by its forty-two +columns, terminating at the top with as many statues, +and the villa at Tivoli. He also erected many structures +for his royal patron in Gaul, among which was the +Basilica Plotina, the most superb building in that country, +and again other buildings in England. The Roman +wall from Eden in Cumberland to Tyne in Northumberland, +a distance of eighty miles, which was built as a +defence against the Caledonians, is attributed to Detrianus. +In Greece he embellished the famous temple of +Jupiter Olympus, and in Palestine he rebuilt Jerusalem, +erected a theatre and various pagan temples out of the +stone from the Jewish temples, and completed his sacrilege +there by placing a statue of Jupiter on the spot +where Christ rose from the dead, and one of Venus on +Mount Calvary. A feat, however, which has perpetuated +his fame quite as much as any other of his professional +achievements was the removing of the colossal +bronze statue of Nero, which stood in the court of the +“Golden Palace.” This difficult task he is said to have +accomplished without changing the erect posture of the +huge figure, which, it will be remembered, was one hundred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> +and twenty-eight feet high, by the assistance of +twenty-four elephants.</p> + +<p>In returning once more to the Greek architects who +have been left, while a rather garrulous ramble has been +made into the architectural personality of Rome, it may +be well not to attempt to do so at once, but to pause for +a moment, since we are so far from the chronology of +our subject, while the reader makes the acquaintance of +two Hellenic artists who, in the time of Quintius Metellus, +147 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, found professional employment in Roman +territory.</p> + +<p>Metellus was one of the first Romans to favor magnificent +architecture in his home capitol, and with the +booty gathered in his Macedonian campaigns he erected +two temples in Rome, said to have been the first temples +built of marble in that city, one of which was dedicated +to Jupiter Stator, and the other to the white-armed +Juno. The interiors were profusely ornamented with +the works of the great Grecian masters, Praxiteles, Polycletus +and Dionysius figuring largely.</p> + +<p>The names of the architects which Metellus brought +or imported from Greece for this work were Saurus +and Batrachus, who may possibly have been Ionians, +inasmuch as they employed the Ionic order. These temples +were restored in the Corinthian style, under Augustus,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> +two hundred years later, by Hermodorus of Salamis, +who was also the architect of the temple of Mars in +the Flaminian Circus.</p> + +<p>It is told of Saurus and Batrachus that they were so +much pleased with their work that they asked for no +reward other than the privilege of having their names +inscribed on the temples. But as this honor was denied +them, they resorted to expedient to effect the same end. +As the name Saurus stood for lizard and Batrachus for +frog, they carved lizards and frogs on the temples, and +were comparatively satisfied. A rather absurd mistake +occurred in respect to these two temples after they were +completed. It seems that nothing remained to be done +but to add the statues of Jupiter and Juno to each respectively; +but by some strange oversight the figure of +Jupiter was erected in the house of Juno, and that of +Juno before the shrine of Jupiter. However, as the +two deities were rather closely connected by marriage, +the mistake was conveniently attributed to a whim of +the gods and was not remedied.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p163" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p163.jpg" alt="" data-role="presentation"> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br> +<span class="smcap fs70">THE ALEXANDRIAN ARCHITECTS.</span></h2> +</div> + +<div> + <img class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-t.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="drop-cap"> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> boldest, most ingenious and original architect +who found favor in the sight of Alexander +the Great was undoubtedly Dinocrates, who, +like his august patron, was also a Macedonian, and to +whom an allusion has already been made in connection +with the temple of Diana at Ephesus.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p164a" style="max-width: 41.625em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p164a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">DINOCRATES BEFORE ALEXANDER THE GREAT.</p></figcaption> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>His very introduction into the notice and attention +of his distinguished fellow-countryman would tend to +prove that Dinocrates was a person of expediency, if +nothing else. Let Vitruvius tell the story: “Dinocrates, +the architect, relying on the powers of his skill +and ingenuity, while Alexander was in the midst of his +conquests, set out from Macedonia to the army, desirous +of gaining the commendation of his sovereign. That his +introduction to the royal presence might be facilitated, +he obtained letters from his countrymen and relations +to men of the first rank and nobility about the king’s person, +by whom, being kindly received, he besought them +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>to take the earliest opportunity of accomplishing his +wish. They promised fairly, but were slow in performing, +waiting, as they alleged, for a proper occasion. +Thinking, however, that they deferred this without just +grounds, he took his own course for the object he had in +view. He was, I should state, a man of tall stature, +pleasing countenance and altogether of dignified appearance. +Trusting to the gifts with which nature had endowed +him, he put off his ordinary clothing, and, having +annointed himself with oil, crowned his head with a +wreath of poplar, slung a lion’s skin across his left shoulder, +and, carrying a large club in his right hand, he +sallied forth to the royal tribunal, at a period when the +king was dispensing justice.</p> + +<p>“The novelty of his appearance excited the attention +of the people, and Alexander, soon discovering with +astonishment the object of their curiosity, ordered the +crowd to make way for him, and demanded to know +who he was. ‘A Macedonian architect,’ replied Dinocrates, +‘who suggests schemes and designs worthy your +royal renown. I propose to form Mount Athos into the +statue of a man holding a spacious city in his left hand +and in his right a huge vase, into which shall be collected +all the streams of the mountain, which shall thence be +poured into the sea.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span></p> + +<p>“Alexander, delighted at the proposition, made immediate +inquiry if the soil of the neighborhood were of +a quality capable of yielding sufficient produce for such +a state. When, however, he found that all its supplies +must be furnished by sea, he thus addressed Dinocrates: +‘I admire the grand outline of your scheme, and am well +pleased with it; but I am of opinion he would be much to +blame who planted a colony on such a spot. For as an +infant is nourished by the milk of its mother, depending +thereon for its progress to maturity, so a city depends +on the fertility of the country surrounding it for its +riches, its strength in population, and not less for its +defence against an enemy. Though your plan might be +carried into execution, yet I think it impolitic. I nevertheless +request your attendance upon me, that I may +otherwise avail myself of your ingenuity.’ From that +time Dinocrates was in constant attendance on the king, +and followed him into Egypt.”</p> + +<p>Vitruvius does not explain why it was that Dinocrates +singled out the curious costume, or rather lack of +costume, which he did to attract the attention of Alexander. +It was, in fact, the garb of an athlete. Among +the early Greeks a professional athlete was regarded as +a person of social distinction, and if a particularly successful +one, a personage to whom a statue might be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> +erected, or upon whom other honors might be conferred. +In fact, the uniform of an athlete was, as a rule, a passport +to the best society. Dinocrates undoubtedly knew +this, and as he was seeking an <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">entré</i> into the very highest +court circles, he took not an extraordinary method +of gaining it.</p> + +<p>Mount Athos, which the architect proposed to take as +a basis for what was really to be a gigantic statue of +Alexander himself, was a pyramidal mountain, at the +extreme end of the Acte peninsula, having an altitude +of 6780 feet, and crowned with a cap of white marble, +which Dinocrates undoubtedly had in mind to utilize +for a helmet. The country surrounding the mountain +was remarkable for its rural beauty, its woods and +ravines, and its people for their longevity. No wonder +that Alexander did not wish to disturb this peaceful +neighborhood.</p> + +<p>Alexander Pope, who has given us an admirable +rhymed translation of the songs of Homer, seems to +have been greatly impressed with the practicability +of this remarkable idea of Dinocrates. Spence, the +author of “Polymetis,” was once discussing the incident +which Vitruvius relates with Pope, remarking +that he could not see how the Macedonian architect +could ever have carried his proposal into execution, when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> +Pope at once replied: “For my part, I have long since +had an idea how the thing might be done; and if anybody +would make me a present of a Welsh mountain +and pay the workmen, I would undertake to see it executed. +I have quite formed it sometimes in my imagination: +the figure must be in a reclining posture, because +of the hollowing that would be necessary, and for +the city’s being in one hand. It should be a rude, unequal +hill, and might be helped with groves of trees for +the eyebrows, and a wood for the hair. The natural green +turf should be left wherever it would be necessary to +represent the ground he reclines on. It should be contrived +so that the true point of view should be at a +considerable distance. When you are near it, it should +still have the appearance of a rough mountain, but at a +proper distance such a rising should be the leg, and +such another an arm. It would be best if there were a +river, or rather a lake, at the bottom of it, for the rivulet +that came through his other hand to tumble down the +hill and discharge itself into the sea.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Baillie, in her “Tour on the Continent,” has also +a comment to make on this proposition of Dinocrates +and recalls the fact that a somewhat similar idea was advanced +to Napoleon I. “It is somewhat singular,” she +says, “that Mr. Pope should have thought this mad<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> +project practicable, but it appears that there are still +persons who dream of such extravagant and fruitless +undertakings. Some modern Dinocrates had suggested +to Bonaparte to have cut from the mountain of the Simplon +an immense colossal figure, as a sort of Genius of +the Alps. This was to have been of such enormous size +that all the passengers should have passed between its +legs and arms in a zigzag direction.”</p> + +<p>Another ingenious conception is attributed to Dinocrates +in respect to the temple of Diana, which he erected +in the city of Alexandria for Ptolemy Philadelphus, in +memory of the sister-wife of that potentate, Arsinoë. +This relationship, by the way, is said to have been the +first ever formed, although it became quite common later +in the time of the Ptolemies. Arsinoë was much beloved +by her husband, who not only called an entire district in +Egypt, Arsinoites, after her, but also gave her name to +several cities within his realm. Her features are still +preserved to us upon coins struck in her honor, and +which represent her crowned with a diadem.</p> + +<p>When Dinocrates received the commission to erect a +temple to so highly esteemed and devotedly remembered +a queen, he apparently set his ingenuity to work to give +birth to a novelty that should not only please the king, +but astonish his subjects. It finally matured in a proposition<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> +to roof the proposed temple with loadstones, in +order that they might attract into the air an iron statue +of Arsinoë. As the figure of the queen would thus +appear suspended in the air without any apparent mundane +reason, the inference could be drawn that it was by +the divine will. Some authorities say that the entire +inner walls of the temple were to have been lined with +loadstones, so that the statue might appear suspended in +the very centre of the cell, touching nothing. Fortunately, +both Dinocrates and Ptolemy died before the +project could be executed, otherwise they might have +been witnesses to the miserable failure such a chimerical +fancy must have proved if attempted, as any modern +electrician will attest.</p> + +<p>When at Ectabana with Alexander, Dinocrates had +still another opportunity to display his resourceless originality, +in directing the obsequies of Hephæstion, which +were of a most extraordinarily elaborate nature, costing, +it is recorded, 12,000 talents, or what would be equivalent +to over $1,300,000. Hephæstion was a Macedonian +and a close and warm friend of Alexander, accompanying +the young king in a military capacity throughout +most of his early foreign campaigns. So attached was +Alexander to his friend that he not only showed him +many marks of his personal esteem, but bestowed upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> +him in marriage Drypetis, the sister of his own bride, +Statira. At Ectabana Hephæstion was attacked by a +fever which had a fatal termination after an illness of +seven days. Alexander’s grief over the loss of his +brother-in-law was violent and extreme, and is said to +have found vent in the most extravagant demonstrations. +He ordered general mourning throughout the entire empire, +and Dinocrates to build a funeral pile and monument +to him in Babylon, where the body had been conveyed +from Ectabana, at a cost of $1,000,000.</p> + +<p>But the richest occasion afforded Dinocrates to display +to the fullest his great talents and genius was the +laying out of the city which Alexander determined to +found in Egypt, and which, bearing the conqueror’s +name, was destined to become the centre of the commercial +activity of the new empire. This great city, +which rapidly grew to be one of the most populous of +ancient times, and which has maintained, if not its +original share of industrial supremacy, at least an important +existence throughout the ages that have elapsed +from its nativity to the present time, we cannot resist +thinking was probably as much the inspiration of Alexander’s +favorite architect, realizing its professional possibilities, +as it was that of Alexander himself. Pliny +informs us that Dinocrates died before he could give<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> +the city the full proportions which he had planned, but +not certainly until its principal features were executed.</p> + +<p>Strabo, the “squint-eyed” geographer, gives a more +circumstantial account of the planning of the new city +by Dinocrates and his powerful and ambitious patron. +It must have been indeed an interesting sight to see the +two Macedonians upon the plane which was selected for +the site of the city, laying out the streets and avenues, +marking the run of the walls that were to surround it, +locating the different sites where were to stand the public +buildings, parks, palaces and temples, and perhaps +disputing and arguing over the questions that arose, as +two such dominant intellects might very naturally be +supposed to do.</p> + +<p>The basis of the plan were two main streets crossing +each other at right angles, each one hundred feet wide +and lined with colonnades. The other streets were to +run parallel to these. Near the centre of the proposed +city was to be clustered the public buildings, the Museum +and the Serna, which subsequently contained an +alabaster coffin in which rested the remains of Alexander. +Alabaster, which the Greeks obtained from Thebes, +was much used for mortuary purposes, as well as for +columns and statues.</p> + +<p>Plutarch also describes the planning of the city as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> +follows: “As chalk-dust was lacking, they laid out their +lines on the black, loamy soil with flour, first swinging a +circle to enclose a wide space, and then drawing lines as +chords of the arc to complete with harmonious proportions, +something like the oblong form of a soldier’s cape. +While the king was congratulating himself on this plan, +on a sudden a countless number of birds of various sorts +flew over from the land and the lake in clouds, and, settling +upon the spot, devoured in a short time all the flour, +so that Alexander was much disturbed in mind at the +omen involved, till the augurs restored his confidence +again, telling him the city he was planning was destined +to be rich in resources and a feeder of the nations of +men,” a prophecy which proved its truth in the fulfilment.</p> + +<p>Dinocrates was not, however, the only architect employed +in laying out so large a city, as might naturally +be supposed, although he was, of course, the governing +one. How many more there were it would be difficult +to say, but there is record at least of two others, both +probably employed by the rapacious and unscrupulous +Cleomenes, whom Alexander left in Egypt as hyparch +under Ptolemy Philadelphus. Olynthius is the name +given of one of these architects and Parmenion of the +other. The latter was entrusted more particularly with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> +the superintendency of the works of sculpture, especially +in the temple of Serapis, which, by the way, came +to be called by his name, Pharmenionis. Bryaxis is also +credited with statuary work there.</p> + +<p>Upon the island of Pharos, which was joined to the +city of Alexander by a wide mole, about three-quarters +of a mile long, in which were two bridges over channels +communicating between the eastern and western harbors, +was built by Ptolemy Soter and his son in the +year 282 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, a most famous lighthouse and a very +glorious ancestor of such guardians of the coast as exist +to-day.</p> + +<p>This lighthouse was planned by Sostratus, another remarkable +character in the architectural roll of honor of +those early times. He was a native of Cnidus, a town +in Caria in Asia Minor, to the south of Ionia and Lydia, +celebrated also as the birthplace of several other men +who rose to distinction in the early days of the Greek +colonies as mathematicians and astronomers. Cnidus +was almost equally remarkable in its possession of two +famous works of the statuary’s art: one the figure of a +lion carved from a single block of Pentelic marble, ten +feet long by six feet wide, which was executed to commemorate +the great victory of Caria; the other a statue +of Venus by Praxiteles, which occupied one of the three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> +temples to the goddess in that city. It is said that Nicomedes +of Bithynia was so fascinated by the rare beauty +of this figure that he offered to liquidate the debt of +Cnidus, which was by no means a small one, if the citizens +would cede the statue to him. They refused, however, +to part with it at any price, esteeming it one of the +glories of their city. Cnidus contained many beautiful +architectural monuments, the ruins of which are still +prominent.</p> + +<p>Sostratus, the architect, was the son of Dexiphanes, +and must not be mistaken for any one of several other +artists of the same name who are conspicuously mentioned +by the early writers. His first fame was acquired +through his connection with the celebrated so-called +hanging gardens which he built in his native country. +They consisted of a series of porticos or colonnades +supporting terraces, surrounding an enclosure, +possibly the Agora of the city, and served as a promenade +for the inhabitants. Pliny says that Sostratus +was the first to erect anything of the kind. This statement +may be excused, either because the hanging gardens +of Sostratus differed widely from the well-known +ones of Babylon, which antedated them by several hundred +years, or because Pliny forgot for a moment those +of Semiramis.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> + +<p>Strabo, who was probably right in his judgment, +thinks that the greatest of Sostratus’s works was the +towering lighthouse at Pharos, which he built at a cost +of about $900,000, although from its size it would seem +that it should have cost more. This colossal tower at +once took its place among the seven wonders of the +ancient world. It pierced the sky at a height of four +hundred and fifty feet, or about one hundred and seventy-five +feet above the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge +and fifty feet above the torch with which the Goddess +of Liberty illuminates the harbor of New York. But +its height alone was not more marvellous than its other +proportions, which were upon a most extravagant scale. +The ground story was hexagonal, the sides alternately +convex and concave, and each was one-eighth of a mile +in length. The second and third stories were each of +the same form, although decreasing in size; the fourth +was square, flanked by four round towers, and the fifth +or top story was circular. A grand staircase led through +each story to the roof of the building, where every night +massive fires were lighted, revealing the sea for a hundred +miles.</p> + +<p>When we consider that this colossal building was +made entirely of wrought stone—when we reflect upon +the amount of labor involved in its construction, its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> +ponderous size and dizzy altitude—we cannot but marvel +at the extraordinary breadth of conception manifested +by its architect and builders and the tenacity with which +they must have held to the completion of their huge +undertaking. It is not to be wondered at that when +Sostratus stood off and contemplated this mighty product +of his imagination and genius, after its completion, +he should have been actuated with the desire to have his +name associated with it for all time, and indelibly engraved +somewhere upon its imperishable stone. The +story is that Sostratus engraved an inscription upon one +of the stones which he afterward covered with cement, +and on the cement he inscribed the name of Ptolemy, +knowing that in time the cement would decay and leave +exposed the hidden writing upon the stone beneath. +Strabo says that the concealed inscription read: +“<span class="smcap">Sostratus, the friend of kings, made me</span>;” but +Lucien gives it differently, thus: “<span class="smcap">Sostratus of +Cnidus, the son of Dexiphanes</span> [that he might not +be mistaken for any other Sostratus, doubtless], <span class="smcap">to the +Gods the Saviors for the safety of Mariners</span>.”</p> + +<p>Pliny does not share the opinion that the inscription +was a concealed one, but speaks of the incident as a +special instance of the magnanimity of Ptolemy, that he +should not only have allowed the name of the architect<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> +to be inscribed upon the building, but that he should +have also left its nature and language to the discretion +of Sostratus. The words “Gods the Saviors,” he believes, +referred to the reigning king and queen, with +their successors, who were ambitious of the title +“Soteros” or Savior.</p> + +<p>It would be unfair, perhaps, to the great Grecian +architects of the time of Alexander if Andronicus Cyrrhestes +were to be classed among them, and Cyrrhestes +also, having been a scientific character with a +leaning toward astronomy, might with some justice feel +aggrieved were he to know that he was to be considered +in a category of professional men to which his calling +was in no degree related. Still the little building which +he designed and erected in Athens is such an interesting +one, and has always held so prominent a place among +the architectural treasures of the Attic city, that it +might be regarded as an intentional oversight to leave +him out in a book of this kind. Some authorities place +this building as belonging to the time of Alexander the +Great, others believe that it was erected at a later period, +and one writer gives Andronicus an existence as late as +100 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span></p> + +<p>This building, which Delambre speaks of as “the most +curious existing monument of the practical gnomonics<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> +of antiquity,” has sometimes been called the “Tower of +Æolus.” Let us see what Vitruvius has to say regarding +the winds and the building: “Some have chosen +to reckon only four winds: the East, blowing from the +equinoctial sunrise; the South, from the noonday sun; +the West, from the equinoctial sun-setting; and the +North, from the Polar Stars. But those who are more +exact have reckoned eight winds, particularly Andronicus +Cyrrhestes, who on this system erected an octagon +marble tower at Athens, and on every side of the octagon +he has wrought a figure in relievo, representing the wind +which blew against that side; the top of this tower he +finished with a conical marble, on which he placed a +brazen Triton, holding a wand in his hand; this Triton +is so contrived that he turns with the wind, and always +stops when he directly faces it, pointing his wand over +the figure of the wind at that time blowing.”</p> + +<p>It is in connection with his allusion to the tower of +Cyrrhestes, and his description of how to construct a +sun-dial, that Vitruvius gives some valuable hints as to +the way the ancients laid out a city so that its streets +were protected from the prevailing winds. He says: “Let +a marble slab be fixed level in the centre of the space +enclosed by the walls, or let the ground be smoothed or +levelled, so that the slab may not be necessary. In the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> +centre of this plane, for the purpose of marking the +shadow correctly, a brazen gnomon must be erected. +The shadow cast by the gnomon is to be marked about +the fifth ante-meridional hour, and the extreme point of +the shadow accurately determined. From the central +point of the space whereon the gnomon stands, as a +centre, with a distance equal to the length of the shadow +just observed, describe a circle. After the sun has +passed the meridian watch the shadow which the +gnomon continues to cast till the moment when its extremity +again touches the circle which has been described. +From the two points thus obtained in the circumference +of the circle describe two arcs intersecting +each other, and through their intersection and the +centre of the circle first described draw a line to its +extremity: this line will indicate the north and south +points. One-sixteenth part of the circumference of the +whole circle is to be set out to the right and left of the +north and south points, and drawing lines from the +points thus obtained to the centre of the circle, we have +one-eighth part of the circumference for the region of +the north, and another eighth part for the region of the +south. Divide the remainders of the circumference +on each side into three equal parts, and the divisions or +regions of the eight winds will be obtained; then let<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> +the directions of the streets and lanes be determined +by the tendency of the lines which separate the different +regions of the winds. Thus will their force be broken +and turned away from the houses and public ways; for +if the directions of the streets be parallel to those of +the winds, the latter will rush through them with +greater violence, since from occupying the whole space +of the surrounding country they will be forced up +through a narrow pass. Streets or public ways ought +therefore to be so set out that when the winds blow hard +their violence may be broken against the angles of the +different divisions of the city, and thus dissipated.”</p> + +<p>This tower still stands a fairly well-preserved ruin, +and retains many of its original architectural features +and decorations. There are two entrances through +distyle porticos, the capitals of the columns presenting +an original treatment of the Corinthian order. One of +these entrances is on the northeast side and the other on +the southwest. On the south side is a circular apsidical +projection. This was probably originally used for a +reservoir to hold the water brought from the spring Clepsydra, +on the northwest of the Acropolis, which was +employed as the power to run a clepsydra, or water-clock, +taking its name, as may be inferred, from the +spring. The remains of this clock are still visible. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> +exterior of the building was also arranged as a sun-clock, +having lines engraved upon the different sides, +with gnomons above them, forming a series of sun-dials +which indicated the time by shadows. Thus were the +people of Athens kept publicly posted as to the time of +day—by the sun when it shone, or by the water-clock +when it was obscured by clouds.</p> + +<p>The character of the architecture, the proportions of +the building, as well as its secular uses, were all quite +out of harmony with Grecian art and methods, and are +essentially Roman. As a similar structure existed at +one time in Rome, supposed to have been built by the +same scientist, the thought is naturally suggested that +Cyrrhestes may have been a Roman.</p> + +<p>In closing this reference to the prominent architects +of the disintegrating period of Grecian history, it would +seem that it only remains to recall Philo, or Philon, as +some of the writers have preferred to call him, once +more, who flourished about 318 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> As there were +several artists of his name who became conspicuous at +about the same time, our Philo will be distinguished +from the others in being a native Athenian.</p> + +<p>The reader will probably remember that he has been +already mentioned as the architect employed by Demetrius +Phalerus, to build a portico of twelve Doric columns<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> +to the great temple of Ceres and Proserpine at +Eleusis, originally erected by Ictinus; but his most ambitious +work was probably the armory, so called, which +he designed for Lycurgus in the Piræus, and which it is +said was large enough to contain the arms for one thousand +ships. He was also engaged in enlarging the port +of Piræus, and was the architect of the white marble +theatre at Athens, which was finished by Ariobarzanes, +and many years afterward rebuilt by Hadrian. Vitruvius +says that he also designed a number of Greek +temples.</p> + +<p>Philo must have been a man of considerable versatility, +for it is related that in giving an account of his +work at Piræus “he expressed himself with such precision, +purity and eloquence that the Athenian people—excellent +judges of those matters—pronounced him +equally a fluent orator and an admirable architect.” He +wrote also several works on the architecture of temples +and one on the naval basin which he constructed in the +Athenian port.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent fs80">THE END.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX_OF_ARCHITECTS_AND_ARCHITECTURAL">INDEX OF ARCHITECTS AND ARCHITECTURAL +SCULPTORS.</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="r10"> + +<ul class="index"> + +<li class="indx">Æacus, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Agamedes, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Agnaptus, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antimachides, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antiphilus, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antistates, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Apollodorus, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Athenis, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Batrachus, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bryaxis, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bupalus, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Calleschros, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Callicrates, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Callimachus, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Calos (<em>see</em> Perdix).</li> + +<li class="indx">Cannia, Luigi, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Celer, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chersiphron, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cleœtas, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Corœbus, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cossutius, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span>Ctesiphon, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cyrrhestes, Andronicus, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Dædalus, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Damophilus, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Daphnis, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Demetrius, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Detrianus, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dibutades, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dinocrates, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Eupolinus, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eurycles, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Gaudentius (<em>Note</em>), <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gitiadas, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gorgasus, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Hermocreon, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hermodorus, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hermogenes, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hermon, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hippodamus, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Icarus, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ictinus, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Lacrates, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leochares, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Libon, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Megacles, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Menalippus, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Metagenes, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mnesicles, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mutianus, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Myrilla, Democopus, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Olynthius, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span>Parmenion, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Peonius, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Perdix, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Phileus, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Phidias, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Philo, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Philocles, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Polycletus, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Polycritus, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Porinus, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pothæus, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Praxiteles, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pteras, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pyrrhus, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pytheus, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Rhœcus, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Satyrus, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Saurus, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scopas, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Severus, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Silenus, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Smilis, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sostratus, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Spintharus, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Stallius, Caius, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Stallius, Marius, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Talos (<em>see</em> Perdix).</li> + +<li class="indx">Tarchesius, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Theodorus, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Timotheus, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Trophonius, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Vitruvius, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, + <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> +</ul> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h2 class="bold fs150 wsp">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 25 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">The Cyclopses, who belonged to Pelasgic times</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">The Cyclopes, who belonged to Pelasgic times</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 91 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">breaking out of the Poloponnesian war</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">breaking out of the Peloponnesian war</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 105 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">Hippodamus was one of the genuises of his day</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">Hippodamus was one of the geniuses of his day</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 113 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">and which yas called Splanchnoptes</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">and which was called Splanchnoptes</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 161 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">his professional acchievements was the removing</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">his professional achievements was the removing</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 172 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">which the Greks obtained from Thebes</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">which the Greeks obtained from Thebes</td> +</tr> +</table> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75561 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75561-h/images/cover.jpg b/75561-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..58820c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/75561-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75561-h/images/decoration.jpg b/75561-h/images/decoration.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1270cf --- /dev/null +++ b/75561-h/images/decoration.jpg diff --git a/75561-h/images/drop-h.jpg b/75561-h/images/drop-h.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b46e9a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/75561-h/images/drop-h.jpg diff --git a/75561-h/images/drop-i.jpg b/75561-h/images/drop-i.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4756e2c --- /dev/null +++ b/75561-h/images/drop-i.jpg diff --git a/75561-h/images/drop-o.jpg b/75561-h/images/drop-o.jpg 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