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diff --git a/76489-0.txt b/76489-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ec491e --- /dev/null +++ b/76489-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4374 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76489 *** + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been + placed at the end of the paragraph. Some minor changes to the text are + noted at the end of the book. + + + + +[Illustration: ST. TROPHYME AT ARLES.] + + + + + A SHORT HISTORY + + OF + + ARCHITECTURE + + BY + ARTHUR LYMAN TUCKERMAN + + _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_ + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + 1897 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + + TROW’S + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, + NEW YORK. + + “To build, to build! + That is the noblest art of all the arts. + Painting and Sculpture are but images, + Are merely shadows cast by outward things + On stone or canvas, having in themselves + No separate existence. Architecture, + Existing in itself, and not in seeming + A something it is not, surpasses them + As substance shadow.” + —LONGFELLOW, in _Michael Angelo_. + + + + + PREFACE. + + +I have written this short history of architecture to meet the +requirements of those who wish to become acquainted with the main facts +without having to read voluminous works, many of which are addressed, not +to the student, but to the connoisseur, who is presumed at the start to +have a knowledge of the subject sufficient to enable him to comprehend +critical and theoretical essays. + +The plan I have adopted has been to trace the origin of each style, its +characteristic points and its connection with those which preceded and +succeeded it, without introducing technical terms or any but the most +important dates. + +There is a temptation to enter into the social and political histories +of each building race, but brevity forbids this, as well as any of the +gushing descriptions usually found in modern handbooks on art. + +I imagine that very few people have the time to read lengthy treatises on +architecture, but that there are many who would be glad to know the chief +historical facts, were these to be presented within a small +compass. I hope, therefore, that this volume may be of interest to the +general reader and may find its way to schools other than those which +make art matters their specialty, for it seems to me that if the average +schoolboy were taught as much about the history of the most useful and +beautiful of the creations of the people of each age, as about the manner +and quantity of warfare and slaughter in which they indulged, he would +obtain as valuable a quality of information. + + ART SCHOOLS OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM. + March, 1887 + + + + + LIST OF PLATES. + + + ST. TROPHYME AT ARLES, _Frontispiece_. + + FACING PAGE + + THE GREEK ORDERS, 56 + + PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS, 62 + + THE ROMAN ORDERS, 70 + + PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN AT SPALATRO, 73 + + PLAN OF THE PANTHEON AT ROME, 74 + + PLAN OF THE BATHS OF AGRIPPA, 75 + + PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN AT BAALBEK, 76 + + PLAN OF THE OLD BASILICA OF ST. PAUL’S BEYOND THE WALLS, 89 + + ST. VITALE, OF RAVENNA, 92 + + THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA MEDICA, 93 + + THE TEMPLE OF VESTA, SOMETIMES CALLED THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES, 94 + + THE BAPTISTERY OF CONSTANTINE, 94 + + THE PENDENTIVE SYSTEM IN BYZANTINE DOMES, 97 + + CHURCH OF SERGIUS AND BACCHUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE, 98 + + PLAN OF ST. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE, 99 + + ROMANESQUE CONSTRUCTION, 121 + + COMPARATIVE SERIES, SHOWING GREEK, ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND GOTHIC + METHODS OF SUPPORT, 124 + + PLAN OF STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL, 128 + + CHEVET OF NOTRE DAME DU PORT AT CLERMONT, 130 + + PLAN OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL, 134 + + PLAN OF AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL, 136 + + PLAN OF ST. PETER’S AS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED BY MICHAEL + ANGELO, 155 + + PLAN OF CHURCH OF THE HOTEL DES INVALIDES AT PARIS, 160 + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION, 1 + + I.—CELTIC OR DRUIDICAL REMAINS, 5 + + II.—THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT, 10 + + III.—ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE, 30 + + IV.—GREECE, 52 + + V.—ETRURIA AND ROME, 68 + + VI.—THE EARLY CHRISTIAN STYLE, 88 + + VII.—THE BYZANTINE STYLE, 95 + + VIII.—MAHOMETAN ARCHITECTURE, 105 + + IX.—THE ROMANESQUE STYLE, 115 + + X.—GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, 132 + + XI.—THE RENAISSANCE, 151 + + XII.—CONCLUSION, 162 + + + + + A SHORT + + HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE. + + + + + INTRODUCTION. + + +Architecture is an art combining the qualities of utility and beauty. Its +object is, and has been from its origin, to satisfy both the necessities +and tastes of the various building races. + +For this purpose the two distinct, and yet closely related, sciences of +construction and decoration have been employed, and the history of the +progress which has been made in each, goes hand in hand with the history +of each age and each race. + +The requirements of the inhabitants of every country have always been +defined by its character and climate, and, in order to satisfy these +requirements, the art has adapted itself to them and grown up and +expanded in the different fields in which it has been directed. + +It is customary to explain the origin of the art of building somewhat as +follows: The first impulse of the barbarian, in whatever +part of the globe he may be born, is to seek a shelter from the varying +temperature of night and day. If he lives in the mountains, he chooses +the caves and clefts in the rocks for his habitation; if on the plain, +he follows the example of the animals and hollows out a retreat in the +ground where he may seek warmth and protection. Where the soil is rocky, +he gathers branches and moss, and piles them in such a manner as to form +a rude dwelling. Soon after, he perceives the inconvenience of these +untrimmed boughs, and remedies the discomfort by driving four straight +posts into the ground, and roofing them over with cross-pieces, inclined +so as to shed the rain. + +This is the first semblance of a thoughtful construction, and the +improvements upon it gradually develop into the more studied forms of +architecture. + +When the first requisite of shelter has been obtained, the early builder +cuts off the rough edges and carves upon the posts rude emblems of the +natural objects he sees about him, and in doing this takes the first step +in design and decoration. + +When wood is not abundant, he seeks a similar result in stone, and +the treatment of each material gives rise to distinct principles of +construction. + +The Greeks, who had marble-quarries of easy access, bridged over their +posts or columns with straight lintels, capable of supporting the weight +of the roof without danger of fracture. The Romans, who found their +travertine difficult to handle, built their baths and palaces of brick, +and, in seeking to connect their pillars and piers, adopted the round +arch as a means of effecting this end, and this round arch was the main +principle of Roman architecture. When, in due time, the pointed arch was +found to combine great strength and beauty, this new method of building +became the leading principle of Gothic art. So, according to each +necessity, the different styles of architecture arose. + +When civilization increases the requirements of man, it is no longer +possible to begin a rude construction, and alter it afterward to suit +these needs; therefore it becomes necessary to consider beforehand all +the elements required, and, in order to facilitate this consideration, +drawing comes in as a simple means of placing before one all that enters +into the proposed building. + +Therefore, in the study of architecture four divisions of the art must +be considered, namely: The construction of buildings with various +materials, the appropriate proportions of the same, their representation +by draughtsmanship and their history in various times and among various +peoples. + +It will be readily understood that each of these divisions embraces a +wide scope individually, and yet no one can be separated from the others +without affecting the result as a whole. + +It is proposed, therefore, to review briefly the history of this art, and +the causes which have affected it, in order that, knowing the reasons +which led to the formation of each style, the student may +follow its study with the practical understanding and logical inference +which lead to the best results. + + * * * * * + +The question of which country furnished the first or earliest period of +approach to civilization in the building of monuments or habitations has +been, and is likely to be, an open one for some time to come. + +Speculative discussion on this point can serve no end of importance to +architects; it interests more especially the historian and antiquarian. +Consequently we will, for the sake of convenience, glance over the +periods of architecture in the following order: + + 1. Celtic or Druidical remains. + 2. The Monuments of Egypt. + 3. Asiatic architecture. + 4. Greece. + 5. Etruria and Rome. + 6. The Early Christian style. + 7. The Byzantine style. + 8. Mahometan architecture. + 9. The Romanesque style. + 10. Gothic architecture. + 11. The Renaissance. + + + + + I. + + CELTIC OR DRUIDICAL REMAINS. + + +The Celtic race has left enduring marks of its power in the numerous +monuments which are found in various parts of Great Britain, France, +Germany, and Spain, and scattered through adjacent countries. + +These consist of collections of huge uncarved boulders, arranged in +geometrical lines, and often found in the centre of vast plains, far +removed from quarry or mountain-side. + +The more common forms are called “menhirs or peulvans,” signifying in +Celtic “long stones.” These are either found separately or ranged in long +parallel lines. + +The most remarkable examples are at Carnac, in Brittany, where there are +twelve hundred of these huge stones, varying from three to eighteen feet +in height, ranged in eleven rows, leading to a semicircular enclosure. + +What purpose they served, and whether of a religious or civil character, +has not been conclusively determined. Some consider that they +served to mark the burial-spot of the Druids; others that +they were landmarks or emblems of victory. + +To another class belong the so-called Rocking Stones, which consist +of two immense blocks of rock, placed one upon the other, and either +balanced so exactly that the slightest touch will suffice to shake them, +or pivoted so as to revolve. There are examples at Tenanville, near +Cherbourg, in the north of France, and in Sussex, England. One of these, +called the “Great upon Little,” is estimated to weigh a million pounds. + +Batissier considers them to have been erected by the priests, either to +strike terror and wonder into the hearts of the people, whom they sought +to hold in subjection, or as emblems of the world suspended in the air. +We know that they have existed from remote ages, as mention is made of +their antiquity by Pliny and Ptolemy. + +Trilitha, or lichavens, are formed with three stones, two vertical +and one horizontal resting upon the others, in the shape of a rude +gateway. This is what they were probably intended for, though it has +been suggested that they were used for altars. Similar to these are the +dolmens, or table-stones, consisting of one large flat boulder supported +by several smaller ones. Their upper surfaces, as a rule, have channels +cut in them, which are generally believed to have been receptacles for +the blood of victims sacrificed upon them, and some are even hollowed +out in the shape of the human body. + +The Merchants’ Tables, at Lochmariaker, are the most noted among the many +that still exist. + +From fragments of skeletons usually found in the vicinity of dolmens, it +has been imagined that either the priests or their human offerings were +buried there as upon consecrated ground. + +There are several instances where these dolmens form covered ways +or avenues, being placed one beside another in continuous line, and +generally surrounded by a plantation of trees. They are frequently +divided by blocks of stone into several compartments, and, like the +tumuli or barrows, were probably used as places of interment for the dead. + +The most interesting, perhaps, of any of these groups of stones are the +“cromlechs”: enclosures formed of numerous boulders, arranged either in +elliptic rows or in concentric circles, with a large monolith in the +central point. Each circle is composed of a definite number of “menhirs,” +and the whole is usually surrounded by a ditch. + +It is supposed that each stone represented a minor deity, and the central +one the chief of the gods. Their purpose apparently was to mark the place +of large assemblies, called together for the administration of civil, +military, and religious rites. + +The cromlech of Stonehenge in Wiltshire is the most celebrated and one of +the largest known. The country folk call it the Cor-Gaur, +or dance of giants, and attribute its formation to the magic of the +famous enchanter, Merlin. It is composed of two circular and two elliptic +enclosures, the one within the other, and is several hundred feet in +circumference. + +In none of these Celtic monuments is there anything which may be called +strictly architectural, but some of them illustrate a principle of +building which is of importance to note. To place a row of stones in +upright positions denotes no special phase of intelligent thought, +beyond a desire to permanently mark some interesting locality, but when +the ancient race which raised these massive rocks conceived the idea +of supporting one block upon a number of smaller ones, it had reached +a first principle of construction, destined to be employed for many +centuries afterward in some of the finest buildings. After the trilithon +came the table-stones, and from these it was but a step to the covered +alleys, which were in themselves a first conception of a rude habitation, +walled in and roofed over. There can be nothing more elementary than +this, and no simpler constructional expedient, in whatever country it +may first have been evolved. We do not know the precise date of Celtic +monuments, nor is it probable that they are as ancient as the Egyptian +pyramids, but as in any case they illustrate the transition from brutal +ignorance to an era of thought, we may place them at the commencement of +our chronological list. In the various themes and discussions advanced +by archæologists, and the strange legends and tales of the peasantry +with regard to them, we have no concern. It is sufficient for us to know +that they exist and afford us an insight into the dawning efforts of a +barbaric people to progress in the art which we propose to study. + + + + + II. + + THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT. + + +The history of Egypt is divided into five periods, from the earliest ages +down to its conquest by the Romans at the beginning of the Christian era. +The first period comprises the first fourteen dynasties of ancient kings, +among whom the most important are: Menes, founder of Memphis, Shoofoo +or Cheops, Shafra or Chephren, and Mycerinus, builders of the pyramids +of Gizeh, and the two Theban monarchs, Osirtasen I. and Amenemha III., +by whom the tombs at Beni Hassan, the Labyrinth and Lake Moeris were +constructed. According to Bunsen these fourteen dynasties date from 3623 +to 2547 B.C. + +The second period is marked by the invasion of the Hyksos, or Shepherd +Kings, of whom there were three dynasties. They remained in power until +1625 B.C. and were a warlike and destructive race, leaving no permanent +traces of their occupation. + +The third period is the most brilliant in Egyptian history, extending +from 1625 to 525 B.C., and comprising nine dynasties of great conquerors +and builders. The best known of these are: Amosis, Thothmes III., Sethi +I., Rameses II. (the Great), called also Sesostris, and Rameses III. +Under these kings the great temples of Luxor, Abydus, and Karnak were +erected and the arts were assiduously cultivated. + +The Persians under Cambyses occupied the country in the year 525 B.C. +They were expelled a century later, but were again victorious in 340 +B.C., and remained in possession until the conquest of Alexander the +Great in 332. This fourth period was as unproductive in works of art as +had been that of the Hyksos dominion. + +After Alexander, the Ptolemys ruled until the close of the first century +before Christ. Their government promoted the cultivation of the arts and +industries and formed the fifth and last period in the history of ancient +Egypt as an independent state. + +Of these five epochs there are, therefore, only three—namely, the first, +third, and fifth—during which architecture flourished, and these three in +reality form but one long period in the history of an art which remained +almost unaltered, scarcely either improving or receding, from the +remotest times to its last day. + +Our knowledge of ancient Egypt has been chiefly derived from +bass-reliefs, mural paintings and hieroglyphics. The latter were +unintelligible until the discovery of the Rosetta stone by the French +consul Champollion, in 1798. This was part of a stone tablet bearing +three inscriptions, one in hieroglyphics, one in the Cursive letters used +by the lower classes, and the third in Greek. By means of this the old +alphabet was reconstructed and all the ancient inscriptions deciphered. + + + _TOMBS_. + +The most important monuments of the first period are the pyramids, the +oldest of which were built between three and four thousand years before +Christ. + +There remain about a hundred of these in the vicinity of the ancient +city of Memphis, extending over a considerable extent of country, and +others are found in Thebes and at Meroë in Ethiopia. There have been +many theories advanced upon the subject of their origin and purpose, and +many arguments set forth seeking to prove that they were observatories, +temples, granaries, meteorological monuments, or tombs. Nearly all modern +authorities agree upon the last as the most probable solution of the +problem, not only from the sarcophagi and mummies found within many of +them, and from inscriptions relating events in the lives of important +personages which adorn the walls of some of their inner chambers, but +from the fact that these buildings are never found beyond the confines of +cemeteries. + +In erecting these monuments, the Egyptians usually selected a site upon +a rocky plateau, on which a space equal to the superficial area required +for the base was made level, a mound being left in the centre which was +bonded in with the masonry. Below this platform a sepulchral chamber and +connecting passage were hollowed in the rock. The pyramid was built over +this chamber and contained one or more additional apartments, reached +from the outside by narrow and inclined corridors. It was generally +constructed with blocks of limestone, in successive steps receding at +an angle varying from forty-five to seventy degrees. The outside was +afterward cased with slabs of polished syenite, upon which inscriptions +were engraved or painted. The interior chambers and corridors were +likewise lined with polished granite, sometimes so mathematically jointed +that a needle could not be pushed between the stones. Ceilings were +formed by inclined slabs resting against each other or the walls were +corbelled inward until they met. + +The entrances to the passages were invariably closed and concealed, and +portcullises of heavy granite blocks, sliding in grooves, were placed +at intervals along the corridors, the more effectually to preserve the +sepulchre from violation. Nearly all have, nevertheless, been entered +and rifled, so that but little is left to aid the archæologist in his +researches. Fragmentary inscriptions and local observations compared +with the accounts given by Greek and Latin authors have, however, +resulted in the piecing together of what may be presumed to be an +accurate history of the pyramid-builders. The three largest pyramids +are situated at Gizeh, a small village near Cairo, and are respectively +those of Cheops, known also as Suphis or Shoofoo, Chephren or Shafra, +and Mycerinus. + +The following table shows the dimensions given by two of the best +authorities: + + SIDE OF BASE. PERPENDICULAR HEIGHT. + + Sir G. Col. H. Sir G. Col. H. + Wilkinson. Vyse. Wilkinson. Vyse. + Cheops 756′ 764′ 480′ 9″ 480′ 9″ + Chephren 707′ 9″ 453′ 454′ 3″ + Mycerinus 364′ 6″ 208′ + +All of these are oriented and the entrances are all on the North sides. +This is a rule applicable to all the pyramids except that of Sakkarah, +which is placed without reference to the points of the compass and was +probably erected at a much later date. + +The first or Great Pyramid contains one subterranean chamber, reached by +a passage some three hundred feet long, and two other apartments above +the level of the ground, the one above the other, called the King’s and +Queen’s sepulchres. The entrance to the connecting corridors is placed 45 +feet above the ground and 23 feet away from the true centre in order to +deceive explorers. The Queen’s Chamber is about 18 feet square by 20 feet +in height, and is placed directly under the apex of the pyramid. It is 67 +feet above the ground, and 71 feet below the King’s Chamber. The passage +leading to the latter is 28 feet high, formed by corbelled walls. This +chamber is roofed by a flat ceiling and measures 34 feet in length by +17 in breadth, and is 19 feet high. The walls and ceiling are built of +finely polished granite, and the apartment contains a sarcophagus of +the same material. The weight of the superincumbent masonry is relieved +by five other compartments placed over the chamber, four of which are +covered by flat slabs, and the fifth by inclined stones resting against +each other. It was in this highest compartment that some hieroglyphics +scrawled in red ochre on the walls were discovered, by means of which the +name Shoofoo became known. Herodotus says that one hundred thousand men +were employed during twenty years in building the Great Pyramid, after +they had devoted ten years, previous to its erection, to the construction +of a causeway to the Nile, over which the stone was carried, which had +been brought down the river from the Arabian hills. + +Diodorus asserts that the number of workmen employed was upward of three +hundred and sixty thousand. + +The second pyramid contains two chambers, the most important of which is +on the ground level, partly sunk in the rock. Its dimensions are 46 feet +long by 16 in width, and 22 feet high. Within it a granite sarcophagus +was found, containing the bones of an ox. This discovery gave rise to +much speculation, as to whether the pyramids were not originally intended +for the sepulchres of the animal deities worshipped by the +Egyptians, the bull Apis in particular. The third pyramid was covered by +a casing of polished red granite, formed of blocks with bevelled edges. +There are several chambers inside, one of which contained a mummy and +case, now transferred to the British Museum. + +Near the pyramid of Cheops, on the same plateau, is the Sphinx. This +great statue, with a human head and the body of a lion, is carved in the +natural rock, deficiencies being made up by added masonry. Its dimensions +are colossal, the body being 140 feet long, and the face 30 feet high +by 14 feet in breadth. This mysterious creation was intended as the +representation of a god, and as such had sacrifices offered before it, +as the altars and temples erected beneath it attest. From inscriptions +upon a stone found near by, it is known that the Sphinx was called +Hor-em-khoo, “The Sun in his Resting-place.” The head was originally +surmounted by a royal helmet, the face had a beard, fragments of which +have been unearthed, and it is otherwise badly mutilated. This fanciful +creature has doubtless much affinity with the winged bulls and lions of +the Assyrian epoch. + +The Egyptians also buried their dead in smaller tombs, in subterranean +vaults, and in catacombs excavated in the rock of mountainous regions. +A great number of these smaller tombs were built in the vicinity of +ancient Memphis and are now commonly called “mastabahs.” In arrangement +they were nearly all similar, the sepulchre consisting of three parts: a +temple overground, a pit or well, and a subterranean chamber. The temple +was in the shape of a frustum of a pyramid, the walls inclining inward +at an angle of seventy degrees. It contained one or several apartments, +used as places of assembly for the relatives and friends of the deceased, +who came at stated intervals to hold services and to bring offerings +of a suitable character. A list of these occasions was placed over the +entrance, and on a second tablet or stella, inside, the name, titles, and +virtues of the dead were recorded. The walls were brilliantly painted, +domestic and religious scenes being the usual subjects depicted. The +well-opening was usually concealed and filled with masonry. Its sides +were formed of slabs of granite down to rock level and then excavated in +the rock, sometimes thirty or forty yards below the surface. From the +bottom of the pit a doorway, usually walled up, opened into a chamber +containing a stone sarcophagus, in which the mummy was placed. + +The finest excavated grottos are found at Beni Hassan and in the +neighborhood of Thebes. Those at Beni Hassan follow the type of the +“mastabah,” having the assembly hall, the well, and the chamber beneath, +all being hollowed out of the rock. The sides are decorated with columns, +architraves, and cornices, in imitation of constructive architecture, and +the ceilings are cut out to represent vaults, the uncarved +surfaces being adorned with paintings and hieroglyphics. The columns are +especially interesting, as having evidently furnished the Greeks with +the model for their Doric temples, and the order has in consequence been +called the proto-doric. They have a diameter of five feet and are sixteen +feet high; the shaft has sixteen sides with flutings and is surmounted by +a tile or abacus. Besides these, there are other columns with capitals +in the form of a lotus or papyrus bud, which are more commonly found in +Egyptian temples. + +The tombs of the kings at Thebes are arranged on a different principle; +they consist of long sloping corridors opening into chambers and halls, +and penetrating in a continuous line into the mountain rock. There are +several groups, the most important of which is situated in the valley of +Biban-el-Molook, or the “Gates of the Kings.” The tomb of Sethi I., the +father of Rameses II., discovered by the explorer Belzoni in the earlier +part of the century, is the finest example, the sculpture and paintings +which it contains being very remarkable for their execution and of great +historical interest, as they illustrate very completely the manners and +customs of the ancient Egyptians. Every effort had evidently been made to +conceal the tomb, for not only was the entrance closed and covered with +loose rock, but the first chamber, reached by a succession of passages +and steep staircases, had been walled up and the four sides painted, so +as to have the appearance of being the limit of the extent +of the tomb. The hollow sound, caused by hammering on the walls at one +point, led the explorer to continue his efforts, which were rewarded by +the discovery of several more halls and chambers, terminating in a great +vaulted chamber, thirty feet long, containing an alabaster sarcophagus. +It has been conjectured that many of these excavated grottos were +occupied as residences by the kings and great personages of the empire +during their lifetime, and converted into sepulchres after death. The +custom of relatives meeting at intervals in an assembly hall connected +with the tomb does not seem to have prevailed here as at Memphis, but it +is not improbable that the great Theban temples were used, if indeed they +were not erected for this purpose. + +The great mass of the people were not honoured by such magnificent tombs, +but were buried in subterranean vaults in the necropolis (Greek, “city of +the dead”) attached to each great town. The largest are those of Saïs, +Sakkarah near Memphis, Thebes, and Abydus. These underground galleries +were reached by deep wells, and often contained several stories of small +chambers in which the embalmed bodies were placed, together with vases, +statuettes, and other votive offerings. There were also cemeteries in +which the animals worshipped by the Egyptians were buried, containing +thousands of embalmed birds and reptiles, particularly the ibis and +crocodile. The Apis mausoleum at Sakkarah, where the sacred +bulls were interred, is one of the most important, the chambers and +galleries being excavated in the rock and covering an immense area. The +mausoleum was connected with the Serapeum, a temple above ground, where +the living bull was worshipped as a deity. + + + _TEMPLES._ + +There are two classes of Egyptian temples—those hollowed out of the +mountain rock, commonly called speos, and those built upon the open +plain and distinguished by the term “hypæthral” (Greek, “under air”). +The most important of the latter are the temples of Sethi I., at +Abydus; Amun re, at Kooneh; the great and small temples of Medeenet +Haboo, erected by Rameses III. and Thothmes II.; the Rameseum or +Memnonium, of Rameses II.; Luxor and Karnak, at Thebes; and the temples +of Denderah, Edfou, and Philæ, built by the Ptolemys. All of these +are similar in general plan, consisting of a greater or less number +of courts, halls, and sanctuaries, which in each case are placed “en +suite,” that is, one opening into the other in a continuous line, the +larger apartments being in about the centre of this line and gradually +diminishing in size, the last chamber being the smallest. As the main +characteristics of the largest temples apply in a modified form to +the smallest, a description of a complete temple would seem to be +the best way of explaining the usual arrangements. A wall of crude +brick usually enclosed the whole structure, which was surrounded by a +sacred grove, or temenos. This wall was entered by an outer gate, or +pylon, built in the shape of a frustum of a pyramid, and surmounted by +a coved cornice, the doorway having perpendicular or slanting jambs. +From this an avenue, or dromos, bordered with sphinxes with human or +rams’ heads, led up to the propylæa, or towers. The latter resembled +the outer pylons, but were on a larger scale, containing staircases +leading to upper terraces. They were spaced a short distance apart to +admit of a passage between them, which was entered through a second +gateway similar to the first. The sides of these buildings were usually +elaborately painted, and rings were inserted in the masonry to hold +the poles upon which the royal banners were hoisted. This second +entrance was often flanked by two obelisks—long tapering monoliths with +pyramidal summits, covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions recounting +the dedication of the temple by the king to his favorite divinity. +These obelisks were sometimes ninety feet high, and mounted upon +square blocks. They were not always of equal size, probably owing to +the difficulty of obtaining single stones of such enormous length. It +is of interest to note that their sides were made slightly convex in +order to prevent their appearing concave, which would be the effect +had they been left quite flat. A second set of towers, or propylæa, +with staircases, came next, with a court or area intervening. On each +side of this court a colonnade was generally placed; and sometimes +before the entrance to the towers two colossal statues of the king, +represented seated, with his hands resting upon his knees in the +conventional attitude of repose. The most famous are those known +as the Colossi of Memnon, which stand on the plain of Thebes. They +were probably in the court of the temple of Amunoph III., of which +scarcely any vestige now remains. They are fifty feet high, mounted +upon pedestals. One of them is called the Vocal Memnon, as, in ancient +times, it gave forth sounds at the break of day—a phenomenon more +easily explained as a trick of the priests, than by natural causes. + +Beyond this court there was usually an inner vestibule, with columns +forming porticos on the four sides; those opposite the entrance being +connected by stone screens, reaching half-way up, forming a shaded +anteroom, or pronaos, to the great hall of assembly, which was the next +apartment. + +The shafts and capitals of the columns varied in different buildings. +The plain cylinder, carrying an inverted bell decorated with palm or +other smaller leaves, or a capital in the shape of the lotus flower were +the commonest forms. A column, representing the stems of water-plants +bound together with rings, and swelling out at the top in the place of +the capital, was also often employed. Besides these, statues of kings, +or shafts surmounted by the heads of Isis or Osiris, were +used as supports. The architrave, or beam, did not rest directly upon the +capital, but upon an intermediate block. This block, when on the heads of +deities, was in the shape of a miniature pylon. The cornices were formed +of a deep cove and fillet decorated with winged asps. + +Some idea of the size of these inner vestibules, or peristyles, may be +formed from the dimensions of that in the great temple of Medeenet Haboo, +which measures 123 by 133 feet, and has a height of 39 feet 4 inches. +Each of the porticos of the East and West sides is supported by five +columns; those on the North and South by eight Osiride pillars, having a +circumference of 23 feet and a height of 24 feet. + +The great hall of assembly, which adjoined the vestibule, was generally +the finest portion of the temple. The architraves supporting the roof +rested upon a great number of lofty columns, which in the centre rose +to a greater height, in order to obtain a clerestory, by which the +hall was lighted. The largest of these is in the temple of Karnak, +measuring 170 by 329 feet. The central avenue consists of twelve +columns, 62 feet high by 11 feet 6 inches in diameter. Besides these +there are one hundred and twenty-two others, 42 feet 6 inches in height +and 28 feet in circumference. The lintel over the doorway by which it +is entered measured 40 feet in length. The sanctuary was contiguous +to the great hall, and terminated the suite. This consisted of a +chamber, either occupying the whole of the rear space, or +isolated by corridors on each side, with smaller sanctuaries opposite. +In many of these, altars and statues have been found, some of the former +formed of a single block, hollowed at the top and pierced through from +top to bottom, so that sacrifices placed upon them could be consumed +apparently without ignition, by means of fires kindled in subterranean +vaults. + +In connection with the halls in the temple of Abydus and elsewhere +there were a number of vaulted chambers; the vault not being formed of +a series of true arches, that is, with joints radiating to a common +centre, but consisting of stone beams placed one beside the other, and +hollowed out on the under side. The arch, however, was not unknown to +the Egyptians—there are stone vaulted tombs at Sakkarah of the time of +Psammetichus (650 B.C.), and crude brick arches have been found at Thebes +dating as far back as the period of the eighth dynasty (2925 B.C.?). The +antiquity of the arch has been the subject of much debate, owing chiefly +to the fact that the Greeks made no use of it; recent explorations have, +however, shown that this constructive expedient was known both in Egypt +and Assyria many years before it was adopted by the Etruscans, to whom +its invention was long attributed. + +The exterior walls of all temples were built on a batter, sloping inward +at an angle of about seventy degrees and with scarcely any openings. +The inside walls were perpendicular, and decorated with bass-reliefs and +paintings. These were often of a most elaborate character, and it is from +them that so much has been learned concerning the ancient history of the +country. + +The rock-cut temples of Nubia are laid out on much the same plan. They +usually consist of a pronaos, naos, and sanctuary, forming a suite, with +an entrance marked by colossal statuary hewn out of the side of the +cliff. Some have a dromos of sphinxes, propylæa, and a peristyle court of +masonry preceding the excavated portions. The temple of Wady Sabooah is +the best example of the latter. Of the former none can compare with the +Great and Small temples of Aboo Simbel, or Ipsambool, which are of the +time of Rameses the Great. + +The smaller of the two is dedicated to the goddess Athor, the Venus of +the Egyptians. The exterior is ornamented with six statues of deities +recessed in the rock, each measuring thirty-five feet in height. In the +interior there is a first hall, supported by square pillars, opening into +a corridor, flanked by smaller halls, leading to the sanctuary. + +The front of the Great temple is adorned with four statues of the king +seated upon his throne, each sixty feet high. In the great hall there +are eight Osiride pillars, upward of thirty feet in height. The sides +of the speos are carved with bass-reliefs, representing the conquests +of Rameses the Great. There are some sixteen smaller chambers, the +suite terminating in the sanctuary, which contains an altar and four +statues—the three deities, Amun re, Phre, and Phtah, with the king +seated in their company. + +Under the headings tombs and temples are comprised the chief +architectural works of the Egyptians. Besides these there were one or two +gigantic constructions, famous in antiquity, but which have now almost +disappeared. Of these, the Labyrinth and the Lake Moeris were the most +important. The former appears to have been an immense structure, half +palace, half tomb, built by Amenemha III., of the twelfth dynasty. It was +built on three sides of an open square, measuring about five hundred feet +on the side, consisting of numerous chambers and courts, in two stories, +one above and the other below the level of the ground. At the open end +was placed a large pyramid, of which the ruins still remain. Herodotus +admired the Labyrinth more than any other of the Egyptian buildings, +declaring it to surpass the pyramids in labour and expense. Near by was +the artificial Lake Moeris, formed to retain the Nile waters during +the inundation, for the purpose of irrigating the country surrounding +Memphis, during the dry season. It covered an immense area; tradition +says 450 miles in circumference. The banks were fortified with massive +masonry, and the waters distributed by means of locks and sluices. + +The Egyptians appear as a civilized nation, having a scientific, +artistic, and political knowledge of no mean order, at a +time when the greater part of the world’s inhabitants were but a step +removed from the level of ignorant savages, and when, according to a +generally accepted chronology, the world itself had existed but a few +hundred years. The construction of the Pyramids reveals a building +capacity which has rarely been rivalled, requiring not only immense +mechanical power, but an accuracy of judgment and calculation in the +adjustment of blocks of granite weighing many tons, not simply piled one +above the other, but perfectly jointed and polished, and so disposed that +passages and chambers were roofed over and their ceilings relieved from +superincumbent weight by ingeniously contrived compartments, one above +the other, and closed by sliding doors of monolithic stones, the handling +of which could only have been successful by people well versed in the +theories of equilibrium and support; and yet all this was done at a date +which the best authorities agree in saying could not have been later +than three thousand years before Christ. Their temples show an equally +advanced erudition, and the paintings and hieroglyphics with which the +walls of these buildings are adorned give a faithful representation of +the customs of a people acquainted with the minor arts and sciences and +the appliances requisite for agriculture. + +The admiration with which we may regard the excellence of so ancient an +art is tempered when we find that it contained no element of progress. +The monuments of the eighteenth dynasty, though numerous +and imposing, scarcely differ from those of the preceding period, and +even in the days of the Ptolemys, who encouraged the native art, there +was nothing attempted but a repetition of the old methods. From beginning +to end the arts were so fettered by conventionality and dogmatic laws, +opposed to originality or change, that the only improvements made were in +mere mechanical execution. + +A great prevailing thought seems to have actuated this people,—that of +death and eternity. Their aim in erecting their buildings was to render +them quasi-eternal, and by embalming the bodies of the dead they even +sought to perpetuate the semblance of life. Their kings at the beginning +of their reigns commenced the construction of their own sepulchres, +employing hundreds of workmen and immense expenditure of the national +funds for the purpose, and countless thousands passed their lives in +hollowing temples in the mountain rock and in carrying huge blocks +from great distances for the building of the pylons and hypostylic +halls of the Nile, in which durability and massiveness were considered +all-important. + +Egyptian architecture, simply from the enormous scale of everything +it produced, was always dignified and it had also the merit of severe +simplicity; but mere size can scarcely be rated as an artistic quality +of a high order, and on that account it cannot compare favourably with +the art of the Greeks, who were probably inspired by what +they saw in Egypt, but who, in their own work, succeeded in combining +the qualities of majesty and beauty without resorting to the use of +extraordinary materials. + + + + + III. + + ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE. + + +It would, perhaps, be reasonable to suppose that in India, where the +Aryan race had its origin, the earliest traces of dawning art would be +found. It has, however, been fairly well established that all remnants +of very ancient art, which may have existed there in former times, have +now virtually disappeared, and that at present there are no remains in +Hindostan of a remoter antiquity than the second or third century before +the Christian era. + +The architecture of India loses much of its interest for us from the fact +of its having had no influence upon the origin or development of the +European styles of building, which, starting in Egypt and Assyria, formed +a continuous chain, each linked with its predecessor and successor down +to modern times. + +The Indians were, in fact, never a migratory or colonizing race of +people, and their architecture was a distinctly native production, +executed in accordance with the rules laid down by the priests in their +sacred books, having no affinity with the constructive principles of the +Western world and showing no trace of the arts practised by +Western nations, except in the slight resemblance of a few mouldings and +fragments of sculpture. + +The chief structures of the country are temples, pagodas, and dagobas, +which are found in many different parts of the peninsular and adjacent +islands, resembling each other in general style, but with some local +peculiarities which have caused them to be usually classified in certain +comprehensive divisions, of which the following are the most important: + +The Buddhist style, including the stambhas or lats, a species of +commemorative pillar, the stupas or topes, of which the best examples are +found at Sarnath and Manikyala, and the viharas of Bengal. + +The Dravidian style, exemplified in the temples of Chidambaram, Tanjore, +Combaconum, and Madura, and the rock-cut temples of Mahavellipore, and +those known as the Kylas at Ellora. + +The Indo-Aryan, or Northern, comprising the temples of Kanaruc, +Bhuwaneswur, Jajepur, and Cuttack, in the province of Orissa. + +The stupas, or dagobas, were a form of structure specially erected for +the purposes of Buddhist worship. They were sometimes built in the +shape of a square tower upon rising ground, of which that at Sarnath, +north of Benares, is the best known. The more important, however, are +cylindrical and surmounted by a semicircular dome. These are usually +erected on artificial mounds or tumuli, and are constructed either with +jointed stones or with rough blocks bedded in cement. The interiors are +of solid masonry, with the exception of a small square chamber, used as +a repository for sacred emblems, the walls of which are continued up to +the top of the dome. The stupa at Manikyala, is of great size, being +upward of eighty feet in height, and measuring some three hundred feet in +circumference. The base of the building is in the form of a cylinder, six +or seven feet high, supporting an attic decorated with pilasters; above +this the walls recede, and are capped by a hemispherical dome. There are +a great number of dagobas in Ceylon, in the mountainous districts. They +are usually placed in a walled enclosure, and surrounded by commemorative +pillars. Smaller constructions of the same description are found in the +interior of some of the temples, being placed where the baldachins, or +altars, would be placed in Christian edifices. + +The rock temples of India are of two classes, the one consisting of +grottos hollowed in the mountain side, and the other of a series of +monolithic buildings cut bodily out of the solid rock, and detached from +the surrounding hill plateaus by wide excavated areas. + +The former, resembling the speos of Egypt, consists of long galleries, +divided into aisles by piers of the natural rock left at regular +intervals to sustain the superincumbent mass. A recess or sanctuary is +placed at one extremity, containing the statue of the divinity to whom +the temple is dedicated. In some cases the interior is terminated by a +semicircular apse with a hemispherical vault, and the entrance preceded +by a vestibule containing votive figures, the whole forming a plan very +similar to that of the Latin basilicas, which will be described in a +subsequent chapter. The grottos are frequently excavated in several +stories and connected by corridors and ramps. + +The walls or sides are ornamented with rude sculptures, representing +various forms of animal life and monstrous creations of native fancy. The +piers or pillars are generally either square or octagonal, decorated with +mouldings and flutings, and having well defined capitals and bases. The +capitals usually support a stone beam or bracket, evidently in imitation +of those used in wooden construction, in which a similar expedient would +be employed to distribute the sustaining power over a wider surface +than that directly above the column or post. This imitation of wooden +forms, which we have already noticed in Egypt, is found universally in +all ancient constructions showing that in nearly every country wooden +architecture was employed before stone. + +The group known as the Kylas of Ellora, is the finest example of the +temples fashioned both inside and outside from the solid rock. + +The whole edifice is monolithic and situated in an oblong court formed by +a trench excavated “vivo saxo” on the four sides. The exterior surfaces +are richly carved, and the piers shaped to represent elephants, lions, +and fantastic creatures supporting the superstructure on their backs. +The court is entered from a monumental porch, the upper story of which +is connected with a small chapel by a bridge. This chapel is flanked by +two colossal elephants, and by two columns or towers standing isolated +on either side. A second bridge leads from this to the hall of Shiva, +the chief room in the suite, which is divided by sixteen columns, with +corresponding pilasters on the walls. At the farther extremity is the +sanctuary containing the statue of the presiding divinity. Beyond this +are open terraces, surrounded by chapels. The great hall is connected +laterally with subterranean chambers in the surrounding cliffs, reached +also from excavated corridors which follow the perimeter of the court, +the mass above being sustained by square piers spaced at short distances +apart. + +The inside walls are decorated with bass-reliefs and the ceilings +ornamented with stucco relievos, which were originally brilliantly +painted. The height of the hall of Shiva is about fifty feet, the +hillside opposite to it being about ninety feet high. + +These temples may be said to be the most remarkable and unique +architectural productions to be found anywhere. They are examples of +long-continued perseverance and patience, and can only be the result +of a preconceived design which must have been thoroughly studied in +all its elaborate detail before the first stroke was given toward +its realization. The unity of conception and execution exhibited in +such works is truly wonderful, and it is not astonishing that the +superstitious natives should attribute their creation to Visvakarma, +the heavenly architect. On the other hand, there are but few practical +lessons to be learned from their examination. Such methods are not +possible in our day, nor if so, would they be desirable. Architecture +of this kind is scarcely more than wholesale sculpture, and as such can +in no sense compare favourably with the grace of form and scientific +construction which we see in the works of Greek and Gothic artists. + +The Pagodas are the most important of the buildings constructed with +jointed materials. They consist of vast enclosures containing numerous +religious and domestic edifices. There are often double or triple +series of enclosing walls of great height and thickness. The sides are +usually placed so as to face the points of the compass and each contains +a monumental entrance, richly sculptured, and adorned with bands of +embossed copper. + +The chief buildings within are the temple proper, or vimana, and a +number of hypostylic halls with small sanctuaries dedicated to different +divinities. + +The form of the vimana differs in the North and South of India. In both +cases it is pyramidal, but while in the Southern temples the plan is +rectangular and the elevations marked by a series of horizontal stories +and mouldings, in the North the exterior surfaces are convex and the +outlines curved, showing vertical instead of horizontal divisions. The +lower story, containing the idol, is usually a hollow cube of granite, +and serves as a base to the pyramid above, which is most frequently built +of brick with stucco facing. + +The halls are composed of a great number of columns of varied design, +placed in parallel rows. The ceilings are formed by stone beams or slabs +resting upon the columns. The central aisle is frequently wider than the +others and is roofed over by a corbelled vault. + +A tank of sacred water surrounded by an open colonnade is not uncommonly +placed within the enclosure, the waters being used by the infirm for the +healing properties which they are supposed to contain. + +The pagodas of Tanjore, Combaconum, and Madura are among the finest and +most celebrated. They were built between the fifth and eleventh centuries +of the Christian era, and should hardly, therefore, be described among +the ancient buildings of the world, were it not that they are linked in +with the chain of the older Indian art too closely to be separated from +it. + +In the period corresponding to the Middle Ages of Europe, Mahometan +architecture was introduced in India and many beautiful buildings were +erected in a new style blending the foreign art with the native ideas +and taste, but offering a marked contrast to that which preceded it. +Although China was one of the oldest of civilized countries it contains +but few monuments of great antiquity. The temples and palaces, being +built of wood, were exposed to fire and decay, and were often pulled down +and rebuilt. With the exception of the great wall and of the numerous +bridges crossing rivers or arms of the sea, there are no important stone +constructions to be found there. + +The latter are formed of huge granite piers, spanned by massive stone +lintels, requiring the united labour of thousands of men to convey them +from the quarries to their destination and to set them in place. In the +mountains the ravines are bridged by iron chains suspended from cliff to +cliff. + +The great wall was built as a frontier protection, and extended the +entire length of the boundaries of the country. It has always been kept +in repair, although obviously absurd as a fortification in modern times. +It is of great thickness, and upward of twenty feet in height. The +foundations are of stone, and the upper part of brick with stone facing, +the joints of which are extremely accurate. At short intervals there are +towers, placed so that the middle distance between any two is within +arrow-shot. + +Chinese wooden buildings are all much alike, whether temples or palaces. +As a rule, they have but one or two stories; they are surrounded by +porticos, consisting of wooden columns mounted on stone bases, without +capitals, which are replaced by a species of bracket. The roofs +project considerably, and their angles are turned up, this form being +undoubtedly borrowed from the old tent habitations, which were composed +of hides stretched tightly on bamboos. The tiles with which they are +covered are semicylindrical in shape and are enamelled with bright colour. + +The celebrated taas, or Buddhist towers, are of similar construction. +They are generally octagonal, and from six to ten stories high. Each +story is set back from the one below, and has a balcony and projecting +roof, with bells hung in the angles. The walls are covered with tiles or +paintings. A high staff is placed on the top and connected with angles of +the roof by chains. + +The tower of Nankin, known as the Porcelain Tower, was the most famous. +It was erected in 1431, and but recently destroyed. + +The Chinese have always excelled in artificial or landscape gardening. In +this work they build airy bridges, with open-work balustrades, pavilions +highly ornamented and enriched with painting and gilding, and boundary +walls with circular openings, disclosing vistas of great beauty. + +Their commemorative gateways are of interest, as they have a central +opening and a smaller one on each side, like the Roman triumphal arches; +the heads are square, however, with brackets in the corners. The upper +parts are ornamented with figures in relief and inscriptions recording +the virtues of persons to whose memory they are dedicated. +Although communication existed between China and the countries bordering +upon the Mediterranean from remote ages, Chinese architecture, like +the Indian, was without influence upon that of Europe. It is only in +Western Asia that the first forms of building are discernible, which +were subsequently imitated or followed in European constructions. The +most important of these are situated in Mesopotamia, the fertile region +comprised between the Tigris and the Euphrates. + +The political histories of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia are generally +treated separately, but the architecture of each belongs to one style, +which may be called the Assyrian, for its distinguishing characteristics +remain the same in all the great cities which were in turn the capitals +of reconstructed kingdoms and empires. + +It may be considered in four chronological divisions: In ancient Babylon, +from 2234 B.C. to 1520 B.C., at Wurka and Mugheyr; in Nineveh, from +the fourteenth to the seventh century B.C., at Nimrod, Khorsabad, and +Koyoundjik; in the second Babylon, during the seventh century and after +the capture of the latter by Cyrus in the year 538 B.C., in Persia, at +Persepolis, Passargadæ, and Susa. A renaissance of the art may be traced +in Sassanian buildings erected eight centuries later. + +The citadels, palaces, and other important structures of these cities +were usually built upon artificial mounds or terraces, strengthened by +massive walls. The materials used were bituminous bricks, +cemented with bitumen, slabs of gypsum anchored with copper nails and +bands, and timber for roofs and columns. Stone and gypsum or alabaster +were employed in Nineveh and in the cities of Persia. In Babylon the +only available material was bituminous clay, and consequently all the +buildings there were built of brick. At the present day nothing remains +of these but irregular mounds, from which but little can be gathered +toward an understanding of what their appearance was when entire. + +Wood was probably used to a great extent, and was naturally most easily +destroyed by the fire of invading armies. The roofs, formed of thick +layers of earth carried on beams, in falling in, buried the lower +portions of buildings, and it is probably due to this fact that the +bass-reliefs have been preserved. + +The surfaces of the bricks were frequently enamelled in colours, and the +wood-work was probably brilliantly painted, as traces of pigments have +been found upon the more durable materials. + +But little was known of Assyrian art prior to 1843, when the excavations +of Botta, the French consul at Mosul, followed soon after by those +conducted by Layard, brought to light many ruined buildings, in which +bass-reliefs, inscribed stones and metals, and other important relics +were found, enabling historians to form a consecutive account of the +government, warfare, and arts practised by a people whose +cities have lain buried and whose very name has almost been forgotten for +over two thousand years. + +The explorations were made in Nimrod, Koyoundjik, and Khorsabad. The +palace of Asshur-bani-pal, erected at Nimrod, in the ninth century B.C., +is situated upon a terrace, or platform, approached by a wide staircase, +and preceded by two gates decorated with winged bulls. + +These winged bulls, or lions, were placed as the guardian deities, at +the portals of all the great Assyrian palaces, after the manner of +the Egyptian sphinxes, not standing isolated like these, however, but +built into the masonry, one side or the front and one side only, being +carved. The head was human, with long beard and hair, and surmounted by a +helmet, the wings large and proportioned to the body. As Sir Henry Layard +remarks, it would have been difficult to find more fitting symbols to +express at once the wisdom, power, and ubiquity of a supreme being. + +The chief apartments of the palace are a large assembly hall, 152 +feet in length by 30 feet in width, and a number of smaller chambers +and banqueting-halls, ranged around an open court. The walls of the +great hall were decorated with bass-reliefs, representing triumphal +processions, carved upon slabs of gypsum eight feet in height. + +The palace of Esarhaddon, erected in the seventh century, on the same +terrace, contains a large hall, 165 by 62 feet, divided in +its length by a wall, surmounted by a gallery of columns. One of the only +well-preserved ramps which has been discovered was that leading to this +palace. + +At Koyoundjik, opposite Mosul, the palace of Sennacherib was found at +the Southwest corner of a mound a mile and a half in circumference. It +contained a vast number of courts and halls, decorated with bass-reliefs +and winged bulls, and two colossal statues. + +The palace of Sargon at Khorsabad, erected in the year 704 B.C., is among +the best preserved. Like the others it is placed upon an artificial +terrace, enclosed by a wall a mile long on each side. It was defended by +a citadel of eight towers with doors flanked by winged bulls. The palace +was reached by a long, narrow passage leading to a court and entered +through three great gates. The bulls of the central portal were 19 feet +high. On each side were two bulls, 13 feet high, with the figure of a +giant strangling a lion between them. + +The halls and chambers were grouped around two great courts measuring +about 350 by 200 feet. The hareem formed a separate set of buildings, as +did also the stables and outhouses. The walls were of great thickness, +evidently for coolness. They were decorated with slabs of alabaster, +enamelled tiles, and designs painted on stucco. + +There has been much speculation on the method of roofing these rooms, +some believing that circular vaults were employed and others that wooden +beams, supported on wooden columns, similar to the stone ones found in +Persian palaces, were used for this purpose. The latter theory seems the +more probable, as the local manner of building is the same as this at +the present day. No traces of columns remain, however, and the spans are +in many cases too great to be roofed by single pieces of timber. One of +the most interesting discoveries made at Khorsabad was the gate of the +city, the jambs supporting a semicircular arch over a span of eighteen +feet. The gate was a double one having two separate passages, one for +vehicles and the other for pedestrians: the marks of chariot-wheels still +remaining in the pavement of the former. The sides were ornamented with +winged bulls, and the archivolts of the arches were decorated with blue +and yellow designs in enamelled tiles. + +It had been long supposed that the Etruscans were the first to make use +of the true semicircular arch (_i.e._, formed of wedge-shaped stones or +bricks, with joints radiating to a common centre), but this discovery, +and the finding of pointed arches in the sewers of Babylon, by Layard, +places the date when both these expedients were known, at a much remoter +period, though even these are probably much later than the examples found +in Egypt. + +No complete example of a Chaldean temple has been found, but there are +several the lower stories of which are sufficiently well preserved to +give an accurate idea of their size and details, and in the +tomb of Cyrus at Passagardæ, in Persia, we have probably a model on a +small scale of one of these buildings when entire. This tomb consists of +a platform of six steps, eighteen feet high, surmounted by a rectangular +chamber. The latter has a doorway and a ridged roof abutting against +pediments. + +It has been surmised that all the temples were like this, consisting of a +chamber or cella built on the summit of a several-storied structure, each +story being either concentric and reached by a ramp winding around the +four sides or placed farther to one side than that immediately below it +and approached by straight flights of stairs. + +The oldest is probably that at Wurka, dating as far back as 2000 B.C., +known as the Bowariyeh. There are the remains of two stories, the lower +occupying about 200 square feet. It is probable that a third story or a +cella was placed above these, but nothing positive can be said on the +subject, owing to the extremely ruinous condition of the building. The +temple of Birs Nimroud, probably identical with the tower of Babel, is in +a more satisfactory condition, the upper story having been preserved by +a process of vitrification. The lowest story occupies a square measuring +272 feet on the side, each of the upper ones, of which it is supposed +there were originally six, being 42 feet less. + +For the materials used in its construction we have the scriptural +authority: “Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they +had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar” (Gen. xi.); slime +being probably bitumen. + +M. Place discovered the remains of a tower at Khorsabad, with a winding +ramp, which he thinks was originally seven stories in height. The walls +were strengthened with buttresses and decorated with sunken panels, +and from traces of colour found upon them it has been supposed that +each floor was painted in a different hue. The area covered by the base +is about one hundred and fifty square feet, and the total height was +probably one hundred and thirty-five feet. + +The ruins of Persepolis are the best preserved of the ancient Persian +buildings, those at Susa and Passagardæ being in too bad a condition to +offer much that is interesting. + +They are situated in the plain of Mardacht, upon a terrace partly formed +of masonry, and partly cut in the rock of the adjoining range of hills. +The wall is composed of huge blocks of stone fitted together without +mortar, but with the finest of joints. The terrace is reached by a +splendid double flight of steps, upward of twenty feet in width, and on +a grade easy enough to permit of the passage of long processions without +interruption. At the head of the stairs is a propylæum, or outer gate, +flanked by colossal human-headed bulls. Beyond this, a second staircase, +ornamented with a triple row of bass-reliefs, gives access +to the Chehil Minar, or great hall of Xerxes. + +This building occupies a rectangle about three hundred and fifty feet +long by three hundred in width. It consists chiefly of a central hall and +three lateral porticos, the roofs of which were sustained by 72 columns, +36 in the hall and 12 in each of the porches. + +Thirteen of these are still standing, and the position of all the others +is well defined by broken bases or shafts. They are of two different +kinds, the one having a capital composed of double-headed bulls, and the +other a capital with volutes, not placed horizontally as we see them in +classical columns, but vertically and resting on a complicated series of +mouldings. These last may have been also surmounted by the double-headed +bulls, as without such an addition the columns are shorter than the +others, which measure 67 feet 4 inches. The beams which they sustained, +rested upon the body of the bull between the two heads. + +The shafts of the columns at Persepolis are fluted and taper upward from +the bases, which are elaborately ornamented with mouldings. + +It is probable that the Greek Ionic capital was derived directly from the +Persian voluted model, as the order originated in the Greek colony in +Asia Minor. + +The Chehil Minar is the finest building on the platform, the other halls +of Darius and Xerxes being smaller, and though a hall containing 100 +columns has been found, it is inferior in height, the total altitude not +exceeding twenty-five feet. + +The hall of Darius contained sixteen columns, forming a square, preceded +by a portico with eight more. The walls have long since disappeared, but +the façade of the building is reproduced upon the face of the rock-cut +tomb of Darius in the neighbouring hill called Naksh-i-Rustam, so that a +restoration of the structure as it originally appeared is easily made. + +This tomb shows the four front columns of the porch with double-headed +capitals, sustaining an entablature, above this is placed an attic +decorated with bass-reliefs and a figure is represented standing on the +top in the act of sacrificing on an altar. + +The stone buildings of Persia are generally supposed to be reproductions +of the wooden constructions of Assyria, as the character of the art is +similar in both, the bass-reliefs and winged bulls of Persepolis being +practically identical with those of Nineveh. + +We find no traces of Assyrian art for several centuries after the +erection of the buildings just described, though it is probable that it +had influence in all Eastern edifices erected during the interval, not +only in Asia, but in Greece and later in Byzance. There was evidently +a revival of Assyrian taste during the dynasty of Sassanian kings who +reigned between the third and seventh centuries of our era. The remnants +of their palaces are found at Firouzabad, Al Hadhr, Serbistan, Ctesiphon, +and Mashita, where we find large halls vaulted and domed and ornamented +in a manner directly traceable to the ancient buildings in Assyria. The +chief peculiarity of these structures lies in the use of the horseshoe or +elliptical arch, which is found nowhere else. The porch of the Tak-Kesra +at Ctesiphon consists of a great elliptical tunnel-vault, 115 feet deep, +85 feet high, over a span of 72 feet. + +There is more or less Roman influence in the details of the Sassanian +palaces, but it is not altogether certain whether the knowledge of +domical construction which they exhibit was derived from, or was not +itself parent to, Byzantine art. + +Comparatively little is known concerning this Assyrian style, but it +contains interesting elements, and it may be that its constructive forms +are susceptible of a greater development in our own time. + +Asia Minor, Palestine, and Cyprus are fields covered with the evidences +of the glory of past ages, but the ruin and desolation everywhere is +complete. The case of the temple of Jerusalem, where not one stone +remains upon another, applies in most instances in places which have +formerly been great cities, filled with magnificent buildings which were +their pride in the day of their prosperity. + +The temple of Solomon was situated upon Mount Moriah, and was built to +accommodate the Levites, to offer a place of assembly for +the people, and as a temple for the worship of the priests. The two +sanctuaries were richly decorated with polished cedar and gold, with +columns and cornices of bronze, and divided by linen curtains embroidered +with purple and scarlet. + +The peculiar formation of the hill upon which it was built, required +immense walls of the most substantial character to be raised from the +valley below to enlarge its summit, so as to afford sufficient space for +the erection of the various courts. “It was built of stone, made ready +before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, +nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building” (2 +Kings vi., 7). + +The temple itself is supposed to have been 60 cubits long, the porch +20 cubits, the Holy place 20 cubits; the width was 20 cubits and the +height 30 cubits. The porch, however, was 120 cubits high. (The cubit is +estimated to equal from 10 to 20 inches.) + +The temple underwent several profanations, and at last was utterly +destroyed in the reign of Jedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar, 580 B.C. After +laying in ruins 42 years, the foundation of the second temple was laid +by Zerubbabel and in breadth and height was double that of Solomon’s. +This second temple was plundered and profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, +and afterward rebuilt by Herod. It was considerably larger than its +predecessor and was made of marble and of the most costly +workmanship. It became the admiration and envy of the world, but, as our +Lord predicted (Mark xiii., 2), it was completely demolished by Titus, +A.D. 70. + +Many restorations of the temples of the Greek colonists in Ionia +have been attempted, but they are based on historical descriptions, +inscriptions on coins, and other uncertain records, and are too +conjectural to be accepted as accurate. There are, in fact, but few +architectural remains sufficiently well preserved to be of interest to +the architect, excepting the temples at Baalbek and Palmyra which are of +the Roman period. + +There are several groups of tombs, the most important being in Lycia. + +These are of interest, as they illustrate more completely the transition +between wooden and stone building than any other examples. There are +two kinds, the one consisting of sarcophagi standing isolated, and the +other of excavations in the mountain-sides. The former are composed of +a stylobate or pedestal, serving as a base to a coffer ornamented with +uprights and cross-pieces and panelled doors imitating exactly a wooden +original. The roofs are curved, having in section the form of a pointed +arch, being probably the earliest instances of its employment as a +decorative feature. + +The tombs cut in the face of the rock are of a similar description, +having the same carpentry framework. The upper parts are terminated by a +low pediment or by a row of stone logs supporting a horizontal moulding. + +Later on during the Greek occupation, these wooden forms were abandoned +and replaced by porticos of the Ionic order. + +In various parts of Asia Minor, there are remains of tombs similar to +these erected by the Pelasgi and Etruscans, which will be described in +another chapter. + + + + + IV. + + GREECE. + + +The oldest architectural works in Greece are those erected by the +Cyclopes or Pelasgi, a race who came originally from Lycia, and moved +gradually Westward, peopling successively the islands of the Grecian +Archipelago, the Peloponnesus, Sicily, and Italy. At Tiryns and Mycenæ, +in the province of Argolis, are to be seen the most remarkable remains +of the buildings of this people, which were always grouped together in +walled cities, serving as strongholds to protect the inhabitants of the +province from the wild tribes with whom they came in contact. These +cities were generally placed upon a rocky eminence, difficult of access +and commanding a view of the surrounding country. + +There are remains of high walls at Tiryns built of huge stones +extracted from a neighbouring quarry and put together without cement +or mortar, the interstices being filled with smaller stones. From the +fallen blocks lying scattered at their base it is estimated that they +originally measured sixty feet in height. At intervals these walls are +pierced by triangular doors and windows, the sides of which are curved, +forming arches obtained by corbelled or overlapping instead of wedged +stones. These Cyclopean constructions date from the seventeenth century +before Christ. + +The Acropolis of Mycenæ is entered by a doorway formed of two vertical +monoliths of great size supporting a lintel, and called the Gate of the +Lions, from the carving above, representing two rampant lions separated +by an engaged column. + +This city was surrounded by high fortified walls, and contained a place +of assembly for the people and rude habitations, the remains of which are +still visible. There is also still to be seen a conical or bee-hive-like +structure, commonly called the Treasury of Atreus. This cone is formed +by overlapping stones, curving gradually until they meet at the top of +the vault, which is capped by a large block. The doorway by which it is +entered is composed of slanting jambs of stone, sustaining a massive +lintel. This lintel is relieved from direct weight above by a triangular +opening, obtained by a similar process of corbelling. The Cyclopean +remains are of interest to architects chiefly on account of this system +of corbelled vaulting employed in their construction, which would never +have been adopted had their builders been acquainted with the voussoir +principle. + +Dr. Schliemann has recently excavated the Acropolis of Mycenæ, and found +there many interesting objects of gold and pottery. Bronze nails with +flat heads have also been found within the Treasury of Atreus, which +were evidently used to attach copper plates with which the interior was +lined. Pausanias speaks of a similar treasury belonging to King Minyas, +at Orchomenos, and other remains of the same description have been +discovered in different parts of the Morea, bearing a resemblance to the +ruined cities of Etruria. + +In fact, the various tumuli found in Western Europe, Sardinia, Sicily, +Greece, and Asia are all of the same type, and were a form commonly +adopted by the ancient nations. + +When we come to the epoch preceding Roman architecture, we will examine +the character of Etruscan buildings, which were similar in many respects +to the works of the Pelasgi; at present the subject of most interest is +that of the great century of Greek art, for it marks the transition from +Crude Art, to which belongs all that has preceded, to Fine Art, in which +the Greeks excelled. + +Greek buildings were erected according to the rules of three systems +or orders, of the origin and character of which Vitruvius gives the +following account, which, if not strictly accurate, is at least as +reasonable as some of the versions which have been advanced. “Dorus, King +of the Peloponnesus, having had a temple erected to Juno, in Argos, it +was built by chance in the manner which we call Doric; afterward, in +several other towns, other temples were built in this same order, having +no established rule for the proportions of their architecture. About the +same period the Athenians established several colonies in Asia Minor +under the guidance of Ion, and they called the country which he occupied +Ionia. These colonists built Doric temples there at first, of which the +chief was that of Apollo, but as they did not know what proportion to +give to the columns, they sought the means of making them at once strong +enough to sustain the building, and of rendering them at the same time +agreeable to the eye. For this they took the measure of a man’s foot as +the sixth part of his height, and on this measure formed their column, +giving it six diameters.[1] + +[1] We have already seen that there are columns at Beni Hassan, in Egypt, +resembling so closely the Greek Doric, that it is reasonable to suppose +that the Greeks borrowed their conception of the order from the Egyptians +and refined it. + +“Some time afterward, wishing to build a temple to Diana, they +endeavoured to find a new method, equally beautiful and more appropriate +to their purpose. They imitated the delicacy of a woman’s form; they +heightened the columns, gave them a base like the twisted cords which +bind a sandal; they carved volutes in the capital to represent that +portion of the hair which falls to the right and left of the head; +they put circles and rings on the columns to imitate the rest of the +hair which is braided and caught up on the back of women’s heads; and +by flutings they imitated the folds of the dress. And this +order, invented by the Ionians, took the name of Ionic. + +“The Corinthian column represents the delicacy of a young girl, at +the age when the figure is slender and best suited to the display of +ornaments which may add to her natural beauty. The invention of its +capital is due to the following incident: A young girl of Corinth, who +was about to marry, having died, her nurse placed some little vases which +she had been fond of during her life, in a basket on her tomb, and, +in order that the weather should not spoil them, she placed a tile on +the basket. This, having been laid accidentally over an acanthus-root, +it came to pass, when the leaves began to grow, that the stems of the +plant crept up the sides of the basket and, meeting the corners of the +tile, were forced to curve downward, and to take the form of volutes. +Callimachus, a sculptor and architect, struck by the harmonious result, +imitated it in the capitals of columns which he subsequently made in +Corinth, establishing on this model the proportions of the Corinthian +order.” + +[Illustration: + + DORIC. IONIC. CORINTHIAN. + +THE GREEK ORDERS.] + +At this stage it is necessary to explain briefly that an order consists +of a column, the pedestal upon which it stands, and the entablature, or +top member, which it supports. The column is subdivided into the capital, +or head; the shaft, or body; and the base, or foot. The entablature +has likewise three divisions: the architrave, or beam sustained by the +columns; the frieze, or space occupied by the cross-beams; and the +cornice, or line of stone marking the extremity of the rafters. These +were originally made of wood and subsequently imitated in stone.[2] + +[2] Viollet le Duc maintained that the Greek buildings were in no sense +an imitation of wooden constructions, but gave no very satisfactory +explanation of the origin of their component parts. It is perhaps best +to conclude that they were adaptations of pre-existing edifices to new +materials. + +The Greek Doric column had no base and rested upon a series of steps in +place of the pedestal. The ends of the cross-beams were marked upon the +frieze by a projection, upon which were cut three grooves into which +the rain-water ran and fell in drops to the ground. These drops were +represented in stone underneath, completing an ornament which was called +a triglyph (meaning in Greek, three grooves). The spaces intervening +between the triglyphs were called metopes. The inclination of the sides +of the roof formed the lines of the triangular termination which we call +the pediment. + +The Greeks employed three methods in their Doric, namely, the hexametric, +heptametric, and octometric, that is, a proportion of six, seven, and +eight diameters to the height. + +We have seen what were the component parts of the Ionic and Corinthian +orders in the quotation from Vitruvius. + +In Greek temples the shafts of the columns not only tapered considerably, +but the vertical lines of an entire building inclined to imaginary +points determined by the intersection of lines following +the inclination of the end columns. The mass was thus in the form of +the frustum of a pyramid, being intentionally so designed to bind the +parts of the building together in a manner to withstand effectually the +oscillation caused by earthquakes, which occur frequently in this region. + +The city of Athens contained numerous examples of each of these orders, +and a brief account of the buildings of that city will be the best means +of showing their principal characteristics. + +The city proper, in which were the chief temples, was built upon a +rocky hill rising from the valley of the Illysus, lying between the +mountain-chains of Pentelicus and Hymettus, and situated about five miles +from the port of Phalerum, on the Gulf of Ægina. This Acropolis (rock +city) is approached by a broad flight of stairs leading to the Propylæum, +or outer gate, with high pedestals on each side which were formerly +surmounted by equestrian statues. + +The Propylæum is composed of a porch of six Doric columns, giving +access to a large vestibule flanked by two outer halls. This vestibule +is divided by a flight of steps, placed between six Ionic columns on +pedestals, supporting nine marble beams or architraves which carry the +weight of the roof. + +Beyond is a second porch, opening on the plateau of the Acropolis by +means of five doors of different proportions. The lintel of the central +or largest door measures 23 feet, while the architraves are +17 feet in length and of single stones. + +The Athenians prided themselves greatly upon the vestibule of the +Propylæum, and believed Pericles, by whose direction the building was +erected, to have been divinely inspired. The details and proportions +of the two orders here combined are of great beauty, and show the most +refined study. From the farther porch, the Parthenon (meaning in Greek, +virgin), or temple of Minerva, is seen to the right, exhibiting a fine +perspective view of its North and West elevations. + +The temple is raised upon a platform surrounded by steps, and is +rectangular in form, composed of a cella, or oblong room, surrounded by +an open portico. It measures 228 by 101 feet, having eight Doric columns +on the front and seventeen on the flank, inclusive of the corner ones. + +Ictinus and Callicrates were the architects, under the general +supervision of Phidias, who designed the gold and ivory figure of Minerva +within. + +The Doric is of the hexametric order, having an approximate proportion of +six diameters of the column to its height. + +The pediments of the Parthenon were decorated with rich carvings in +high relief, representing, in the one, the presentation of Minerva to +the assembled gods by her father Jupiter, and in the other, the contest +of Minerva and Neptune for the naming of the city. In the metopes were +depicted the battles of the Athenians with the Centaurs, and scenes in +the lives of Perseus, Theseus, and Hercules, in the admirable sculpture +of Phidias. + +The building stood almost intact from the fifth century before Christ +to the seventeenth century of our era, when it suffered greatly from +Venetian artillery, and in modern times its richest sculpture was torn +from it under the Turkish régime, by order of Lord Elgin, who obtained +permission from the authorities to remove it to the British Museum. One +of the ships containing the marbles was sunk off Cape Matapan. Even in +its ruined condition the Parthenon stands to-day a great example of the +finest architecture the world has known. + +On the plateau of the Acropolis are the three contiguous temples of +Pandrosus, Erictheus, and Minerva Polias, and the temple of the Wingless +Victory (Niké Apteros), of the Ionic order. + +The temple of Pandrosus is virtually a porch attached to the larger +temple of Erictheus. It is composed of six female figures or caryatides +upon a high base, supporting an entablature without frieze. These figures +are of exceeding grace and beauty, and are models of the sculptor’s art. +The single cella was probably divided into three, to which access was had +separately by the several porches. The ceilings of these temples are flat +and decorated with sunken panels, ornamented with egg and dart moulds. +According to Diodorus Sicculus, the temple of Erictheus was +erected in his honour by the Athenians, in gratitude for his having +instructed them in the worship of Ceres, Goddess of Agriculture. While +Pausanias states that it contained the miraculous spring created by +Neptune, who shared in its dedication. + +There are three windows in the wall of the cella—unusual features in +Greek architecture—and the levels of the temples are different, evidently +so arranged, with a view to distinguish them the more completely. + +The temple of the Wingless Victory is supposed to have been erected +where Ægeus fell from the wall upon seeing the black sails of his son’s +ship returning after his victory over the Minotaur. Others again assert +that it was built without reference to site and so-called because the +Athenians considered victory would never leave them, and consequently +needed no wings. The temple is composed of a cella and two porches of +four columns each, supporting a beautifully decorated entablature. + +At the base of the Acropolis stood the resident portion of the city, +containing also other temples and public buildings, which are still +standing. The most important are the temple of Theseus, the Tower of the +Winds, the theatre of Bacchus, and the monument of Lysicrates. Besides +these there are many Roman buildings, but they belong to a subsequent +period. Plutarch says that the Athenians under Cimon erected the temple +of Theseus on his return from Crete, and that it is of older construction +than the temple of Minerva. It has six columns in the front and thirteen +in flank, supporting marble beams the extremities of which rest on the +inner wall and correspond on the other with the triglyphs on the outer +face. The metopes had carvings representing the exploits of Theseus. The +temple stands at the base of the Acropolis to the North; it is similar +to the Parthenon in many respects, being of the same Doric order, though +less rich in sculpture. It is the best preserved of all the monuments, +having suffered but little during the twenty-two centuries it has existed. + +The Tower of the Winds, erected by Adronichus Cyrrhastes, is an octagonal +structure surmounted by a frieze, upon which the eight winds of heaven +are carved in allegorical figures. The roof is a pyramid of marble slabs +and was at one time surmounted by a bronze triton holding a switch, which +answered the purpose of a vane, but has since disappeared. The building +was used as a water-clock. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS.] + +The choragic monument of Lysicrates, commonly called the Lantern of +Demosthenes, is a circular structure of the Corinthian order. The spaces +intervening between its six columns are closed by panels of a single +stone upon which trivets are carved. The stone roof is decorated with +scales and surmounted by a finial of delicate workmanship. On this was +placed the tripod of the choir which had been successful in the Olympian +contest of the year 375 B.C., according to inscription. + +There are other Corinthian buildings scattered throughout Greece, but +this is generally taken to be the best example and its proportions +followed. The carvings of the frieze depict the exploits of Hercules, who +is represented clothed in the traditional lion’s skin. + +On the opposite slope of the hill are the ruined chairs and benches of +the theatre of Bacchus, fronting an open stage. In building a theatre, +the Northern slope of a hillside was generally selected for the site, +in order to avoid the direct solar rays. Seats were provided for the +audience by cutting circular tiers in the rock and a marble stage, +profusely ornamented, was erected facing them. The stage was raised in +order that the orchestra might not interfere with the view of the actors, +and a portico adjoining it, served as a promenade during the intervals in +the performance. + +The stadium, or circus, of Athens was formed in this way, taking in plan +the shape of a horseshoe. It was here that the public games and races +took place, the upper or circular end being occupied by the seats of the +judges. It belongs, however, to a later period, having been constructed +in the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. A few years ago the King of +Greece caused the stadium to be excavated, and several marble chairs and +seats were discovered. + +Each city of importance possessed a Palæstra, or gymnasium, in which +were rooms for bathing in hot or cold water, for the wrestlers to anoint +themselves with oil and fine dust, and a school for young lads. The +building was enclosed by a portico and surrounded by pleasure-grounds in +which the public exercises took place. + +The private dwellings were of one story in height, surmounted by +terraces and divided by courts. The women’s apartments were separated +from the men’s, and the larger houses contained banqueting-halls with +accommodation for musicians and singers. The furniture consisted of +tables in wood and choice stone, vases, candelabra, tripods in bronze, +and rich Oriental carpets. + +Externally the houses were painted brilliantly and decorated with +wreaths, garlands, and arms. Outside the entrance door stood the statue +of the god of the household—Jupiter, Minerva, or Mercury. + +The richer citizens preferred country villas to city residences, which +they surrounded with ornamental gardens and woods. The groves of the +Academy where Plato held his school in the shade of the olives, outside +the city gates, are probably the most celebrated of the latter. + +The dead were buried in necropoli without the city, and their place +of interment marked by tombs in the form of pyramids or +funeral pyres, or more simply by a stella, or upright tablet, inscribed +with the name and virtues of the deceased, and upon which were carved +scenes in his life. In the colonies in Asia Minor the system of +excavating chambers in the rock was adopted, the entrance to them being +marked by Ionic columns supporting entablatures and pediments. + +The public buildings of Athens were built of white marble from the island +of Paros and the mountain quarries of Pentelicus, resembling in its +fracture the purest loaf-sugar. The sun and rain have stained them to a +tawny red during the many ages which have passed over them, and nearly +all trace of the various dyes, with which they are supposed to have been +coloured, has disappeared to-day. + +The Greeks built their walls of bonded masonry, the vertical joints +coming in the centres of the stones above and below, and they were +frequently additionally strengthened by metal anchors. In walls of +unusual thickness it was customary to construct the inside and outside +faces first and fill the intervening spaces with loose stones and mortar, +with an occasional through stone to connect the parts and bind them +together. + +The joints were sometimes emphasized by grooves, but this ornament was +used more frequently in Roman work. + +Until its introduction by the Romans the arch was rarely, if ever, +employed, and the limit of inter-columniation was restricted by the +necessity of finding stones of sufficient length to form the architraves. + +The roofs were generally of wood, covered with terra-cotta tiles or sheet +metal, and left open at intervals for the admission of light. This is, +however, a disputed point, as the wood, being perishable, has left no +positive proofs of the method employed. It appears that an awning or sail +was stretched over these openings when services were being held. It is +probable that in many instances there was no light admitted, except that +from the entrance door. The effect of a religious ceremony performed in +the temples by the artificial light of torches, with the flickering fires +from the tripods and votive stands reflected upon the ivory and gold +of the statues, and the smoke wreathing weirdly above the heads of the +assembled multitude, must have been infinitely more impressive than if +lit by the colder light of day. + +The Greek colonists carried the principles of their architecture with +them, leaving monuments of their genius wherever they established +themselves. Of the temple of Diana, at Ephesus, nothing but a few fluted +drums and scattered fragments remain to-day. It was the most magnificent +temple of the Ionic order, erected with lavish expenditure, and decorated +within with panels of cedar wood. It was burned and pillaged by the +Persians. + +At Agrigentum, in Sicily, and Pæstum, in Southern Italy, there are +several Doric temples of massive proportions. Of these the temples of +Concord, Jupiter, and Neptune are the most notable. The columns are +shorter and their capitals broader than the Athenian type, and in one +instance there are two orders superposed, within the cella, to support +the roof. + +The Greeks erected buildings in many parts of Southern Europe, in Asia +Minor, and in Egypt, and in later times, even under the Roman conquest, +they remained the masters of the arts, teaching their principles and +supervising the erection of the monuments of Rome. The race was, indeed, +peculiarly endowed with a genius for creating the beautiful, for though +we have but scant information on the subject of Greek painting, we have +preserved to us examples of sculpture which have never been surpassed or +even equalled, and in architecture, though many more elaborate buildings +have since been erected, nothing has ever been produced worthy of +comparison with the harmonious proportions and majestic simplicity of the +temples of Attica. + + + + + V. + + ETRURIA AND ROME. + + +Etruria was peopled, from remote ages, by the indigenous inhabitants, and +by colonizing races from Asia and Greece. + +To the latter may be attributed the chief architectural works of the +country; the ancient Etruscan walled cities resembling, in their general +construction, those of Tiryns and Mycenæ. + +Judging from the remains found upon the soil at the present day, the +Etruscans used their knowledge of the laws of building principally in the +erection of tombs. Of temples there now remain no traces; but, according +to Vitruvius, they were composed, as a rule, of the rectangular chamber, +or cella, of the Greeks, which was divided into three parts, and preceded +by a porch of Tuscan columns. The origin of the latter he describes as +follows: + +“The Greek colonists, having brought to Etruria, the Tuscany of to-day, +their acquaintance with the proportions of the Doric order, which was the +only one as yet used in Greece, they employed this order there during a +long period, in the same manner as in the country where it originated; +but finally they changed it in several respects; they lengthened the +column, and added a base to it; they altered the capital, simplified the +entablature, and, thus changed, it was adopted by the Romans, under the +name of the Tuscan order.” + +Etruscan tombs varied with the nature of the districts in which they were +erected. In the flat portions of the country they consisted usually of an +earthen cone raised upon a circular foundation of masonry, with one or +more chambers within for the reception of the dead. The largest of these +tumuli was that called the Cucumella, at Vulci. + +In the mountains, where material was abundant, it was customary to bury +the dead in a square stone chamber, surmounted by a pyramidal roof, and +entered by a doorway ornamented with the Greek architrave. There are +several examples of these at Castel d’Asso. + +A third form of sepulchre was the hypogee, or underground tomb, the +entrance to which was marked by a colonnade of the Tuscan order, +carved in the face of the rock; the interior apartment being usually +rectangular, and reached by a staircase. The walls were decorated with +paintings, and the tomb filled with vases, tripods, arms, and other +votive offerings. The body was generally either placed in a stone +sarcophagus or laid upon a bronze bed. The ceilings in the older tombs +were either flat, being cut in the natural rock, with piers left as +supports, and ornamented with sunken panels, or constructed +of inclined slabs, resting against and sustaining each other. + +The corbelled vaults, similar to those of Mycenæ, were employed for +a considerable number of these buildings, but were subsequently +relinquished for vaults of voussoirs, or wedge-shaped stones. The +invention of the semicircular vault, the joints of which converge to a +common centre, was long attributed to the Etruscans, but we have seen +that recent discoveries have shown that it was already in use in Egypt +and Assyria many centuries before. + +This principle, however, was the chief feature of Etruscan architecture, +and its great legacy to succeeding styles. + +Etruria as well as Greece sent artists to Rome, and the conjunction of +the methods used in the two countries produced Roman art. + +“The Romans took from the Etruscans the semicircular arch, formed of +jointed stones; from the populations of the Campagna they obtained +the general arrangement of sacred edifices, the Greek orders, the +distribution and decoration of private dwellings. They drew thus from two +different sources, and endeavoured to unite two principles diametrically +opposed to one another—the principle of the Greek lintel and the Etruscan +arch. In doing this they show clearly that their ideas upon the arts were +but little better than those of pirates, whose acts are actuated by pride +rather than by taste, and who adorn themselves in spoils of distinctly +different origin, the mingling of which produces unseemly contrasts.”[3] + +[3] Entretiens sur l’Architecture. + +[Illustration: + + COLUMN. ENTABLATURE. + + PEDESTAL. BASE. SHAFT. CAPITAL ARCHITRAVE FRIEZE. CORNICE. + + WASH. + OVOLO. + ASTRAGAL. + CORONA. + ASTRAGAL. + CYMA REVERSA. + TENIA. + FACIA. + ABACUS. + OVOLO. + NECK. + ASTRAGAL. + FILLET. + TORUS. + PLINTH. + TUSCAN. DORIC. + +THE ROMAN ORDERS.] + +Illustration: + + IONIC. CORINTHIAN. + +THE ROMAN ORDERS.] + +[Illustration: COMPOSITE.] + + +In fact, the Greek orders, modified to suit the taste of the Romans, and +combined with the Etruscan arch and vault, formed the basis of all Roman +architecture. The scale of their buildings, however, was vastly greater +than that of those upon which they were modelled. The colonnades of their +palaces and the arcades of their aqueducts were to be measured by the +mile, the vaults of their baths were of prodigious span, and, in general +size and number, the edifices erected by the Romans exceeded anything +which had come before them. + +The Roman orders were five in number, namely, the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, +Corinthian, and Composite. + +The Tuscan we have already examined. The Doric was somewhat more +elaborate, having additional mouldings in the capital and base, and +the triglyph ornament in the frieze. The Ionic and Corinthian were but +modifications of the corresponding Greek orders. The Composite was of the +same proportion as the Corinthian, the capital being a combination of the +Ionic and Corinthian. + +The Corinthian order was the most generally used, its rich character +suiting the ostentatious ideas of the Romans. The superposition of +columns was a common method of indicating different stories, and +different orders were often employed where different-sized +columns occurred in the same building. + +In plan the Roman buildings were rectangular, polygonal, and circular, or +combinations of these geometrical forms. The materials used were local +stone, imported marbles and alabaster, and bricks, which were flatter and +longer than the form employed at the present day. The Romans excelled in +their mortars and cements, which were of a strength sufficient to make +their walls virtually of one mass. + +In bonding their stone they employed various methods, including those of +the Greeks. Of these, a favourite one was the building of exterior faces +only, and filling up the intervening space with broken stone and mortar. +In order to produce the greatest effect at the least cost, in the use +of marble, they resorted to panelling the external surfaces only with +thin slabs. Interiors were lined with stucco and frequently ornamented +with paintings, and the floors inlaid with mosaic. Roman mouldings were +sections of the sphere, differing from the Greek, which were hyperbolas +or parabolas. + +The chief constructions of the Romans were houses, temples, palaces, +amphitheatres, theatres, aqueducts, sewers, baths, triumphal arches, +tombs and commemorative structures, camps, bridges, and basilicas. + +[Illustration: PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN AT SPALATRO. + +(_From Durand._)] + +In, and in close proximity to, the Forum Romanum, or Campo Vaccino, are +admirable examples of nearly all these different buildings. The level of +the ancient market-place is several feet below that of the streets +of modern Rome, but in the excavated portions are to be seen the old +pavements of irregular stone slabs, laid upon concrete foundations and +worn with the wheels of chariots. + +Many ruined temples, the arches of Septimius Severus, of Titus and +Constantine, the palace of the Cæsars, the Colosseum, and the Baths of +Constantine are collected here within a stone’s throw. By taking up each +class of buildings separately, however, we will get a better idea of the +nature of Roman architecture than by a description of isolated buildings. + +Roman houses resembled in a measure the Greek, the different apartments +being grouped around inner courts. The rooms consisted of halls, +vestibules, banqueting-rooms, and sleeping-chambers, the women not being +separated from the men, as was the case in Greece. The courts were +surrounded by colonnades and in the centre a well was usually placed, to +receive the water from the roofs. Many of the houses were several stories +in height, but a limit to their altitude was fixed by decree. + +The excavations in Pompeii have uncovered many interesting specimens of +private dwellings, richly decorated with several paintings and having +elaborate mosaic patterns on their floors. + +In the city of Rome the palace of the Cæsars was the most notable example +of domestic architecture, but at the present day it is difficult to +discern among the débris and fallen walls what its original +plan may have been. Some paintings in the so-called house of Livia, upon +the plateau of the palace, however, show that the artists of the period +had attained a high degree of merit. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE PANTHEON AT ROME] + +Roman temples consisted generally of a cella or rectangular apartment, +preceded by a porch, the whole being raised on a platform, reached by +stairs and enclosed by a colonnade below. Occasionally there was a double +cella, with separate entrances and porches, as in that of Venus and +Rome; and there are two remaining examples of circular temples—that of +Vesta, on the Tiber, in Rome, and of the Sybil, at Tivoli—while still +another type, that of the Pantheon of Agrippa, had a circular cella and a +rectangular porch. + +The Corinthian order was the most frequently employed, that of the temple +of Jupiter Stator being the richest, while those of the Pantheon, the +Maison Carrée, at Nîmes, and of the temple of Antonine and Faustina are +admirable specimens. + +This last is one of the best preserved temples, being very nearly entire +at the present time; its frieze is of the most refined workmanship, +representing allegorical animals, plants, etc. + +The temple of Fortuna Virilis is a good example of the Ionic order, but +this order was never a favourite with the Romans. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATHS OF AGRIPPA CONNECTING WITH THE PANTHEON, +ACCORDING TO PALLADIO. + +(_From Durand_)] + +A debased form of Ionic is that of the temple of Concord, or Vespasian, +where the capital is altered to a considerable extent and a rope +moulding added. A remarkable constructional feature of this temple is the +relieving arch of brick, concealed behind the frieze, to diminish the +weight on the lintel below. + +The great drum of the Pantheon, enclosed by a circular vault, is one of +the earliest examples of domical architecture. A notable feature in it +is the absence of the keystone, which is replaced here by an open ring, +leaving an aperture for the entrance of light. The walls are pierced with +niches and relieved by immense arches. The pediment of the porch is one +of the most perfect remaining; in height its proportion exceeds that of +Greek temples. + +The temple of Diana, at Nîmes, is a remarkable structure, having three +aisles, the central one being decorated with niches and columns, which +support an entablature and a ribbed vault. + +The ruined temples of Baalbek and of Jupiter Olympius, at Athens, are +among the most colossal of this class of building. The Corinthian columns +of the latter measure upward of sixty feet, and their capitals are of +singularly fine workmanship. + +The Emperor Hadrian embellished Athens with numerous and splendid +buildings, which to-day have assumed the colour and ruined appearance of +the older constructions of the time of Pericles. + +Of the temple of Jupiter Olympius there are scarcely more than a dozen +columns standing of the original one hundred and twenty. The Turks +ground up many of them to make lime for their mortar. + +The Romans took their conception of the theatre from the Greeks. The +building was composed of two parts, the one devoted to the stage and its +accessories, and the other to the accommodation of the audience. The +stage was usually in the form of a rectangle, the longer side of which +formed the diameter of the semicircle, which was the plan of the second +part. The latter was composed of concentric seats in successive steps, +to which access was had by stairs radiating from the centre and leading +to an upper surrounding gallery. At the foot of these steps a space was +reserved called the orchestra (Greek, “dancing place”), usually occupied +by the senators. The stage, which was decorated with columns and niches, +was raised above the orchestra, and was connected with the actors’ rooms. +The wall at the back of the stage was carried up to the level of the +circular enclosing wall, and treated with superposed orders. The theatre +of Marcellus, in Rome, and those of Herculaneum, Arles, and Orange are +among the best examples. + +The most celebrated amphitheatre (amphi theatron, Greek, “double +theatre”) is that commonly known as the Colosseum, or Flavian +Amphitheatre. It is composed of the arena or oval space, occupied by the +combatants, and of the “visorium,” formed by concentric seats placed in +tiers, one above the other. + + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN AT BAALBEK.] + +It was capable of seating eighty thousand spectators, and upon its +arena four thousand gladiators have fought at a time. It was here that +before commencing their combats they came to the foot of the emperor’s +throne, saluting him with the celebrated cry, “Morituri te salutamus.” + +The substructure of the building consists of vaulted passages, +communicating with the visorium by numerous staircases, and with the +exterior by the doors called “vomitoria.” The arena was surrounded by a +ditch of running water, and under it were chambers in which prisoners and +animals were confined. + +The visorium was divided according to the rank of its occupants. The +upper classes occupied the “podium” or lower gallery, which extended on +either side of the emperor’s throne, at the extremity of the longer axis +of the building. For protection from the elements during performances an +immense sail was stretched over the building from posts inserted in stone +brackets at the top of the exterior wall. + +The heights of the three lower stories of the Colosseum are marked +externally by arcades and superposed orders with engaged columns, Doric, +Ionic, and Corinthian, and the fourth and upper one by Corinthian +pilasters. The entablatures of each order are carried around the entire +circumference of the building. + +Architects generally criticise this construction adversely, for “if, +on the one hand, the engaged columns might be supposed to serve as +buttresses and thus become a useful decoration, it must +be admitted, on the other, that the projecting entablatures carried +from column to column do more harm than good as regards the solidity of +the building. [The architrave having no longer the force of the Greek +lintel, being composed of several blocks supported by the arch below.] +The Romans, however, did not always falsely apply the true principles of +architecture. In the arena of Nîmes, for instance, the two superposed +orders which serve as buttresses between the arcades of the two stories +on the exterior of that building, are real buttresses. The lower order +is composed of projecting piers, the upper order of engaged columns; the +cornices follow the contour of each pilaster or column and do not form +those projecting belts which are placed so clumsily and uselessly around +such buildings as the theatre of Marcellus and the Colosseum of Rome.”[4] + +[4] Viollet le Duc. + +This amphitheatre was commenced by Vespasian and continued under Titus, +who dedicated it in the year 80 A.D. In the ninth century it was half +destroyed, and subsequently became a quarry, from which materials were +extracted for the construction of the Farnese palace and other buildings. + +A large part, however, is standing to-day, having been rescued from total +destruction by order of Pope Benoit XIV. + +There are celebrated remains of amphitheatres at Verona, Pola, Capua, +Arles, and Nîmes. Circuses and Naumachias belong to the same class of +buildings, the one serving for chariot and other races, and the other +for naval combats. The arena in each was oval in plan and from it rose +the successive tiers of broad steps upon which the seats were ranged. +At the top a portico decorated with statues enclosed the whole building. + +The Circus Maximus was the most important of these, containing numerous +splendid statues and obelisks, and covering a vast area. + +The aqueducts of ancient Rome stretched for miles across the Campagna. +The channel in which the water flowed was supported by one or more +arcades, superposed according to the height required. These arcades +consisted of round brick arches carried on substantial piers, and were +placed where possible upon the highest elevations of the country they +traversed. At intervals wide basins were provided for the collection of +sediment, and reservoirs received the water at their termination. From +the latter pipes supplied the baths and private dwellings. + +In France the famous Pont du Gard is a portion of an immense Roman +aqueduct formed of three rows of arcades, which supplied the city of +Nîmes. + +Bridges were constructed on the same principle; the arches increasing +their span according to the depth of the piers upon which they rested, +being generally of two stories, the upper one having double the number of +piers. + +The Roman bridges and aqueducts in Spain are among the most +justly celebrated, notably those of Segovia, Tarragona, and Alcantara. +Bridging rivers by boats was a common method in use by the Roman armies +under Julius Cæsar. We have also an account of a wooden bridge over the +Danube, constructed by Trajan. + +Under every street in Rome there ran vaulted sewers conducting all +impurities into the main artery, called the Cloaca Maxima, which in turn +discharged its contents into the Tiber. This sewer is one of the oldest +examples of the use of voussoirs, dating from the reign of Tarquinius +Priscus. It is covered by a triple vault, sustaining the street above. + +Agrippa conducted the waters of several streams into the sewers and +appointed inspectors to keep them in repair and good order. + +In the building of the baths of Rome, Agrippa, Nero, Vespasian, +Caracalla, Titus, Diocletian, and Constantine vied with each other in +the production of the most magnificent structures. They are to-day in a +hopelessly ruined condition, but from the numerous fragments of carved +marble and panelled stucco lying on their sites, and from the rich +paintings and mosaics of the baths of Titus and Caracalla, it is not +difficult to form an idea of their original splendour. + +It is not a little significant of what their rich decoration must +have been to note that such marvels of statuary as the Laocoon, the +Farnese Bull, and the Gladiators have been discovered within them. +Besides the necessary administrative rooms, these buildings +generally contained a frigidarium or cold bath, a tepidarium or warm +bath, and a sudatorium, circular in form and covered in by a dome. The +walls, built of brick, were pierced with niches and supported high cross +and barrel vaults of immense span. It has been conjectured that the +Pantheon was the entrance hall of the baths of Agrippa, the porch having +been added at a later period when the building was converted into a +temple. + +The chief commemorative structures were triumphal arches and votive +columns. The former were of two kinds, having either one main arched +opening, or a large central arch for vehicles and two lower ones on +either side for foot passengers. The arch of Titus in Rome is an +example of the first, its main arch being flanked by composite columns, +supporting a richly carved entablature, which is in turn surmounted by +an attic, inscribed with the dedication to the conqueror by the Senate +and Roman people. The bassi relievi employed in its decoration represent +the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus; a specially notable feature among +the spoils depicted being the golden candelabra with the seven sockets, +mentioned in Scripture history. + +The arches of Constantine and Septimius Severus are of the second +category. They are covered with rich sculpture and are of very beautiful +proportion. Famous arches are those of Orange in the south of France, +Beneventum, Ancona, Rimini, Pola, and Athens. Everywhere, +in fact, where a victory was to be commemorated, or the termination of a +great military road to be marked, it was customary to erect an arch. + +Another method of paying homage to great men was to erect columns +surmounted by their statues. The columns of Trajan and Antoninus in +Rome are especially remarkable. The former is the higher and of the +best workmanship. The pedestal upon which it rests is ornamented with +elaborate carvings representing the arms of conquered nations, and is +enriched at the four upper corners of its cornice by imperial eagles with +garlands suspended between them. A wreath replaces the torus or round +mould at the base of the column, and around the shaft is wound a ribbon +of sculpture, representing a triumphal procession, which terminates +at the capital. Isolated columns were also often employed for the +inscription of legal notices, as boundary-marks, or for marking military +limits. + +The gates at the entrances of the principal cities were similar to the +triumphal arches. There are two especially fine examples in France, those +of Autun and Treves. In these the attic story is replaced by a gallery +connecting the two flanking wings, which are several stories in height, +and contain chambers which it is commonly supposed were used as courts of +justice. + +Roman camps were regulated and arranged with military +precision, and were of two descriptions. The one, erected for temporary +use, was defended by a rude palisade of branches and a ditch, the other, +the “castra hiberna,” or winter quarters, was generally a permanent +structure, built of brick, containing within a square enclosure the +barracks, workshops, hospitals, and other necessary buildings. This +enclosure was divided by cross-roads, passing through gates in the outer +wall. The gate facing the enemy was called the porta prætoria, hence +prætorian camp. + +Necrological monuments were built in various forms, from the simple +tablet to the immense mausoleums of the emperors. Just without the walls +of Rome are still to be seen the remains of the sepulchre of Caius +Sestius, a large pyramid containing a chamber several feet above the +ground level. Farther out, on the Appian Way, is the tomb of Cæcilia +Metella, a cylindrical structure upon a square base, of considerable +magnitude. The exterior is simple, the only decoration being a series of +ox-skulls in the frieze. This building was probably originally surmounted +by an earthen cone, after the manner of the Etruscan tombs. + +The tomb of Augustus was constructed in a similar manner but on a larger +scale. The entrance was preceded by a porch and the exterior walls +contained niches. The conical mound above was planted with trees and +shrubbery. + +The Scipios were buried in stone sarcophagi in a subterranean +chamber, which has been but recently discovered. + +A curious monument was that of the Horatii, consisting of a rectangular +block of masonry, containing the sepulchre, surmounted by four stone +cones, grouped around a fifth and higher one. These probably had a +symbolical meaning, as a similar structure, called the tomb of Porsenna, +is said to have existed in Etruria. + +By far the most magnificent building of the kind was the Mausoleum, or +Mole of Hadrian, the ruins of which now go by the name of the Castel St. +Angelo. The tomb rose conspicuously on the banks above the Tiber, on +a square foundation; its two upper stories were circular in plan, and +decorated with colonnades and statuary, and the whole was capped by an +immense roof, terminated by a pineapple of bronze. + +The tombs of St. Helena and St. Costanza were circular structures similar +to that of Cæcilia Metella, the cone of earth, however, being replaced by +a dome. The interior of the tomb of St. Costanza was divided by columns +which sustained a vault connecting with the outer wall. + +The practice of burning bodies and preserving their ashes gave rise also +to the building of columbariums, rectangular structures containing in +their walls receptacles for funereal urns. + +In the valley of Jerusalem the hypogee was the form of sepulchre commonly +adopted, its entrance being decorated with a colonnade of +one of the Roman orders. + +Basilicas were the law courts of the Roman people and places of assembly +for the transaction of their daily affairs. On the exterior, these +buildings were surrounded by numerous courts and porticos, where the +merchants assembled daily to discuss their affairs or to await the result +of the trials conducted within. In the interior they contained a large +hall or nave flanked by side aisles, preceding a transept or further room +which was terminated by a semicircular apse. This apse was occupied by +the magistrate while presiding in the cases submitted to his decision. + +The ruins of the basilicas of Titus and Maxentius remain, at the present +day, in sufficient preservation to show that in the one a flat ceiling +of timber was employed, and in the other a system of intersecting vaults +similar in construction to those of the baths of Caracalla. There are +traces of several ancient buildings of this kind, but it is supposed that +many were pulled down by the Christians, who erected churches on their +sites, using the old basilica as their model. + +The plan was, in reality, but an improvement on that of the Roman temple, +the side aisles and transepts being naturally developed additions to the +older cella to which the apse had been added previously in many examples. + +The great administrative power governing the erection of +the buildings of Rome was one of the most remarkable features connected +with them. Architecture with the Romans was a means to an end, this +end being the construction of edifices suiting their requirements and +their desire for display. No scope was allowed for individual talent or +ingenuity, unless employed in the carrying out of a distinct programme, +laid down by those in power; each building forming part of a great +scheme, prevailing throughout the conquered world. + +In Greece architectural works were produced in the different cities and +states under the guidance of independent artists, with the co-operation +of their fellow-citizens who were eager to attain the true principles +of art; in Rome and the Roman world, art was entirely subservient to a +system of politics which ran through all departments. + +The vast wealth which flowed into the capital from tributary provinces +was the great mainstay which permitted the execution of so many vast +and expensive structures, forming a collection never surpassed. Roman +art corresponded with the national character, for it was coarse and +ostentatious, but at the same time vast and strong. The population +of Athens delighted in intellectual pursuits, in philosophy, in art; +it crowded the seats on the slope of the Acropolis to enjoy the wit +and satire of Æschylus and Sophocles, and the palæstra to witness the +development of bodily grace and dexterity, while the Romans flocked to +the Colosseum for the enjoyment of scenes of blood and carnage, to gaze +upon the slaughter of captives and the anguish of animals. The force of +their government, nevertheless, was unquestionable; their patriotism, +unlike that of the Greeks, was unaffected by civic jealousies or party +feeling; they trod rough-shod upon the nations, but they planted +everywhere the imprint of their heroic civilization and made their +capital the centre of the world, and left to it, for all ages, the proud +appellation of the Eternal City. + + + + + VI. + + THE EARLY CHRISTIAN STYLE. + + +After the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity, in +the fourth century, the Christians who, as a persecuted sect had +hitherto held their religious observances in hiding, in the catacombs +of Rome, adopted the basilica as the most convenient form of building +for the purposes of their worship. The bishop occupied a throne in the +apse, surrounded by the presbyters or fathers of the church, and the +congregation of the faithful filled the central nave. + +For several centuries this plan was but little changed, the only notable +additions to it being the continuation of the transept beyond the line +of the walls of the nave, thus making it cruciform; the occasional +substitution of double aisles, making five divisions in the body of the +church, instead of the original three, and the addition of a tower or +belfry. + +All subsequent churches, whether Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance were +constructed on but slight modifications of this original plan, which, in +fact, was itself evolved from that of the Roman temple. + +Illustration: PLAN OF THE OLD BASILICA OF ST. PAUL’S BEYOND THE WALLS. + + A - Apse + T - Transept + N - Nave + X - Narthex] + +The first basilicas erected +for Christian worship had double aisles; this form was, however, soon +discontinued, probably owing to the difficulty of observing the offices +of the clergy from the outer aisle. Of these St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s +beyond the walls, and St. John Lateran were the finest examples. The +first-named was built upon the site of the present cathedral, and was +removed in the sixteenth century to make room for it. Its dimensions +were of notable size, being about 380 feet long by 212 feet in width. +It was preceded by an atrium, or open court, surrounded by a colonnade, +in which the Christians met to transact their affairs. The basilica of +St. Paul’s was destroyed by fire in the early part of this century, and +a new structure resembling the old was erected in its place on a scale +of great magnificence. The columns of its Corinthian colonnade and the +floor are of polished marble and the wooden roof lavishly ornamented with +carving and gilding. The transept is enriched with mosaics, and contains +a baldachin over the altar, in which malachite and other choice stones +have been used unsparingly. + +A typical basilica was generally arranged as follows: The atrium or +quadrangular open court, surrounded by porticos, preceded the main +building, or was replaced by a porch composed of columns sustaining a low +roof which was called the narthex. Within, the structure was divided into +a nave, side aisles, transept, and apse. The nave (derived from “navis,” +a vessel, symbolical of that of St. Peter) was loftier than +the adjoining aisles, the upper wall being usually panelled with pictures +and pierced at the top by a range of windows, from which the Gothic +clerestory was derived later on. In one or two instances where the side +aisles had a second story or upper gallery for the women, the panels and +windows were placed in the outer wall. + +The interior lines of columns were usually of the Ionic or Corinthian +orders, having been taken from older buildings, but if new they were of +stouter proportions than the Classical models. These columns supported +either a continuous architrave or circular arches. + +Wooden doors, often covered by chased bronze, were hung in the main +entrance and the wall above was usually pierced by a round window or +bull’s-eye, afterward developed into the rose window. At the other end of +the nave a wide arched opening, called the triumphal arch, connected it +with the transept. + +An enclosure, separated from the body of the church by a balustrade, at +the upper end of the nave, contained the seats of the choristers and the +reading-desks. + +The altar was placed in the transept and was frequently surmounted by a +baldachin composed of four or six columns supporting a light dome. Behind +the altar in the centre of the apse was the throne (cathedra) occupied +by the bishop (episcopus), being raised by steps from the semicircular +stone seats (exedra) used by the presbyters, which were +covered with carpets. The walls of the transept and apse were inlaid +with mosaic inscriptions and pictures, in which the head of our Saviour, +the figures of saints and holy emblems were the chief subjects. Deep +blue, purple, and green were the prevailing colours and the letters +were of gold. The floors were decorated with mosaic patterns. The roofs +were either flat with sunken panels framed with mouldings and gilded +ornaments, or else showed the open trussed wood-work, though the latter +was the exception. Externally there was no attempt at enrichment, the +exterior generally offering a great contrast to the lavish internal +decorations. + +At the present day nearly all the basilicas have undergone +transformation, the old roofs have been replaced, the walls covered with +a modern adornment of pilasters and gaudy paintings, the colonnades have +been broken through to allow of entrances to side-chapels, or disfigured +by the heterogeneous decoration of the eighteenth century, and the +exteriors treated with renaissance façades. + +Nevertheless the general plan and arrangements have remained +substantially the same, and we have very interesting specimens of this +class of building in St. Maria Maggiore, St. Agnese, San Clemente, and +others, in Rome, San Appolinare, in Ravenna, the basilicas at Torcello, +in the Venetian lagoons, and later examples in St. Ambrogio, of Milan, +and St. Maria Sopra Minerva, in Rome. The basilica at Torcello was +built mainly from fragments of an older church upon the mainland at +Altino. The bishop’s throne is one of the most interesting and best +preserved examples we have. + +The Greek name for this, cathedra, was the origin of our term cathedral, +applied to churches containing the bishop’s seat, there being no +architectural distinction between the buildings. + +From the tombs of the Romans the Christians derived their conception of +the edifices which they used as baptisteries. Their exterior walls were +either polygonal or circular, and of severe simplicity. The interiors +were generally divided by a row of columns sustaining a round vault, +and forming a circular enclosure in which the font was placed. A wall, +carried on these columns, contained windows, and served as a lantern to +light the building. This wall occasionally supported a dome. San Stephano +Rotondo, in Rome; St. Angeli, in Perugia, and St. Vitale, in Ravenna, are +the best examples among the many found in Italy. + +San Stephano has a double range of interior columns, taken from Roman +temples, the one supporting an entablature, and the other a series of +arches. The church has been much modified by successive alterations, +and the interior is ornamented with curious paintings, representing the +sufferings of the martyrs. + +The baptistery of St. Angeli is smaller, but has preserved its +original form in a greater degree. + +[Illustration: ST. VITALE, OF RAVENNA.] + +[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA MEDICA.] + +St. Vitale is a type of structure much copied in subsequent buildings. +It is itself modelled on the so-called temple of Minerva Medica, +differing only in having an octagon instead of a decagon plan. Of this +Fergusson gives the following account: + +“It certainly belongs to the best days of the Roman empire, if, indeed, +it be not a Christian building, which I am very much inclined to believe +it is, for on comparing it with the baptistery of Constantine and the +tomb of St. Contanza, it shows a considerable advance in construction +on both of these buildings, and a greater similarity to San Vitale, at +Ravenna, and other buildings of that time, than to anything else now +found in Rome. + +It has a dome eighty feet in diameter, resting on a decagon of singularly +light and elegant construction. Nine of the compartments contain niches, +which give great room on the floor, as well as variety and lightness to +the general design. Above this is a clerestory of ten well-proportioned +windows, which give light to the building; perhaps not in so effective a +manner as the one eye of the Pantheon, though by a far more convenient +arrangement, to protect from the elements a people who did not possess +glass. + +“So far as I know, all domed buildings erected by the Romans up to the +time of Constantine, and, indeed, long afterward, were circular in the +interior, though they were sometimes octagonal externally. This, however, +is a polygon both internally and on the outside, and the +mode in which the dome is placed on the polygon shows the first rudiments +of the pendentive system, which was afterward carried to such perfection +by the Byzantine architects, but is nowhere else to be found in Rome. It +probably was for the purpose of somewhat diminishing the difficulties of +this construction that the architect adopted a figure with ten instead of +eight sides.” + +The plans of the temple of Vesta and of the baptistery of Constantine +have been placed here next to one another in order to show the +transposition of the columns from the exterior to the interior, which is +the chief distinction between the Roman circular buildings and Christian +baptisteries. + +[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF VESTA, SOMETIMES CALLED THE TEMPLE OF +HERCULES.] + +[Illustration: THE BAPTISTERY OF CONSTANTINE.] + + + + + VII. + + THE BYZANTINE STYLE. + + +Constantine and his mother St. Helena built churches in Bethlehem, +Jerusalem, and Antioch, and embellished Constantinople with numerous +splendid edifices. The Eastern basilicas preserved the same character +in their construction as those of Italy, but their component parts were +more homogeneous, the materials being specially prepared, instead of +being borrowed from ancient buildings. The first vigour of emancipated +Christianity found vent not only in the erection of edifices devoted to +its religious observances, but in the infliction of irreparable injury +upon the pagan monuments of Greece and Rome. Constantine brought many +fragments of these Classical buildings to the new capital, but they have +been destroyed, together with the palaces, churches, and baths which he +built there, in successive invasions, by fire, or by earthquakes. + +In Thessalonica there are two good examples of early basilicas—the old +mosque and the five-aisled church of St. Demetrius; and in Northern Syria +there are many admirable specimens. Of these the churches +at Rouheilia, Kalb-Louzeh, and Tourmanim deserve special mention. + +The latter is a particularly successful building, designed in the new +style growing out of the older Roman one, and is a model structure, being +constructed exactly in accordance with the requirements of the early +Church. + +In plan, the Syrian conventual buildings depart but slightly from that +of the basilicas of Rome, but in their interior treatment they show +a gradual secession from the rules which govern Classical buildings, +retaining only their useful and discarding their merely ornamental +features. + +When the seat of the empire had been transferred to Byzance, the +Christians carried with them the principles of the arch and the vault and +combined them in a new form of structure. This construction, differing +from that employed in Rome, combined with Eastern or late Greek forms of +ornament, produced a new style called the Byzantine. + +The distinctive feature of this method of construction was the placing of +the circular dome, not upon a cylindrical drum, as had been done by the +Romans in the Pantheon and other buildings, but upon four walls, square +in plan, surmounted by semicircular arches, with the intervening spaces +occupied by pendentives. To each side of this central square was joined +a nave of the same length, forming thus in plan a Greek cross, that is, +one having each arm equally long. These naves were usually short, more +frequently semicircular than rectangular, and often terminated by an apse. + +[Illustration: THE PENDENTIVE SYSTEM IN BYZANTINE DOMES.] + +We have seen, in the baptistery of St. Vitale, at Ravenna (in which Greek +artists were undoubtedly employed), a tendency to reduce the number of +sides of polygonal buildings supporting circular domes; the architects of +Byzance were therefore merely taking another step in the same direction +when they placed the dome upon a quadrilateral substructure. + +To comprehend the pendentive, let us take a circle and inscribe within +it a square; at the four angles of the square we will place solid +piers of masonry and connect them with semicircular arches. Let us +now suppose that a hemispherical dome had been built upon this circle +as plan, and we will see that the planes of the arches and the plane +passing at the level of the top of the keystones of the arches, in +intersecting this dome, would leave but four triangular portions of +it. These triangular portions are called pendentives, and are the only +portions of the original hemisphere which are actually built. As this +hemisphere would have been necessarily constructed of materials the +joints of which would have radiated from the centre of the sphere, so +also do the joints of the pendentives radiate from this same centre, +which is identical with the centre of the original circle. The plane +passing at the level of the top of the keystones in intersecting the +hemisphere describes another circle, upon which the actual dome is +placed. The question has not been established satisfactorily whether +the Byzantine architects really understood the pendentive, as in many +instances they resorted to less scientific methods of filling in the +vacant spaces between the arches and the upper dome, but the only +logical method of constructing it is that which has just been described. + +In building domes, it was not uncommon in the East to replace stonework +by light terra-cotta pipes, fitting into each other, giving great +lightness and comparative strength. + +Justinian gave a marked impetus to architectural work and to the building +of religious edifices in particular. He commissioned Anthemius of +Thralles, and Isidor of Miletus, to execute the plans for the new church +of St. Sophia, upon the site of an older building of Constantine, also +dedicated to the “Holy Wisdom,” which had been burnt during an emeute +soon after it had been repaired by Theodosius. + +Justinian had already built the church of Sergius and Bacchus in +Constantinople, on a plan nearly identical with that of St. Vitale, at +Ravenna, with the exception that the whole structure was externally in +the form of a square, enclosing the octagon supporting the dome. This +served as a stepping-stone to the conception of the larger church, which +became the type of all subsequent Byzantine constructions. + + +[Illustration: CHURCH OF SERGIUS AND BACCHUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.] + +[Illustration: PLAN OF ST. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE.] + +By comparing the plans of the Pantheon, the temple of Minerva Medica, +the baptistery of Constantine, St. Vitale, at Ravenna, and the +church of Sergius and Bacchus, in the order in which they are enumerated, +with that of St. Sophia, the sequence and continuous progress of +domical construction is at once apparent, and such comparison explains +the successive steps in a more satisfactory manner than a folio of +description. + +“The church of St. Sophia,” says M. Texier, “is built on a square plan, +251 feet long by 186 feet wide. In the centre of this square rises +the dome, the diameter of which, measuring 108 feet, determines the +width of the nave. The dome is supported by four great arches and four +pendentives. Two hemispheric vaults abut against the two arches, which +are perpendicular to the axis of the nave, giving it an oval appearance. +Each of these hemispheres is itself pierced by two smaller hemispheres +carried on columns. This superposition of domes, whose points of abutment +are not visible, gives to the whole structure a lightness difficult to +realize.” + +The church is built upon a foundation of béton twenty feet deep. It +is preceded by an atrium surrounded by a portico of the Ionic order. +The nave is entered by a double narthex, or porch, extending along the +whole width of the West front. The interior, both floor and walls, was +formerly adorned with rich marbles, and paintings upon a ground of +gold. The dome was built of light bricks faced with hard cement and +mosaic, and was lighted by forty windows. Originally a painting of the +Holy Father was placed in the centre of the dome, and four cherubim in +the pendentives. The latter are still to be discerned under the coat of +whitewash with which the Turks have hidden the original magnificence of +the interior. + +The apse, lighted by three windows, contained the throne and seat of +the Church fathers. The columns supporting the great arches and the +galleries, originally occupied by the women, are of rare marble, eight of +them having, it is said, formed part of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, +being brought, together with the spoils of many Eastern and Western +buildings, to adorn the great edifice. The foliage of their capitals is +fine and sharp and intricately interlaced, having no resemblance to the +Classic models beyond a debased form of the volute which terminates their +upper corners. This style of ornament is a distinguishing feature of the +Byzantine style, and reappears in many examples both in the East and West. + +The church, commenced in the year 532, took sixteen years to build, +during which time incredible sums were expended upon it. When completed, +the appearance it presented was most magnificent, resulting not only from +the rich marbles, wood-work, paintings, and mosaics with which it was +decorated, but also from the countless candelabras, curtains, precious +vases, and golden vessels with which it was furnished. +After the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in the year 1453, St. +Sophia was converted into a mosque, and suffered greatly at the hands of +the Turks. It is only within recent years that any attempt at preserving +its original splendour has been made. + +The architectural principles upon which St. Sophia was constructed were +reproduced in all Byzantine buildings in Italy and France as well as in +the Orient. In Turkey, indeed, the edifices subsequently erected are +almost counterparts of the original structure, the mosque of Suleiman +and that of Achmet, built as late as 1610, embodying almost identical +features of construction. + +In Athens there are two or three small Byzantine churches, which, though +differing greatly in point of size, are founded upon the plan of the +mother church; and in Asia Minor generally and Armenia especially, there +are a great number; notably the churches of Daghour and Pitzounda and the +cathedral of Anim. + +The decoration of some of the latter differs from the usual Byzantine +methods in the frequent revival of Classic forms, and in the use of thin +pilasters, carrying blind arches on the exterior. + +This feature reappears in the buildings of Italy, influenced by the +style, particularly at Pisa. + +In some later buildings a new manner of obtaining light was introduced, +by raising the dome upon a cylindrical drum, supported by the four arches +and pendentives of the older system. St. Nicodemus, of Athens, is one +of the best examples of this. + +When the body of St. Mark was brought to Venice, having been stolen from +Constantinople by means of a clever trick about the year 831, the Doge +Partecipazio ordered a church to be built to his memory. The greater +part of this building as it stands to-day dates, however, from the +tenth century. It resembles St. Sophia in a great degree, the frequent +intercourse of the Venetian maritime population with the Orient having +enabled them to study the principles of Byzantine art, and to bring +spoils from the buildings of the East to their native city. + +St. Mark’s has also much affinity with the church of Mone-tes-Koras, +in Armenia, the principal façade, with its five large bays decorated +with columns and arches framing the five doors which give access to the +church, being identical in general conception. + +The interior of the building has the form of the Greek cross, the +four arms of which and also the central compartment formed by their +intersection, are roofed by domes supported on arches and pendentives. +The style of ornament is very similar to that of its prototype, with its +rich gold mosaics, frescos, and inlaid marble, some of the details being +essentially Oriental in character. + +The constructors of the pendentives in St. Mark’s do not seem to have +properly understood that they formed part of a sphere to +the centre of which their joints should have converged, but filled up +the spaces between the supporting arches by a series of small superposed +arches. + +The influence of this Byzantine construction extended into Aquitania, +in the South of France. At the close of the tenth century a number of +churches were erected there, with the dome as a prominent feature. St. +Front, of Perigueux, was built upon a plan closely resembling that of St. +Mark’s in Venice, and very nearly upon a similar scale of dimensions. The +architects of the church, however, seem to have distrusted the strength +of the semicircular arch, and resorted to the ogival[5] or pointed form +as a means of securing greater supporting power, although this arch had +not as yet been adopted in France. + +[5] From augere, to strengthen. + +They, too, failed completely to grasp the principle of the pendentive, as +those of St. Front are formed of corbelled stones with horizontal beds, +instead of voussoirs converging to the centre of the hemisphere of which +they should form part. + +Besides St. Front, the churches of Fontevrault, Souliac, Angoulême, and +others in Aquitania were built with similar characteristics, though in +plan they adopted the Latin instead of the Greek cross. The abbey church +of Fontevrault is perhaps the most successful of these, the four domes +of its nave producing a very pleasing effect. The greater +number of these buildings were erected during the eleventh and twelfth +centuries, in an imported fashion, rather than in a style destined to be +engrafted upon French national architecture. + +All of them show the want of a clear comprehension of the principles +involved, and are evidently foreign to the taste of the people. + +The introduction of this style in France, offers a parallel case to the +introduction of Gothic architecture in Italy, a century or two later, for +in neither case were the styles in accordance with native inspiration. + + + + + VIII. + + MAHOMETAN ARCHITECTURE. + + +The year 622 of our era is a remarkable one in historical annals, being +the date of the flight of Mahomet, the Hegira from which all events are +computed by followers of his religion. Within a marvellously short period +the new faith spread from the confines of Arabia, throughout Asia Minor +and Persia and all along the North coast of Africa to Spain, propagated +everywhere by the force of the victorious sword, until, scarcely a +century later, we find its promoters bearing the crescent against +Charlemagne, under the shadow of the Pyrenees. + +As a political and theological narrative the history of the rise of +the faith of Islam, is a wonderfully interesting one, and to us it is +important as it explains the reason for the geographical position of so +many buildings, erected in accordance with the requirements of the new +religion, and therefore having a great similarity in all countries where +it prevailed. + +The Kaabah, or “square house,” built by Mahomet at Mecca upon the +site of a temple which tradition says was founded by Abraham, appears +to have been the earliest Mahometan mosque. Mahomet had already +erected a building at Medina, but this seems to have been +not so much a house of prayer as a dwelling-place for his family. The +Kaabah has less importance as an architectural production than as the +centre of the wheel of Mahometanism, the faithful being directed to turn +their faces toward it when praying, and to regard it as the ultimate goal +of their wanderings. + +The original structure was built by foreign workmen, and had no great +pretensions, but subsequently it was surrounded by a colonnaded court, +and by later additions was very considerably enlarged. Although the Koran +decrees that all good Mussulmen should make a pilgrimage to Mecca, it +does not uphold the Kaabah as a model to be followed in the erection of +other mosques nor give any specific directions of the manner in which +they should be built. It was therefore natural when the peace, following +their rapid conquests, permitted the Mahometans to turn their thoughts to +the erection of religious edifices, suitable for the observances of their +worship, that they should borrow inspiration from the surrounding nations. + +The style they eventually evolved was drawn from Byzantine, Sassanian, +Greek, and Roman sources, and became native by adaptation. + +In Turkey, Asia Minor, and Persia we find Mahometan mosques closely +resembling Christian and Byzantine churches, many domed edifices being +copied from St. Sophia and differing only in point of decoration, +while the atrium or courtyard preceding the entrance to +Christian buildings furnished the type for the wide colonnaded courts, +with porticos roofed with a succession of hemispherical or bulbous domes, +which became so common in Arabian buildings. + +The mosques of Omar, at Jerusalem, on the site of the temple of Solomon, +of Wallid, at Damascus, Al-Azhar, Athar-en-Neby, Ibn Touloun, and Hassan, +in Cairo, are notable edifices, in which the columns are either taken +or copied from Greek and Roman temples, and in which the pointed arches +seem to have been suggested by the hyperbolic arches of certain ancient +Sassanian structures, such as the palace of Coroes, the Takt Kesra in the +ruins of Ctesiphon, on the Tigris, and the buildings of Firouzabad and +Sarbistan, which were mentioned in connection with Persian art. + +One of the earliest examples of the use of the pointed arch is in the +Nilometer, erected on the Rodah, or Isle of Gardens, at Cairo, by Wallid, +in the eighth century. + +This is a matter worthy of note, as showing conclusively that the Gothic +arch was no invention of the thirteenth century, in Europe, but merely +the adoption of a form used five centuries before in Egypt, and probably +universally known, if indeed it had ever been lost sight of, since the +days of the prosperity of Babylon. + +Of the early mosques the most important are those of Omar and +Abd-el-Malek at Jerusalem and of Wallid at Damascus. The +mosque of Omar was but a simple vaulted chamber, oriented in order to +enable the faithful to turn in the direction of Mecca while praying. +That of Abd-el-Malek, called the Aksah, adjoins it and is an extensive +structure. It is chiefly remarkable for its general resemblance to the +basilica in its division into aisles. The columns forming these carry +pointed arches, built over connecting beams. It is not improbable that +this design was inspired by the order of the church of the Dome of the +Rock, adjoining it, built by Constantine, where the columns support +circular arches, over a continuous entablature. + +Wallid, Caliph of Damascus, erected a mosque on the site of the old +church of St. John the Baptist, and employed labour and material in its +construction furnished by Justinian, Emperor of Byzance. + +The mosques of Cairo resemble each other in a great degree. They have +usually a first court, giving access to apartments for the accommodation +of strangers, with baths, and stables for their camels, connected with +a second and larger quadrangular court, having a fountain in the centre +and porticos on three sides. The fourth side, facing the entrance, has a +series of aisles roofed in and forming the sanctuary, with recesses in +the rear wall, where the prayers are offered. Reading-desks, provided +with copies of the Koran, and hanging lamps form the chief furniture. + +The minarets, one or more of which are usually erected at +the angles of the building, are special features. These tall, graceful +towers, from whose summits a crier calls the people to prayers five times +daily, serve a purpose similar to that of the belfries and campaniles +of Europe. The diameter of most of them is small in proportion to the +height, giving them a slender and beautiful aspect, very distinct from +another class of towers, of which the Giralda at Seville is the best +known, which were conceived in the same spirit of massiveness in which +the campanile in the square before St. Mark’s in Venice was built. They +are ascended by spiral staircases placed either within or without, and +have projecting balconies at various stages. + +The building materials employed by the Arabs were chiefly stone of +different colours, combined in bands and patterns, and brick covered +with stucco. Enamelled tiles and multicoloured marbles were used both +externally and internally, while within, carved wood, gilding, painting, +and plaster were lavishly employed. + +Of the forms of decoration, the chief were elaborate gold inscriptions in +Arabic characters, floral and geometric designs in interlaced patterns +of the most intricate combinations, coloured with all the profusion +suggested by the Oriental love of brilliancy and with the exquisite +harmony which we see in Persian and Indian fabrics. + +A favourite form of decoration was that formed by a multiplication of +minute pendentives, called the honeycomb ornament, the whole surface, +as well as the dome above, being covered with an agglomeration of +minute niches, the effect of which is frequently compared to that of +stalactites. This form of ornament was much used, particularly in the +mosques and palaces of Spain. + +In Cairo domestic architecture has a distinctive character of its own. +The houses have reception-rooms on the ground floor, furnished with the +divans, carpets, and lamps usual in Oriental manner of life, while the +upper floors, occupied by the women, have projecting balconies of lattice +wood-work, which permit them to see without being seen, and form an +agreeable and picturesque feature on the exterior. + +The richness and the progress of Arabic art at a period when architecture +had sunk to the lowest ebb throughout Europe, is due in great measure +to the establishment of the learned academies of Damascus, Bagdad, and +other principal cities, and to the revival of Classic learning by the +translation of the works of Greek authors. + +In Spain, where the Moorish and Christian populations were thrown in +constant contact with one another, the difference of religious opinion +maintained a wide gulf between them, and while the Christians struggled +with the difficulties of the Romanesque revival, their opponents attained +a brilliant era in art, as a result of their superior industry and +civilization. + +One of the oldest Arabian buildings in Spain is the great +mosque at Cordova. Here, as in the East, we find Corinthian and Composite +columns, taken from Roman buildings on the soil, forming integral parts +of the new structure, but the Classical principles of building are in no +sense adhered to. The entablature is replaced by cinque-foiled arches +with voussoirs of alternate stone and brick; a second order of columns is +superposed directly upon the capitals of the first, carrying horseshoe +arches, and between the two arcades an intermediary series of trefoiled +arches is placed, springing from the keystone of the lower arches and +divided at the centre by the upper ones. + +The general plan of the building consists of the usual series of aisles, +of which there are nineteen, with divisional walls. The sanctuary has a +vault with intersecting ribs, surmounted by a small dome and enriched +by profuse ornament, and is the object of much just admiration for its +beauty. + +The chapel of Villa Viciosa, a later structure, has a series of arcades +similar to those before the sanctuary, differing only in the arrangement +of the intermediary arches, which are carried up to the level of the +upper arches from a horizontal course, and are cinque-foiled instead of +trefoiled, both on the extrados and intrados. + +The mosque was begun by Abd-el-Rhaman, in the eighth century, and +successively added to during the four centuries following. It +covers a very large superficial area, upwards of one hundred and +sixty thousand square feet, and surpasses, in this respect, +most European buildings. Its chief defects are the want of height, which +does not exceed thirty feet, and the monotony of the aisles, which are +nearly all precisely alike. + +At Toledo there are several Moorish buildings of merit, the principal +one of which is the mosque called, at present, the church of “Cristo de +la Luz.” It is similar to the sanctuary of Cordova in general aspect, +but is a marvel of intricate and minute workmanship. The whole area +which it occupies does not exceed four hundred superficial feet, but the +proportions are so nicely balanced that it appears much larger. There +are four columns carrying horseshoe arches, above which comes a second +arcade, and each division is roofed in by a vault of intersecting ribs. +These vaults are formed of wood, overlaid with plaster, and have no +pretension to scientific construction. Indeed, in none of the Arabian +buildings in Spain do we find anything of the kind attempted, the +decorative features being always the most prominent. + +In the tower of Seville a species of vault was formed by thickening +the walls gradually as they rose from the ground until they met; this, +however, was nothing more than extensive corbelling, and, consequently, +very inferior to Roman and Byzantine methods. + +The Alcázar, at Seville, and the Palace of the Alhambra, at Granada, are +the richest examples of Moorish architecture, and show in +their design and ornament the most fertile expression of the brilliant +imagination with which this warm-blooded people imbued all its creations. + +The Court of the Lions in the latter, a rectangular enclosure, surrounded +by arcades, with projecting domed pavilions at the upper and lower ends, +is generally held to be the finest production of the later period of the +style. + +The same materials are used here as in the other buildings—plaster shaped +in the most exquisite forms and coloured brilliantly, tiles ornamented +with patterns and devices of the most elaborate character, and wooden +ceilings carved and richly painted. All these are handled with such +correct taste that their brilliancy never degenerates into gaudiness. + +A splendid fountain in the centre of the court, the lower bowl of which +is supported upon the backs of lions, explains the name given to this +celebrated structure. + +The mosque of Cordova is superior, in respect to materials, to the other +remaining Moorish buildings in Spain, in which plaster is used to excess. +It is vain, however, to look in any of them for any distinct or novel +constructional departure. The lintel and arch in Greece and Rome, the +dome carried on pendentives in Byzance, were features giving character to +each style, but the art of the Mahometan architects differed only in form +and colour from its predecessors. The horseshoe arch with one and two +centres, that is both round and pointed, was used by them +almost exclusively, but it cannot rank as a constructional invention, for +the real arch starts only at the level of the centres, and the remaining +lower portion is a mere corbelling to obtain a form pleasing to the eye. + +Any new method of construction always affected the surrounding parts, and +often altered the whole design of a building. It is obvious, therefore, +that a mere change in the appearance of an arch such as this, which +affects nothing connected with it, cannot be said to have created any new +era in the progress of building. + +We hear the question frequently asked why a modern and new style is not +developed in our times, and the answer architects make is illustrated +by just this case, that is, that no new style can be evolved without a +new constructive principle. As yet none such has been forthcoming, the +only novel method of construction lately introduced being the employment +of iron girders and posts, which, from an artistic point of view, can +scarcely be considered an improvement upon the use of what are called the +natural building materials. + + + + + IX. + + THE ROMANESQUE STYLE. + + +Some late historians have departed from the previously generally accepted +nomenclature of architectural styles, in designating under the general +term of Christian architecture all buildings erected between the tenth +and sixteenth centuries in Western Europe. + +As, however, Christian building in Europe began with the conversion of +Constantine, this chronology is hardly satisfactory, and as the customary +division of Gothic from the styles preceding it, is on many grounds a +convenient one, it is preferable to adopt the conventional names, and to +distinguish under the title of “Romanesque” the outgrowth of the debased +form of Roman architecture which, influenced by Byzantine and Arabic art, +formed a distinct method of building throughout the West for nearly two +centuries after the year 1000 A.D., giving it the alternative name of +“Norman” in Normandy and England. + +Previous to this date the long continuance of war and barbaric incursions +seem to have prevented the erection of any stable edifices; fire and the +poverty of the material with which they were constructed +having caused the destruction of the few of which an account has been +preserved. + +Many churches subsequently built, however, were erected upon the sites of +these older ones and have fragments of the older buildings incorporated +in them. Of such are the churches of St. Germain des Prés, in Paris, and +Notre Dame du Port, at Clermont. + +Under Charlemagne, a revival of art was attempted, the chief building +constructed by him being a reproduction of St. Vitale, of Ravenna, +in which he employed sculpture and ornament torn from the original +structure, and fragments from the edifices of ancient Rome; but this +effort soon died away, and the period intervening between the eighth and +tenth centuries was totally lacking in any architectural production of +merit. + +As the Roman principles of architecture had been taken Eastward and +gradually transformed into a new style at Byzance, so also in the +West they had been the forerunners of another method of building, but +proportionately different in accordance with the character, customs, and +race of the Western populations. + +The basilica formed, as it had in the East, the model upon which all +church architecture was designed, the nave, transept, aisles, and +apse being all retained in this new class of buildings, but many of +the building methods were new, and the details of their +decoration differed considerably from the precise proportions and Classic +graces of the buildings of Rome. The result exhibits a curious contrast +between the barbaric ornament and the scientific construction, which +advanced throughout the style in the genuine efforts which were made to +progress in the art of building. + +Starting thus at the decadence of Classic art, with a Classical building +as the original type for their churches, the Romanesque architects +took up each of the parts combining in its formation, and sought to +improve or elaborate each, in pursuance of certain ends, arising from +local necessities. There is virtually no point where Romanesque ends +and Gothic commences, to give due reason for the conventional divisions +of historians, for the one style melts into the other in the continual +progress in the study of the principles of construction which was +steadily effected throughout both styles. + +They differ chiefly in that, during the two centuries prior to the +thirteenth century, the pointed arch was rarely used, and that the +influence of the Classic decadence is more apparent in the buildings +of the earlier period. After this, the pointed arch became universal, +and the whole style becoming entirely distinct from its derivation, the +ornament and detail, quite unlike anything which had come before, it may +be said that a new style had been created. + +This new style, which has been called Gothic, continued +to be developed until the fifteenth century, when its principles became +exaggerated, and it died out at the extreme point to which they could be +pushed. + +It has been customary to call the buildings of the eleventh and twelfth +centuries, built in the transition of Roman to Gothic art, Romanesque; +but the pointed arch was used in both styles, though, as stated above, +less frequently in the earlier one; and it should not, therefore, be +taken as the distinguishing characteristic of Gothic architecture. + +The chief points wherein the Romanesque churches, which were the only +buildings of importance constructed at that period, differed from the +basilicas were in the methods of vaulting and their consequent effects +upon the whole structure, the elaboration of the apse, and the system +of connected supports employed. The main characteristics of the style +were the same in all Western countries, and these being known, it is not +difficult to distinguish the slight differences arising from local causes. + +In the old basilicas the aisles, whether of one or two stories, were +lighted by windows in the lateral walls, while the nave borrowed light +from them, and also received it directly from a clerestory rising above +the roof of the galleries. As we have seen, these buildings were usually +covered by wooden roofs, tunnel-vaults or a series of intersecting +vaults thrown across the square formed by two of the columns of the +nave, equidistant from each other and from corresponding +pilasters in the side walls, being only occasionally used in the aisles. + +The Western architects of the tenth century continued to build their +churches in this manner, and we have a splendid example of a timber +roof of this kind, as late even as the twelfth century, in Peterborough +Cathedral; but at an early period they sought to replace these perishable +roofs by stone vaults. They found the construction of the semi-dome of +the apse and the vaulting of the side aisles, either by a continuous +tunnel-vault, by a series of semicircular vaults perpendicular to +the lateral walls, or by intersecting vaults upon a square plan, +comparatively easy; but the vaulting of the nave was a much more +difficult matter. + +The circular tunnel-vault would have been the simplest known method of +accomplishing this, but the pressure of a circular vault placed over the +nave would have tended to push outward the walls upon which it rested, +and this pressure being continuous, it was obviously of no avail to place +buttresses at any separate point, and to place a great number, side by +side, all along the vault, or, in other words, to greatly thicken the +supporting wall, was to take up too much valuable ground space. + +In St. Front and kindred structures we have seen the problem solved in +one way by the introduction of Byzantine domes; but these churches were +confined to a province of Southern France, and had but little influence +in other districts. In St. Etienne de Nevers, St. Sernin de Toulouse, +and in Notre Dame du Port at Clermont in Auvergne, and others, this +difficulty is partially overcome by the building of a half vault over +the upper galleries connecting the tunnel-vault of the nave with the +outer main walls, and taking the strain continuously, the thickness +of the outer wall not being considered of consequence. This system +permitted the placing of roofing-tiles directly upon the extrados +of the vaults, and the entire suppression of wooden rafters, which +was advantageous in diminishing the risk of fire, although the pitch +was scarcely sufficient to prevent leakage. The great disadvantage, +however, was that the nave had only borrowed light, and in large +churches it was inconveniently dark. + +Another method adopted was that of suppressing the upper gallery, and +bringing the arches of the aisles up to the level of the springing of +the main vault, so that the summits of the side vaults and the walls +erected between them, which were at right angles to the nave, served to +counteract the strain of the upper vault. We have examples of this in +the cathedral of Limoges and at Fontenay, but it is open to the same +objection, that of darkening the nave. + +Still another system consisted in binding the vault over the nave by ribs +or arches thrown across to opposite piers, which were strengthened by +buttresses. These buttresses, however, were built upon the top of the +arches, thrown across the aisles, and did more harm than good. + +[Illustration: ELEVATION. + +ROMANESQUE CONSTRUCTION] + +[Illustration: SECTION.] + +There is an example of unusual construction at Tournus, in Burgundy, +where the difficulty is effectually surmounted by the building of a +number of arches at right angles to the axis of the nave, between each +set of piers; but the effect is far from satisfactory. + +Finally at Vezelay, in France, the tunnel-vault was abandoned and +diagonal intersecting vaults were thrown across the nave, framed in +between semicircular arch ribs carried upon piers spaced at equal +intervals, the weight being thus wholly transferred to the four points at +the angles of each compartment. It was found, however, that these piers +needed strengthening, as the strain upon them was excessive, and it was +thus that external buttresses were resorted to, which were connected with +the piers by arches, called flying buttresses, bridging the side aisles +and conveying the pressure to the outer wall. A weight was placed over +each buttress, generally taking the form of a pinnacle, which stiffened +it and counteracted the pressure of the arch. + +An illustration of this mode of construction has been attempted in the +accompanying drawing, which does not represent any special building, but +in which the chief characteristics of the style at this juncture have +been introduced. + +The distance across the nave being usually greater than that between +the columns dividing it from the aisles, the rectangular +compartments of the vault were consequently no longer square, but oblong, +so that while the arches crossing the nave at right angles were still +semicircular those between the pillars were pointed. + +The transition from this, in the thirteenth century, to the definite +adoption of the pointed vault was consequently but a step. + +We see, thus, that a continual progress was made in vaulting throughout +the style, and the principle of concentrating weight upon isolated points +was evolved in order to vault the nave and at the same time give direct +light to it. In effecting this result, however, the original aim had +been lost sight of—namely, that of avoiding the use of wooden roofs; +for when the Romanesque architects abandoned tunnel-vaulting they had +to surmount their more complicated intersecting vaults by wooden roofs, +the perishable nature of which caused the ruin of many of the finest +buildings. Nor was the external appearance of these roofs any improvement +upon those of St. Etienne and St. Sernin, for it is a question whether +any more monumental roof has been conceived than that which is formed by +the natural outside surface of stone vaults. + +In the old basilicas, columns taken from or modelled upon those of the +temples and palaces of Rome had sufficed to support the light brick wall, +carried upon an architrave or arches, which enclosed the nave. When the +Western architects resumed the building of churches, after an interval +of war and trouble which had proved fatal to architectural progress, +brick was little used and the formation of light masonry and good mortar +were lost arts. The slender Classic column was consequently insufficient +to carry the load of a heavy stone wall and had, necessarily, to be +replaced by a more solid pier. + +These piers assumed various forms in the tentative efforts made to +construct them of the dimensions calculated to occupy the least amount of +floor space; some were square, others circular or formed of a number of +small columns grouped together, but for a long time no very satisfactory +shape was found which avoided a clumsy adjustment of the superstructure. + +It came to be gradually recognized that the form of the pier should be +subservient to, and made to correspond with, the arches and the column +receiving the arch rib of the vault above, which it had to sustain. This +was effected at first by a square pier, with rectangular projections on +each side, forming abutments for the reception of the constructional +arrangement above. Subsequently these were replaced by pilasters and +engaged columns on each face, three of which supported the rear and side +arches of the nave, the fourth being continued up to the springing of the +vault, and redeemed from exaggerated effect by bands or string-courses. +There are good examples in France at Vezelay, Beaune and Langres and +Autun. In England the contemporary architects usually employed square or +circular masses of solid masonry, carrying a heavy abacus, these pillars +being sometimes ornamented with a fluting, as in the crypt at Canterbury, +or with zigzag patterns, as at Waltham Abbey, Durham, and Lindisfarne. + +The capitals of Romanesque columns are especially interesting, for they +became constructively useful instead of simply ornamental, as were those +used in the Roman orders. The section of the arch rib being square and +the column round, it was necessary to afford support to the overlapping +corners, the whole surface of the projecting tile or abacus being +occupied by the upper masonry, instead of the line of the shaft being +continued up, as had been done in Rome. The capital was therefore made to +spread outward from the shaft in order to corbel the superstructure. + +[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SERIES, SHOWING GREEK, ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND +GOTHIC METHODS OF SUPPORT. + +1. Greek Lintel. + +2. Roman Arch, showing False Lintel. 3. Vault Springing from Entablature. +4. Arch Springing 5. Romanesque Column, with Arches Springing from Outer +Edge of the Capital. 6. Romanesque Pier. 7. Gothic Pier.] + +A simple form of this is found in many German, Italian, and English +examples, the upper part of the capital being a cube and the lower a +hemisphere. The early examples generally imitate those of the Corinthian +order in a rude fashion corresponding with the poverty of talent of +the period. The capitals of the twelfth century are better carved and +better suited to the services they have to perform. Figures representing +biblical subjects are introduced in some and in others strange animals +and conventional foliage, sometimes arranged as the acanthus leaf had +been in the Roman models. The proportions of the Classic column +were also departed from, the capital often being a quarter or a sixth +of the whole column; its height being regulated by the size of the beds +of stone, which were generally low. In Germany, however, the older +proportions were more closely adhered to. The quality of the stone +determined in a great measure the depth of the carving, the harder kinds +having less depth of incision and the style of ornament applied to them +resembling the Byzantine. + +In France the Romanesque column has usually a third of the diameter of +its shaft engaged in a pier or wall, though isolated ones are used in the +triforiums, towers, and porches; in England the latter are common, and +recessed columns, that is to say, placed in an angle of masonry, are also +frequently seen. + +The bases of Romanesque columns, at first simple round and hollow moulds, +gradually became more elaborate, until they resembled the attic base. +Occasionally they were decorated with foliage or animals, and there are +instances where both capital and base are similar. The introduction of +an angle ornament, connecting the torus or round mould with the corners +of the plinth beneath, is especially noticeable; this was effective in +preventing the angles from being broken by thickening the stone at the +weakest points, and in later examples added to the beauty of the base. + +The arches of the period were usually semicircular and +employed either separately or with a second and broader one, their +contour being frequently marked by a few simple mouldings of degenerate +classic origin. + +Two or three arches supported by detached columns, and comprised within +a larger one, were frequently placed in the triforiums; when three +were used the central one was usually higher than the others. Besides +mouldings: billets, zigzags, stars, and similar simple ornaments were +employed in their decoration. Where Arabic taste exercised its influence, +it is not uncommon to find alternate voussoirs of different-coloured +stones, and variegated bands in the piers. + +The Italians were especially fond of this treatment and it is seen in +the exteriors and interiors of many of their buildings. To them is also +due the introduction of blind arcades, the columns of which were either +engaged in the wall or separated from it by an intervening gallery. The +façade of the cathedral at Pisa is perhaps the most beautiful example of +this. + +In the West, arcades of this kind became a frequent method of decorating +blank walls, and there are instances where a second series of arches +intersect the first, resulting in a number of pointed arches formed by +the crossing of the circular ones; from this an ingenious but unfounded +theory has been deducted purporting to explain the origin of Gothic +architecture. + +The doors and porches of the Romanesque period are among +the most beautiful to be found in any style. Starting in the earlier +examples with a simple, round-arched opening, the number of mouldings in +the arch became richer and of greater number, and, as the style advanced, +recessed and supported by columns. These mouldings were decorated with +the zigzag, billet, and kindred ornaments, many of which were probably +copied from the decoration of the old basilica of St. Paul’s without the +walls of Rome. + +As the jambs of the doorways were generally built on an angle, the +contiguous shafts and arches sometimes gave the effect of an arched +passage in perspective. Such effects were frequently intentional in the +churches in Southern France, for we find that the walls of the nave and +vault of Notre Dame de Poitiers, and of other buildings, were purposely +made to converge in order to give the appearance of greater length. + +It was not uncommon to give the doors square heads, supported by +corbels and occasionally by a central shaft; in these cases the arch +above relieved the lintel from the weight of the superstructure, and +gave the character of the style to the whole. The tympanum, thus +enclosed, offered a ground for rich sculpture, which was availed of +to the fullest extent. The outer door of a porch was usually richer +in design than the inner one; in England there are many examples of +shallow porches with single deeply recessed doors. In Provence there +are many beautiful examples, foremost amongst which must be mentioned +the porch of St. Trophyme, at Arles (see frontispiece). Romanesque +windows were but modifications of the doors; often having recessed +shafts at their sides and being frequently divided by a central column. + +The bull’s-eye, or round window, of the early Christian basilicas +continued to be used, but it had not as yet the richness of tracery which +it attained in the Gothic period. + +Classical features of design still retained their hold upon many +details, notably in the cornices, where the modillions or brackets of +the Corinthian order were frequently employed, and but slightly altered +in form, although of native composition. The corona of the cornice also +differed but little from the Roman models, and was occasionally supported +directly by engaged columns replacing buttresses, chiefly on the exterior +of apsidal chapels. + +In the early Christian churches the apse had consisted of a central +semicircular termination to the building, flanked occasionally by two +smaller semicircular recesses containing altars. In the baptisteries +and Byzantine churches these had been multiplied, and had come to +be customary features in every new building. In England, the Norman +architects generally ended their churches rectangularly, without even +the original single apse, though there are a few examples in which it +is used, as at Newhaven, Sussex. In Germany it was frequently the +custom to affix apses to three sides of the square tower placed at the +intersection of the nave and transept, and the result was generally +satisfactory, as may be seen in St. Martin’s of Cologne, and in the +Apostles’ Church in the same city. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL (Compare with Basilica, page +89.)] + +In France the plan resolved itself into an open semicircular colonnade +with a passage intervening between it and the outer wall which followed +the outline of a series of small apses. These formed an harmonious +cluster, and became a type which was matured in the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries. Those belonging to the Romanesque period, however, +had a distinct and constructively excellent character which has rarely +been subsequently surpassed. Among the best are those of Notre Dame du +Port at Clermont, St. Etienne de Nevers, and St. Sernin at Toulouse. + +In France towers were generally placed at the West end of the church, +while in England and Germany the usual way was to build them at the +junction of the nave and transept; in Italy they were often detached +from the main structure. They were characterized by simple solidity; the +openings being few and the detail bold; the angles were strengthened by +stout piers; the roofs were either of timber or stone, according to the +nature of the materials in the localities in which they were erected, and +they were usually lighted by the round-arched double window. This round +arch, ornamented with a few simple mouldings and reposing +upon short sturdy columns, forms a constantly recurring feature in the +composition of the several parts of Romanesque buildings. + +The corridors which surrounded the square courtyards adjoining churches, +and connected them with the dormitories, refectories, and other +apartments of the clergy, are called cloisters. They differed but little +from the Roman “impluvium” and the “atrium” of the basilica, the changes +consisting chiefly in the addition of raised sills separating them from +the court, and in their being usually vaulted instead of carrying timber +roofs. The series of arcades forming them were treated in many ways, +and the detail admitted of much elaboration and variety, as may be seen +in the many remarkable examples throughout Europe. The cloisters of St. +Paul’s, at Rome, and the atrium of St. Ambrogio, at Milan, form very +interesting historical links between the Roman and Romanesque styles and +are very beautiful specimens of their kind. + +It had been the custom during the struggling period of the early Church +to bury the bodies of saints in subterranean chambers called crypts, a +word derived from the Greek verb “to hide”; subsequently these became +component parts of all churches, serving as places of interment and for +the occasional celebration of masses. Their masonry was necessarily of +the massive character required for the foundation of the piers of the +church above, consisting generally in a grouping of columns sustaining +a heavy vault. + + +[Illustration: CHEVET OF NOTRE DAME DU PORT AT CLERMONT. + +(_From Chapuy._)] + +The crypt of St. Eutrope, at Saintes in France, may be mentioned as one +of the best examples, the pillars being richly carved, and the ribs of +the vault of great boldness and strength. + +In Germany the crypt is often raised sufficiently above the level of the +ground to obtain light from windows, as at Spires, and this is sometimes +carried to such an extreme that the church becomes double, that is, of +two stories, as at Schwartz Rheindorf. + +In England, Canterbury Cathedral possesses perhaps the best example, the +crypt being very large and its details varied. Some of the capitals of +the columns remain half finished, the work upon them having been arrested +by a conflagration in the twelfth century. + + + + + X. + + GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. + + +Briefly recapitulating the preceding chapters: We have seen that the +Greek temple, composed of a cella, or oblong room, surrounded by a +colonnade, was copied by the Romans with but few alterations, the +only one of importance being the addition of a semicircular recess to +the rear wall. The columns of the colonnade having been transposed +from the outside to the interior, dividing the room in three parts, +longitudinally; a cross wall having been introduced dividing it +transversely, and the apse retained, the building became a basilica. +By extending the transept and nave the plan became cruciform and +symbolically the most suitable for that of a Christian church. + +The Western architects, desiring to replace the wooden roofs by stone +vaults, found it convenient to substitute for columns carrying arches, +piers with engaged shafts connecting directly with the superstructure. + +After various attempts to obtain direct light for the central division or +nave, rendered difficult by the necessity of counteracting the continuous +thrust of the barrel vault thrown across it, this vault was +finally abandoned and replaced by intersecting vaults, which conveyed the +thrust diagonally upon equidistant piers. To avoid increasing the size +of the latter to an inconvenient extent, an expedient was resorted to +which consisted in propping them from the exterior by flying buttresses +thrown from them to outside piers across the roof of the aisles. The +result of the width of the nave being usually greater than the distance +between piers was that, while the diagonal ribs of the vault remained +semicircular, their lateral intersection produced pointed arches. + +This form of construction was developed during the middle and latter +half of the twelfth century. The pointed arch had been used occasionally +before by the Romanesque architects; it had been used frequently by +the Arabs, as far back as the eighth century, and had been known and +employed long before the Christian era in the sewers of Babylon. It was, +therefore, not a new invention, but a known method adopted in a fresh +departure in constructive architecture; for the circular arches being +abandoned and definitely replaced by the pointed arch the succeeding +architecture became pointed or Gothic. + +This is the condensed history of the derivation of the style as generally +accepted at the present day, though the subject has given rise to much +controversy. + +The concentration of the weight of the vault upon the piers, instead of +upon a continuous wall, was more or less the key to the +whole scheme of Gothic construction; for the main principle remained +the same throughout its many and varied examples. The idea was improved +upon gradually and finally pushed to exaggeration; the decoration of +the component parts of a building increased as the style advanced and +they were reduced to just the sizes needed for stability, but their +construction remained almost unaltered throughout. + +We have followed the steps by which the form given to Christian churches +emanated from the early basilicas; this form of building, that is, its +plan and divisions into nave, aisles, transept, choir, apse, etc., had +become traditional and was generally accepted in all the best examples. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL.] + +The problem of accommodating large assemblies in the manner best suited +to enable them to concentrate their sight and hearing upon a given +point has been solved in various ways, perhaps most successfully in our +modern opera-houses, but this problem was not one with which the Gothic +architects endeavoured to grapple; their attention was devoted to the +improvement and embellishment of the typical plan of structure, which +custom and dogma had prescribed as the most suitable and in accordance +with the needs of the liturgy. The plan was more or less elastic, and +differed without material distinction in the different countries of +Western Europe. These differences are easily noted by comparing the +appended plans; the one, that of Rheims Cathedral, showing perhaps +the most perfect arrangement of any in France, and the other, that of a +typical English cathedral. The latter does not represent any particular +structure, but is a composition including all the usual divisions and +connecting buildings, taken from an old copy of Rickman. + + _a_, _a_, Towers at West end. + _b_, _b_, Porches. + _c_, The nave. + _d_, _d_, Side aisles of the nave. + _e_, The cloisters. + _f_, Library. + _g_, North transept. + _h_, South transept. + _i_, _i_, Side aisles of South transept. + _k_, _k_, _k_, Chapels. + _l_, Chapter house with passage from the cloisters. + _m_, Central tower, cross or lantern. + _n_, Screen, over which the organ is usually placed. + _o_, Choir, at the east end of which the altar is + usually placed. + _p_, _p_, Side aisles of the choir. + _q_, Lady chapel. + +In the thirteenth century the style was formed in all its purity; +it was characterized by great simplicity and beauty, and in these +respects was never surpassed. The arch had few mouldings, and these +clearly defined and graceful; the shafts of columns were of slender and +charming proportions, and the foliage employed for the decoration of +their capitals, while conventional, departed entirely from the acanthus +leaves of Classic origin, and assumed forms suggested by Western plants. + Piers were reduced to the precise dimensions needful, and +were formed of slender shafts, grouped together, which received the arch +mouldings on either side, and rose in the front and rear to the height +necessary to take the springing of the vault. In practice, the thrust +of the vault was found not to be transmitted directly to a point to be +received by an arch, but to two points above and below this theoretical +one, which necessitated the employment of two flying buttresses, the +one above the other. In Chartres Cathedral these are connected by +radiating columns, and there are many examples where the intervening +space is occupied by an open arcade. The French generally built their +vertical buttresses very massively, but in England the pinnacle was more +frequently used to counteract the thrust of the arch. For this purpose it +was eminently appropriate, and might be considered ornamental, but the +placing of pinnacles upon the corners of the towers and elsewhere where +they served no end, which was often done, was always a mistake; and a +defect which mars the effect of many beautiful English buildings. + +In Notre Dame of Paris, we find the single round column still occupying +the first story, with the more complex arrangement of pier and connected +shafts starting above the abacus of its capital, but as a general thing, +a distinct shaft was provided for each set of mouldings. In time this was +replaced by a continuation of the vault mouldings down to the floor, +interrupted only by an occasional string-course, or a band of foliage +replacing the capital. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL. + +(_From Rickman._)] + +Once the weight of the vault had been transferred to piers, the wall +connecting them ceased to support anything but the extremity of the +cross-vault comprised between the piers, and otherwise served only +as a screen. The Gothic architects soon took advantage of this to +widen the windows, which had been narrow in the early stages, for by +throwing a discharging arch just under the upper vault across the +piers the whole space underneath could be occupied by windows, which, +with the improvement in the making of painted glass, became extremely +desirable. This was accordingly done, the only stonework left being the +network of mullions and tracery necessary to receive the panes. This +tracery, probably suggested by the rich Arabic window fillings, made a +great advance during the latter part of the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries, the combinations of geometrical figures, chiefly the circle, +being often wonderfully beautiful. The rose window was much favoured by +the French in their West fronts and transepts, but in England the large +pointed window was generally preferred, and admirably suited the square +termination of the apse, which was the most frequently used in that +country. + +The space enclosed by the pointed window had an outline to which it +was always difficult to adjust geometric traceries so as to avoid +clumsy joints, or oddly shaped patterns, and these were, therefore, +subsequently replaced by flowing lines, which could be used +with much greater freedom. + +As these grew bolder they assumed a flame-like appearance, and the later +period of the style to which they belong was, in consequence, called +“Flamboyant.” This development occurred chiefly in France, some of the +best examples being in the church of St. Ouen, at Rouen. + +The simplest form of the Gothic vault was that in which the compartment +comprised between two piers on one side and two on the opposite side +of the nave was marked by two ribs bridging it, and two diagonal ribs +intersecting each other. As the system advanced the vault became more +complex by the addition of other ribs, as strengtheners or as ornaments, +until in some examples the whole vault became a network of intersecting +ribs. + +These intersections were frequently emphasized by a keystone or by +an ornament called a boss, which in English work was also placed at +intervals along string-courses, breaking the continuity after the manner +of modillions in Classic cornices. + +A keystone placed in the centre of a vault was held there by a +combination of great strength, as it became a point of abutment for all +the main ribs, whose thrust was distributed against four piers and hence +exteriorly by buttresses to the ground. A good stone, therefore, in +this position could have extraordinary dimensions, and was susceptible +of a variety of treatment. In some French examples it was +extended, or rather hung, considerably below the surface of the vault +and ornamentally carved, while in England, in the late so-called +Perpendicular Gothic, it formed the centre of a large pendant, or +circular hanging ornament, which in some cases came down almost to the +level of the springing of the ribs. + +This construction was used chiefly in connection with the fan-vaulting, +in which English architects excelled, which may indeed be said to be an +English invention and monopoly, as no examples of it are found elsewhere. +The name explains, in measure, the form taken by the ribs, which, +spreading out from the sheaf of mouldings in the pier, trace a perfect +semicircle on the upper ceiling, their intervening spaces being occupied +by panels. The four semicircles thus traced by the ribs, starting from +four piers of a compartment, are each tangent to a central and whole +circle forming the contour of the pendant. + +To be successful this requires that the compartment or space included +between four piers, two on each side of the nave or choir, should +be a square, otherwise the circles do not touch, and the lines are +inharmonious. + +The chapels of Henry the Seventh, at Westminster, and of St. George, +at Windsor, contain the best examples of fan-vaulting, and are very +beautiful in general effect, though it is questionable whether such +constructive tricks are worthy of unrestricted praise, while the abuse +of panelling in which English architects indulged in these later Gothic +buildings, by which the whole wall and ceiling surface was cut up in an +unending repetition, was certainly blameworthy, and tended to reduce +their art to a mechanical science. + +They excelled, however, in all mechanical workmanship, in which perhaps +that employed in the execution of timber roofs is the most remarkable. +These were in a measure, at least upon so large a scale, a feature wholly +English, for nothing approaching them is found elsewhere. The roof of +Westminster Hall is the most justly celebrated and is unique in general +character. + +The natural stonework showing all its joints was generally left untouched +in the interior of Gothic buildings, and afforded the best finish as well +as contrast to the stained glass in the windows. + +Polychrome decoration was attempted occasionally, chiefly on the +Continent, and in some instances successfully. The best examples are the +restorations of the Ste. Chapelle and St. Germain des Prés, in Paris, +though the latter belongs more properly to the Romanesque period. Many +churches have been completely spoiled as regards their inside appearance +by coats of whitewash applied to the whole interior surface, giving them +a bleak and barn-like aspect fatal to architectural effect; this is +especially frequent in Belgium. + +This whitewash, coupled with horribly incongruous late +Renaissance decoration, has gone far in many cases to ruin what would +otherwise be fine buildings. + +Externally all _good_ Gothic buildings showed a direct correspondence +with the interior: buttresses, flying buttresses, pinnacles, etc., were +all constructive and never decorative devices; there was never such a +thing as a façade or false front built independently of the interior, +and though the harmony of the lines of both were often difficult to +reconcile, it was just in the overcoming of such difficulties that the +brilliant qualities of Gothic architects were called forth. + +In the arrangement of the West fronts the French were at their best, +for the combination of deeply recessed porches with the rose window and +gable above, flanked by the towers, which in France were usually placed +here, was both judicious and effective. In England such porches as those +of Rheims, or deep openings, such as the entrances to the cathedral of +Paris, were not used, and the West elevations are consequently less +interesting. Peterborough is an exception to this rule, but the design is +so exaggerated, that the three immense arcades dwarf everything connected +with them. + +The custom of placing a tower and spire over the intersection of the nave +and transept was always adhered to in England, and was always a happy +arrangement which gave the building dignity and character, even when +the Western towers were omitted. Of this the celebrated +Salisbury Cathedral is a beautiful example. + +The spires of Chartres and of St. Ouen, at Rouen, are the finest in +France, where towers were frequently built to receive spires which +were never added. The height to which the nave was carried there often +prevented the towers from having their due effect, as it was impossible +to carry them out on a scale large enough to give them a corresponding +proportion. English architects contented themselves with moderate +interior heights, rendering the proportioning of their buildings a much +easier task than that which their neighbours imposed upon themselves, +by attempting with each new building a more daring altitude, until the +crumbling vaults of Beauvais set a limit to their audacity. + +The comparison of contemporary Gothic in England and France covers the +subject more accurately than between that of any other countries, for +these two nations rivalled each other all along in the solution of the +various problems which arose with each step in their progress, while the +architects of other countries profited by the results they attained and +erected their buildings on Anglo-French principles. + +The cathedrals of Cologne, in Germany, and Toledo, in Spain, are as +fine as any to be found in France or England, but they are neither +German nor Spanish in conception and principle, and therefore do not +belong to the national architecture of these countries. In Italy, +Gothic architecture was never understood as it was in the North, +and whenever anything was attempted in direct imitation of Northern +principles of design, the result was always hard and mechanical. +The true Italian Gothic was of itself often beautiful, but this was +almost a separate style, in which the influences of pointed forms, +Oriental colour, and the example which the Classical ruins held out so +conspicuously on their own soil, were brought together by the Italians +so as to form an harmonious whole. + +In Venice a peculiar development of the style was attained, adapted to +the flat elevations of the canal palaces. This arrangement consisted of a +consecutive series of arcades, in which the mouldings of each arch were +carried up and returned, forming a second and sometimes a third row of +lights, replacing, in the play of light and shadow, the forced absence of +projections. + +These arcades were surmounted by horizontal mouldings, and the lines of +the cornices and imposts were also horizontal, the Italians never having +lost sight of the entablature, which had been dropped in France with the +rise of Romanesque architecture and replaced always afterward by the +vertical lines which are the prominent one sin of all Northern Gothic +buildings. + +The celebrated Doge’s palace is the foremost of these and ranks amongst +the most picturesque buildings in Europe. It is not free, however, from +grave defects and is criticised by architects for the top-heavy and +injudicious construction, by which a high and rarely pierced wall is +sustained by the slenderest of arcades. + +Most of these palaces are of the fifteenth century and should not perhaps +be mentioned first, but as they illustrate the principle of horizontal +lines more readily than by reference to the isolated parts of less +well-known buildings, they are introduced now. + +Although Milan Cathedral is one of the largest and most pretentious +ecclesiastical buildings in Italy, it is scarcely a good example of +Italian Gothic, for German architects were employed in its construction +and their influence is apparent. It is rather to the Cathedral of Sienna +that we should turn for a complete typical Italian structure. Here we +find a beautiful building and yet one which can in no way be judged from +a Northern standard. The West front has three porches, but their recessed +arches are round instead of pointed, although the detail is Gothic (the +church having been begun in the middle of the thirteenth century); above +is a rose window, but, unlike the Western models, without dividing +tracery. Both the exterior and interior are striped with alternate bands +of black and white marble. The intersection of the nave and transept +is covered by a dome, a feature unknown in France or England (with +the single exception of the wooden one in the cathedral of Ely), and +the tower or campanile is placed in the angle of the South transept. +These points are all essentially different from Northern +treatment, in which some of them would be considered defects. Here, +however, the parts are sufficiently harmoniously united to produce a +whole which is pleasing and original. The cathedral of Sienna has much in +addition to these to make it interesting: attached to it is a library—a +later building, beautifully decorated in a style similar to the Loggie of +Raphael in the Vatican; the stalls of the choir are of carved wood, of +the richest Renaissance design, and the pulpit, by Nicholas Pisano, is a +gem of sculpture. This pulpit is octagonal; its sides are carved in high +relief in representation of Scriptural scenes, and it is supported by +polished columns carrying trefoiled arches and resting upon marble lions +in lieu of bases. As a work in which both sculpture and architecture +combine, it is, on a small scale, one of the most beautiful productions +of its kind, essentially Italian, and rivalled only by that in the +baptistery of Pisa by the same artist. + +The body of a lion as the base of a column was a favourite device of +Italian architects, and is frequently met with. Porches formed of columns +carrying a round arch and gable and resting on lions, are often attached +to the entrance of churches. + +Orvieto Cathedral is, on a smaller scale, similar to the neighbouring +cathedral of Sienna. The West front is designed with most elaborate +detail and highly ornamented with painting and sculpture. The Duomo +of Florence partakes also of the general characteristics of Sienna, +although its proportions are vastly larger. Its most striking feature +is the great dome, added by Brunelleschi, when the church, designed by +Arnolfo, was approaching completion; but it is unsatisfactory, as its +immense size dwarfs the rest of the building. The general picturesqueness +of outline, the delicate design of the doors and windows, and the +proximity of the beautiful tower of Giotto, go far to atone for this. The +exterior walls of the church are covered with a veneering of coloured +marbles, which, while judiciously treated and good of its kind, is too +false to be easily reconciled to true artistic principles, and its +skin-deep beauty has been painfully apparent, until very recently, owing +to the unfinished condition of the West front. + +It may be said in extenuation of this that plaster, while generally +accepted as an honest material, is no less a shallow covering to disguise +naked walls; it is, however, frequently misused, and is only tolerable +so long as it is not employed in imitation of better materials, while +the thin marble is really intended to deceive the eye, and give the +impression that its depth is equal to that of the wall. + +The interior of the Florence Cathedral is disappointing, it is +insufficiently lighted, bare, and much in need of the frescos with which +it was originally intended to be decorated. + +The cathedral of Pisa belongs in greater part to the preceding style, but +the campo-santo adjoining it has a cloister with traceried +windows, which, notwithstanding its round arches, more nearly resembles +Northern Gothic than anything in Italy, and by its greater height shows +a novel and more effective treatment than is usually seen in France or +England. + +The little church of St. Maria della Spina in this town, on the banks of +the Arno, is a charming little edifice of the Sienna type. + +In civil architecture Italy has much to boast of. Her palaces and +fortresses are amongst the noblest and most picturesque buildings +of the Middle Ages found anywhere in Europe. Most of these are +rectangular masses of stone, the austerity of which is relieved by heavy +window-openings with pointed heads and moulded frames, and crowned by a +battlemented cornice, occasionally enlivened by shields placed between +alternate corbels. The addition of the campanile, used as a lookout tower +rather than as a belfry, generally completes an imposing structure. + +Of those in stone, the Palazzo Vecchio and the Bargello, in Florence, +are among the finest of these half town-hall, half fortress buildings, +while the Municipio of Sienna, with its immensely high campanile, may be +mentioned as typical of those in brick. Nearly every large city possesses +one of these tall towers, notably Verona, Cremona, Mantua, and Florence. +In the last-named the tower of Giotto is the most highly ornamented +and graceful of this class of structure, and for general proportions +unsurpassed. Longfellow, in his well-known poem, regrets +the lack of a spire to complete it, but it is questionable whether such +an addition could have been made in keeping with the style in which it is +designed. + +In France the lately restored Chateau de Pierrefonds, near Compiegne, +illustrates, perhaps as well as any, the typical military building of the +Gothic period, with all the usual accompanying structures. The exterior +walls are high and massive, with round towers at the angles crowned with +projecting battlements and conical roofs. An interior court is reached +only by traversing a drawbridge and passing through an outer gate and +passage defended by heavy portcullis. Around this court are grouped the +apartments, banqueting-halls, the chapel, and the necessary quarters for +residents and garrison. + +The number of remaining domestic buildings of the period is comparatively +limited. The house of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, the monastic Hotel de +Cluny, in Paris, the Palais de Justice, and the Hotel Bourgtheroulde, +in Rouen, may be mentioned among the few still standing, as the best +examples of contemporary architecture. + +Of small half-timbered houses there remain a fair number in France, +though they are daily being demolished, in the principal cities, to make +way for so-called improvements. + +England is rich in military and civil buildings: the castles of +Windsor, Warwick, Kenilworth, Rochester, and the Tower of +London, are all well known and have been frequently described. Perhaps +the most interesting of English civil structures of the Middle Ages, +are the colleges at Oxford; as, however, they follow, in the Gothic +treatment, the progress of the styles, as illustrated in the contemporary +ecclesiastical edifices, they do not require special description. + +The town-halls of Belgium are important Gothic buildings, and are +found in all the principal cities of that country. Their flat façades +are singularly rich, but as they embody only the forms and ornament +of Gothic art, they are less interesting and poorer examples than any +less pretentious structures showing the constructive element, which +predominated in the Gothic style. + +Toward the close of the style, and before the rebirth of Classic art had +completely superseded Gothic architecture, a curious transitional style +had a brief sway, in which both were blended. The wing of the Chateau +de Blois, built by Louis XII., and the Chateau de Gaillon, built by +Cardinal Amboise, in the year 1500, the façade of which is now preserved +in the courtyard of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, may be regarded as the +best specimens of this charming and short-lived art. The churches of St. +Etienne du Mont, and St. Eustache, at Paris, may be added to these as +typical of the contemporary religious edifices. + +In them we see the last throes of a dying style which had +become extravagant and distorted in its final efforts to survive, but +retained traces of its former beauty even in its expiring moments. + +The Gothic style arose in the latter half of the twelfth century, it +attained its greatest purity and simplicity in the thirteenth; during +the fourteenth a more extensive use of ornament was introduced, in +consequence of which it has been termed Decorated Gothic; finally, in the +fifteenth, its principles and principal features were exaggerated and +pushed to their utmost limits, until its brilliancy, flickering in the +flamboyant traceries of the latest period, expired and gave place to a +Classic revival. + + + + + XI. + + THE RENAISSANCE. + + +A not uncommon error is made in applying the name Renaissance only to the +delicately treated style of revived Classic art, such as was prevalent +in France during the reigns of Francis the First, and his immediate +successors. + +The word—derived from the verb _renaître_, signifying in French the +rebirth (of the classics understood)—cannot, however, be confined to any +such narrowed limits, for no new style having been substituted since, it +is as correct a term to-day as it was in the sixteenth century. There +is certainly a distinction between the first brilliant productions of +the revival, and the more ponderous buildings which succeeded them, but +Early and Late Renaissance express this satisfactorily. It did not always +follow, however, that all the work which, from its characteristics, would +be classified under the first head, necessarily antedated that belonging +to the later period. + +In Italy, where the works of the Romans were too colossal to be utterly +destroyed, and too conspicuous to be easily forgotten, the first movement +naturally took place to reawaken the long dormant art, by +which they had been produced. + +In the fifteenth century Orcagua built the Loggia dei Lanzi, in Florence, +and boldly substituted round arches for the pointed ones then in vogue. +This was the turning-point in the tide of Gothic architecture, for it +needed but little more to induce the delighted Italians to throw off the +yoke of an art which they had adopted but unwillingly, and which had +never been sympathetic to their taste. Consistently with their impetuous +nature, the change was effected without hesitation in a marvellously +short period, and with scarcely any of the usual intervening transitional +stages. The ancient forms reappeared and replaced the dying Gothic as +rapidly as in the days of the French monarchy the cry “Le roi est mort. +Vive le roi!” heralded at once the king’s death and his son’s succession +to power. + +It is strange that there should have been so little to connect the +succeeding styles, that the revival should have been so completely +independent of and uninfluenced by a style which had been steadily +growing for four centuries, and which men must have become accustomed +to consider the only one suited to their times. Delicate workmanship +was, however, the only Gothic legacy the Renaissance architects +accepted, and this was the chief characteristic of the work of the early +period. The proportions and scale of their buildings were small; a +whole order: pedestal, column, and entablature generally +occupying and marking the height of an ordinary story of fifteen or +twenty feet, and the ornament used, while profuse, was executed in the +lowest relief and with most minute detail. + +If the revolution in art was great, it had proportionately great +exponents: Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo, Vignola, Michael +Angelo are names as prominent in history as those of much-lauded victors +in the battlefield. + +Brunelleschi, architect of the dome of St. Mary’s in Florence, was one +of the earliest innovators. He designed the Strozzi and Pitti Palaces +in that city, with the horizontal lines and round arches of the Classic +school, although still retaining the feudal traditions in their massive +stonework and in the austerity of their exteriors. The great palaces of +Rome which belong to this period partake also of this external severity, +and confine their brilliancy to interior display. The palaces of the +Cancelleria by Bramante, the Palazzo Massini by Balthasar Perruzzi, of +Sienna, the Sacchetti and Corsini Palaces by Sangallo, the Barberini +designed by Bernini, and the Farnese Palace upon which Sangallo, Vignola, +and Michael Angelo devoted their labors in turn, are a few among the most +celebrated. + +Most of these buildings, while varying in size and in accordance with +the character of their sites, are rectangular in plan, and enclose +quadrangular courts, the different stories being marked by superposed +orders and arcades. They are planned on a liberal scale, +with broad proportions and with great deference to symmetry. The beauty +of the plan was, in fact, one of the best features of the new style, not +only in domestic, but in ecclesiastical architecture, for the arbitrary +Gothic arrangements being once discarded, it became possible to combine +the circle and straight line in many novel and beautiful ways, for which +the older Roman buildings furnished admirable examples. The study of +these plans forms one of the most important elements in an architect’s +education, and their examination in these days of iron props and +twelve-inch walls is fraught with much pleasure and profit. + +The light and brilliant creations of the early period are abundant in +Northern Italy, and were models with which the French were readily +impressed. The façade of the church in the Certosa of Pavia, with its +elaborate detail and delicate ornament, and such buildings as the +Spinelli Rezzonico and Vendramin palaces, the church of St. Zachariah, +the Logetta and Library of St Mark’s of Sansovino, in Venice, and +farther South the Palazzo Fava in Bologna, the Capella Pazzi attached +to the older Sta. Croce in Florence, and the monument to Julius II. in +Sta. Maria del Popolo in Rome are a few beautiful examples of the early +treatment which has so much affinity with the works produced in France +under the Valois. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF ST. PETER’S AS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED BY MICHAEL +ANGELO.] + +The great Italian cathedral upon which nearly all subsequent churches +were modelled was commenced upon the site of the old basilica of St. +Peter’s in Rome in the year 1506, upon plans by Bramante, and occupied +a century and a half in completion. After Bramante, Giocondo, Julian +Sangallo, Raphael, Perruzzi, Antonio di Sangallo, Michael Angelo and +Carlo Maderno each worked upon it in turn. + +Michael Angelo, who designed the dome, wished to adopt the plan of the +Greek cross, that is, with equal arms, as shown in the accompanying plan. +The result would have been much more monumental and would have given the +dome its due effect within a moderate distance, while now it can only be +properly judged from afar, and the high façade terminating the nave is +both poor in composition and detrimental to the general conception. The +building is essentially Classic in all its details, but differs from the +general design of any particular Classical building. The nave is formed +by a Corinthian arcade similar to those of ancient Rome, though on a +vastly larger scale, supporting a tunnel-vault, which is decorated with +sunken panels like those of the ancient Baths. The dome is supported +on a circular drum carried on four immense piers and improves on the +Pantheon only in size, while it is surpassed by St. Sophia in scientific +construction. + +The cathedral is most richly, even gaudily, decorated within, with +coloured marbles and mosaics and contains numerous tombs of great +magnificence and an altar with twisted columns designed by Bernini. +It is the largest church in the world, and yet its proportions are so +harmoniously, or inharmoniously designed, that it does not produce +a corresponding sense of its vastness upon the beholder. The single +order occupying the height of two stories is a feature, the invention, +or rather arrangement of which, is attributed to Michael Angelo. In +subsequent buildings it was nearly always adopted in preference to the +smaller orders marking each floor. + +The life of this great artist forms of itself a chapter in the history +of architecture. Michael Buonarotti, surnamed Angelo, the most brilliant +architect of the sixteenth century, was born of noble parentage in Arezzo +in the year 1575. He developed extraordinary talents at an early age, +and after outstripping his first instructor, took up his residence in +Florence, where he studied anatomy and the human figure until he became +the most expert draughtsman of his time. In Rome, where he was summoned +by Julius II., he produced several fine works in statuary, but owing +to the jealousy of Bramante was forced to quit the city and return to +Florence. There he aided the citizens to sustain a siege during a year, +by his superior knowledge of fortification, and subsequently went to +Venice, where he designed the famous Rialto bridge. At the earnest +solicitation of the pope he returned to Rome and commenced the great +paintings in the Sistine Chapel, to which work he had been assigned by +the counsels of Bramante, who wished to prove his inferiority to his own +nephew Raphael. The result of the work, completed in a marvellously short +period, however, was so successful that all Rome ran to see it. + +After the accession of Paul III. to the Papal see, Michael Angelo was +definitely appointed architect of St. Peter’s and worked on the building +during the remainder of his life, although he returned to Florence +several times and there executed the splendid statues which adorn the +chapel of the Medicis. In his later days he was assisted by Vignola +in his work, but died before its completion at the advanced age of +eighty-eight. + +Giacomo Barrozio, called Vignola from his birthplace near Bologna, is +known for his great works, the chief of which are the Jesuits’ church +in Rome and the castle of Caprarolla at Viterbo, which he built for the +Cardinal Alexander Farnese, and also, especially to architects, for the +rules and measurements of Classical orders which he composed from the +buildings of Rome with the aid of the manual of Vitruvius. + +This work comprises the elements of design used in nearly all the +buildings erected during the two following centuries, many of their +elevations being simple combinations of different pages of Vignola’s +book, which to this day is the best guide for Classical proportions and +the architects’ A B C. + +The discriminator between the various architectural styles is fond +of drawing a marked distinction between Italian, French, and German +Renaissance, and illustrating it by views of the typical Italian palace, +with a flat tile roof and low pediments, and the typical French house, +with immensely high slate roofs and pretentious dormers. Although the eye +of the practised architect can distinguish between the representative +work of Sansovino and Philibert Delorme, and between that of Bernini and +Claude Perrault, yet such distinctions do not form separate styles, for +they are but unimportant differences, caused by local influences. + +The subject should be looked upon in a broader sense, for all these +subdivisions tend to confuse the student and lead him to forget the +sequence of the great historical style of which they form part. + +The Jacobean, Queen Anne, and kindred so-called styles in England were +merely eccentric streams flowing out of the one main channel, which were +scarcely worthy of distinction and certainly not of revival in our times. + +In France, under each reign, there was a slight difference of treatment, +chiefly in the decoration of interiors, which permits of a classification +most convenient to the modern upholsterer, but for our purposes it is +sufficient to apply the two divisions—Early and Late Renaissance. + +The Chateaux of Blois, Chambord, and Chenonceaux in the Valley of +the Loire, the Palaces of Fontainebleau, St. Germain en Laye, the +Tuileries and the old Louvre in Paris are splendid examples of the +former, and monuments worthy of the great artists, Pierre +Lescot, Philibert Delorme, Jean Goujon, and others, who laboured upon +them. They are illustrative of the employment of the small orders and +ornament in low relief, which characterized the corresponding period in +Italy, though they are generally richer and more spirited in design than +the Italian buildings, and the soft stone which is so abundant in France +permitted more lavish ornament upon the exteriors. + +The skeletons of each design, that is to say, the main architectural +lines, stripped of elaborate detail, are much alike and can nearly all +be brought back to the ancient method of superposing orders. This is no +disparagement on the value of the work, for the plans of many buildings +were excellent, and the variety of ornamental design was of a delicacy +and imaginative beauty which has rarely been surpassed. + +It is questionable, indeed, whether the change which took place in the +century of Louis XIV., in the introduction of larger proportions and +greater severity of ornament, was so much a gain as it was considered at +the time. To this period belong some of the great churches modelled upon +or rather suggested by St. Peter’s in Rome: St. Paul’s in London, rebuilt +by Christopher Wren; the Val de Grace, the joint work of Lemercier, +Leduc, and Mansart, and the church of the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, +also by Mansart, are among the finest of the period and style. The plan +of the last-named church is appended as a particularly happy example +in general arrangement and symmetrical variety, doing great credit to +Mansart, who also built the larger portion of the celebrated Chateau de +Versailles. + +The publication of Stewart and Revetts’ great work upon the antiquities +of Athens called general attention in England to the beauty of Greek art, +toward the close of the last century, and resulted in the erection of a +number of buildings in imitation of Athenian monuments which were utterly +inappropriate and unsuited to the English climate. + +In France architecture went through two or three fashionable phases, from +great extravagance of design under Louis XV. to extreme simplicity under +Louis XVI., finally relapsing under Napoleon into the servile copying +of entire Classic buildings: a great falling off from the principle of +the sixteenth century work, which had always been original in conception +although borrowing detail from the antique. + +During the early part of this century, architecture sank to the lowest +ebb all over the world, probably owing to the disturbing influences of +the great Napoleonic wars. Within the last thirty years the spirited +writings of a few enthusiasts and the liberal teachings of the French +schools have caused a general revival, and better work is being done now +than at any time during the century. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF CHURCH OF THE HOTEL DES INVALIDES AT PARIS.] + +Avaricious commerce and the predominance of the desire for display +rather than quiet love of the arts are factors which stand much in the +way of genuine progress, but it is not improbable that the spread of +refined education will eventually succeed in planting the seeds of this +love in the heart of the great masses, and enable architecture to resume +its natural and elevating position in their midst. + + + + + XII. + + CONCLUSION. + + +At the present stage of modern art we have the principles, broadly +speaking, of two great styles of architecture to guide us in the design +of the buildings which we may have to erect. These are the Classic and +the Gothic; for we may apply the term Classic not merely to the works +of the Greeks and Romans, but to their offshoots the Byzantine and +Romanesque styles, the one branching Eastward and the other Westward, +altered in many respects, but founded on the older systems; and we have +seen that the Renaissance was but a revival of the same methods and forms. + +In each of these styles the best result has always been attained where +the constructional element has been held to be as important as the +decorative, where the essential and useful have not been subservient to +considerations of ornament or display. In Classic work much has been done +that is unworthy, in the senseless repetition of columns and pilasters +which support nothing, in decoration which serves only to conceal +ill-adjusted architectural lines; and the same is equally +true of degenerate Gothic, in which whole walls have been covered with +meaningless panels, and massive buttresses built up to receive no strain. + +Nevertheless, by following only what is good in the principles of each, +and by avoiding the errors which experience has enabled us to perceive, +especially those which have engrafted themselves upon us by bigoted +custom, we can not only produce fine work but assist in the advance of +architecture. + +Before deciding upon what style to employ in the composition of an +edifice, it is well to first consider thoroughly the programme of what is +wanted in its plan, and then the special character with which we desire +to invest it both exteriorly and interiorly. It is scarcely necessary to +add that both should be intimately connected. + +We have seen that the best period of Gothic art was that wherein the +whole structure was raised on a theory of weights and strains thrown +from vault to pier, and pier to buttress; it is, therefore, absurd, when +a building occupies a space between the party-walls of modern street +lots, to attempt an interior construction having the appearance of +corresponding with buttresses and similar contrivances for which there is +no room on the outside. + +If, therefore, we choose Gothic for our style, let us follow no false +theory, but work on the principles demonstrated in its innumerable +examples, in which it may be possible to find room for further +development, introducing no feature of construction which has not a full +and consistent meaning. + +One can scarcely go the lengths to which many venture, in saying that +Gothic architecture is suited only to ecclesiastical buildings, for +there are many splendid military and civil structures, from the keeps +and castles of England and France, to the town-halls of Belgium. But +there is this much to be said in their favour, that while the laws of +fortification and domestic life have altered entirely since the Middle +Ages, on the one hand, those governing the observances of religion have +remained unchanged and no manner of building is so essentially religious +in its character or better calculated to command the reverence and awe of +the devotee, on the other. + +In support of this view many will agree in admitting that there is +nothing of this religious sentiment expressed in the Corinthian +colonnades of St. Peter’s, or, in fact, in any of the great number of +Renaissance churches which are scattered throughout the cities of Europe, +while it never fails to exercise its influence upon anyone entering the +great Gothic cathedrals. + +The great prevailing thought of Mediæval times was a religious one, and +we see it reflected in the minutest details of the lives of the people +of that age; it was, consequently, but natural that it should attain its +highest expression when they filled their churches with the best that +could be produced in architecture, sculpture, and painting. While the +Classic orders seem out of place in a temple of Christian worship they +are appropriate in civil buildings, and we have no better examples for +beauty of proportion. They are the result of the thought and taste of +generations of architects and have stood the test of time, for they are +as pleasing to-day as in the days of ancient Greece and Rome. + +It is their proportion rather than their component parts which we should +follow, for a column, unless needed as a support, is a questionable +decoration, and pilasters or engaged columns are only desirable where +additional thickness of wall is required, used as the Gothic architect +would have used buttresses, and never as mere ornaments, which are +at once a fraudulent delusion and a retrogression in the progress of +architecture. + +A multiplicity of columns and entablatures does not make perfect +architecture, but great leading lines, good proportion, clear detail, and +appropriate ornament. + +The guiding rule is to do nothing which has not intrinsic merit. It +is better to have an absolutely plain wall than one covered with poor +decoration; far better to have no cornice at all than a galvanized iron +one, painted to look like stone. + +The true definition of architecture is “ornamental construction.” It +is not a utilitarian science, because if so there would be no _raison +d’être_ for beauty of design, for mere shelter and commodious arrangement +could as well be provided by the engineer as by the architect. The art +of the architect lies in the composition of buildings at once suited +to their purpose and beautiful to the eye; and as such his art is one +that can progress, not through a series of changing fashions which grow +wearisome before they have lasted a decade, but step by step, according +to the example of the great periods of the past. + +This example teaches us never to copy slavishly, but to imitate old +examples only so far as they may suit modern needs, in principle rather +than in detail, and to eschew the reproduction of defects, however +picturesque, so that architecture may be a living art instead of the +mummified representation of archæological researches. + +In pursuing the study of so vast and splendid an art we should do so with +some feeling of reverence for its dignity, not looking upon it as a mere +money-making trade, for the greatest architects the world has known have +been satisfied in being only worshippers at a great shrine. Reverence +is a sentiment slightly regarded in an age when delicacy of feeling in +such matters is often held up as a butt for the jests and derision of the +vulgar, and the dignity of the art has little foothold when it has become +a custom for the vendor of cheap furniture to style his shop an “Art +Repository,” and the founder of cast-iron abortions to call his factory +“The Art Metal Works.” + +Nevertheless all of our work must reflect something of our inner +thoughts, and if we do not place them upon a high plane it is not +possible for their reflection to contain what is noble and true. We +cannot become artists in the true sense of the word without loving and +reverencing the beauty and principles which have made the art so great a +one. + +It is the custom among certain people to sneer at sentiment, and call for +practical art; but the most practical art is essentially the product of +thoughtful sentiments. + +As an illustration, let us compare the Laocoön, of sculpture; the Halls +of Karnak, of architecture; the Dead March, of music; the “Descent from +the Cross,” of painting, with the “Dancing Faun,” the arabesques of the +Renaissance, the waltzes of Chopin, and the gay feasts depicted by Paolo +Veronese, and the contrast shows us that each branch of an universal art +expresses the opposite feelings of gravity or tragedy, of joy or comedy, +each in its separate manner. + +In designing, questions arise every moment which can only be decided by +an innate sentiment of what is good and appropriate. There are no fixed +laws governing the height of a spire or the projection of a moulding; +they are matters which depend upon correct feeling, or, in other words, +upon educated taste. + +If it were not so, art would become a mechanical science, and could no +longer be called by that name. Emotion has no place in mechanics, but it +has great influence in the arts. We know the Greeks were an emotional +race, and it is said that Michael Angelo wept before a beautiful statue +or painting; and the works of the people and of the individual were +proportionate to the depth of their feelings, and have perhaps never been +excelled. + +Let us, therefore, commence this study—for the omega of this book is but +the alpha of architecture—despising none of its delicate subtleties, and +endeavour to grasp its principles, in the hope of doing our share in its +further advance, laying aside the petty gratification of our vanity in a +genuine affection for our art. + + + THE END + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE + + + Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs + and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support + hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to + the corresponding illustrations. + + The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page + references. + + Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected + after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and + consultation of external sources. + + Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a + predominant preference was found in the original book. + + Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and + inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. + + Page + 21: “tenemos” replaced by “temenos”. + 31: “Chilambaram” replaced by “Chidambaram”. + 32: “baldaquins” replaced by “baldachins”. + 40: “ababaster” replaced by “alabaster”. + 111: “Adb-el-Rhaman” replaced by “Abd-el-Rhaman”. + 119: “continuons” replaced by “continuous”. + 126: “weer” replaced by “were”. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76489 *** |