CHAMBERS'S

INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE.

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S
EDINBURGH JOURNAL, EDUCATIONAL COURSE, &c.

NUMBER 93.

NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES.

ARCHITECTURE.

PRICE 14d.

ARCHITECTURE, or the art of planning and raising edifices, appears to have been among the earliest inventions. The first habitations of men were such as nature afforded, with but little labour on the part of the occupant, and sufficient to supply his simple wants-grottos, huts, and tents. In early times, the country of Judea, which is mountainous and rocky, offered cavernous retreats to the inhabitants, who accordingly used them instead of artificial places of shelter. From various passages in Scripture, it appears that these caves were often of great extent, for, in the sides of the mountain of Engedi, David and 600 men concealed themselves. In the course of time, art was employed to fashion the rude cavernous retreats, and to excavate blocks by which rude buildings were composed in more convenient situations. The progress of architecture, how-out of the solid rock, upon the islands Elephanta and ever, from its first dawn, differed in almost every different locality. Whatever rude structure the climate and materials of any country obliged its early inhabitants to adopt for their temporary shelter, the same structure, with all its prominent features, was afterwards kept up by their refined and opulent posterity. From the cause now mentioned, the Egyptian style of building had its origin in the cavern and mound; the Chinese architecture, with its pavilion roofs and pointed minaret, is moulded from the Tartar tent; the Grecian is derived from the wooden cabin; and the Gothic from the bower of trees. It is evident that necessity as much as choice or chance led to the adoption of the different kinds of edifices. Among a roving and pastoral people, the tent, which could be easily struck and removed, was obviously more suitable than an immoveable and difficultly erected structure; it is equally clear that lofty and substantial edifices would be out of place in a country subject to earthquakes, or low buildings in situations liable to periodic inundation. Thus local circumstances everywhere produced local styles of architecture, and these distinctions are now almost as observable as they were thousands of years ago.

Of the progressive steps from comparative rudeness to elegance of design, history affords no certain account, and we are often left to gather facts from merely casual notices. The most ancient nations known to us, among whom architecture had made some progress, were the Babylonians, whose most celebrated buildings were the temple of Belus, the palace and the hanging gardens of Semiramis; the Assyrians, whose capital, Nineveh, was rich in splendid buildings; the Phoenicians, whose cities, Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, and Sarepta, were adorned with equal magnificence; the Israelites, whose temple was considered as a wonder of architecture; the Syrians, and the Philistines. No architectural monument of these nations has, however, been transmitted to us ; but we find subterraneous temples of the Hindoos, hewn

After mankind had learned to build houses, they commenced the erection of temples to their gods, and these they made still more splendid than private dwellings. Thus architecture became a fine art, which was first displayed on the temples, afterwards on the habitations of princes and public buildings, and at last became a universal want in society.

Traces of these eras of advancement in the art of erecting buildings are found in various quarters of the globe, especially in eastern countries, where the remains of edifices are discovered of which fable and poetry can alone give any account. The most remarkable of these vestiges of a primitive architecture are certain pieces of masonry in the island of Sicily, as well as in some other places, called the works of the Cyclops, an ancient and fabulous race of giants, mentioned by Homer in his Odyssey. By whom these walls were actually

erected is unknown.

Salsetta, and in the mountains of Elora. These temples may be reckoned among the most stupendous ever executed by man. The circuit of the excavations is about six miles. The temples are 100 feet high, 145 feet long, and 62 feet wide. They contain thousands of figures, appearing, from the style of their sculpture, to be of ancient Hindoo origin. Everything about them, in fact, indicates the most persevering industry in executing one of the boldest plans. In the chief temple, the vault is supported by several rows of columns, which form three galleries, one above the other. Twenty-four colossal monolenthes, representing Indian gods, are placed in separate divisions, the sculpture of which, though on the whole rude, shows in some parts an advanced period of art, and a certain development of taste. Latterly, several travellers have made known the remains of an architecture and sculpture not very dissimilar to that of the ancient Hindoos, in certain districts of Central America, believed to be the execution of a people anterior to those Mexicans who existed at the period of the invasion of Cortes.

EGYPTIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE.

All the architectural remains of ancient times sink into insignificance when compared with those of Egypt. The obelisks, pyramids, temples, palaces, and other structures of this country, are on the grandest scale, and such as could only have been perfected by a people considerably advanced in refinement. The elementary features of Egyptian architecture were chiefly as follow:-1. Their walls were of great thickness, and sloping on the outside. This feature is supposed to have been derived from the mud walls, mounds, and caverns of their ancestors. 2. The roofs and covered ways were flat, or without pediments, and composed of blocks of stone, reaching from one wall or column to another. The principle of the arch, although known to the Egyptians, was seldom if ever employed. 3. Their columns were numerous, close, short, and very large, being sometimes ten or twelve feet in diameter. They were generally without bases, and had a great variety of

thenon, or temple of Minerva, at Athens. The cornice of the Doric order consisted of a few large mouldings, having on their under side a series of square sloping projections, resembling the ends of rafters, and called mutules. These were placed over both triglyphs and circular gutta. The Romans, in adopting the Doric, greatly spoiled its simplicity and grandeur by unduly lengthening the shaft, and making other tasteless alterations. To have a just idea of the Doric, therefore, we must go back to the pure Grecian era. The finest

its walls, doors, and columns. A single column, whether standing or fallen, and a fragment of the entablature, furnish data from which the remainder of the colonnade, and the height of the main body, can be made out. Grecian temples are well known to have been constructed in the form of an oblong square, or parallelo-metopes, and were ornamented on their under side with gram, having a colonnade or row of columns without, and a walled cell within. The part of the colonnade which formed the front portico was called the pronaos, and that which formed the back part the posticus. There were, however, various kinds of temples, the styles of which differed; thus, the prostyle had a row of columns at one end only; the amphiprostyle had a row at each end; the peripteral had a row all round, with two inner ones at each end; and the dipteral had a double row all round, with two inner ones at each end, making the front three columns deep.

The theatre of the Greeks, which was afterwards copied by the Romans, was built in the form of a horseshoe, being semicircular on one side and square on the other. The semicircular part, which contained the audience, was filled with concentric seats, ascending from the centre to the outside. In the middle, or bottom, was a semicircular floor, called the orchestra. The opposite, or square part, contained the actors. Within this was erected, in front of the audience, a wall, ornamented with columns and sculpture, called the scena. The stage or floor between this part and the orchestra was called the proscenium. Upon this floor was often erected a moveable wooden stage, called by the Romans pulpitum. The ancient theatre was open to the sky, but a temporary awning was erected to shelter the audience from the sun and rain.

Orders.

examples are those of the temple of Theseus, and the Parthenon (fig. 7) at Athens. The Parthenon, which is now a complete ruin, has formed a model in modern architecture. It was built by the architect Ictinus, during the administration of Pericles, and its decorative sculptures are supposed to have been executed under the direction of Phidias. The platform or stylobate consists of three steps, the uppermost of which is 227 feet in length and 101 in breadth. The number of columns is eight in the portico of each front, and seventeen in each flank, besides which there is an inner row of six columns at each end of the cell. The proportional height of the columns is five diameters and 33 minutes, and they diminish thirteen minutes in diameter from bottom to top. The sculpture of the frieze represented the combats of the Centaurs and Lapitha; those of the eastern pediment represented the fabulous birth of Minerva; and those on the western the contests between the goddess and Neptune for the right of presiding over the city. The building was destroyed by the explosion of a bomb-shell, during the siege by the Venetians in 1687.

Aided, doubtless, by the examples of Egyptian art, the Greeks gradually improved the style of architecture, and originated those distinctions which are now called the "Orders of Architecture." By this phrase is understood certain modes of proportioning and decorating the column and its entablature. They were in use during the best days of Greece and Rome, for a period of six or seven centuries. They were lost sight of in the dark ages, and again revived by the Italians at the time of the restoration of letters. The Greeks had three orders, called the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These were adopted and modified by the Romans, who also added two others, called the Tuscan and Composite. Speaking of these splendid objects of art, a reThe Doric order. This is the earliest of the Greek spectable writer observes" Of their effect it is imorders, and we see in it a noble simplipossible to form a competent idea without seeing one. city on which subsequent orders were And whence, it may be asked, does this interest arise ? founded. Compared with the best of From their simplicity and harmony; simplicity, in the Egyptian models, it exhibits a great the long unbroken lines which bound their forms, advance in purity of taste. From the and the breadth and boldness of every part; such remains of ancient art, it is found that as the lines of the entablature and stylobate, the the Doric varied in its proportions. breadth of the corona, of the architrave, of the abaci, The column, in its examples at Athens, of the capitals, and of their ovalos also; in the defined is about six diameters in height; but in form of the columns, and the breadth of the memthose of older date, as those at Pæstum, bers of the stylobate; harmony, in the evident fitit is only four or five. One of the ness of every part to all the rest. The entablature, most correct examples is that given in though massive, is fully upborne by the columns, whose fig. 6. The shaft of the Doric column spreading abaci receive it, and transmit the weight had no base, ornamental or otherwise, downwards by the shafts, which rest on a horizontal but rose directly from the smooth and spreading basement; the magnitude of every part pavement or stylobate. It had twenty being determined by the capacity of the sustaining flutings, which were superficial, and power. Besides graceful and elegant outline, and simple separated by angular edges. The perand harmonious forms, these structures possess a pendicular outline was nearly straight. bewitching variety of light and shade, arising from the The Doric capital was plain, being judicious contour and arrangement of mouldings, every formed of a few annulets or rings, a one of which is rendered effective by the fluting of the large echinus, and a flat stone at top columns, and the peculiar form of the columnar capital, called the abacus. The architrave was whose broad square abacus projects a deep shadow on plain; the frieze was intersected by oblong projec- the bold ovalo, which mingles it with reflections, and tions called triglyphs, divided into three parts by ver- produces on itself almost every variety. The play of tical furrows, and ornamented beneath by gutta, or light and shade, again, about the insulated columns, is drops. The spaces between the triglyphs were called strongly relieved and corrected by the deep shadows on metopes, and commonly contained sculptures. The the walls behind them; and in the fronts, where the sculptures, representing Centaurs and Lapitha, carried inner columns appear, the effect is enchanting. For all by Lord Elgin to London, were metopes of the Par- the highest effects which architecture is capable of pro

Fig. 6.

ducing, a Greek peripteral temple of the Doric order is perhaps unrivalled."*

The Ionic order. In this order the shaft begins to lengthen, and to possess a degree of ornament, but still preserving a great degree of simplicity of outline. In the best examples, as represented in fig. 8, the column was eight or nine diameters in height. It had a base often composed of a torus, a scotia, and a second torus, with intervening fillets. This is called the Attic base. Others were used in different parts of Greece. The capital of this order consisted of two parellel double scrolls, called volutes, occupying opposite sides, and supporting an abacus, which was nearly square, but moulded at its edges. These volutes have been considered as copied from ringlets of hair, or perhaps from the horns of Jupiter Ammon. When a column made the angle of an edifice, its volutes were placed, not upon opposite, but on contiguous sides, each fronting outwards. In this case the volutes interfered with each other at the corner, and were obliged to assume a diagonal direction. The Ionic entablature consisted of an architrave and frieze, which were con-tinuous or unbroken, and a cornice of Fig. 8. various successive mouldings, at the lower part of which was often a row of dentels, or square teeth. The examples at Athens of the Ionic order were the temple of Erectheus, and the temple on the Ilissus, both now destroyed. Modern imitations are common in public edifices.

The Corinthian order.-This was the lightest and most highly decorated of the Grecian orders. (Fig. 9.) The base of the column resembled that

of the Ionic, but was more complicated.
The shaft was often ten diameters in
height, and was fluted like the Ionic.
The capital was shaped like an inverted
bell, and covered on the outside with
two rows of leaves of the plant acanthus,
above which were eight pairs of small
volutes. Its abacus was moulded and
concave on its sides, and truncated at
the corners, with a flower on the centre
of each side. The entablature of the
Corinthian order resembled that of the
Ionic, but was more complicated and
ornamented, and had, under the cornice,
a row of large oblong projections, bear-
ing a leaf or scroll on their under side,
and called modillions. No vestiges of
this order are now found in the re-
mains of Corinth, and the most legiti-
mate example at Athens is in the cho-
ragic monument of Lysicrates.
Corinthian order was much employed
in the subsequent structures of Rome
and its colonies. The finest Roman example of this
order is that of three columns in the Campo Vaccino
at Rome, which are commonly considered as the re-
mains of the temple of Jupiter Stator. This example
has received the commendation of all modern artists,
yet has seldom been executed in its original form.
This is probably owing to the excessive richness and
delicacy of it, which renders its adoption very ex-
pensive; and perhaps the modification of it by Vignola
is preferable to the original, possessing a sufficient en-
richment without the excessive refinement of the other.
In this order the base is one module in height; the
shaft sixteen modules twenty minutes; and the capi-
tal two modules ten minutes; thus giving ten dia-
meters to the whole column. The architrave and

The

Fig. 9.

and the cornice two modules. The cornice is distinguished by modillions interposing between the beadmouldings and corona; the latter is formed by a square member surmounted by a cymatium, supported by a small ogee: the former is composed of dentels, sup ported by a cyma reversa, and covered by the ovalo. When the order is enriched, which is usually the case, these mouldings, excepting the cymatium and square of the corona, are all sculptured: the column is also fluted, and the channels are sometimes filled to about a third of their height with cablings, which are cylin drical pieces let into the channels. When the column is large, and near the eye, these are recommended as strengthening them, and rendering the fillets less liable to fracture; but when they are not approached, it is better to leave the flutes plain. They are sometimes sculptured, but this should only be in highly enriched orders.

The flutes are twenty-four in number, and commonly semicircular in their plan. The Corinthian base is similar to that of the Composite order, excepting that two astragals are employed between the scotia instead of one; but the Attic is usually employed for the reasons before assigned.

such deities.

"The Corinthian order," says Sir William Chambers, "is proper for all buildings where elegance, gaiety, and magnificence are required. The ancients employed i in temples dedicated to Venus, to Flora, Prosperine, and the nymphs of fountains, because the flowers, fallage, and volutes with which it is adorned, seemed well adapted to the delicacy and elegance Being the most splendid of all the orders, it is extremely proper for the decoration of palaces, public squares, or galleries and arcades surrounding them; and on account of its rich, gay, and graceful appearance, it may with propriety be used in theatres, in ball or banquet ing rooms, and in all places consecrated to festive mirth or convivial recreation."

Caryatides. The Greeks sometimes departed so far from the strict use of the orders as to introduce statues, in the place of columns, to support the entablature. Statues of slaves, heroes, and gods, appear to have been employed occasionally for this purpose. The principal specimen of this kind of architecture which remains, is in a portico called Pandroseum, attached to the temple of Erectheus at Athens, in which statues of Carin females, called Caryatides, are substituted for columns, One of these statues has been carried to London.

ROMAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE,

value;

Roman architecture possessed no originality of any it was founded on copies of the Greek models, and these were modi fied to suit circumstances and tastes. The number of orders was augmented by the addition of the Tuscan and Com posite.

Tuscan order.-This order is not unlike the Doric, and is chaste and ele gant.

As represented in fig. 10, the shaft had a simple base, ornamented with one torus, and an astragal below the capital. The proportions were seven diameters in height. Its entabla ture, somewhat like the Ionic, consisted of plain running surfaces. There is no vestige of this order among ancient ruins, and the modern examples of it are taken from the descriptions of Vi truvius.* The general effect is strength with simplicity, and the order is con Isidered to be well adapted for such buildings as prisons, public halls, and inferior parts of edifices. Vitruvius was a celebrated writer on architecture, who a frieze are each one module fifteen minutes in height, supposed to have flourished in the time of Julius Cas

* Encyclopædia Britannica, article Architecture.

676

Fig. 10.

Augustus. His treatise on architecture was first printed al
Venice in 1497. An English translation appeared in 1771, &

new translation by Wilkins was published in 1812.

The Composite order.-Of this there were various kinds, differing less or more either in the ornaments of the column or in the entablature. The simplest of this hybrid order was that which we represent in fig. 11, which may be observed to combine parts and proportions of the Doric, the Ionic, and the Tuscan. From this handsome modífication of previous orders, the Romans advanced to the ornamental composite, represented in fig. 12, which, in point of fact, is a barbarously modified Corinthian. It would appear from these efforts, as well as from all subsequent attempts, that the Greeks attained the highest state of improvement of which their style was susceptible, and that, consequently, all schemes

Fig. 11.

Fig. 12.

to execute something better must prove abortive. The higher class of Roman architects were convinced of this fact, and very judiciously held to the Corinthian order in all their finest buildings, both in Rome and in the provinces. Thus the Corinthian prevails among the ruins of Palmyra and Balbec, and other great cities founded by Roman provincials.

Fig. 14.

of two storeys, or with two tiers of columns, one over the other. The earliest Christian churches at Rome were sometimes called basilica, from their possessing an internal colonnade. The monumental pillars were towers in the shape of a column on a pedestal, bearing a statue on the summit, which was approached by a spiral staircase within. Sometimes, however, the column was solid. The therma, or baths, were vast structures, in which multitudes of people could bathe at once. They were supplied with warm and cold water, and fitted up with numerous rooms for purposes of exercise and recreation.

ITALIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE.

After the dismemberment of the Ro-
man empire, the arts degenerated so far
that a custom became prevalent of erect-
ing new buildings with the fragments of
old ones, which were dilapidated and torn down for the
purpose. This gave rise to an irregular style of build-
ing, which continued to be imitated, especially in Italy,
during the dark ages. It consisted of Grecian and
Roman details, combined under new forms, and piled
up into structures wholly unlike the antique originals.
Hence the names Græco-Gothic and Romanesque archi-
tecture have been given to it. After this came the
Italian style, which was professedly a revival of the
classic styles of Greece and Rome, but adapted to new
manners and wants-a kind of transition from ancient
to modern times. Its great master was Andrea Pal-
ladio, a Venetian (born 1518-died 1580). This highly
accomplished man expelled much of the Græco-Gothic
taste, and established in the sixteenth century what
may be called a new era in architecture. The majestic
simplicity of the ancient orders was always present to
the mind of Palladio, and he has left behind him many
beautiful buildings which attest the purity of his taste.
The writer in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," already
referred to, alludes to some peculiarities of the Italian
style :-
:-

The temples of the Romans sometimes resembled
those of the Greeks, but often differed from them. The
Pantheon, which is the most perfectly preserved temple
of the Augustan age, is a circular building, lighted only
from an aperture in the dome, and having a Corinthian
portico in front. The amphitheatre differed from the
theatre, in being a completely circular or rather ellip-
tical building, filled on all sides with ascending seats for
spectators, and leaving only the central space, called
the arena, for the combatants and public shows. The
Coliseum is a stupendous structure of this kind. The "Prostyles being almost unknown in Italian archi-
aqueducts were stone canals, supported on massive tecture, antæ are not often required. Pilasters, how-
arcades, and conveying large streams of water for the ever, are very common-so common, indeed, that they
supply of cities. The triumphal arches were commonly may be called pro-columns, as they are often used as
solid oblong structures, ornamented with sculptures, an apology for applying an entablature. They are de-
and open with lofty arches for passengers below. The scribed as differing from columns in their plan only,
edifice of this kind most entire in the present day is the latter being round, and the former square; for
the triumphal arch of Constantine at Rome, represented they are composed with bases and capitals; they are
in fig. 13. This
made to support entablatures according to the order to
structure is orna-
which they belong, and are fluted and diminished with
mental, and far
or without entasis, just as columns of the same style
from inelegant, but
would be. When they are fluted, the flutes are limited
it contains much
to seven in number on the face, which, it is said, makes
that is tasteless,
them nearly correspond with the flutes of columns; and
inasmuch as being
their projection must be one-eighth of their diameter
without meaning;
or width when the returns are not fluted; but if they
and there is also an
are, a fillet must come against the wall. Pedestals are
undue overloading
not considered by the Italo-Vitruvian school as belong-
of embellishment,
ing to the orders, but they may be employed with them
or at least fritter-
all, and have bases and surbases or cornices to corre-
ing away in details.
spond with the order with which they may be asso-
Carrying the eye up
ciated. Following Vitruvius, the Italian school makes
the columns, and
the central intercolumniation of a portico wider than
dissecting their indi-
any of the others. Arched openings, in arcades or
vidual bearings, we perceive that each may be resolved otherwise, are generally about twice their width in
into the shafting represented on a larger scale in fig. height; if, however, they are arranged with a colum-
14., which is evidently anomalous in design, and incon-nar ordinance, having columns against the piers, they
sistent with the dignified simplicity of the pure Grecian are made to partake of the order to which the columns
models. The arch of Constantine has been copied at belong, being lower in proportion to their width with
Paris, in the structure erected by Napoleon in front of the Tuscan than with the Doric, and so on; and the

the Tuilleries.

Fig. 13.

The basilica of the Romans was a hall of justice, used also as an exchange or place of meeting for merchants. It was lined on the inside with colonnades

piers are allowed to vary in the same manner, from
two-fifths to one half of the opening. With colum-
nar arrangements, moulded imposts and archivolts are
used; the former being made rather more than a semi-

"