12 SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 



'^ Continue above the cornice of the rotunda a 

 plain circular member, twenty feet in height ; cut it 

 with twelve equi-distant niches of double squares, 

 and place in them colossal statues of the apostles ; 

 surmount it with a cornice, and crown it with the 

 elliptic rotunda of the Pantheon ; not impannelled 

 as in the original, but painted in fresco by good 

 masters ; preserve the ceil-de-boeuf, covered with 

 plate-glass in copper frames ; and here is a new 

 Basilica Vaticana. 



"Taking then the diameter of the base of the 

 Doric columns at twelve feet, each being six diameters 

 in height, we shall have — feet. 



Length from east to west, including the rotunda 1088 



Length from north to south 896 



Diameter of the rotunda 320 



Breadth of the eastern and western nave and aisles. ...,, ,.228 

 Breadth of the northern and southern nave and aisles, . . . ; 132 



" The rotunda then would be nearly half as large 

 again as the Pantheon. A question may arise, 

 whether or no the diastyle intercolumniation could 

 succeed, and give sufficient strength to the rotunda. 

 Those who know any thing of mechanical forces 

 must be aware, that if each architrave were composed 

 of two pieces, and a central key-stone in the form of 

 a wedge ; the architraves, thus compactly wedged 

 all round, would be stronger than if one piece, and 

 easily admissible with three diameters. The enstyle 

 division would be too narrow for columns of such 

 magnitude. To prevent heaviness, I have applied 

 to the Segestan Doric the six diameters of the age 

 of Pericles. I could have wished to give greater 

 character to the nave, by adopting the araeostyle 

 intercolumniation ; but reflection suggested that 

 this would weaken the edifice ; and, perhaps, with 

 columns of such vast proportions, it could not be 

 adopted without an arched roof: a feature not purely 

 Greek. Now I maintain, that had a similar plan 

 to this been put in execution ; not only would the 

 architecture have been chaster, but the building, vast 



