578 GREEK HORIZONTAL CURVES IN MAISON CARREE AT NIMES. 



It should no doubt be added that the long sides of the Parthenon have 

 lost tlie main central portions of their entablatures by the gunpowder 

 explosion of the seventeenth century, and that consequently the curves 

 can not be studied here. At the ends of the building, which are shorter, 

 it is not so easy to notice the curve of the entablature. The most 

 favorable location for the observation is on the long sides of the stylo- 

 bate. Here, then, is the place to point out that this platform of the 

 temple and also the temple steps had been covered by rubbish down to 

 1837, and that observations of the curves on their lines had been previ- 

 ously impossible in the Parthenon. But we may also point out that 

 the Theseum at Athens has its long sides and upper entablatures intact. 

 Here at least the curves might have been noticed before 1837. The 

 curves have since been noticed in a number of other ruins which had 

 been visited by students and measured before 1837. The laying bare 

 of the stylobate of the Parthenon in 1837 assisted the discover}^ of 

 Pennethorne, but it does not explain why some other student had not 

 previously made the observation for the Theseum and for numerous 

 other temples. 



The reader will notice that I am working gradually toward an exjjla- 

 nation of the fact that the curves of the Maison Carree, in southern 

 France, were not noticed as being in construction until 1891. We have 

 a parallel fact for the Athenian temples. Those buildings had been 

 studied and carefully measured for a period of over eighty years before 

 their curves were noticed. In 1756 were begun the measurements of 

 Stuart and Eevett; in 1837 were made the observations of Pennethorne 

 and Hofer. 



What, then, is the explanation for the oversight of these phenomena 

 in either case? Clearly there are two. The modern eye is dull and 

 blunted as compared with the eye of the Greek. People look, but they 

 do not see. But, above all, the effect is discounted by the eye. What- 

 ever may have been the i)urpose of the Greek curves, there are only two 

 possible effects. From certain points of view (it may be from all points 

 of view) a perspective enlargement — from other points of view an 

 optical mystification, if not a perspective enlargement. 



We will illustrate the direct perspective effect of enlargement by 

 assuming a ijoint of view opposite the center of one of the sides or of one 

 of the ends of the building. From such a j)oint of view the lines will fall 

 in perspective on either side, and as their change of direction is purely an 

 optical effect, in which each point of the line changes position according 

 to its distance from the eye, it follows that this line must be a curve down- 

 ward in each direction away from the center. On this head we can 

 have only one opinion from all experts in curvilinear perspective. 



We will illustrate the optical mystification by assuming a standpoint 

 opposite one of the angles of the building. I will not assert absolutely 

 that there is a perspective increment from this position. It is my opin- 

 ion that the already recognized principles of curvilinear perspective 



