GREEK HORIZONTAL CURVES IN MAISON CARREE AT NIMES. 581 



nearly opposite tbe center of any one side for that given side is indi- 

 cated by one of Mr. Joim \V, McKecknie's drawings lierewith. Tills 

 gentleman is an expert and instructor in perspective and the reader may 

 be assured that there are no uncertain theories whatever involved in 

 this picture, Kemember, we are not debating whetlier the Egyptian 

 architect intended this effect. We are not even debating at this moment 

 whether the construction is accidental. We are concerned with the 

 actual optical eiiect of the given phenomenon. All architectural lines 

 which are curved in horizontal planes, convex to the position of the 

 spectators, produce the effect of curves in elevation, as showu by the 

 diagram. At an angle of 45 degrees, 8 inches curve in plan gives an 

 eiiect of 8 inches curve in elevation. Inside the angle of 45 degrees, 

 the apparent height increases rapidly and is something enormous on 

 near approach, according to the dictum of another expert in perspec- 

 tive. In order to relate our text to the diagram we are speaking of 

 points of vision opposite or nearly opposite the center of any one side 

 of the court. In such a position the natural downward direction of the 

 architrave in perspective is exaggerated by two causes — tirst, there is 

 the exaggeration in height at the center; second, the receding line of 

 the convex curve gives the effect of an extra downward bend to the line, 

 as shown by the bird's-eye view. 



There is a similar result from other points of view% possibly compli- 

 cated by optical mystifications due to the contradiction between effects 

 of natural jterspecture and the effects of artificial arrangement. The 

 grand fact remains that a convex curve of 8 inches in 84 feet in the 

 architraves at Medinet Habou lias jiassed wholly unnoticed by an enor- 

 mous number of modern travelers, and that it is wholly unknown to 

 Egyptologists as far as I am aware. I should be able to name several 

 such, and the absence of literary mention in books on Egypt, which are 

 generally so quick to point to connectious with Greece where they are 

 obvious, is something phenomenal. I will not say at present that the 

 Egyptian builder intended an optical illusion, but I will definitely say 

 that he did produce one. Certainly not one man can gainsay me who 

 has been in this court without peiceiving the curves, and among those 

 men is the leading iierspective expert of this country. 



IV. 



All these explanations seem to me of value as helping us to under- 

 stand why the convex curves in the architraves of the Maison Carree 

 at Nimes w-ere not measured or noticed as in construction till the year 

 1891, when I had the pleasure of making this discovery. We under- 

 stand, for instance, that scholars had studied and measured the Par- 

 thenon for all the years between 1756 and 1837 before its curves were 

 noticed, and we understand that the existence of curves in plan in 

 ancient architecture had been wholly overlooked, as distinct from the 

 existence of curves in elevation. 



No doubt an occasional student or observer has noticed these curves 



