AUSTRAI^IAIf STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. 679 



evident copyint; ot" timber construction. In other temples the use 

 of granite resulted in a massive severity necessitated bv the material. 



The Grecians, who were at an early age in close touch with the 

 Egyptians' grafted Egyptian detail on to the cyclopean architecture 

 of the Pelasgic. The Doric order, the first and the grandest of 

 Grecian ideals, found its prototype in Egypt. The Grecians by slow 

 degrees perfected its proportions until an ultra-refinement led to the 

 development of their Ionic order, which seems to have been suggested 

 by the lighter columns and capitals of the Persians. Later still the 

 passion for sculpture resulted in the Corinthian, a voluptuous order, 

 which suggests the seeds of a possible decadence in art if the decline 

 of the nation had been more gradual. The difference of material at 

 command and the absolute contrast in natural environment led to 

 Grecian 'architecture developing on more refined lines than the 

 Egyptian, but this refinement of necessity resulted in some loss of 

 impressiveness. 



The Romans in their national infancy were too much occupied 

 by their material interests to find time for original art development. 

 The Etruscan architecture of their forefathers was sufficient for their 

 earlier needs ; afterwards they grafted on to this details learned from 

 Greece. These, however, soon got coarsened by the grosser and more 

 materialistic character of the nation. The adoption of the arch in 

 place of the beam as the main principle in construction led to the 

 first big break from ancient tj'pes. The arch fol-mation at once led 

 to the vaulted and domed roofs, the crowning glory of Roman 

 architecture. For years, however, the traheated treatment was kept 

 as a false clothing to arched construction. Towards the end of 

 Roman development the Romanesque style was evolved. This was the 

 logical outcome of the adoption of the arch. The imitation of beam 

 construction was abandoned, and the dominant lines were perpendi- 

 cular, thus paving the way for the Gothic innovation. 



The submergence of the Roman Empire by the Goths threw 

 the architectural world back into semi-barbarism. The Romanesque 

 t'orms were imitated with more or less knowledge, according to the 

 distance of the nation from the old art centime. On these ancient 

 details were grafted those forms of rudimentary decoration common 

 t-) all half-civilised races. Side by side with the development of 

 Western architecture, the East had advanced on different lines, reach- 

 ing to highest zenith in Persia, at that era so poetically depicted in 

 the "Arabian Nights Entertainments." The crusades, by bringing the 

 Western nations into touch with this finer architecture of the East, 

 introduced new ideas. Already the pointed arch had been evolved by 

 the Gothic races. At first, however, the buildings were ponderous 

 and clumsy. As knowledge of construction and outside influences 

 operated they became more and more refined, and eventually more 

 and more decorative. Finally, an exaggerated love of carving and 

 pictorial glass, with its consequent wide expanse of window, over- 

 shadowed that true sense of proportion which was the charm of 

 Gothic as of Grecian architecture in the days of its perfection. Time 

 would fail us to trace the phases of Gothic architecture through the 

 different European channels. Suffice it to say, that with each nation 

 it varied according to national characteristics and environments. In 



