612 



CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



Vnctiee. 



Temple of 



I junui. 



Arctic, of 

 .Vpiimiui 

 Ntverui 

 and Con- 

 tiantine. 



Ampfci- 

 ihcwrrj. 



Baiement. 



Rur.itf. 



Siring 



Faunu* at Rome ; but this it departing from tlte purest 

 Roman style, and approaching to the Gothic. 



In case* where the columns are detached, at in the 

 arches of Septimius Severus, and of Constantine, it be- 

 come* necessary to break the entablature, and to make 

 iti projection over the intercolumns, the same that it 

 would have been had pilaster) been used, or just suffi- 

 cient to relieve it from the surface of the wall. Though 

 this be requisite in all intercolumniations of great width, 

 it should be practised as little as possible, because it de- 

 stroys simplicity and the genuine use of the entablature. 

 In the upper stories of the theatres and amphitheatres of 

 the Romans, the arcades stood upon the podia, or inter- 

 pedestals of the columns, perhaps as much for the pur- 

 pose of proportioning the apertures, as for the formation 

 of a parapet. When columns are destitute of pedestals, 

 they should stand upon a plinth, that the bases may be 

 kept dry and clean, as well as to prevent them from be- 

 ing broken. 



The Romans employed arcades in their triumphal 

 arches, and in various other buildings. They may with 

 great propriety be adopted fur gates of cities, palaces, 

 gardens, or parks, and are much used in the piazzas or 

 squares of Italian cities. In the latter, they are of great 

 utility for the purposes of shade and shelter in hot or 

 rainy weather, but they darken the apartments of the 

 houses, and, in these northern climates, reader them very 

 uncomfortable. 



Basements. This term is applied to the lower story 

 of a building, whether on a level with, or below the 

 surface of the earth. The height of the basement is 

 determined by its being the cellar or the ground story, 

 or as there may be principal rooms in one or both of 

 them. It should never, however, exceed that of the 

 ttory next above it, for this would invert the order of 

 the edifice, by making the base of more consequence 

 than the body supported by it. 



When the basement consists of the cellar story, it 

 thould not exceed five, but at most six feet in height 

 above ground, and may be either plain, rusticated, or 

 formed into a continued pedestal : but when it forms 

 the ground story, it is customary to decorate it with rus- 

 tics, supported on abase, and surmounted with a crown- 

 ing string course. The base itself may be either a plinth 

 : imply, or a plinth with mouldings over it ; the string 

 course, likewise, may be a plain platband, or a plat- 

 band with mouldings under it ; or it may form a cor- 

 nice. 



The rustics are formed of a rectangular or a triangular 

 section, by imagining one of the sides of such section 

 tn be a line extended across the front of the joint. The 

 joints of the rustics may be from an eighth to a tenth 

 part of their height. Triangular rustics may have the 

 depth of their joints half their breadth ; that is to say, 

 making the two planes by which the joint is formed 

 a right angle. The depth of the joints of rectangu- 

 lar rustics, may be from one-fourth to one-third of their 

 breadth. 



Both directions of the joints were marked by the an- 

 cients ; but the moderns frequently make their rustics 

 with the horizontal joints only ; in which cases, they 

 seem rather to represent a boarded surface than a stone 

 wall, whose very nature indicates two directions of 

 joint*. 



The string course should never exceed in height that 



of a rustic with it* joints; nor should the socle, or plinth, 



be less than that of the string course. When the string 



course is a cornice, the base may be moulded ; in such 



<? may be about an eighteenth part of 



the height of the basement, and its projection about 

 two-thirds of its own height, so as to be less prominent 

 than that with which the building id crowned. The 

 base may be twice the height of the cornice, and being 

 divided into six parts, the lower live may form the 

 plinth, and the remainder be occupied by the mould- 

 ings. 



When the basement is perforated with arcades, the 

 imposts of the arches may be a platband, equal in height 

 to that of a rustic without its joint. 



Pedestals are used for supporting a colonnade or a pi- 

 lastrade; and sometimes they supply the office of a base- 

 ment to a building. They consist of a base, surmount- 

 ed with a rectangular prismatic solid, called the die, 

 crowned with a cornice. 



The use of pedestals appears to have been an innova- 

 tion subsequent to the loss of political independence in 

 Greece. In the original examples of Grecian architec- 

 ture, we find the columns standing on the uppermost 

 of three steps ; a rule, to which we know of but one 

 existing exception, to be seen in the temple of Theseus 

 at Athens, which has but two steps. The Romans, how- 

 ever, when they raised the floors of their temples and 

 other edifices high, were under the necessity ot discon- 

 tinuing the front stairs, lest they should prove inconve- 

 nient by occupying too much ground around the build- 

 ing, and of adopting the pedestal or podium, raised to 

 a level with the top of the stairs, and projecting to the 

 front of the steps which profiled on its sides. 



Vitruvius, in treating of the Doric, Tuscan, and Co- 

 rinthian orders, makes no mention of a pedestal ; and, 

 in treating of the Ionic, speaks of it as a necessary part 

 of the construction, but not as part of the order. 



Wherever pedestals are introduced, the grandeur of 

 the order is diminished, as all the parts are proportion- 

 ally reduced ; yet are they indispcnsible in some situa- 

 tions, as in the interior of modern churches, where, with- 

 out them, the beauty of the column, would be lost, 

 through BO large a portion of them being hidden by the 

 encloiures of the pew*. 



In ancient Roman buildings, the proportions of pe- 

 destals are very variable ; but some modern writers have 

 endeavoured to reduce them to a regular standard. Vig- 

 nola would have them to be one-third of the altitude of the 

 column ; but as this appeared to make them too high, 

 Sir William Chambers reduced it to three-tenths ; but 

 both ratios must be subject to variation, according to 

 circumstances : Pedestals still lower are to be preferred. 



The parts of pedestals may have the following pro- 

 portions, which may be considered as common to all : 

 Divide the whole height into nine equal parts, and give 

 two to the base, six to the die, and one to the cornice. 

 The base may be subdivided into three parts, of which 

 the plinth may have two, and the mouldings one, which 

 may in general have a projection equal to their height. 

 The plan of the die must be similar to that of the plinth 

 of the column ; and the projection of the cornice may be 

 equal to its height. 



As to the decorations of pedestals, projecting tablets 

 are inadmissible. It is sometimes customary to adorn 

 the dies with sunk pannels, surrounded with mouldings ; 

 and the pannels themselves are occasionally occupied by 

 bas-reliefs or inscriptions. The dies of the pedestals- 

 in the arches of Septtmius Severuu, and of Constantine, 

 have straight-headed niches, containing statues. 



Pedestals should never be insulated, though the co- 

 lumns sustained by them be so. In the ancient theatres 

 and amphitheatres, the inferior orders rested on step*, 

 while all the superior orders stood upon pedestals, which 



Prtctic*. 



Imposts. 



Pcdrttal. 



None in an- 

 cient 

 Greece, 



except the 

 temple of 

 Tlicteus. 



Proper. 

 lions vari- 

 able in 

 Home. 





