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PORTICO. 



PORTICO. 



Mil 



a portico be a simple prostyle, or be likewise polystyle, that is, whether 

 the columns be merely external, or whether there are additional 

 columns within the portico, as is the ease with that of the Pantheon, 

 which may therefore be further described as polystylar. The portico 

 of the Kazan church, St. Petersburg, and those of the Glyptotheca at 

 Munich, and Canova's church at Possagno, of which plans are given 

 below, are also polystyle. 



Some porticos again may be termed compound prostyles, because, 

 while they project from the building, they also recede within it, as is 

 the case with those of the London Post Office, University College, and 

 Hanover Chapel, Regent Street ; and such an arrangement gives 

 greater effect as well as spaciousness, and prevents the portico from 

 Lmking like a mere addition to the front of a building. Besides the 

 varieties above enumerated, there are those which are semicircular in 

 plan, of which the transept entrances of St. Paul's furnish very 

 admirable examples; and another occurs in the pseudo-portico or 

 portico-like compartment at the north-west angle of the Bank of 

 England (jig. 10), which, owing to its being likewise recessed, and 

 having columns behind those :in front (not arranged concentrically, 

 but placed on the chord to the outer curve), produces a rich and 

 picturesque effect. Beautiful however as the semicircular form is, it 

 becomes unsuitable for such purpose if a portico so shaped cannot be 

 made equal to a hexastyle, or a tetrastyle in antis, that is, have five 

 intercoranins, because if there be only three, cither the whole portico 

 must be very narrow in proportion to its height, or the intercolumns 

 so wide that the architrave over them will considerably overhang a 

 line drawn from one column to another, and thereby produce an 

 appearance both of deformity and weakness. 



Respecting the temple-porticos of the ancients, or rather the external 

 arrangement of columns in such edifices, whether confined to the ends 

 or continued along the sides, we refer to the article TEMPLK, where 



V Fig. 1. jf 



Wv/ 



they will be found sufficiently explained ; and shall now briefly pass 

 in review some of the porticos that most deserve notice on account of 



their plan, to which we shall confine our attention, passing over all other 

 circumstances. \Ve shall not therefore attend to the order of columns 

 employed in them, nor take any account of their dimensions, the 

 plans being drawn not to the same scale, but for convenience sake, 

 nearly to the same size. We commence with that of the Pantheon at 

 Rome (,/?</. 1), attached to a circular edifice, and which, as will 

 instantly be seen, is decidedly different from the usual portico at the 

 end or front of a temple, or from those monoprostyles, or single 

 external line of columns, which constitute the generality of modern 

 porticos. 



Besides being triprostyle, or having three open intercolumns on its 

 flanks, it may be described as polystyle, having columns within, 

 dividing it into three avenues or aisles, the centre one of which is 

 extended by being considerably recessed, a circumstance that adds 

 very greatly to the general effect. 



As being, like the preceding, attached to a rotunda, we have 

 selected for the next plan that of the church erected by Canova at 

 Possagno (fig. 2). This also is a polystyle, though altogether different 

 in its arrangement from the other, there being here merely a second 

 range of columns behind those in front, on which account it might be 

 designated a double octastyle. 



As an example of a decastyle portico, we give that of University 

 College (Jy. 3), which instead of being merely monoprostyle, or single 

 line of twelve columns, beneath a pediment, projects forwards very 

 considerably, it being equal to a triprostyle, or a pseudo- triprostyle, 

 with one intercolumn closed up, owing to which it appears internally 

 to be partly recessed, to be carried out two intercolumns, and inwards 

 for the space of one. This example is further remarkable on account 

 of the nniisu.il and picturesque arrangement of the steps forming the 

 ascent up to it, which commence below on each side, while above they 

 form a single broad flight, in such manner as to leave screened aims, 

 a a, which serve to admit light to the spaces in the basement beneath 

 the portico. 



Fig. S. 



The porlieo of the Olyptotheca at Munich (Jig. 4) may bo described 

 Fig. 4. 



monoprostyle, recessed, and polystyle, it being compounded 



of an octastyle advanced only one intercolumn before the rest of 

 the front, and of a tetrastylo in antis behind it, forming five open 

 intercolumns, the extent of the recessed part, by which means not 

 only great richness of columniation, but a picturesque play and con- 

 trast are obtained. 



Like that of University College, the portico of the National GaUery 

 (Jtg. 5) is pseudo-triprostyle, consequently projects as much as three 

 intercolumns from the building ; but, in other respects, differs very 

 materially from it, being only partially recessed in the centre, where 

 are two columns forming a distyle in antis. It also differs from the 

 other example altogether in the arrangement of the steps leading up 

 to it. . 



The portico of the Pantheon at Paris (Fig. 0) offers a more singular 



