11. 



ROMAN ARCHITECTS KK. 



110MAN ARCHITECTURE. 



Hi 



UM Tmriou. modi*.*-. : all we shall attempt is to show the leading 



cnrtka of Roman architecture, especially marking iU divergence 



lhal of the Oreeki, rrf erring the reader to the article GBMIAN 



AjKWTfcrvM for a general view of the parent style, and to COLUMN 



or a particular account of the Orders. 



With regard merely to the orders, Hornan architecture presents 

 ohiely a corruption of the Doric and Ionic, for it may claim the 

 Corinthian a* almost entirely iU own, the Roman examples of that 

 order being not only numerous and varied, but at the same time 

 exceedingly different in character from the almost solitary specimen of 

 one with foliaged capitals which occurs in a Grecian building. 

 [OWK'iAS AKIIUTH-U-HE.] But even as regards the application of the 

 orders, there u a wide difference between the two styles ; in the Roman 

 fay ire frequently employed as mere decoration, the columns being 

 tmgtd or attached to the walls, or in some cases (as that of triumphal 

 arches) though the columns are insulated aud advanced from the 

 structure, they are in a manner detached from it, inasmuch as they do 

 not rapport iU general entablature, but merely projecting portions of 

 it. Nor are these the only differencea, for besides the frequent employ- 

 ment of pilaster* a* substitutes for columns that is, as constituting 

 the order without columns the practice of luprr-cvtumnialion, or 

 raising one order upon another, was by no means uncommon ; a prac- 

 tice that was indeed a matter of nece sity in such enormous edifices as 

 the Coloaseum, if columns were to be employed at all. 

 From all this it will be evident that, as regards the orders alone, 



applications of its principles to vaults and domes, would be 

 a rery material one ; but we also meet with a variety and complexity 

 .nan building* of which there are no examples in those of Greece. 



With the exception of the Erechtheium, or triple temple on the 

 Acropolis of Athens, Greek temples were merely simple parallelograms, 

 differing from each other as to plan only in the number and disposi- 

 tion of the columns around the cella [TtMrW] ; whereas by the 

 adoption of the circular form in their plans, whether for the whole or 

 part* of a building, the Romans introduced an important element of 

 variety into architectural design. To this shape in the ground-plan 

 is to be ascribed the origin of the tf,oiiu, or concave dome, which 

 harmonixo* ao beautifully with all the rest, and renders the rotunda- 

 shape at once the most picturesque and the most complete for 

 internal effect, that in which both unity and variety are thoroughly 

 combined. [BoTUTOA.] The Pantheon alone would suffice to con- 

 vince us that the Romans were not mere copyists, aud that if the 

 Greek orders deteriorated in their hands, they also added much to the 

 art and greatly extended its powers by new appliances. As regards 

 iU exterior, the Pantheon presents what is certainly a strikingly 

 picturesque (and what we consider to be also a consistent and appro- 

 priate, because a well-motived) combination, namely, that of a 

 rectangular mass projecting from a larger circular one. In that 

 example the body of the edifice, or rotunda itaelf, has no columns 

 externally ; but circular peristylar temple*, or rotundas, whose cella 

 was enclosed by an external colonnade, were nut uncommon. Of 

 this kind is the temple of the Sibyl, or, as it is otherwise called, 

 that of Veata, at Tivoli, an edifice of singular beauty, and highly 

 interesting aa a very peculiar and unique example of the Corinthian 

 order. Edifice* of this kind were covered with hemispherical domes, 

 or with smaller sections of a sphere, wlu'ch consequently did not show 

 themselves much externally, as they were raised only over the cella, 

 and therefore the lower part was concealed by the colonnade project- 

 ing around it. The dome of the Pantheon is hemispherical within, 

 I >ut i of very low proportions and flattened form without, for its 

 spring commences at about the level of the first or lower cornice of 

 the exterior cylinder, and is further reduced by the base of the outer 

 portion of the dome being expanded and formed into separate cylin- 

 drical courses or gradini. 



Polygonal forms of plan were sometimes employed, of which there 

 in an instance in what u called the temple of Minerva Mcdica at Rome, 

 whii-h i circular on the exterior, but internally decagonal, with nine 

 of iU sides occupied by as many recesses, and the other by the door- 

 waya remarkable |wculiarity, it being very unusual to enclose a 

 polygon within a cylindrical structure, although not the contrary, nor 

 to erect a cylinder upon a square or polygonal basement Octagonal 

 plans were by no means uncommon : such form was frequently made 

 use of for the saloons of public baths; and there is an instance of an 

 octagonal temple, supposed to have been dedicated to Jupiter, in one 

 of the court* of Diocletian's palace at Spalatro. Of hexagonal struc- 

 ture* we are acquainted with no example, but a court with ix 

 side* occurs in the remains of the temple of Baalbec, not howev, r a 

 regular hexagon, but of elongated figure, two <>f Hie -i,l. . l,,-in k - 

 110, and thu remaining four 88 feet each. In the later jwriods of 

 Koman architecture, circular and polygonal structures became more 

 frequent, and those of the first-mentioned kind deviated considerably 

 from the original simple rotundas and circular temples. An inner 

 jwristyle of columns was introduced so as to make a spacious : . 

 or ring ihaped ambulatory around the centra, which was much loftier 

 than the colonnade, being covered by a dome raised upon a cylin- 

 drical wall over the column*. What is now called San Slcfano 



Rotunda, at K.HMI-. Mipixjwd by gome to have been originally a temple 

 dedicated first to Faunus, and afterwards to the emperor Claudius, and 

 by others to have been a public market, is a structure planned accord- 

 ing to the arrangement just mentioned, with a circular Ionic colonnade 

 of twenty columns and two piers. The church of Santa Costan/a, 

 supposed to have been erected by Constantino as a baptistery, and 

 afterwards converted by him into a funeral chapel to his daughter 

 Constantia, is a remarkable example, owing to the columns being not 

 only coupled, but unusually disposed, and to there being arches spring- 

 ing from their entablature, that is, there are twenty-four columns 

 (with composite capitals) placed in pairs, on the radii of the plan, or 

 one behind the other, forming twelve inter-columns and as many 

 arches ; and as far as the mere arrangement goes, this interior is strik- 

 ingly picturesque. 



The circular form was a favourite one with the Romans for their 

 sepulchral structures of a more pretending class than ordinary : 

 following iu this the example of the Etruscans. It will be sufficient 

 here merely to mention those in honour of Augustus and Hadrian, an 

 account of which has been given under MAUSOLEUM. The tomb of 

 Cxcilia Metella is a, low cylinder, the height being only C2 feet, while 

 the diameter is 90 ; and it may be considered as nearly solid, the 

 chamber or cella being no more than 19 feet in diameter. This 

 cylindrical mass is raised upon a square substructure; which com- 

 bination of the two forms is productive of agreeable contrast ; and it 

 was accordingly frequently resorted to. The tomb of Plautius 

 Sylvanus near Tivoli consists also of a short cylindrical superstructure 

 on a square basement, but is otherwise of peculiar design, one side 

 of that stereobate being carried up so as to form a sort of low screen or 

 frontispiece, decorated with six half-columns, and live upright tablets 

 with inscriptions, between them. The tomb of Munatius Plancus, at 

 Gaeta, is a simple circular structure, of low proportions, the height 

 not exceeding the diameter, aud therefore hardly to be called a tower, 

 notwithstanding that it is now popularly called Roland's or Orlando's 

 Tower. Of quite different character and design from any of the 

 preceding, is the ancient Roman sepulchral monument at St. Remi, 

 which consists of three stages ; the first a square stereobate raised on 

 gradiui.and entirely covered on each side with sculptures in relief; 

 the next is also square with an attached fluted Corinthian angle, and 

 an open arch on each side ; and the uppermost is a Corinthian 

 rotunda, forming au open or monopteral temple (that is, without any 

 cella), the centre of which is occupied by two statues. 



As instances of other combinations, we may refer to what is called 

 the Tomb of Virgil, near Naples, consisting of a square substructure 

 surmounted by a conical one ; to the Roman monument at Constantina, 

 in Africa, conjectured to have been a cenotaph in honour of Constan- 

 tino, the lower portion of which is a cylindrical structure surrounded 

 by a peristyle of twenty-four Doric columns, and carried up as a lofty 

 cone, in receding courses or gradini, leaving at its summit a platform 

 for an equestrian statue. 



These notices may serve to convey some idea of the variety aimed at 

 by the Romans in the distribution of the plans and general masses of 

 their edifices, independently of decoration. Their Thermae, or public 

 baths, a class of structures remarkable for their vast extent and 

 magnificence, are most interesting studies of combinations of plan, as 

 they were not merely baths, but places of public resort and amuse- 

 ment, and consisted of an assemblage of courts, porticos, libraries, aud 

 spacious saloons and galleries, most of which presented some pecu- 

 liarity of form and distribution. [BATHS.] If therefore we estimate 

 Roman architecture by the manifold resources which it opened to the 

 art, rather than by its debasement of what it borrowed from that of 

 Greece, we shall find much in it both to admire and to imitate, as 

 well as to censure and to avoid. Its Greek rival has nothing that will 

 bear a parallel with it in this respect. Judging from its remains, we 

 can see little in it that answers to the title of interior architecture ; 

 whereas some of the Roman temples were striking on account both of 

 the size and the magnificence of their interiors. That of the Pantheon 

 has been already referred to ; a very different example is the Temple 

 of Peace, erected by Vespasian. What ws its external design is now 

 altogether doubtful, as only the ruins remain, but its interior is very 

 remarkable, the plan being divided in its breadth into three nearly 

 equal portions, the centre one of which formed a spacious nave, termi- 

 nating in a large semicircular tribune, or apsis, covered by a semi- 

 dome. This nave was disposed in three compartments, presenting as 

 many arches of exceedingly wide proportions, opening into as many 

 divisions of the lateral portions of the plan, which did not constitute 

 continuous aisles along the nave, but small chapels or recesses. Of 

 these the centre one on each side terminated, like the nave, in a 

 semicircular tribune, of the same dimensions as that apsis, so as to 

 form a transept, and give the whole a marked cruciform 1 

 The side divisions were covered by semicircular vaults, conceutrie with 

 the arches opening into the nave ; and this latter had a vaulted roof, 

 in three groins or compartments, the ribs of which sprung from eight 

 Corinthian columns, placed against the piers of the arches. Besides 

 other peculiarities, we have here an instance of the effect resulting 

 from the application of the semicircular form to plans in interiors, and 

 of further varieties of design arising out of it, for the semidomcs of 

 the tribunes exhibit a rich specimen of coffering, being composed of 

 octagons and squares. 



