aw \vi> 



GRECIAN' ARCHITKCTI 



to indicate such places). We need only imagine r in fy. 2, to be one 

 of those dots, and x another, always uppoaing one of the place* to 

 lie on the primitive circle, which in all cue* represent* the ahip'a 

 meridian and the extreme aimplicit.v of this new method by sphero- 

 graph, to the total exclusion of what has been called " composite " 

 sailing, will be at once apparent. 



Hitherto whatever obstacles may hare prevented the general renewal 

 of the practice of great circle, or tangent, navigation, a knowledge of 

 uch obstruction* has been confined almost to navigators alone ; but 

 henceforward (and our so thorough investigation of this important 

 subject as a national question bearing with weight upon extensive 

 interests, has been with this object) it will remain with shipowners 

 and underwriters to see that their treasure is conveyed from place to 

 place in the atorfe* pouiltle time ; for to take a melancholy example, it 

 must not be forgotten that had the unfortunate " Royal Charter " been 

 able, by any extra facilities possessed by her late accomplished CapUin, 

 to reach Point Lynas even tmlve hmrt earlier, the awful catastrophe 

 which desolated so many homes, and wrung so many hearts, would 

 most probably have been averted. 

 OREAVEa [ABMot-K.] 



GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. The most ancient constructional 

 remains in Greece are the rude pre-historic masses of masonry known 

 as Cycloptean, from their being attributed by early tradition to the 

 fabulous Cyclopes. They consist chiefly of walls formed of huge shape- 

 less blocks of ;stone, having the interstices filled up with smaller but 

 equally rude blocks. Of a less uncertain but still remote period are 

 the Pelasgic remains, which, though remarkable rather as constructive 

 works than as works of art, are yet for many reasons not devoid of 

 interest in the history of architecture. They belong however to a 

 nun-Hellenic people, and have little affinity with the true Grecian 

 architecture ; and therefore will be noticed under a separate head. 

 [PELASGIC ARCHITECTURE.] 



Without here entering upon an examination of the history of 

 Grecian architecture, we may briefly observe that it is now generally 

 admitted that, although in its ultimate development it is beyond dis- 

 pute the creation of the Hellenic mind, the germs of it were derived 

 from the architecture of older nations : its grander elements and more 

 solid proportions from Egypt; its lighter characteristics and more 

 ornate features from Asia. The great distinction of Grecian archi- 

 tecture lies in its orders : these are the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. 

 Of these the Doric is the oldest, and it is noteworthy not only that in 

 the oldest known example, a temple at Corinth of the 7th century, B.C., 

 are the proportions far more massive and the whole more pervaded by 

 Egyptian feeling than in later temples, but that there still exists a 

 tomb at Beni Hassan in Nubia, supposed to be of the age of Barneses IL, 

 at the entrance of which are two fluted columns clearly the prototypes 

 of the Grecian Doric ; while, as Sir G. Wilkinson has shown (' Ancient 

 Egyptians,' voL ii. p. 125, and Plate viL), the characteristic Doric fret 

 border was also a common Egyptian ornament. The more graceful 

 Ionic order, on the other hand, may clearly be traced to Asia. As 

 Mr. Fergusson has pointed out, there occur in the ruins of Persepolis 

 several columns which have the Ionic volutes, but placed vertically 

 instead of horizontally. On slabs found in Khorsabad by M. Botta, 

 however, and in others brought from the same locality, and now in 

 the British Museum, are sculptured representations of buildings with 

 columns crowned with volutes precisely as in the Greek Ionic. The 

 Ionic gnilloche ornament is also found both at Persepolis and Khorsa- 

 bad. The latest of the three Greek orders, the Corinthian, is equally 

 a derived one with the others. As was shown in the article COLUMN, 

 the bell of the Corinthian capital of the temple of Apollo at Basstc, 

 near Phigaleia, closely resembles the Egyptian capitals placed along- 

 side it ; and in one of the two remaining Corinthian buildings in Greece, 

 the Tower of the Winds, at Athens, there are no volutes to the capitals, 

 and the leave* of water-lilies adhere, as in Egyptian examples, close to 

 the bell. 



But if the architecture of the Greeks, like that of every other people, 

 was derived rather than invented, all that gave to it its life and power 

 i* its own. The exquisite feeling for beauty of proportion, majestic 

 simplicity of form, truth and purity of expression, and perfect adapta- 

 tion to it* purpose, all those higher constructive and [esthetic qualities, 

 in nhort, which place it so far above the architecture of all other 

 countries, only Greece can lay claim to. 



The religious edifices of a people are nearly always the surest indica- 

 tion of the state of their architectural tastes and ability. Fortunately 



r I of ancient Greece which 

 i sufficiently uninjured condition 



to permit of our forming a fair estimate of them. The oldest left is 

 believed to have been built about the middle of the 7th century, n. c. ; 

 one or two others are of the 6th century, but the finer examples 

 belong to the 5th and 4th centuries, B.C. The clauses, forms, and 

 architectural character of the temples will be described under that 

 title. [TEMPLE.) The public building* devoted to secular purposes of 

 which any remain* exist consist chiefly of theatre*, agora, thermic, &c., 

 and these too are noticed elsewhere. [THEATRE ; FORUM ; BATH, Ac.] 

 Of the palatial residences and private houses, only imprrft-ct written 

 description* are left. One or two small monuments however, as the 

 Chongio Monument f Lyncrates, and the Tower of the Winds 

 both comparatively late works and both Corinthian in style remain as 



perhaps the temple* are almost the only building* c 

 have come down to the present day in a sufficient 



[iroofs of the exquisite taste and ikill which the Greeks could exert on 

 their low important secular structure*. 



Greek architecture differs from all subsequent styles in being non- 

 arcuated. Whether the Greeks were acquainted with the arch or not, 

 they did not employ it in their public building*. The great construc- 

 tive feature is the beam. Greek architecture consequently is essentially 

 \orixonlal in principle : its primary linen are horizontal, its secondary 

 vertical Hence stability, solidity, are it* constant characteristic*. 

 Yet though rectilinear in appearance it is not strictly so in fact. So 

 sensitive was the Greek eye to the slightest deviation from perfect 

 beauty of expression, that the architects resorted to a singularly 

 refined contrivance to overcome an optical illusion so small that no 

 other people probably would ever have noticed it. Right lines when 

 protracted far above or on either side of the s|>ectator no longer seem 

 perfectly straight, but are slightly bent in accordance with the laws of 

 perspective. Contrasting right lines, and even contrasts of light and 

 (hade in like manner cause an appearance of deflection. To remedy 

 these and other corresponding effects, it has been recently found that 

 not only did the Greeks, as has long been known, give their columns a 

 slight mlatit, or swell near the middle, but they made the boundary 

 line a delicate parabolic curve ; and instead of placing the axes of the 

 columns as was always supposed quite vertical, they inclined them in 

 a small measure inwards. They also gave to the pavements on which 

 the columns rested, and the steps of their temples, a minutely 

 character, the rise in the centre being about three inches in a hundred 

 feet. Further, the horizontal lines of the entablature were curved in a 

 precisely correspondent manner, and other minor adjustments made. 

 But all these minute curves were executed with such exquisite 

 Knowledge and skill, that the effect was simply that of rendering the 

 spectator unconscious of any deviation from a mathematical right line ; 

 and it is only by the most careful observation that the contrivance is 

 even now detected. The discovery of these curves was made by Mr. 

 J. Pennethorae, in 1837, and soon afterwards (we believe independently) 

 by [Messrs. Hofer and Schaubert; but their existence was i 

 beyond doubt, and the principles upon which they were carried out 

 clearly evolved by Mr. Peurose, who spent a considerable time in 

 Greece investigating the subject and making careful and repeated 

 admeasurements : the results of his researches were embodied in hi.< 

 ' Principles of Athenian Architecture,' published by the Dilettanti 

 Society in 1851. These refined optical corrections seem to have been 

 always most perfectly developed in temples of the Doric order, but 

 they are found more or less in most others. 



It is in Doric temples too that another great artistic feature was 

 most effectively developed, namely that of the introduction of sculp- 

 tural ornamentation. In nil Greek temples sculptured ornament was 

 freely introduced, but in the nobler Doric temples it appears in its 

 greatest perfection. In the cella were introduced friezes in low relief ; 

 in the metopes alti-relievi, and in the tympanum of the pediment 

 statues entirely detached. And that these were, at least in some 

 instances, the masterworks of the sculptor's art we have evidence in 

 those marvellous reliques which once adorned the Parthenon, and ore 

 now the glory of the British Museum [ELGIN MARBLES], while that 

 their adjustment to their respective places was the result of a perfect 

 knowledge of sculpturesque effect may be seen by a reference to the 

 article ALTO-RELIEVO. 



The polychromatic decoration of the temples will be spoken of 

 elsewhere. [POLYCHHOMT.] 



The three Greek orders characterise three periods in Grecian 

 architecture much as the three styles of Pointed Gothic characterise 

 three important phases in English architecture. Doric, the oldest, 

 corresponding in seniority and character to our First Pointed, the 

 true English Doric, is marked by a sober grandeur and simple dignity, 

 yet withal is preeminently beautiful The Ionic, which follows in 

 order of time, more graceful, easy, and flowing in style, corresponds 

 not inaptly to our Second Pointed or Decorated. While the luxuriant 

 Corinthian, the product of the later years of Greek art, and the herald 

 of its decline, finds its parallel in our florid Third Pointed or Perpen- 

 dicular. [GOTHIC Anc'iiiTECTURE.1 But in one respect there was a 

 brood difference. The Gothic of either class was the exclusive style i.f 

 its epoch. The Decorated did not tolerate the Early English, nor thu 

 Perpendicular the Decorated. The Greek 'orders, though they were 

 the product of different ages continued to flourish contentedly together. 

 Ionic did not suppress Doric nor Corinthian Ionic, but the elder and 

 the younger simultaneously filled the places for which each seemed 

 most fitted. 



Before noticing somewhat more in detail the orders of Grecian 

 architecture, it is necessary to explain that what is termed an Order 

 consists of two principal divisions, the Column and the Entablature i. e., 

 the upright support and the horizontal mass supported by it Thu 

 Column w again divided into Jiate, Shaft, and Capitol (except in the- 

 Doric order, where the shaft rests immediately upon the flooring.) The 

 Entablature is also divided into three parts the Architrave, or 

 Enwtylium, Frieit.&nd Cornice. These together constitute the < 

 which in further distinguished as belonging either to the Doric, the Ionic, 

 or the Corinthian style, according to certain general proportions and 

 characteristic embellishment*. The scale for the proportions that i, 

 not the actual but the relative dimensions of the different parts com- 

 pared with each other is taken from the lower diameter of the shaft 



