ARCHITECTURE 



with the relative position of walls, columns, doors, 

 &c. The elevation is the orthographic projection of 

 a front, or vcnic.il surface ; this being represented, 

 not as it is actually seen in perspective, hut as it 

 \vniilil appear if seen from an infinite distance. The 

 tectiun shows the interior of a building, supposing the 

 part in front of an intersecting plane to be remo-.ed. 

 Tiie perspective shows the building as it actually ap- 

 pears to the eye, subject to the law* of sccnographic 

 perspective. The three former are UM d by architects 

 for purposes of admeasurement ; the latter >- 

 also by painters, and is capable of bringing more 

 than one side into the same view, as the eye actually 

 perceives them. As the most approved features in 

 modern architecture are derived from buildings which 

 are more or less ancient, and as many of these build- 

 ings are now in too dilapidated a state to be easily 

 copied, recourse is had to such imitative restorations, 

 in drawings and models, as can be made out from the 

 fragments and ruins which remain. In consequence 

 of the known simplicity and regularity of most an- 

 tique edifices, the task of restoration is less difficult 

 than might be supposed. The ground-work, which 

 i> commonly extant, shows the length and breadth 

 of the building, with the position of its walls, doors, 

 j.nd columns. A single column, whether standing 

 or fallen, and a fragment of the entablature, furnish 

 data from which the remainder of the colonnade, 

 and the height of the main body, can be made out. 

 A single stone from the cornice of the pediment is 

 often sufficient to give the angle of inclination, and, 

 consequently, the height of the roof. In this way, 

 teautiful restorations are obtained of structures, when 

 in so ruinous a state as scarcely to have left one stone 

 upon another. We come now to the different styles 

 of architecture. I. Egyptian style. In ancient 

 Kgypt, a style of building prevailed, more massive 

 and substantial than any which has succeeded it. 

 The elementary features of Egyptian architecture 

 were chiefly as follows : 1 . Their walls were of great 

 thickness, and sloping on the outside. This feature 

 is supposed to have been derived from the mud 

 walls, mounds, and caverns of their ancestors. 2. The 

 roofs and covered ways were flat, or without pedi- 

 ments, and composed of blocks of stone, reaching 

 ficm one wall or column to another. The principle 

 of the arch, although known to them, was seldom, if 

 tver, employed by them. 3. Their columns wire 

 i.umerous, close, short, and very large, being some- 

 tmes ten or twelve feet in diameter. They were 

 Generally without bases, and had a great variety of 

 capitals, from a simple square block, ornamented 

 with hieroglyphics, or faces, to an elaborate composi- 

 tion of palnvieaves, not unlike the Corinthian capital. 



See this illustrated in the view of the Portico of the 

 Great Temple at Tentyra, given in Plate VI.) 4. 

 They used a sort of concave entablature, or cor- 

 nice, composed of vertical flutings, or leaves, and a 

 winged globe in the centre. 5. Pyramids, well 

 known for their prodigious size, and obelisks, com- 

 posed of a single stone, often exceeding seventy feet 

 in height, are structures peculiarly Egyptian. (See 

 examples of obelisks in the view of the entrance 

 to Luxor, given in Plate VI.) 6. Statues of enor- 

 mous size, sphinxes carved in stone, and sculptures 

 in outline of fabulous deities and animals, with in- 

 numerable hieroglyphics, are the decorative objects 

 which belong to this style of architecture. The 

 architecture of the ancient Hindoos appears to have 

 been derived from the same original ideas as the 

 Egyptian. The most remarkable relics of this peo- 

 ple are their subterraneous temples, of vast size and 

 elaborate, workmanship, carved out of the solid rock, 

 t Elephanta, Ellora, and Salsette. (See Plate VI.) 



II TAe Chinese ttyle. The ancient Tartars, and 



wandering shepherds of Asia, appear to have lived 

 from time immemorial in U-tits, a kind of habitation 

 adapted to their erratic life. The Chinese have 

 made the tent the elementary feature of their archi- 

 tecture ; and of their style any one may form an 

 idea, by inspecting the figures which are depicted 

 upon common China ware. Chinese roofs are con- 

 cave on the upper side, as if made of canvass, instead 

 of wood. A Chinese portico is not unlike the awn- 

 ings spread over shop windows in suniiiur time. The 

 verandah, sometimes copied in dwelling -houses, is a 

 structure of this sort. The Chinese to\\ errand paga- 

 dos have concave roofs, like awnings, proji cling our 

 their several stories. (See Plate VI. for illustration of 

 a Chinese Pagoda.) The lightness of the stjle UM d 

 by the Chinese leads them to build with wood, some. 

 times with brick, and seldom with stone. 111. The 

 Grecian style. Grecian architecture, from which have 

 been derived the most splendid structures of later 

 ages, had its origin in the wooden hut or cabin, 

 formed of posts set in the earth, and covered with 

 transverse poles and rafters. Its beginnings were 

 very simple, being little more than imitations in stone 

 of the original posts and beams. By degrees, thesi: 

 were modified and decorated, so as to give rise to the 

 distinction of what are now called the orders of 

 architecture. By the architectural orders are under- 

 stood certain modes of proportioning and decorating 

 the column and its entablature. They were in use 

 during the best days of Greece and Rome, for a 

 period of six or seven centuries. They were lost 

 sight of in the dark ages, and again revived by the 

 Italians, at the' time of the restoration of letters. 

 The Greeks had three orders, called the Doric, Ionic, 

 and Corinthian. These were adopted and modified by 

 the Romans, who also added two others, called the 

 Tuscan and Composite. (See Plate V.) The Doric is 

 the earliest and most massive order of the Greeks. It 

 is known by its large columns with plain capitals ; its 

 triglyphs resembling the ends of beams, and its mutules 

 corresponding to those of rafters. The column, in the 

 examples at Athens, is about six diameters in height. 

 In the older examples, as those at Paistum, it is but 

 four or five. The shaft had no base, but stood directly 

 on the stylobate. It had twenty flutings, which were 

 superficial, and separated by angular edges. The 

 perpendicular outline was nearly straight. The 

 Doric capital was plain, being formed of a few annu- 

 lets or rings, a large echinus, and a flat stone at top 

 called the abacus. The architrave was plain ; the 

 frieze was intersected by oblong projections called 

 triglyphs, divided into three parts by vertical furrows, 

 and ornamented beneath by gutttr., or drops. Tin- 

 spaces between the triglyphs were called metopes, 

 and commonly contained sculptures. The sculptures 

 representing Centaurs and Lapithas, carried by lord 

 Elgin to London, were metopes of the Parthenon, or 

 temple of Minerva, at Athens. The cornice of the 

 Doric order consisted of a few large mouldings, hav- 

 ing on their under side a series of square, sloping 

 projectiocs, resembling the ends of rafters, and called 

 muttdcs. These were placed over both triglyphs and 

 metopes, and were ornamented, on their under side, 

 with circular guttee. The best specimens of the Doric 

 order are found in the Parthenon (see Plate VI.), the 

 Propylaea, and the temple of Theseus, at Athens. 

 The Ionic is a lighter order than the Doric, its column 

 being eight or nine diameters in height. It had a 

 base often composed of a torus, a scotia, and a second 

 torus, with intervening fillets. This, is called the 

 dttic base. Others were used in different parts of 

 Greece. The shaft liad twenty-four, or more, flut- 

 ings, which were narrow, as deep as a semicircle, and 

 separated by a fillet or square edge. The capital of 

 this order consisted of two parallel doable scrolls, 



