242 



HISTORY OF AKiIim ( TORE. 



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more ami more. In Greece, it was afterwards Imi 

 little cultivated, ami, in tin- edifices of tin- Scleucid;e 

 in Asia, and of the Ptolemies in Kgypt, an impure 

 taste prevailed. The Romans had no temples, or 

 similar public edifices, equal to the (ireiian master- 

 pieces, although they had early applied their industry 

 to other objects of architecture, viz., to aqueducts and 

 sewers. The capitol and the temple of the capitoline 

 Jupiter were erected by Etruscan architects. But, 

 MHHI after the second Punic war, 200 H. C., they be- 

 came acquainted with the Greeks. Sylla was the first 

 who introduced the Grecian architecture to Rome ; 

 and lie, as also Marius and Caesar, erected large tem- 

 ples in this and in other cities. But under Augustus 

 the* art first rose to the perfection of which it was ca- 

 pable at that time. He encouraged the Greek artists, 

 who had exchanged their country for Rome, and 

 em-ted, partly from policy, many splendid works of 

 architecture. Agrippa built temples (the Pantheon), 

 aqueducts, and theatres. Private habitations were 

 adorned with columns and marble. Splendid villas 

 were built, of which the rich Romans often possessed 

 several. The interior was adorned with works of art, 

 obtained from Greece. The walls were covered with 

 thin marble plates, or were painted, and divided into 

 panes, in the middle of which were represented my- 

 thological or historical subjects. They were also sur- 

 rounued with the most elegant borders. These bor- 

 ders were what we call grotesques. Almost all the 

 successors of Augustus embellished the city more or 

 less, erected splendid palaces and temples, and adorn- 

 ed, like Adrian, even the conquered countries with 

 them. Constantine the Great transferred the imperial 

 residence from Rome to Constantinople, so that noth- 

 ing more was done for the embellishment of Rome. 

 But, at the time when the Romans received the art 

 from the Greeks, it had already lost, among the latter, 

 its perfection and purity. In Rome, it rose, indeed, 

 in a short time, to its former height, but soon degene- 

 rated, with the continually increasing magnificence of 

 the emperors, into extravagance of ornament. About 

 this time, the Roman or Composite column originated, 

 which was employed in temples and splendid build- 

 ings. In the time of Nero, whose golden palace is 

 celebrated, the exterior and interior of the buildings 

 were profusely adorned. Adrian, who encouraged 

 artists as much as possible, was not able to restore a 

 noble and simple taste in architecture. Instead of 

 imitating the beautiful models already existing, the 

 endeavour, in his time, was to invent new styles, and 

 to embellish the beautiful more and more. Now ori- 

 ginated the many curved and twisted ornaments, the 

 high pedestal under the columns, the numerous bass 

 reliefs on the exterior of buildings, the flutings of the 

 columns, the reduction of the same according to a 

 curved line, the coupled columns, the reduced pilas- 

 ters behind the columns, the small columns between 

 larger ones, the round and cut pediments, and the con- 

 cave friezes. Thus the art was practised from the 

 time of Vespasian to the reign of the Antonines. 

 Works were produced, in this period, which may still 

 be considered as master pieces, but which want the 

 great and noble style of the Greeks. In the provin- 

 ces, taste became still more corrupt. Architecture 

 declined continually after the Antonines; more orna- 

 ments were continually added, which is proved par- 

 ti'-.ilarly by the arch of the goldsmiths, so called, in 

 Heine. Alexander Severus, indeed, himself a con- 

 noisseur, did something for its improvement, but it 

 rapidly declined under his successors. The buildings 

 ot this time are either overcharged with mean and 

 trifling ornaments as those of Palmyra, erected about 

 2KO A' D., or they border on the rude, like those of 

 Rome, erected under Consiantine. Little was done, 

 under die ibliowing emperurs, for the embellishment 



of the ruii x on account of the continually disturbed 

 stale of the empire. Justinian, however, built much. 

 His principal edifice was the church of St Sophia, at 

 < \i!istantinople. The beautiful works of ancient ar- 

 chitecture were almost entirely destroyed by the 

 Goths, Vandals, and other l>arlarians i" Italy, Spain, 

 Greece, Asia, and Africa ; and wliatever escaped de- 

 struction remained in neglect. Theodoric, king 

 of the Ostrogoths, a friend of the arts, endeavour- 

 ed to preserve and restore the ancient buildings, 

 and even erected several new ones, the ruins of 

 which are still to be seen in Ravenna anil Verona. 

 We may consider this period as the era of the 

 origin of modern art. > v e see a new style taking 

 place of the ancient classical architecture, and e\-n- 

 tually extending as far as the conquests of the 

 Goths, through Italy, France, Spain, I'ortutral, a p; n 

 of Germany, and even to England, whither, however, 

 the Goths did not penetrate. Whether this modern 

 architecture, which is called Gothic, original* d from 

 the Germans, is- not decided. We find, in the build- 

 ings erected under Theodoric, nothing attempted but 

 simplicity, strength, and the display of national tasu- 

 in their exterior (the interior is unknown to us). But 

 the buildings erected during the Lombard dominion 

 in Italy (from 568), and all the monastic architecture 

 of that time, have been erroneously called Gothii: 

 Since the error was perceived, it has been distinguish- 

 ed, by the name of the old Gothic, from the proper 

 Gothic, which is called the modern Gothic. The 

 Lombards entertained no respect for antiquities, and 

 neither spared nor preserved them. Whatever they 

 built was tasteless and faulty. On the exterior of 

 their churches they placed small semicircular columns; 

 and small pillars in a row along the cornice of th 

 pediments ; in the interior, coarse pillars united by 

 semicircular arches ; the small windows and doors 

 were finished with semicircles ; the columns, capitals 

 and arches were often overlaid with incongruous 

 sculpture ; the roofs of the naves covered with oeams 

 and boards, which were afterwards changed into 

 arches, and, on this account, often required arched 

 buttresses on the outside. This Lombard style in 

 architecture clearly proves the decline of science and 

 art. It was employed, in the 17th century, in Pavia, 

 thechiefcity of the Lombard kingdom, in the erection 

 of the churches of St John and St Michael ; at Parma, 

 in the church of St John ; at Bergamo, in the church 

 of St Julia ; in the chapel of Altenotting, in Bavaria ; 

 in the castle of Nuremberg, in the Scottish church at 

 Ratisbon, &c. The architects driven from Constan- 

 tinople (Byzantium) were the first who combined with 

 it the use of the Ionic pedestals and columns, pro- 

 vided with capitals formed according to their own 

 taste, among which were twisted ones. In this Lorn - 

 bard-Byzantine style were erected the cathedrals of 

 Bamberg, Worms and Mentz, also the church Miniato 

 al Monte, near Florence, and the most ancient part of 

 the minster of Strasburg. Cupolas were afterwards 

 added, as used in the East, and these, as well as the 

 tasteless capitals, and the many slender pillars and 

 minarets, of which we often see two rows, one on 

 another, indicate the proper Byzantine or Oriental 

 style ot architecture. In this style were erected, be- 

 sides the church of St Sophia in Constantinople, and 

 others, the church of St Mark, in Venice, the BaptLs- 

 terium and the cathedral of Pisa, and the church of 

 St Vitalis, in Ravenna. The Normans, who had 

 settled in Sicily, built the cathedral of Messina upon 

 the foundation of an old temple, a huge but tasteless 

 edifice, in which, by means of the changes made in 

 different centuries, we may observe, at the same tinu . 

 the rise and fall of the art. The Vandals, Alans. 

 Suevi and Visigoths had penetrated into Spain and 

 Portugal : the Arabs and Moors expelled them in 



