ARCHITECTURE 324 



and especially to those of the age of Pericles 

 (about 460-430 B.C.), none exceeds the indebt- 



Cornice 



Frieze 



Architrave 



Capital 



Shaft 



Base 

 ^Plinth 



COLUMN AND ENTABLATURE 

 A part of "the glory that was Greece." 



edness felt for the sense of proportion the 

 Greeks gave us. The Parthenon at Athens, 

 inspiring even in ruins (see the illustration 

 that heads this article), is unequalled as an 

 example of a building whose parts all bear a 

 pleasing relation to each other and to the 

 whole. Proportion is a matter which has no 

 exact science; yet it is one of the most vital 

 questions in architecture. If you were describ- 

 ing the Parthenon you would not speak of it 

 as a narrow building, nor as a wide building; 

 you would not say it was high or low. Far 

 more than mere adjustment of the three dimen- 

 sions was necessary to gain this effect of per- 

 fection. Notice, for a single instance of the 

 care which the builders exercised, that the 

 three columns of each corner have less dis- 



WHERE ATHENS WORSHIPPED ITS 

 PATRON G01I>k:ss 



The Parthenon, completed 435 B. c. This pic- 

 ture is from the restored model in the Metropol- 

 itan Museum, New York City. 



tance between them than have any of the 

 others. But for this arrangement the temple 



ARCHITECTURE 



would appear distorted because of the con- 

 trast between the bright sky, forming the buck- 

 ground at the edges, and the dark inner walls 

 at the center. 



Harsh, straight lines are avoided in Greek 

 structures by the adoption of soft, almost im- 

 perceptible curves. Thus the columns in the 

 Parthenon do not taper like pails set upside 

 clown, but with a graceful, gradual change of 

 direction. 



Details characteristic of Greek public archi- 

 tecture were the low-pitched roofs of timber 

 covered with tile, the terraced steps, the sculp- 

 tured friezes. Red and blue paint, gold and 

 dull yellow wax gave warmth to the cold, white 

 stone. The three types of columns Doric, 

 Ionic and Corinthian are described and illus- 

 trated in the article COLUMN, and each of three 

 famous buildings, the Erectheum, Theseum 

 and Parthenon has an article. 



"The Grandeur That Was Rome." Before 

 the rise of the imperial city on the banks of 



THE PANTHEON OF AGRIPPA 

 A heritage from the grandeur of the Roman 

 Empire. 



the Tiber, the Etruscans, whose home was 

 farther north in Italy, had become experts in 

 the use of the arch. From them the Romans 

 copied it, and made the semi-circular arch the 

 distinguishing feature of their work. In other 

 respects their architecture is largely a modifica- 

 tion of Greek styles. With the arch it was 

 possible for the Romans to construct interiors 

 of a size previously not dreamed of, and to sub- 

 stitute bricks and small stones held together 

 by cement for the enormous unmortared slabs 

 of Egypt and Greece. The great arches of 

 aqueducts and bridges; the enormous vaults 

 of the baths, sometimes over one hundred feet 

 high; the dome of the Pantheon; all are 

 tributes to the skill with which Roman archi- 

 tects and engineers utilized the new knowl- 

 edge. But the semi-circular arch required ex- 



