112 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



I Apbil, 



'I'liis seems to us to be perfectly in harmony "itli the character of 

 tlie Doric order as carried out by the Greeks, though not as carried 

 out by tlie moderns. 



One of our paintinffs, it is observed, would be utterly destroyed 

 by such an arranffement ; so also would one of the fireat battle- 

 pieces of the Eiryptians, which required an uninterrupted length 

 of wall. But the reader is referred to Pausanias's description of 

 the jjaintiugs in the Lesche at Delphi, to uiulerstand how the 

 jrrouping of various and incongruous ol)jects would lose in effect 

 by being seen at once ; whereas, to a spectator from the outside, 

 the columns performed the office of our picture-frames, and sepa- 

 rated tlie groups, so as to allow of each being contemplated 

 hinffly. 



Tlie Doric column, Mr. Fergusson likewise considers to be of 

 Egyptian origin, and he goes into the question of the origin of tlie 

 (U'der from wood or stone; and at great length advocates the latter 

 tlieory, and brings forward simie very strong arguments in its sup- 

 port. We cannot, however, enter ujion this interesting discussion 

 here, but refer our readers to what has been lately said on the 

 subject in one of ^V'eale's Rudimentary works, by one of the 

 greatest critics and most learned writers on architecture, Mr. 

 AVilliam Henry Leeds. 



Mr. Fergusson considers that the roofs of the Greeks are copies 

 from wooden structures, and he points it out as singular that the 

 Dorians should liave rendered tlie ends of tlie rafters so important 

 in their triglyphs, but omitted the purlins altogether, though they 

 must have used them — a circumstance which he thinks is owing to 

 the purlins only appearing on the slope of the oetoi, and not either 

 at tlie sides or in the horizontal cornice at the ends. Tlie loiiians, 

 on the contrary, omit altogether to notice the rafters, but repeat 

 the purlins all round in tlie form of dentils. These views are su[>- 

 jported by references to the cave-temples and modern buildings of 

 India, — and, like every part of tlie work, deserve the attention of 

 the reader. 



M^ith the closest research, Mr. Fergusson has not been able to 

 discover the smallest indication of a triangular-framed truss for a 

 roof in ancient Ea^ypt, India, or Asia, while the Greeks used it 

 very early. He looks upon it as a feature in architecture most 

 important and influential, to which only the introduction of the 

 arch can be compared. This truss he attributes to tlie Dorians. 



()f the Ionian temples, ;\Ir. Fergusson says that tliere is more 

 variety in the plan, and instances tlie temple of Minerva Polias at 

 Athens. The Ionic order he attributes to an Asiatic origin — per- 

 liaps Persepolitan. 



The Corinthian order he considers to be the most original of 

 those used by the Greeks, and the one to the invention of wliich 

 they have the most distinct claim; and thinks that it was invented 

 at a time when, owing to the decline of pui-e art, they were no 

 longer capable of executing the Doric order with its integral 

 sculpture and painting, and when they were tired of the Ionic. In- 

 cidentally here our vvriter expresses his dislike of the Ionic volute. 

 He asserts that they are as clumsy an invention for the capital of a 

 column as ever was hit u]>i>n. The Corinthian capital, however, he 

 admires as rich and tasteful ; but considers that no Corinthian 

 portico ever erected was equal to the whole eftect of the portico of 

 the Parthenon, as finished in the days of Pericles. 



The section on the Hypa^thron, and the mode in which Greek 

 temples were liglited, is that part of the book which has perlia|)S 

 excited the most attenti(ui among architects and critics. This has 

 always been a knotty point, for the roofs were supported by wooden 

 beams which have long since rotted and fallen in, and left no indi- 

 cation of their original arrangement. There is likewise only one 

 passage in ancient authors which has a direct bearing, that in the 

 first section of the first book of Vitruvius — manifestly corrupt. 

 This passage our writer considers refers only to the Temple of 

 Jupiter Olympius, at Athens, and to decastyle temples. 



The common way of restoring the bypa'thron is by removing 

 the roof otf the cell, and exposing it to the weather as an open 

 court. Some commentators have denied the existence of the hy- 

 piethron altogether. 



Our writer strongly disputes that the cella of a Greek tem))le 

 was lighted by dim oil-lamps, for it seems inijiossible that an art- 

 istic people like the Greeks should have been contented with such 

 gloom. Their whole art was cheerful and sunny : we cannot there- 

 fore sujipose they would shut out the bright light of day from tlieir 

 beautiful temples, or from such works of art as the Minerva Par- 

 theniui or the Ju])iter Olympius of Phidias. 



M'ritten authorities throw no light on the subject, for it was 

 apparently a thing everybody knew and understood; as when a 

 modern tcuirist having said that such a building is ornamented 

 with a portico of si.\ or eight Grecian Doric or Corinthian co- 



lumns, — he passes on, and does not stop to define and describe 

 what a Doric or Corinthian column is, as everybody is already 

 acquainted with it. 



Mr. Fergusson begins with the small and simple temple of 

 Apollo Epicurius, at Phigalia. The first thing which is familiar 

 to us is the existence of the sculptured frieze, now in the British 

 Museum, and which ran round the cell inside at the height of the 

 external frieze of the Doric order of the temple. If the cell were 

 roofed in any way, the sculpture so placed could not have been 

 ])roperly lighted by artificial means such as the Greeks possessed. 

 In Stuart's "Athens," and in M. Blouet's "Expedition Scieii- 

 tifique," the temple is restored by omitting the roof altogether, — 

 which is here repudiated, as making merely an open couit, a sham 

 temple, a peristyle and dead wall surrounding notliing; what 

 might be done by architects now-a-days, but what was never 

 e.xecuted anywhere except by them. 



Mr. Fergusson therefore directs attention to the plan of the 

 temple. The distance from the external frieze to the internal one 

 is very nearly the same as that of the two internal friezes from each 

 other ; so that if the temple had three roofs, they would be as 

 nearly as possible of equal widths. A striking peculiarity is, that 

 the internal pillars fall exactly between the external ones, and in a 

 manner which could not be accidental, and the internal pillars 

 could never be seen in conjunction with the external ones. Tliis 

 is therefore conceived to be with the design that tlie principal 

 drainage of the roof should fall between the external columns, not 

 against them so as to corrode them, as otherwise it would do. 



A plan is therefore given showing a roof in three bearings, but 

 in one pitch, having the bypa'thron or attic under the centre, and 

 lighted by openings left in tlie roof; the drainage of which would 

 be carried otf by a gutter laid on the top of the entablature of the 

 inner columns. The openings could likewise be protected by cur- 

 tains or shutters, to which there would be access from below. 



This is in effect an elevated clerestory, than which artistically 

 speaking, our author says, no mode of lighting has been discovered 

 more pleasing. The use of internal lighting in Greek buildings 

 has often been advocated by "Candidus" in our pages, and its 

 aiiplication in the examples already quoted confirms the justice of 

 his views. 



Externally, this mode of lighting neither breaks the ridge of the 

 roof nor its lower termination, nor the outline of the temple ; but 

 it does break the monotony of the great flat expanse of the sides 

 of the roof. 



The same is then applied by the writer to other temples, and 

 with equal appearance of success ; and in the great temple at 

 Piestum the stairs are demonstrated by which the attendants had 

 access to the curtains or shutters by which the liypaethron was 

 closed. This, as he says, is the only plausible use for such stairs 

 as yet suggested. 



For the great temple of Jupiter, at Agrigentum, the system of 

 Mr. Cockerell for lighting the aisles is adopted, and the new system 

 for lighting the nave. For the temple of Eleusis the new sys- 

 tem is the happier, as it explains how the temple could be lighted 

 and darkened at pleasure, and scenic machinery used in the galle- 

 ries. 



If we have seen strong views expressed on some points, on none 

 more so than on polychromy, the essentiality of which in a Doric 

 building is insisted on. t)ur modern architects admit that decora- 

 tion improves the inside walls of a room, church, or public build- 

 ing : they may find cmt that what improves one side of a wall im- 

 proves tlie other. The force of this we are bound to admit; there 

 is no artistic reason against it, and an unfounded conventionality 

 alone stands in the way. 



The Greeks, it is observed, used their colour in a manner so 

 ephemeral, that the water-cidour has, in almost every case, washed 

 away, or the plaster has peeled ofl'. They did not countersink their 

 patterns, as did the Egyptians ; nor did they inlay them nor use 

 variegated materials, the good effect of which Mr. Fergusson has 

 witnessed on the banks of the Ganges. He conceives the colours 

 to have been used first in painting the mouldings with honey- 

 suckles, scrolls, and all those ornaments which we rind afterwards 

 carved in the richer Ionic orders; then relieving the sculpture by 

 a blue or neutral-ground tint background, and tinting it so as to 

 correspond and be in tone with the rest ; but the mass of colour 

 and art must have been applied to the walls of the cell, which he 

 looks ujKui as the great picture-fr;uiies of the temple. To the 

 height of six or height feet, at least, he conceives them to have 

 been covered by a rich dark dado ; and above that, in one, two, or 

 three rows, pictures of processions, scenes from the life of the god, 

 and such myths or sagas as the Greeks were so fond of repeating. 

 The Panathenaic frieze represents such a frieze as our writer con- 



