6S 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Februart, 



tain your opinions upon some crude ideas, wliiok have for some time 

 been floating upon my mind as to the continuous stream of architec- 

 tural Iiislory, by wliich, as it appears to me, an intim.ite connt'xion 

 may be perceived to exist betwenn the architecture of all countries 

 and every period — a direct succession in which the monuments may 

 be traced up to one common source, varied it is true by the taste a.id 

 caprices of tlie several nations, but containing features and principles 

 in commen ; monuments not owing their existence as works of art 

 to chance principles and forluitous combinations, but founded upon 

 existing types modified by local circumstances. 



The diagram by which I propose to illustrate this view of the sub- 

 ject Is like a river with its various branches, ultimatply swollen 

 into an ample stream with a common exit. This you are aware is a 

 common mode of illustrating historical (acts, and has been partially 

 adopted by M. dp Caumont m his able work on Gothic architecture. 

 In the present instance it will be more largely applied and by giving 

 distinct tints to the styles of architecttire of v.irious countries and 

 inodifii'd tones to those affected by confluent influences, we shall mark 

 distinctly the grarlual progress of our art fmrn the earliest existing 

 monuments to those of a recent era. On each side of this stream of 

 architecture are columns containing dates, the one having the names 

 of the leading characters in each century, who mark certain epochs in 

 archiiecture, and the other some leading historical events having re- 

 ference to the same leading sulijecf. 



Having thus alluded to the more prominent features of the sheet 

 before you, we will now proceed to consider the subject in question. 



The earliest authentic histnry of any ancient nation is that of 

 the Jews ; and from the reverence with w hich it must be regard- 

 ed by all here, I nt-ed not insist upun the authenticity of the lead- 

 ing facts ; but with regard to the dates much variety exists among 

 chronoUigists. I shall not venture to enter upon such debateable 

 ground, but shall assume at once the dates generally accepted. We 

 shall, therefore first consider the corresponding epochs of Jewish his- 

 tory, and the computed dates rf the existing monuments of Egypt, 

 which are held indis|iutably as the earliest architectural remains, which 

 the destructive hand of time has spared. 



The Tower of Babel is supposed to have been built about 2247 B.C. 

 or 100 years after the waters of the flood had retired and left the face 

 of the ground dry. To the Great Pyramid is assigned the date of 

 2100 B. C, about 100 years before the death of Noah, which took 

 place in 1998 B. C. 



These are the three most striking events of the first period of our 

 table. We find the descendants of the tliree sons of Noah so multi- 

 plied within lUO years as to be able to build a lofty tower of such 

 magnitude as to excite the displeasure of the Almighty, from the pre- 

 sHm|)tious imitation of the builders to make it reach even unto the 

 heaven. This must have had a widely extended base, and v\ as doubt- 

 less built in steps in order to afford facility of access to enable them 

 to reach the top, and we learn also that it was built ot burnt brick — a 

 coincidence the more remarkable as we find that material mentioned 

 in the .Scriptures in reference to the occupation of the Jews under their 

 hard task-masters in Egypt — and some of the less pyramids of 

 Egypt and Nubia are built of the same furm and materials. Caoina 

 leaves undecided the question as to the priority of Thebesor Memphis 

 in regard to their origin, being unable to decide between conflicting 

 authority of ancient authors. 



Manethron records Tosorthrus or Sosortlms, the successor of Ne- 

 cherophes, the head of the third dynasty, as the discoverer of the art 

 of sawing stones. The same writer also attributes to Sapliis the erec- 

 tion of the prior pyramid, referred by Herodotus to Chenps. 



The tombs of Beni Hassan seem to have been excavated 1000 years 

 before the Trojan war (1180 B.C.), and they may be considered as the 

 earliest types of the mystic styles which pervaded all the monuments 

 of Upper as well as Lower Egypt. The Temple of Aboo Simbel is 

 one step in advance upon the sepulchral avenues of Beri Hassan. 

 Here the excavated chamber* ore enlarged and greater developement 

 given to the antechamber ; and again, the Temple of Guircheh is a 

 still greater expansion of the primitive idea. The original tomb had 

 subsequently added to it a fore court and a front pylon or entrance 

 gate, which obtained in all the later temples of any note. 



These three steps in Egyptian architecture mark the progression of 

 the ideas of the people in that art. Their first construction, or as it may 

 be rather called architectural formation, was a long and narrow pas- 

 sage with occasional enlargements to receive tbe embalmed remains 

 of the dead. A mysterious and of itself an obscure abode of the de- 

 parted. But the Egyptians did not stop short here, these were abodes 

 of the departed, which might vie with tlie dwellings of the living. 

 The pillars were left to uphold the roof, as in the excavations 

 of our coal, gypsum, and stone quarries; the ceilings now Hat, 

 now curved, now inclined to a pitch, and the walls were covered with 



a profusion of sculptured incisions, painted in various brilliant colours 

 and representing in splendid series the deeds of the king or hero, his 

 judgment and glorification. These pillars were with the Egyptian 

 the original types of their after columns — massive, short and simple 

 in their jjarts. The same piers more profuse are at Aboo .Simbel, and 

 more embellished, having standing and attached figures of deities in 

 front. The whole surfaces of the interior are covered with sunk sculp- 

 tures, also enriched with dazzling tints, and the front rendered Impor- 

 tant and magnificent by the four gigantic sitting gods, who seemed to 

 guard the portal of the sacred excavation, and to preside over the 

 destinies of the river which flowed at their feet. The Temple of 

 Guircheh seems by its propylon and fore court to keep the respectful 

 worshipper still more remote from the fane, and to induce a prepara- 

 tion of mind ere he enters the hallowed mysteries of the place. We 

 find the four colossal attached figures in front of Aboo Simbel removed 

 here to the front of the propylon, detached and independent of the 

 wall ; and tlip solar ray, the emblem of their great divinity, embodied 

 in the obelisk, an additional symbol in the round of mysterious de- 

 vices in which the Egyptian priests enshrouded their theology. 



In all the endless successive dynasties, and the dominion of varied 

 conquerors, piles of gigantic dimensions, groups of enormous extent 

 and colossal proportions, rose on the banks of the Nile; each ruler 

 seemed ambitious to mark his reign by a stupendous monument of his 

 glory, or to jiropitiate the favour of their cherished gods by succes- 

 sive additions to their vast temples, or by pompous accompaniments, 

 such as propylon, courts, obelisks, colossi, and paved ways bordered 

 with endless avenues of multiform sphinzes — Carnac and Luqsor, 

 above a mile apart, were united by a stone platform of such a charac- 

 ter, and other ways diverged from various parts of the precinct to the 

 several quarters of Thebes. The square pillars of the caverns of Beni 

 Hassan were gracefully rounded in the porches and halls of Carnac 

 and Luqsor ; at Thebes the Egyptians called in aid the elegant forms 

 to be found in the plants of the Nile, or in the vegetable productions 

 on its banks — the bud of the lotus and its developed flower gave fea- 

 tures for the general outline of the capitals of the columns, and the 

 )ialm tree and bundles of reeds occasionally suggested an idea for the 

 shafts of the pillars. 



I have been led to dwell somewhat at length upon these leading 

 features of Egyptian art, as they seem to point out the original types 

 of classical architecture. 



REVSE^VS. 



Ancient and Modern Archiiecture. Edited by M. Jules Gailhabaud. 



Series the Second. London: Firmin Didot. Parts 21 to 26. 



We have so often had occasion to speak in praise of this useful and 

 valuable serial, that we are almost inclined to fear that our readers 

 may consider we award our approbation with little discrimination, or 

 as a matter of course. We must however, again perform our duty, 

 and express the pleasure we feel in its successtul progress as testified 

 by the parts before us. When the first series was completed we ex- 

 pressed our hopes that the work would not thus close ; a new series 

 has since been carried on, and we are pleased to find our hopes so fully 

 realized. The present series contains so much matter ef interest, and 

 so much instruction that it would have been a subject of great regret 

 had M. Jules Gailhabaud paused in his labours. The numbers now 

 before us have many examples of early Italian works, which may be 

 advantageously studied by the church architect, and there are also 

 many other features of interest. We find the church of St. George at 

 Valabro, a most ancient monument, given with many details; the 

 Mosques El Moved and Hassan, at Cairo ; the ancient Greco-Italian 

 church of San Miniato, near Florence, given very minutely ; the Am- 

 phitheatre of Pola, and the Acropolis of Mycenae. 



The Basilica of St. George of the Velabro, being a very curious 

 example, and illustrating many minute points in connection with an- 

 cient ecclesiastical and architectural practices, we have made some 

 extracts from it. 



" Between the Tiber and the Capitol, in a place formerly called ad 

 Vdum aureum, ad f-'ehim a(in,corrupted into f clabrum and Velavrum, 

 in the midst of edifices which, from their architecture and general 

 structure, must be attributed chiefly to the first ages of Rome, stands 

 a little church, built in the seventh century by Pope Leo 11., with ma- 

 terials taken irom the ruins of the Civil Basilica, erected by Titus 

 Sempronius, on the site previously occupied by the house of Scipio 

 Africanus. This church was originally dedicated to St. Sebastian and 

 St. George the Martyr, as we are informed by the librarian Anastatius, 



