1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



59 



" Until I find out a place for the temple of the Lord, an habitation for 

 the mighty God of Jacob." 



In excavating the foundations of the temple at yEgina, the remains of 

 burnt woods and bones of sacrifices were discovered, mixed, no doubt, with 

 libations and tears and aspirations as warm as those of David ; — at Selinus 

 we find the steps in front of one of the temples worn down almost to an 

 inelined plane, by the feet of the devout. So again of the accomplishment 

 of these vows amongst men of all ages and nations, we shall find the most 

 solemn and full expression in the eighth chapter of the First Book of Kings, 

 the dedication of the temple by Solomon. 



The resemblauce of the plan of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, and 

 with its surrounding court (the first in our series, B.C. 1491), and still more, 

 of the temple of Solomon ; with the arrangement of the Greek and Roman 

 temple, down to the Antonines at the end of the second century of our era, 

 is very remarkable. In the first the parallelogram is preceded by a portico 

 of an irregular number, namely, of five columns. In the second (1012 B.C.) 

 we have the temple in Antis. 



If we enter into particulars, we are still more struck with their corres- 

 pondence; we find for instance, the irregular number in the temple of Ju- 

 piter at Agrigentum, one of the largest and most important of antiquity: 

 seven columns compose the front ; and we are reminded of Solomon's 

 saying, (Prov. ix.) " Wisdom has builded her house, she has hewn out her 

 seven columns." Again, at Passtum we have a temple (miscalled a basilica) 

 with nine columns in the front. Other examples also might be cited. 

 Again, of the Temple of Solomon, that of Themis at Rhamnus, and the 

 frequent temple in Antis, with its pronaos and heiron, is the constant copy. 

 The altar of sacrifice, that of incense, the laver, the table of shew-bread, 

 are all traced either in existing remains, in bas-reliefs, or in medals. 



The connexion of classic and sacred architecture is thus apparent ; and 

 the author of " The Plagiarisms of the Heathen Detected," (Mr. Wood, of 

 Bath,) is borne out in this comparison of the plan and arrangement of 

 temple architecture. The common error (and one to be carefully avoided) 

 is the attempt to trace this resemblance in the styles, or the ichuographic 

 figure of the parts and orders — the mere vesture of the scheme ; and the 

 failure in straining the texts and examples (Corinthian or Doric) to a perfect 

 correspondence, either in Wood, Villalpandus, or his learned predecessor, 

 Williins, has always thrown a doubt upon these interesting investigations ; 

 but the comparison of the plans makes the Tabernacle the type of the Greek 

 and Roman temple, a work which Paul as well as Moses assures us was in- 

 spired by the Deity, " for see, saith he, that thou make all things according 

 to the pattern showed thee in the mount." (Heb. viii.) 



It is remarkable that the earlier or contemporary works of Egypt show no 

 similar arrangement ; nor was it likely that Moses should adopt and recom- 

 mend any form associated with Egyptian recollections. The circular form 

 of plan is indeed traced in Greece, and Rome more especially, and amongst 

 the Druids, but the most frequent by far is the parallelogram, after the 

 Tabernacle : in fact, the earliest inhabitants of the bordering countries were 

 apparently monotheists ; their connexion with the Jews through Tyre and 

 Sidon, their respect for a people of superior knowledge and religious in- 

 struction, may well have sanctified their form with them : the ritual was the 

 same with them ; the idol took the place of the ark ; with both, the temple 

 was the Domus Dei ; both were religions of sacrifice. 



The ritual was thus the originator of the form of the temple, and must 

 always be so. The temple in Antis became (with a view to ornament, and 

 by the successive inventions for decorum and dignity) the prostyle, perip- 

 teral, dipteral, and pseudo-dipteral. The much-boasted beauty of the Greek 

 temple was not, then, an invention of taste, but one of ritual ; and in the 

 consideration of templar architecture, in all times and countries, this impor- 

 tant fact must be carefully bore in mind. 



Another point of resemblance of classical and Jewish architecture, of 

 great import, since it is the hinge upon which the whole system of ancient 

 architecture turns, is the employment of " costly stones, even great stones, 

 stones of ten cubits, stones of eight cubits." Upon this practice the whole 

 character and taste of sacred and classical architecture depends. The tenth 

 book of Vitruvius treats chiefly on large stones and their transport. The 

 type of Domus Dei admitted of no extension ; the only mode of giving 

 magnificence and dignity to temples, thus circumscribed in form and compo- 

 sition, was by the employment of monolithic masses, and by the exquisite 

 detail of proportion, order, and sculpture bestowed upon them. The an- 

 cient world is full of examples of this remarkable principle, and the last and 

 most signal one is that in the temple at Balbec, by the Antonines, in which 

 three stoues measure, in the aggregate, upwards of 199 feet in length. 



The Saviour, whose religion was soon to supersede all ancient laws, con- 

 stantly illustrates his arguments by this practice : " the head stone, the chief 

 of the corner, which the builders rejected," are his constant metaphors ; 

 and his prediction that of these great stones " there shall not be left one 

 upon another," is literally verified in the subsequent history of Architecture. 

 Our remarks upon the uniform arrangement of plans of Greek and Roman 

 temples, would be too long, and must be referred to the publications upon 

 them specifically ; but as brought together in this view it maj be observed, 

 that the temple at Ephesus, the size of which we learn alone from Pliny, 

 exceeds all others in dimensions, and the constant limitation of length of 

 the great temple to Jupiter especially (at Athens, Agrigentum, Selinus, 

 Balbec, and Rome) to about 358 feet in length, might lead us to suspect the 

 text of Pliny. Vitruvius gives us a few hints of the attachment of the an- 



cients to numbers in his third book, with reference to the dimensions of 

 temples. The investigation of this subject might be attended with curious 

 results. The frequent dimension 358, by the addition of the stylobatc, or 

 by the local variation of the foot, may easily be supposed to refer to the 

 number of days in the solar year. In the Temple or the Sun at Palmyra, 

 the portico has 12 columns; these, added to the columns in the temple, 

 make 52; the whole number of columns in the surrounding peribolus, is 

 364. Wren seems to have had reference to this idea in his height of St. 

 Paul's. 



The sections of Jigina, the Parthenon, and the temple at Pcestum, exhibit 

 the arrangement of an interior divided into a nave and two ailes, by two 

 rows of columns in double heights ; those of Venus and Rome, and Balbec, 

 exhibit the Roman form, namely, a vast vault — in these instances, upwards 

 of 60 feet diameter in masonry. The occupation of the whole of these in- 

 teriors by the idol, their employment as a vast niche to receive the god (in 

 ivory and gold, at Olympia and Athens), had something of monstrous, but 

 magnificent ; and invested with the art of Phidias, we may understand how 

 even the rough soldier, Paulus .Emilius, might be moved even to tears, as 

 we are told, in the presence of the beauty and majesty of the godhead, as 

 figured by that great master. 



Arrived at that period (313 a.d.) in which the Christian religion was 

 adopted by the state, the range of temples now exhibited displays a total 

 reverse of the previous arrangement. The old ritual of external worship 

 and of sacrifice was abrogated. It was now internal and of the heart ; the por- 

 tions were now inclosed ; a vast area covered with a roof, of which the 

 basilica was the best model, constituted the Christian temple. Upon this 

 the cruciform was engrafted, " in hoc vince," bearing the universal symbol, 

 in plan as well as in every other situation. The theory of the church of 

 Constantine is handed down to us by Eusebius, bishop of Coesarea; he des- 

 cribes the church of Tyre [which the Professor exhibited! and many others 

 of his day, with the most interesting and instructive hints as to the signifi- 

 cation and arrangement of sacred edifices, which may be very profitably 

 consulted by the architect. The basilicas of St. Peter's and that of St. 

 Paul's at Rome, in the form of the Latin cross, become the types of the 

 Christian church throughout Western Europe, with very small variation 

 (until the introduction of the dome, which then only modified it), down to 

 the present day. 



It was said that 1800 churches and religious structures were built during 

 the reigns of Constantine and Justinian : those of the former were in the 

 basilica form, which is liable to decay ; those of the latter, to which the 

 ritual and other important considerations gave a new form, resembled the 

 Greek cross of equal lengths. The transept was covered with a large dome, 

 and the ends of the cross with minor ones, forming a group highly favour- 

 able to architectural effect. This form, executed in Santa Sophia, became 

 the wonder of the world, and the dome also, 120 feet in diameter, exceeded 

 any executed since the Pantheon at Rome. 



The Professor exhibited several Greek churches at Arta, Thessaloniea, and 

 other parts of Greece, measured by himself, as also the valuable researches 

 on the Greek church architecture of the sixth and seventh centuries, by M. 

 Couchaud, which contained many hints of great beauty and interest to the 

 practical architect. The churches of Russia were all upou this plan. Pro- 

 copius was the author, who might be consulted with reference to this era 

 of the art. 



The dome, which had become the distinguishing feature of the Eastern 

 church, penetrated into Italy, under the exarchate at Ravenna, in the church 

 Santa Vitali, 510 a.d ; and again at Venice, in St. Mark's, built by a Greek 

 architect (976—1071). Until the eleventh century, the dome formed no 

 part of the western church, except in those instances ; it was then that the 

 Pisans, the richest and most commercial people of Italy, began their great 

 church (1063), and adorned the transept with this new feature. 



The rivalry of nations is the great fulcrnm of many a noble effect, in arts 

 as well as politics; and to this motive chiefly, we mav attribute the bold 

 scheme of Arnolpho de Lapo, in the church of Santa Maria, at Florence, 

 founded in 1290; in which, doubtless, after the model of the Pantheon, he 

 proposed to place a dome, of nearly equal magnitude, over the transept, but 

 raised into the air in a way hitherto unattempted, except at Constantinople, 

 where, however, the space was one-sixth smaller. But the inveterate and 

 disastrous contests of these republics long deferred the execution, and it was 

 not till one hundred and twentv vears after, that Brunellescbi accomplished 

 the work, as related in the very amusing and instructive account by \asari. 



It was just one hundred years after this successful work that Michael 

 Angelo executed the dome at St Peter's, confessedly in imitation of it, as he 

 told himself, in contemplating the model — 

 Yo far la tua sorella, 

 Piu grande gi;i, ma son phi bella. 

 In another one hundred and fiftj yeai l, we have the Domes of the lnvalidcs, 

 Val de Grace, at Paris, and si. Pauls, mi I ondon. 



The familv of Domes concludes with that of St. Genevieve (the 1 antheon), 

 and, like the successor of a noble but a worn-out race, exhibits all that 

 meagreness and debility which precedes its extinction. 



But the imitations of the types of the basilicas of St. Peter s and St. Paul s 

 of Rome in the north mid west of Europe,— more Rumano to the eleventh 

 century, from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries more Germanieo, by the 

 societies of freemasons,— have justly been the admiration of the world, for 



