18-16.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



99 



coarse be more satisfactory to fix exactly the upper, lower, and middle 

 points of tlie proposed curve, tbe distance below the springing of the focal 

 line, and then obtain the curve by an analytical, or, when possible, by a 

 rigid geometrical process ; the first method, however, is very easily done 

 and capable of great exactness. 



The hyperbolic form is admirably adapted for Doric columns. The 

 conchoid of Nicomedes, which is so very beautiful in Corinthian, has a 

 point of contrary flexure near the neck, which is inconsistent with the 

 solidity and dignity of Doric. 



Before I leave tliis subject I will say that by slightly modifying the 

 points, he, and string in the geometrical drawing of the hyperbola, multi- 

 tudes of beautiful curves are produced, some of which are very like those 

 of the vases and amphorae of antiquity. There can never be any need of 

 drawing cnrves arbitrarily by eye, as there are an infinite variety of 

 regular curves, suited to every possible want of art or science. I cannot 

 help alluding to the exceeding beauty of the curves produced by Professor 

 Willis by his epicycloidal chuck. 



Are these isolated principles? Or are they not rather connected by 

 someone beautiful connecting link? — I cannot yet attempt to decide: 

 fomelhing must have been left to the eye and judgment. But it would be 

 extraordinary that such wonderful adjustments — such subtle corrections, 

 worked too with such precision and geometrical accuracy, should be in 

 each case merely empirical. Without the most accurate measurements of 

 these small differential quantities, taking into consideration every crack 

 and movement among the blocks of marble, it must be hopeless to discover 

 it. There is ample field for a work which shall be the standard of the 

 scientific, as that of Stuart is of the decorative architecture of the 

 Greeks. 



Reference to the Engraving. 



The engraving is a sketch showing the rise in the stylobate and the in- 

 clination of some of the columns in the East front of the Partlienon. The 

 differences in the steps, &c. are drawn to a scale equal to one-fifth of tlie 

 real size, and the remainder one 150th of the real size. The dimensions 

 are given in feet and decimals of a foot ; the figures under each column 

 show the height of the steps above or below the level line. The irregular 

 line at the foot of the columns shows the existing line of the steps, and the 

 line above it the probable original form. 



Tlie upper and lower courses of the columns are the scamilli hnpares of 

 Vitruvius ; all the rest are symmetrical and perpendicular to the axis of 

 the column. The left baud outer column leans to the right '206, and the 

 right hand one leans to the left -15. 



THE DECORATIONS OF THE OPERA HOUSE. 



The example that is to be, of the New Palace of Westminster, and 

 wbich is now only in prospectu, may be said to be operating by anticipa- 

 tion. All branches of decoration connected with architecture are, in city 

 phrase, looking up, and even mural pictorial embellishment, in encaustic, 

 if not yet in fresco, has begun to be introduced among us, — and that, per- 

 haps, with more hurry than good speed. What was the first application 

 of it is by no means a very prepossessing specimen, the decorations in the 

 arcades of the Royal Exchange being almost ludicrously inconsistent with 

 the purpose of the building, — so greatly at variance with all propriety of 

 character, that were they very much better both as to execution and gene- 

 ral effect, they would still be unsatisfactory. Strange to say, although De- 

 coration would seem to hold out the fairest opportunities for the exercise 

 of inventive talent and the indulgence of fancy, it seems to be shackled by 

 and under the thraldom of " Precedent." Even in Ornameulation we 

 either can, or else allow ourselves to do nothing without asking permission 

 of Precedent. Our most approved novelties— our newest fashions in furni- 

 ture and the fittiiig-up of rooms seldom amount to more than the re-intro- 

 duction of obsolete and by-gone ideas, — not of ideas legitimately borrowed 

 in order to be modified and so remodelled as to be made our own, but taken 

 bodily, and copied with scrupulous exactness, on which very account what 

 is intended for fidelity becomes no better than absurdity, and what was ex- 

 cellent in its own time — in accordance with the spirit and circumstances of 

 that time, is rendered more or less ridiculous by misapplication. Me hut>- 

 and pique ourselves upon our wonderful talent — the only wonder beiu" 

 that it should be thought such — for imitating what has some time or other 

 been done before. We plume ourselves upon being p/us araie que I'Aruhie, 



— more Pompeian than Pompeii, more d la Qaatorze, than the great Louis* 

 All (5 la grecque and A la Hope one day, we are all Elizabethan the next ' 

 Renaissance, and Roman, by turns ; Gothic or Grotesque, according just 

 as fashion dictates. 



The Opera House has just been embellished A la Raffaellesque, and by 

 good luck — by sheer good luck it happens that that style — in reality the 

 <i la Titus is admirably well suited for the decorations of such a place, it 

 being playful, poetical, and fantastic enough, for which very reason the 

 application of it to a pontifical palace becomes somewhat questionable, not 

 but that it would have been highly commendable in some of the successors 

 of St. Peter had they emulated the noble example of Titus himself. By 

 those who have spoken of them, great stress is laid upon all the decoration 

 of that theatre being taken verbatim from accredited authorities. We are 

 awed into admiration by the names of Raff'aelle, Romano, De Udine ; 

 such piece of ornament, we are assured is from Genoa, another from Man- 

 tua. Then we have Guide's Aurora on the sofitte of the proscenium — 

 which if not poignantly satirical, is admirably appropriate, twelve o'clock 

 at night being the hour when the votaries of Fashion shout out 

 " Uprise ye then. 



My merry merry men, 



This is our opening day I" 

 AVhether any of the miniature subjects in the panels on the fronts of the 

 boxes be immediately taken from Ratl'aello and his contemporaries or not, 

 is of very little moment, since as subjects they are utterly lost, and a few 

 dabs of colour would show just as well, it is enough that the general effect 

 is good, — light, sportive, fantastio, and not overloaded with meaning! 

 This so to call it, unmeaning arabesque style of decoration may be allowed 

 to be admirably in keeping with the lyric or musical drama, both being 

 outri, and avowedly imitating nature only at a very great distance, and ex- 

 ceedingly conventionally : tbe nature of both is the nature of fairy-land, 

 and only a formal blockhead would object to them that they are nature 

 d la Ictlri. Arabesque may be regarded as the musical style of the picto- 

 rial art, and as distinct frum subject painting as singing is from speaking. 

 It is only the ultra-prudery of common sense that objects to such applica- 

 tion of the pencil as nonsensical and absurd. In fact it is its vagueness 

 and want of express meaning, together with its renunciation of any pre- 

 tension to imitate natural objects nuluralhj, that render this mode of paint- 

 ing preferable to picture in direct imitation of nature, for being allied with 

 architecture so intimately as to assume somewhat of the nature of the 

 latter art. Free and playfully fanciful, it is at the same time architectonic, 

 accommodating itself spontaneously to linear and symmetrical arrange- 

 ment. 



One very great thing in favour of the pictorial embellishments of the 

 Opera House is that ihey are seen only by artificial light, which sheds 

 over them a glow whose very warmth sobers them, whereas by day paint- 

 ing of the kind is apt to look garish if not tawdry. In a theatre it is in its 

 proper element, the very atmosphere of the place being artificial; and 

 where all is artificial, the artificial becomes the natural. Had there been 

 even less of" picture" introduced— or we might say dragged in among the 

 properly so-called pictorial decorations, better taste would, we think, have 

 been shown. Besides Guido's Aurora over the proscenium there are four 

 circular compartments in the ceiling containing copies of Albano's Sea- 

 sons. In what respect they are at all significant we cannot divine : — there 

 are not four, but only one Opera " Season'" in the course of the year. In- 

 applicability of subject we could, however, wink at; but besides that we 

 protest against the absurdity of sticking up " pictures" upon a ceiling 

 where as " pictures" they can not possibly be properly seen,— and here 

 they show only as mere spots, — even as panels in the ceiling, those com- 

 partments are quite at variance with sound architectural design and com- 

 bination. Nor do we scruple to say this, although the ceiling is said to be 

 taken from one in the celebrated Villa Madonna at Rome. We can only 

 say, pity that instead of being taken, it was not left where it was found ; 

 and that Mr. Johnson, the commander-in-chief of the artistical forces em- 

 ployed, did not set his wits to work, and devise something better of his 

 own.— As to the " house" itself, it is by no means a model for a theatre : 

 all that it has of proscenium is confined to fluor and ceiling between the 

 orchestra and curtain, the boxes being continued quite up to the latter, so 

 that the audience are almost mingled with the actors. 



n* 



