138 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[May, 



and general proportions. Such is tlie stringent nature of the Greek Doric, 

 in wbicli respect it is unique. The trigljplis, when yiven, are the index of 

 this proportion, and, except oier the columns at the angles, we find one 

 over the axis of each : at the angles of the edifice the column is placed so 

 ucar to its proximate, that a line let fall from the outer edge of the triglypb 

 will touch the circumferential line of the column at its base, thus giving 

 increased strength to the strncture. Stuart makes the measurement of the 

 columns at the angles of the Parthenon G' 3" 5'", and those bctrteen 

 them 0' 1" 8'", and the iiitercolumuiations 5' 8" b"' and 7' 11" 5'". 

 Hut the restorers have modilied this either by giving half a metope outside 

 the triglypb at the angle, or by showing a disregard to any rule, as we see 

 in the portico of the University Club, in SulTolk-street, London. In such 

 cases as the last-mentioned, would it not be in better taste to omit the 

 trii^lyphs altogether (as we find they are in the pronaos of the tireek ex- 

 amples), and substitute sculpture in their stead. V, e stated that it was 

 the rule to have only one triglypb between those over the axis of each 

 column; there is, however, an exception of high authorily, as may be seen 

 in the I'ropylea, — but it forms the exception, not the rule ; and although this 

 structure is very beautiful in other respects, yet did we not know that it 

 was erected in the age of Pericles, when art was in its zenith, we should, 

 on account of this deviation from the general rule, have ascribed it to a 

 period subsequent to the Itomau conquest. It would appear that the 

 reason of this wide intercolumniation between the centre columns of the 

 Propylea was, that a larger space might be left for the passage of eques- 

 trian processsions to the Acropolis. If we were constrained to assume 

 the functions of the judgment-seat when the example was pleaded as a 

 precedent, our decision should, in legal phraseology, be, " Like case only 

 like rule." But let us not forget that although we may pay the closest 

 attention to all the miuutia) of the Greek models, yet a repetition of the 

 Doric in small cannot be effective, for magnitude is indispensable. 



Although tlie Romans proved by conquest that they were superior to the 

 Greeks in arms, yet they were inferior in arts, and for a time had recourse 

 to the importation of Greek artists, and, in the reign of Bomitian, columns 

 were taken from an edifice in Greece for the purpose of rebuilding the 

 Capitol ; but such was the taste of the Roman architects, that they were 

 altered under the pretence of being polished, and, as Plutarch, who saw 

 lliem previously in Greece, says, " they gained not so much in the polish 

 as they lost in proportion, for their beauty is injured by their appearing 

 too slender for their height." In the old church of Araceli, on the Capi- 

 toliue hill, which contains many antique columns, tliere are some, not diffi- 

 cult to imagine as being the identical ones alluded to by Plutarch. But 

 the wholesome stimulus of good taste in the employer could not be im- 

 ported as early as the artists themselves, and it is in the nature of the 

 mind not to produce beyond what is required of it. Mho will be at the 

 pains of cultivating a flower that must be 



-born to blush unseen. 



And waste its sweetness on the desert nir?" 

 It may be replied to this that the ancients, both Greeks and Romans, put 

 the highest degree of finish on parts that never could come under observa- 

 tion as long as the buildings stood — but not so; for superstition invested 

 their gods with the power of visiting their temples, and hence every part 

 which might possibly come under their scrutiny was made as perfect as 

 possible. Another cause for the modification of the transplanted archi- 

 tecture was the scarcity of materials of sufficient magnitude to construct 

 buildings with on the Greek models : if, under such circumstances, Greek 

 employers had been substituted for Roman, and Rome had become a Greek 

 colony, then, indeed, there can be no doubt that all the modifications which 

 materials rendered necessary, would have been guided alone by those prin- 

 ciples which had sustained the character of Grecian architecture as the 

 first in the world — superior to the Egyptian in this respect, that whilst, 

 wiih less bulky materials, it preserved the character of grandeur, magnifi- 

 cence, and simplicity of outline, it imposed thereon an elegance and har- 

 mony of detail, which made it rise superior to its prototype. But no such 

 fostering influence met it on the banks of the Tiber: the ancient Romans, 

 like some moderns, had indeed a great desire — a longing after magnifi- 

 cence, without being aware of what its constituents were;— possessing the 

 superiority of conquerors, they were too ignorant — too vain, to learn, or 

 rather submit, to the taste of the vanquished, whose productions they con- 

 descended to appropriate in order to grace atriumph and mark a conquest; 

 and although we see in the earlier works of Italy many vestiges of the 

 good taste of their instructors, yet a history of its progress under Roman 

 patronage would be a narrative of its decline and fall, for other principles 

 guided them Bubsequemly, aud they in vain sought to give their edifices 



that grandeur, which the Greeks had been able to effect by a far different 

 method. The art appears to have run riot io Roman hands, if we are tij 

 ascribe to them the erection of Baalbcc and Palmyra, entire cities built 

 on a scale of maguiCcence and splendour which would not be credited 

 were the fact not attested by their existing ruins.; yet these ruins, exten- 

 sive as they are, possess no feature worthy of our imitation, except it be a 

 few details of mouldings which have been introduced into the interiors of 

 our domestic edifices. 



The principles of the one school were sure and fixed, and incapable of 

 being perverted, whilst those of the other were unstable, and led to every 

 possible variety, until they brought ruin on the art, and so early as the 

 times of Diocletian, obliterated almost every vestige of its origin. In suc- 

 ceeding ages, which we call dark, architecture lay buried under its ohq 

 ruins : but the most sanguine enthusiast could scarcely have anticipated that 

 out of this chaos a new style should have been created, having claims on the 

 admiration of posterity ; and that, in the hands of men who have left no 

 wriltcn or other record of their knowledge of science or art, the examples 

 of the florid Gothic of the middle ages should have been brought to thai 

 state of perfection wliich v^e cannot surpass; this, however, forms no part 

 of our present enquiry. Subsequent to this period, there arose in Italy 

 another set of men, who did nut aim, like the Freemasons, to create a 

 new style, but professed, by the aid of the works of Vitruvius, to resusci- 

 tate the ancient one out of the incongruous materials by which tbej found 

 themselves surrounded. If, instead of doing this, they had consigned 

 Vitruvius to oblivion, and followed the example of the Freemasons, they 

 might have given us some thing good — at all events, they could not have 

 given us anything worse than the so-called revival. Greek models they 

 did not seek for, but even if it had been otherwise in this respect, vre hare 

 no reason to suppose that the purer specimens would have found more 

 favour in their eyes, than the best of the Roman did. Serlio and Palladio 

 drew and published almost all the Roman examples existing in their day, 

 yet, in their own designs, show how little they studied the best of them, 

 except to copy a capital or a cornice. 



The restorers who flourished principally in the fifteenth century are 

 called for the sake of brevity, the Cinque-cento school ; they were all of 

 the same country as the earlier debasers of Grecian art : eminently snc- 

 cessful in painting aud sculpture, the Italians fell far short indeed in ar- 

 chitecture. Unacquainted with the Greek models they yet set about the 

 restoration of the style ; their country never possessed any example of the 

 pointed Gothic worlliy of attention, and indeed the very name Tedesca im- 

 pinges harshly on an Italian ear, and the mere suspicion that Germania 

 was the country of its birth was sufiicient to create a prejudice in the 

 mind of an Italian patriot ; so it was altogether passed over without 

 notice, and our ov^•n Jones and Wren, not finding any mention made of 11 

 by any of the admired authors of the Cinque-cento school, at once stigma- 

 tised it as barbarian ; but it is remarkable that in proportion as the beauty 

 of the pure Grecian is known and felt, so is that of the Gothic appre- 

 ciated ; and so it ever will be in art, a correct taste in one branch leading 

 to the due estimation of others. 



It is true that the change of habits and the difference of climate may, 

 in many respects, render what was once appropriate not fitting now, and it 

 must also be admitted that all the examples of Greek architecture which 

 we have, are either of the templar or monumental description, and therefore 

 may not be suited for domestic edifices. We know from the somewhat 

 Greek town of Pompeii, that a great difference existed during the first 

 century in the style of domestic edifices, and no attempt was made to ren- 

 der the former similar to the latter, but, on the contrary, it was at ona 

 period unlawful to make the attempt in Rome, and not customary io 

 Greece ; for Julius Cassar obtained permission by a decree of the Senate 

 to make the front of his house like a temple, and Demosthenes, about a 

 century after the death of Pericles, directed the thunder of his eloquence 

 against the practise as an innovation. Columns, both square and cylindri- 

 cal, were however much used for internal decoration and construction in 

 Roman houses, but the exteriors were plain, and for the most part, devoid 

 of all architectural ornament : according to Vitruvius, the exteriors of the 

 town houses were quite plain, all ornament being reserved for the interior; 

 just as we see at Pompeii, and as is the custom in the towns of China at 

 the present day. However, in the so-called revival of Greek architecture, 

 any building, although its outline might be broken up by receding or ad- 

 vancing wings — although it might have a pediment in mockery only of a 

 gable, or not extending the entire length of the fafade — although it might 

 have its frieze pulvinated, its stylobate not graduated, its intercolumoia- 

 UoD3 extended, its columns (some of them sinecure) of different orders— 



