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THE CIVIL ENGIXKER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL 



April, 



naily: but cinuhir penstyl.ir temples, or rotumhis, whose oella was 

 enciosod by an external colonnade, were not uncommon. Of tins kind 

 is the temple of the .Sibyl, or, as it is otherwise called, that of Vesta, 

 at Tivoli, an edifice of singular beauty, and hiqlily interesting as a 

 very peculiar and unique example of the Corinthian order, the first 

 application of which in any modem building was made bv Soane, at 

 the Bank of Kngland. Kdificesof this kind were covered with hemis- 

 pherical ilomcs, or with smaller sections of a sphere, which conse- 

 quently did not show themselves much externally, as they were raised 

 only over the (t/lu, aud therefore the lower part was concealed bv the 

 colonnade pnjjecting around it. The dume of the Pantheon is hemis- 

 pherical within, but is of very low proportions and Hattened form 

 vfithout, for its spring commences at about the level of the first or 

 lower cornice of the exterior cylinder, and is further reducred bv the 

 base of the outer portion of the dome being expatided and formeti into 

 sepaarate cylindrical courses or gradini. If the dume liail sprung im- 

 mediately from the upper cornice, so as to jiresent a perfect hemis- 

 phere on the outside, the rotunda itself would have looked merely as 

 ■A tambour to it, and the ell'fct would have been as preposterous as if 

 the cupola of .St. Paul's and tlie colonnaded rotunda on which it is 

 raised were placed immedialelv on the grounil, instead of being ele- 

 vated upon a larger pile of building. 



Folygon.d forms of pl.ui wore sometimes employed, of which tlicre 

 is an instance in what is called the temple of Minerva Medica at Rome, 

 which is circular on the exterior, but internally decagonal, with nine 

 '•i its sides occupied by as many recesses, and the other by the door- 



ly — a remarkable peculiarly, it being very unusual to enclose a poly- 

 gon within a cylindrical structure, aithougli not the contrary, nor to 

 erect a cylinder upon a square or polygonal basement. Octagon plans 

 were by no means uncommon: such form was frequently made use of 

 for the saloons of public baths; and there is an instance of an octagonal 

 temple, supposed to have been dedicated to Jupiter, in one of the 

 courts of Diocletiaii's pa'ace at Spalatro. Of hexagonal structures we 

 are acquainted with no example, but a court with six sides occurs in 

 the remains of the temple of liaalbec, not however a regular hexagon, 

 but of elongated figure, two of the sides being 110, and the remaining 

 four SS feet each. In the later periods of Roman architecture, circular 

 aud polygonal structuies became more frequent, and those of the first- 

 mentio.ied kind deviated considerably from the original simple rotun- 

 das and circular temples. An inner peristyle of colunms was introduced 

 so as to make a spacious circular or ring-shaped ambulaloiy around 

 the centre, which was much loftier than the colonnade being covered 

 by a dome raised upon a cylindrical wail over the columns. What is 

 now called San .Stefano Uotuuda, at Ronii^, su|)posed by some to have 

 been originally a tiunple dedicated first to Faunus, ami afterwards to 

 the emperor Claudius, and by others to have been a public market, is 

 a structure planned according lo the arrangement just mentioned, with 

 a circular Ionic colonnade of twenty columns and two piers. The 

 Church of Santa Costanza, traditionally reported to have been a tem- 

 ple of Bacchus, but now generally supposed to have been erected bj' 

 Constantine as a baptistery, and altervvards converted by him into a 

 funeral cliapel to his daughter Coustantia, is a remarkable example, 

 owing to the colunms being not only coupled, but unusually disposed, 

 and to there being arches springing from their entablature, that is, 

 there are twenty-four columns (with composite capitals) placed in 

 pairs, on the radii of the plan, or one behind the other, forming twelve 

 iiiter-colunms and as many arches : and as far as the mere anangement 

 goes, this interior is strikingly picturesque ; but it would be an im- 

 provement, if the dome v\ere in such case to spring immediately from 

 tlie imposts of the arches, and the latter to groin into it ; or at least 

 were it to spring from the vertex of the arches. 



The circular form was a favourite one with the Romans for their 

 sepulchral structures of a more pretending class than ordinary. It will 

 be suflicitnt here merely to mention those in honour of Augustus and 

 Hadrian. The tomb of Cfficilia Metella is a low cylinder, the height 

 being only ()2 feet, while the diameter is 90; and it maybe considered 

 as nearly solid, the chamber or cella being no more than 19 feet in dia- 

 meter. This cylindrical mass is raised upon a square substructure ; 

 which combiuation of the two forms is productive of agreeable con- 

 trast; and it was accordingly frequently resorted to. The tomb of 

 Plautius Sylvanus near Tivoli consists also of a short cylindrical super- 

 structure on a square basement, but is otherwise of peculiar design, 

 one side of that stereobate being carried up so as to form a sort of low 

 screen or frontispiece, decorated witli six half-columns, and five up- 

 right tablets with inscriptions, between them. The tomb of Munatius 

 Plaucus, .it Gaeta, is a simple circular structure, of low proportions, 

 the height not exceeding the diameter, and therefore hardly to be 

 call<^d a tower, notwithstanding that it is now popularly called Roland's 

 or Orlando's Tower. Of quite dill'erent character and design from 

 any of the preceding ones, is the ancient Roman sepn'chral monument 



at St. Rerai, which consists of three stages ; the first a square stereo- 

 bate raised on gr.adini, and entirely covered on each side with sculp- 

 tures in relief; the next is also square, with an attached fluted Co- 

 rinthian angle, and an open arch on eacli side ; and the uppermost is 

 a Corinthian rotunda, forming an open or mouopteral temple li. e., 

 without any cella), the centre of which is occupied by two statutes. 



These notices may serve to convey some idea of the variety aimed 

 at by the Romans in the distribution of the plans and general masses 

 of their edifices, independently of decoration. Their thermas, or public 

 baths, a class of structures remarkable for their vast extent and mag- 

 nificence, are most interesting studies of combinations of plan, as they 

 were not merely ballis, but plac'es of public resort and amusement, and 

 consisted of an assemblage of courts, porticos, libraries, and spacious 

 saloons and galleries, most of which presented some peculiarity of 

 form and distribution. 



The Romans seem to have affected the practice of grouping build- 

 ings together as features in one general symmetrical plan. Their 

 temples and basilicas were frequently placed, as the principal arcbi- 

 tect\uai objects, at the extremity of a forum, or other regular area 

 enclosed with colonnades. The temple of Xerva stood at one end of, 

 and partlv projected into an enclosure (me;isnring about 3liO by liJO 

 feet), the entrance end of which had five open arches, and the sides 

 were formed by screen walls, decorated with Corinthian jjil asters, and 

 columns immediately before them, over which the entablature formed 

 breaks. Of Trajan's foram, which was surrounded not only by colon- 

 nades, but various stately edifices, nothing now remains except the 

 celebrated triumphal column that occupied its centre, and which, so 

 placed as a principal object, must have heightened the splendour of 

 the whole. Like that of Xerva, the temple of Antoninus and Faustina 

 was placed at one end of a court of moderate dimensions, whose sides 

 \vere adorned with coupled columns placed immediately against the 

 walls; and only the portico part of the temple fa Corinthian hexastyle,; 

 triprostyle) advanced into the enclosed area in front. The forum of 

 Caracalla was nearly a square, entirely surrounded by arcades, pre- 

 senting thirteen arches on each of the longer and eleven on each of the 

 shorter sides. In the centre was a Corinthian temple very similar in. 

 plan to the Pantheon, with an hexastyle, triprostyle portico in front, 

 and remarkable for having inner colunms behind the seiond from each 

 angle, so that there was a double range of them at each end, and the 

 central space within the portico was a perfect square e<|ual to three 

 intercolumns. 



As our object is rather to direct attention to the modes of composi- 

 tion affected by the Romans and the elements of their style, than to 

 describe their chief architectural monuments, either historically or ac- 

 cording to their respective classes and destination, we proceed now to 

 consider some of the individual peculiarities and features belonging to 

 their buildings. 



In the application of sculpture, particularly of statues, they were 

 prodigal ; but they employed the latter chiefly as architectural acces- 

 sories, frequently placing them over columns, or on the sunnnits of 

 their edifices as acroteria to pediments, by way of giving variety to 

 the outline of their buildings, and also of indicating at first sight their 

 partii-ular appropriation— a practice almost unknown to the Greeks, 

 there being only one instance of it. In Italian buildings, on the con- 

 trary, the practice has been frequently carried to a preposterous ex- 

 tent, rows of statues being placed on the pedestals of balustrades, so as 

 almost to look like pinnacles, and to produce rather a stifl' and formal 

 etl'ect than one of richness; whereas when tliey are introduced on the 

 angles and apeu of a pediment, or when there is merely one in the 

 latter situation, such monotony does not take place, and additional im- 

 portance and loftiness may be given to that portion of the edifice by 

 such decoration. The abundant use of statues led to th; adoption of 

 the niche — a feature unknown in Greek architecture— as a convenient 

 mode of inserting them within ths surface of walls, and thereby deco- 

 rating them; at the same time space was gained in interiors, where, 

 if otherwise placed, they would have taken up room. Xiches fre- 

 quently occur in Roman temples and baths ; and, as we have seen, 

 from the accouut given of the temple of Venus and Roma, were occa- 

 sionally decorated with a frontispiece of small columns, with their en- 

 tablatures and peiliments, but were generally left plain, and were for 

 the most part semicircular in plan, in which case they usually termi- 

 nated in an arch and semidome, after the manner of a tribune or large 

 recess, of which the niche was in fact a miniature copy. Xiches, 

 however, were very frequently rectangular in i)lan, as were also ex- 

 hedriE, or recesses, in which case the latter formed arches vaulted 

 hemicylindrically. 



These various applications of curvilinear forms, both in plan and 

 elevation, undoubtedly furnished Roman architecture with resources 

 unknown to that of Greece. Nor can it be denied that the arch itself 

 is a very beaatiful feature, although it was employed by the Romans 



