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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[June, 



pants. But as man becomes civilised, the love of the beautiful 

 arises — his eye requires to be pleased, as well as his mere physical 

 necessities provided for; and from this faculty of our nature the 

 fine arts result. First, the bark would be stripped from the tree, 

 and the trunks that were to serve as uprifrhts, rounded smooth. 

 'I'he beams would be squared, and a more efficient support given 

 to them by square slabs placed upon the pillars. Amongst a rich 

 and agricultural people, other improvements would gradually take 

 place; and decoration would follow, until the wooden structure 

 was perfected, with its stylobate, columns, entablature, and pedi- 

 ment, adjusted to the nicest proportions tliat experience and taste 

 could dictate. The poems of Homer inform us that the first 

 temple at Delphi was of wood; and it is su))posed that the old 

 Temple of .\eptune at Mantinea was constructed of the same 

 material. After a time, as wealth and luxury increased, and more 

 elaborate edifices were required, brick and stone began to replace 

 the jirimitive materials; but, at first, only partially. We have 

 seen that in the Etruscan temple, both stone and wood were used; 

 and it is highly probable that this was the case, also, in the older 

 Greek temples, as we read of so many being destroyed by fire. 

 The second temple at Delphi, built by Agamedes and Trophonius, 

 the Hecatompedon at Athens, and several others, shared this fate; 

 a catastrophe which could scarcely have happened had they been, 

 like the Parthenon, entirely of marble. Remains of construction 

 in brick are also met with; though these, in a country abounding 

 in stone, like Cireece, are rare. The walls of Mantinea are of 

 crude brick. At Argos are vestiges of a temple of terra-cotta; and 

 another example existed in a portico at Epidaurus. Even in 

 building in wood, certain maxims must have impressed themselves 

 on the minds of the first architects, such as that the heavy 

 .should support the light, and the strong the feeble; that solidity 

 should not only be real, but apparent; that nothing should be 

 introduced, even in the way of ornament, without its seeming to 

 arise from some necessity in the construction, as nothing can be 

 beautiful that is not appropriate; and that all the parts and details 

 should be subordinate to the whole. In course of time, as build- 

 ings for different purposes were required, three orders, or distinct 

 combinations, were formed, each differing from the others, and 

 taking their rise from different ideas. The Doric, expressive of 

 grandeur, strength, and solidity; the Ionic, of dignity combined 

 with elegance and grace; and the Corinthian, of lightness and 

 festive sumptuousness: and these ideas, notwithstanding the infi- 

 nite modifications of which the orders are susceptible, were always 

 kept distinct. As the original type of the wooden structure "is 

 more closely adhered to in the Doric than in the other orders, it 

 has been generally considered as the earliest; though there is no 

 foundation for such a supposition. According to Vitruvius, the 

 l>oric order was invented by Dorus, the son of Helen and the 

 nymph Opticus, who governed the whole of the Peloponnesus, and 

 dedicated a temple to Juno, in the city of Argos; and that this 

 order of architecture was adopted by the cities of Achaia, and 

 from its inventor received the name of Doric. But such a fabu- 

 lous origin proves nothing beyond its antiquity; nor is a name any 

 better guide— for instance, no vestige of the order called Corin- 

 thian is found in Corinth, nor does the acanthus grow plentifully 

 in its neighbourhood. A name is often given to a style long after 

 its introduction, and arises sometimes from the country where it 

 was most generally in use, sometimes from some artist by whom 

 it was emljellished, or other fortuitous circumstance. 



Tlxe principal features of the Doric order are, the massive 

 column springing direct from the stylobate, without base, and 

 tapering considerably towards the capital; the bold ovolo, or 

 echinus, and i)rojecting abacus with which the column is crowned; 

 thesolid architrave,andenriched frieze, callingto mind the primitive 

 forms from whicli it took its rise; and the cornice composed of 

 tew but varied lines, — altogether forming a combination of un- 

 equalled simplicity and grandeur. 



Vitruvius tells us that the first architects, in the absence of 

 fixed proportions, bethought themselves of measuring the human 

 figure: and, finding the length of the foot one-sixth tlie height of 

 a full-grown man, they adopted this as the proportion, making the 

 column six diameters high. This rule, however, is j)roved to be 

 fallacious, by actual admeasurement of tlu! Cireek Doric, in the 

 best examples of which the columns are not as much as six diame- 

 ters in height. .Moreover, architecture di>es not imitate nature, 

 but proceeds on the same principles as nature herself. In an 

 organic structure there are certain proportions which are never 

 overstejjped — certain adaptations of parts to a whole, which are 

 always preserved; though, within these limits, there is perfect free- 

 dom. Thus in a skeleton, if we see one bone, we can at once decide 



to what species it belongs; and yet the individuals of that species 

 are so infinitely varied that no two are exactly alike. Thus worked 

 the architects of Greece, in the secondary forms and proportions, 

 adhering to no positive rule, but varying them according to the 

 dictates of taste and judgment. Nor should this e.xcite our sur- 

 prise; rules never produced a work of genius; they are the result 

 — the effect, not the cause of such works. A great artist arises- 

 his productions transcend all that has gone before, and at once 

 command the suffrage of the public: they become an example — a 

 rule. But let the student beware of imagining that, by exactly 

 following such rules, he will achieve like results. As well might a 

 painter take a chef d'aiuvre of Raflfaelle's, and say, by following 

 such and such lines, and imitating such and such masses of light 

 and shade, and combinations of colour, I shall produce a picture 

 like this; or a musician fancy he could compose a symphony like 

 one of Beethoven's by studying thorough base. The most that could 

 result from such a course of study would be a cold correctness, 

 that might not offend, but would utterly fail in commanding admi- 

 ration. It was a saying of Michael Angelo's, "that the man who 

 follows another is always behind; but he who boldly strikes into 

 a different path, may climb as high as his competitor." Rules are 

 valuable to repress exaggeration and extravagance — they serve to 

 mark the limits beyond which grandeur and energy would be lost 

 in clumsiness, or elegance and grace degenerate into poverty and 

 weakness; but within these extremes the imagination may stray 

 at will. Those who would make architecture nothing but a system 

 of rules, would render it no longer an art, but a mere mechanical 

 trade. 



In architecture, the constituent parts of ever)' structure, however 

 vast and complicated, are composed of a few elementary forms; thus, 

 the buildings of the Greeks may be divided into four principal parts 

 — the platform, or stylobate; the columns, serving as supports; the 

 entablature, connecting and resting upon these; and the pediment 

 and roof, crowning the whole. The character of the order is not 

 confined to one part, but is spread over all; but the column is the 

 indicator and regulator: thus the names of the different orders 

 are given to the supports, according to their style. Hence they 

 are called Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian columns. It is impossible 

 to assign any chronological order to the ancient edifices of Greece. 

 Generally speaking, in the earlier examples, the column is more 

 massive, with fewer flutings, and supporting a heavier entablature; 

 hut this is by no means an infallible rule. Nor can we trace the 

 rise of Greek architecture from progress to progress, as in other 

 styles, for the temples of the remotest antiquity are as beautiful 

 and complete as those of a later date. The hj'paethral Temple of 

 Piestum is scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Parthenon itself. 

 Indeed, Signor Lusieri (a great authority in matters of taste) con- 

 sidered the Temple of Paestum as an example of a more correct 

 and pure style; and thought that the Doric order there attained 

 an excellence beyond which it never passed. He observed, "Not 

 a stone has been placed there without some evident and important 

 design; every part of the structure bespeaks its own essential 

 utility." His opinion wasthe samewith respect to the ancient Temple 

 of Jupiter Panhellenius, in .fligina: "Of such a nature," said he, 

 "were works in architecture, when the whole aim of the architect 

 was to unite grandeur with utility, the former being founded on 

 the latter: all then was truth, strength and sublimity." It was 

 not until the year 1743 that attention was drawn to the ruins of 

 PiBstum. Though in the year 1675, Athens was visited by the 

 Marquis de Nointel, Dr. Spon, Sir George AV'heler, and Mr. Ver- 

 non, who all published the result of their researches, the architects 

 of that day knew so little of the pure Greek Doric, that the tem- 

 ples at Pajstum were for some years considered as unique; and in 

 France this style was called the order of Pastum, and it was not 

 until Messrs. Stuart and Revett went to Athens in 1751, that the 

 beautiful remains of Greek architecture were made known to the 

 public. 



When the ruins of Paestum were first examined, in the total 

 absence of history or inscriptions, many speculations were afloat 

 respecting their origin. Signor Paoli imagined them to be Etrus- 

 can, because Pffistum, then called Phistu, was in existence before 

 the Greek orders were known, Jason having offered libations 

 there; but the Chevalier Boni very truly remarks, that such a 

 tradition "only proves the antiquity of the place itself, not of 

 everything it contains." Psestum was one of the earliest Greek set- 

 tlements in Italy; and by them called Poseidonia. Mr. A^'ilkins, 

 speaking of the hypa?thral temple (supposed to have been dedi- 

 cated to the tutelary deity of the city, Poseidon, or Neptune), says, 

 "The Grecian character is too strongly marked to admit of any 

 argument, and must have been cot'val with the very earliest period 



