3801.) 
Profeffor has met:with, to be a fhapelefs 
mafs, without tafe or without art; but 
he proves the contrary by his defcription 
alone, and by the fimple and natural re- 
flections refulting therefrom, which deve- 
lope the merit of this fragment of anti- 
quity. This monument occupies but little 
{fpace; it only comprchends feventeen feet 
eight inches {quare, not including the fore 
part of the pedeftals of the angular co- 
lumns, which take up thirteen inches fix 
lines (a line is the twelfth part of an inch), 
~ without their bafes; and which further ex- 
’ 
tend four inches fix lines fquare (ex carré), 
in all, twenty feet, eight inches fquare. 
Its height, to the upper part of the enta- 
blature, is twenty-two feet ; and the pyra- 
mid, with its bafe, is nearly fifty feet ; 
which gives in all feventy-two feet in ele- 
vation, although there wants about twelve 
feet in preceeding from the progreflive 
proportions obferved in its tapering, from 
its bafe to the apex, to form the point or 
needle. Thethicknefs of the walls which 
form the body of the pyramid, is two feet, 
feven inches; confequently its interior 
{pace is twelve feet, fix inches at the bafe. 
‘The angular columns by which this monu- 
mentis flanked, areabout twenty-two inches 
in diameter ; their height is fourteen feet . 
nine inches, including the bafes and chapi- 
ters, which would only make feven dia- 
metres and a half, or fifteen modules, 
which are the proportions of the columns 
Thefe co- 
between the Doric and Ionic. 
lumns are engaged by quarters (du guar), 
in the conftruétion make a_part of it, and 
fuftain the whole monument. Doubtlets 
the Corinthian proportions would have 
been too feeble to accomplifh this objeét. 
They leffen gradually to the top, as almoft 
all the ancient columns do, and fufficiently 
fill the eye imtheen/femble. The bales are 
Attic, and have never been completed ; one 
of the four is ftill rough and unpolifhed, 
which has given caule to certain ignorant 
perfons to call this a monument of the bad 
ages and Gothic. The proportions of the 
chapiters are Corinthian. Although they 
are not as yet fculptured, it is eafy to fee 
that they have been prepared for chapiters 
of that order, and will not agree with ‘any 
other. Virruyius only affizns them two 
modules, and thefe have fomething more; 
although to the eye they appear too low, 
they would, no doubt, appear more elevat- 
ed, if the feulpture were finifhed. Four 
arcades in the four fronts reveal a very 
bold cicling (plafond), made of bafket- 
work (par encorbeillement); the ftones of 
the architeSture appear fupported by the 
four key-itones of the arcades, and cover- 
Account of an ancient Monument at Vienne. 
107 | 
ed by the ftones of the frieze and cornice, 
formed of two beds of ftones, laid by bound. 
mafonry on eachother. Thefe and other 
proportions indicated by Citizen Schneider 
fhew clearly that this monument is Co- 
rinthian, and of good tafte. The inclina~ 
tion of the pyramids is fo well combined, 
that all the weight refts on the centre of 
the pedeftals of the columns; fo that the 
columns ferve for buttrefles, and uphold 
the whole fabric. ‘he totality of this 
firucture is feated on a maffive bafe of 
free ftone, of a quality fimilar to thofe em-~ 
ployed in the reft of the work, cramped ho- 
rizontally with iron, and cemented with lead ; 
fo that the whole is bound together, and | 
forms only a fingle body. (This may 
ferve to prove the durability of iron in mo- 
nusnents, and confequently juftify the ufe 
made of that metal by che celebrated mo- 
dern archite@t, the late M. Soufflot, in 
the conftruction of the famous church of 
St. Geneviéve at Paris), The whole mo- 
mument is only compofed of thirty-four 
rows of ftones, of which the pyramid has 
twenty-three, including the bafe. Neither 
lime nor cement has been employed in it ; 
the ftones are fo well joined, that the finett 
blade could not be infinuated between 
two, and indeed it would be difficult to 
find the junctures in many places. This 
is a method of perfection in handycraft 
work, in which the moderns have never 
yet approached the Romans. There are 
in the bafe fome ftones fo big that fome 
pafs from one arcade to the other, and 
make part of the two walls and of the co- 
lumns, and fometimes even of the pedef{- 
tals. All thefe precautions of folidity, the 
figure of the monument, its reguiar order, 
the quality of the materials, which are {e- 
le&ted ftones, an antique fpecies of marble, 
fufceptible of the fineft polith; its ar- 
cades, all its parts, in a word, announce 
that it is a public monument which has 
_ never been finifhed ; even the furface of the 
facings has not been fmoothed over in any 
part, nor even the columns; which would 
induce a prefumption, that they would 
accord better with the Corinthian order. 
The exjemble of the’ monument is beauti- 
ful; ic breathes an air of grandeur, and 
infpires a veneration, which well characte- 
rizes the antique. Diferent opinions have 
prevailed relative to the origin and fubject 
of this monument. ‘Some pretend, that it 
is the tomb of VENERIUsS, founder of 
Vienne; others fay it was the military 
ftone of the city, ferving for a decoration 
to the middle of its ancient precinct; while 
CHorieR, in his Antiquities of Vienne, 
pretends that it is the cenotaph of Au- 
2 GUSTUS. 
