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ARCHITECTURE

BY

* LESLIE WATERHOUSE, M.A.CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; ASSOCIATE OF THE

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

WITH FIFTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS

MK-

DATE, MAY 3 7990

HODDER AND STOUGHTONPUBLISHERS LONDON

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P b H W "V L L a A

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PREFATORY NOTE

IN tracing the course of Architecture in this

small volume it has been possible to touch onlyupon the salient points in its story, for it is a far

cry from the Pyramids to St. Paul's. For the

guidance of those who wish to pursue the subjectfurther, a list of books dealing more fully withthe history, or with particular branches of it,is appended.

My acknowledgments are due to Mr. A. H.

Hart, who has prepared several of the illustra-ions,

for his friendly assistance ; and to Mr. H.G. Morrish for his photographs of CanterburyCathedral.

P. L. W.

9, STAPLE INN, HOLBORN, W.C.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER IPAGE

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE .... 9

CHAPTER II

GREEK ARCHITECTURE .... 34

CHAPTER III

ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ARCHITECTURE . 57

CHAPTER IV

EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE. .

84

CHAPTER V

MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE . IOI

*

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER VIPAGE

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE . Io81. ITALY " " I092. FRANCE " . . Il63. GERMANY . ... I2O

4. SPAIN " " " ".122

5. ENGLAND . " -123

CHAPTER VII

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE . . .1271. FRANCE . . . . J342. GREAT BRITAIN . . 14"3. ITALY . .1564. GERMANY . 1 635. BELGIUM, SPAIN, ETC. . . 164

CHAPTER VIII

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE. . .165

1. ITALY . . " . .1652. FRANCE . .1833. ENGLAND " " " " .187

CHAPTER IX

MODERN ARCHITECTURE 2O1

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Norman Staircase, Canterbury ... ... ... FrontispiecePAGE

FIG, I. " Section through the Great Pyramid... ... 13

" 2. " Corbelling over King's Chamber ... ... 14" 3. " Tomb at Beni-Hasan ... ... 17" 4. " Section through Tomb at Beni-Hasan ...

'

19

,, 5. " Plan of Ramessium ... ... ... ... 26

"6. " Egyptian Columns

... ... ... ...28

,, 7- " Assyrian Column ... ... ... ... 31,,

8." Capital from Persepolis...... ... ...

33,, 9. " Lion Gate, Mycenae ... ... ... ... 36" 10. " Section through the Treasury of Atreus ... 37" II. " Plan of Small Greek Temple 39,,

12. " Plan of the Parthenon... ... ... ...

41" 13." The Doric Order 42" 14. " The Parthenon Restored ... 44" 15. " Doric Capital, showing Colour Decoration ... 47,,

16."

Ionic Order... ... ... 50

,, 17- " Ionic Capital from the Erechtheum ... ... 52" 18. " Corinthian Capital ... ... 54" 19." Plan of Greek Theatre 56,, 20. " Cloaca Maxima ... .. ... ... ... 58" 21." Composite Capital ... ... ... ... 65" 22. " Plan of a Roman Temple ... ... ... 66,, 23. " Maison Carree, Nimes ... ... ... ... "JiM 24 " Arch of Constantine ... ... ... ... 75

7

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8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPAGE

FIG. 25. " Roman Entablature ... ... ... ... 76,, 26. " Plan cf Pantheon ... ... ... ... 77,, 27. " Plan of Basilica Ulpia 80" 28." Plan of the House of Pansa 82" 29." Plan of S. Paul's Outside the Walls ... 87" 30. " Development of Basilica 91M 31. " Capital with dosseret,Ravenna ... ... 94,, 32. " Diagram 96,, 33. " Cathedral and Leaning Tower, Pisa ... 112" 34- " Plan of Notre Dame du Port ... ... ... 117" 35- " Section through Notre Dame du Port ... 118,, 36. Church of the Apostles, Cologne ... ... 121,, 37. " Plan of Church of the Apostles ... ... 122M 38. Saxon Window, Earl's Barton ... ... 124M 39- " Plan of Sainte Chapelle ... ... ... 130" 40. " Romanesque Contrasted with Gothic ... 131,, 41. " Plan of Amiens Cathedral ... ... ... 136,, 42. " Part of Arcade, Canterbury ... ... ... 144M 43- " Choir, Canterbury Cathedral ... ... ... 145

.,, 44. " Plan of Salisbury Cathedral ... ... ... 146M 45- " Durham Cathedral ... ... ... ... 148,, 46. Geometrical Tracery ... ... ... ... 150., 47- " Perpendicular Window ... ... ... 151,, 48. Early English Capital 155M 49- " Ball-flower Ornament ... ... ... ... 155" 50. " Fa"ade of Doges' Palace ... ... ... 162" 51. " Renaissance Capital 174" 52- " Spinelli Palace ... ... ... ... ... 177,, 53- " Cancellaria Palace ... ... ... ... 179" 54. " Azay-le-Rideau 185M 55." Tower, WTollaton Hall... ... ... ... 190M S^. Section through Dome, S. Paul's ... ... 197,, 57- " Steeple of S. Mary-le-Bow ... ... ... 199" $", American Sky-scraper... ... ... ... 206

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I

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

A COMPLETE Story of Architecture would requireto cover as great a period of time as the storyof man himself, for architecture is coeval withman. Man's earliest instinct would prompt him

to provide himself with food and shelter, and inconstructing for himself a shelter or dwelling, asa protection from the elements, he began toperpetrate architecture. Before the days, therefore,of reading and writing, prehistoric man began towrite a story of his life and time in the form ofbuildings, which, from earliest times, have beena reflection of his character and of his mode

of life.

Unfortunately, the efforts of our earlier ancestorsin the field of architecture have entirely dis-ppeared.

It was not until man, in the courseof civilisation, became a mighty builder, and not

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10 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE

that only, but a builder in materials of an im-erishanature, that he was able to leave

behind him monuments to tell the story of hislife to future ages. Thus it comes about that itis impossible to trace the growth of the art fromits earliest beginnings,and to follow its develop-ent

as it grew in importance. The oldestmemorials of which we have records " the tombsand temples of ancient Egypt " were the work, notof a race of primitive men, but of a nation whichhad already attained a knowledge of the art ofconstruction which later builders have neversurpassed.

The waters of the Nile are the head-waters ofarchitecture. On the banks of this stream " thecradle of the art " the colossal pilesof these earlybuilders still command the wonder of all whose-2 them ; while the most ancient of them, thepyramids, have remained unchallenged for fivethousand years as the greatest of all architecturalundertakings. With these works of the mysteriousinhabitants of the Nile valley begins the historyof architecture,so far as our knowledge of it canever go.

No other country bears such testimony asEgypt to the great historical value of architecture.Other nations of antiquity have, possibly,beenequally powerful, or as highlycivilised ; but theyhave failed to leave behind them any enduringmonuments to record their greatness" no literaturein stone or marble" and they have disappearedfrom the pages of history. Not so the Egyptians.There is a " voicefulness " in these old tombs andtemples along the banks of the Nile which gives

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THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE li

realityand life to the history of the men whobuilt them. Hence the unique interest whichattaches to the architecture of Egypt. Thesetemples, these walls, that have so long been" washed by the passing waves of humanity,"present a reliable record of the social and religiouslife of their builders,whose life-storyould other-ise

have been totallylost in obscurity. Egyptclaims the attention of students of architecture,too, by reason of having produced monumentswhich, for massiveness and grandeur, have neverbeen excelled in the world's history. Yet Egyptianarchitecture must ever remain, to some extent, asubject by itself; it occupies no very importantplace in the story of the architecture whichchiefly concerns us " that of Europe. It is astrange fact that, with the exception of the fewfeatures which were borrowed by the Greeks, allthe characteristic forms of Egyptian architecturehave become obsolete ; the Greeks, moreover, inadopting any feature, so modified and improvedit that it became, in reality,their own. Greece,not Egypt, was the true parent of Europeanarchitecture; yet the colossal monuments of theNile valley had weathered thirtycenturies beforeGrecian architecture had left its cradle.

In almost all countries we find that the chiefstructures are the outcome of the nation's religiousbeliefs. Such was the case in Egypt from theearliest times. Nothing reveals the character ofthe nation so clearlyas its religion; nothing hasa more permeating influence upon its architecture.The Egyptians were essentially religiouspeople,with a very lengthy catalogue of deities ; they

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12 THE STORY Of ARCHITECTURE

themselves spoke of their " thousand gods," and,in addition to their many principaldeities,theypaid religiousregard to animals. Cats, dogs,and many of the common animals were heldsacred ; at death their bodies were embalmed,and interred in speciallyonstructed tombs. Whena sacred bull, or Apis, died, the funeral wouldbe on an elaborate scale, costing the equivalentof ^20,000 of our money. The remains wereembalmed, placed in a solid granite sarcophagusweighing fiftytons or more, and deposited inone of the long gallerieshewn out of the solidrock.

It will be readily seen, then, that this phaseof the nation's religionwas productive of a vastamount of architectural work. But of far greaterimportance in its influence upon the architectureof the country was the belief held by the Egyptiansregarding man's life after death. While the badsoul was sentenced to a round of migrations intothe bodies of unclean animals, the good soul,as its reward, was made the companion of Osirisfor a period of three thousand years. At theend of this time it returned to earth, re-enteredits former body, and again lived the life of ahuman being. Thus it was most desirable that,when the long allotted period had expired, thesoul should be able, on returning to earth, tofind the body which it was to re-enter.

The natural outcome of this belief was theprocess of embalming, and the erection of tombswhich might be relied upon to last out the spanof three thousand years, and to safeguard thebody during that period.

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THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE 13

The most colossal, and almost the oldest, ofthese sepulchral monuments are the mysteriousstructures with which, among the inhabitants ofEurope, the name of Egypt has always beenassociated

"the Pyramids. The largest,and the

best known, of these are the three at Ghizeh,near Cairo, built respectivelyby Cheops (orSuphis),Chephren, and Mycerinus. The pyramid of

FIG. I. " Section through the Great Pyramid.

Cheops, generallyknown as the " Great Pyramid,"is the most important of the three. Its builderwas a tyrant of the fourth dynasty (dr. 3700 B.C.),who closed all the temples and forced his subjectsto labour for years at this giganticstructure, whichwas to serve in due course as his tomb. Thepyramid has a square base, 755 feet in length,covering an area of about thirteen acres, or twicethe extent of St. Peter's at Rome. The four sides

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THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE

were of the form of equilateraltriangles,slopingtowards and meeting at the top, at a height of481 feet above the level of the platform. Lime-tone

was chieflyused in its construction, upona base of solid rock, but over this was an exteriorfacing of polished granite,every vestige of whichhas now disappeared. The internal passages arestill lined with highly polished granite slabs,fitted togetherwith astonishingaccuracy.

_

The entrance was at thepoint marked A, about 47 feetabove the original base, andwas carefullyconcealed, extra-rdinary

precautions havingbeen taken to prevent the tombfrom being entered. From theentrance a passage slopes downto a chamber, B, cut in thesolid rock 120 feet below thenatural surface of the ground.The object of this chamber

King's Chamber, is not apparent ; possiblyit wasintended as a blind. A corridor,turning off at c, leads up to the royal burial-chamber, D, situated almost in the centre of thestructure. Below this is a third room, called the" Queen's Chamber," though there is no authorityfor the name. The chambers and corridors areinterestingconstructionally,for they show themethods adopted by these early engineers forbridgingover openings in order to resist a super-ncumbent

weight. The central corridor is 28feet high, with a ceiling formed by courses ofmasonry which overhang one another successively

FIG. 2.Corbelling over

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until they meet at the top. In the case of the" King's Chamber," in which the royalsarcophaguswas deposited,marvellous ingenuity was displayedin making the roof strong enough to prevent theweight overhead from crushing through. Fiveenormous stone slabs were fixed,as we see in theillustration,ith a small chamber between each ofthem ; these were surmounted by a rudimentaryarch, formed by two massive lintels tilted in such away as to meet over the centre of the opening.

How this colossal enterprisewas carried out inall its details continues to be an excellent subjectfor speculation. The limestone quarries, whichprovided the bulk of the stone, were situated atEl Massarah, a distance of fiftymiles from Ghizeh ;the red granite could not have been quarriednearer than Assouan, upon the banks of theNile, 500 miles away. The blocks of stonecould be readily floated down the stream uponrafts ; thence it is probable that they were slowlymoved into position by means of rollers,beinggradually raised to the required height along aninclined plane or embankment constructed forthis purpose. It is stated that 100,000 men wereemployed upon the Great Pyramid for a periodof twenty years ; so that the raising of suchan embankment, though a gigantic undertaking,would represent but a small portion of this vastamount of labour. Many of the blocks of stonemeasure" 30 feet in length and weigh as much asfiftytons, yet they were worked with the greatestexactitude ; the polished granite slabs which linethe corridors are fitted togetherwith such accuracythat it is almost impossible to detect the joints.

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Similar accuracy was observed in the settingoutof the structure. Professor Petrie's measurementsshow that the lengths of the sides varied from755 feet 77 inches to 755 feet 9*4 inches, theextreme difference being 1*7 inches only !

Such a vast, unremunerative work could onlyhave been undertaken by a selfish tyrant who wasutterlyregardless of the sufferingsof his people.At this period there were no prisoners of war, sothat the burden of the task fell upon the shouldersof the king's" free " subjects. The royaloppressorfailed,however, in the one object to which hisefforts were directed " the safe preservationof hisembalmed remains. The secret of the prison-housewas discovered, the tomb rifled,and the royal dustscattered to the four winds of heaven. In thewords of Byron's doggerel :" -

Let not a monument give you or me hopes,Since not a pinch of dust remains of Che-ops.

The custom of embalming led to the erection ofa vast number of smaller tombs, many of whichare found in the neighbourhood of the pyramids,for this localityas originallyhe necropolisof theancient city of Memphis. These tombs wereusually rectangular,with sloping sides, like apyramid with the top cut off. Internallythe wallswere decorated with paintingsillustratinghe every-ay

life which the occupant had led, the evidentintention being to make him feel as much "athome " as possiblein his tomb. These paintingshave been invaluable in enablingus to realise theexact conditions of life which prevailed at theperiod. The material employed in the construe-

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1 8 * THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE

the first examples of an important architecturalfeature which subsequently influenced the archi-ecture

of Greece, and, through it,of Europe.The general view of one of these tombs shows

a porticowith two columns. The whole has beencarved out of the solid stone, and two piershavebeen left in order to give support, or the appear-nce

of support, to the overhanging rock. Itwill be noticed that the portion above the columnshas been squared to the form of a lintel. Overthis appears a row of dentils,or tooth-like pro-ections

which are.

eminently suggestive of theends of rafters,such as would be used in timberconstruction. The columns are of a form seldomseen in Egypt: they taper towards the top, andare surmounted by a square slab, or "abacus,"which has the appearance of transmitting theweight from the lintel. Some of them arepolygonal, with sixteen or thirty-two sides, each

1 side being slightlyconcave, in the manner of the! " flutes " of the Greek columns, which we shall/ be considering in the next chapter.

If these shafts be compared with the columnsof the Greek Doric order (p. 42),it will be seenthat there are some notable points of resemblance "the square abacus, the fluted surface, and thetapering outline. A similar form of column wasused at a later date at Karnak, but it did notfind favour among the Egyptians, and wassubsequently discarded by them. Yet this specialform was destined to take an important place inthe architecture of Europe, for the columns ofBeni-Hasan appear to be the prototypes of thecolumns of the Greek Doric order. It is strange

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THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE

that the discriminatingGreeks should have selectedfor further development the very feature whichthe great Egyptian builders had rejected. Certainit is, however, that the form reappeared, in aless crude state, in the earliest Doric temples ofthe Greeks about the seventh century B.C., and that,in the hands of the Greek masters, it was afterwardsendowed with such beauty and refinement thatit became the most perfect architectural featurein existence.

The ceilingof the Beni-Hasan tombs, althoughcut out of the solidrock, is divided by lint-ls

into three spaces,curved in the form ofsegments of a circle,in evident imitation ofan arched, or vaulted,ceiling. Arched con-truction

finds no placein the great buildings FlG. 4._Section through tombOf the Egyptians ; but at Beni-Hasan.that these old builderswere familiar with the true principlesof the archhas been proved by the discovery of magnificentbrick vaulting of the sixth dynasty (dr. 3400 B c.),and the still earlier barrel-vaulted passage in aking's tomb of the third dynasty (dr. 4200 B.C.),discovered this year (1901) by Professor FlindersPetrie.

Between the date of the Beni-Hasan tombs andthe great Theban period of the eighteenth andnineteenth dynasties an interval of five centuries" little progress appears to have been made in

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architecture. During part of this period Egypt"or, more correctly,Lower Egypt" was in thehands of the " Shepherd " invader?, of whom weknow little. Throughout their long rule theywere hated by the Egyptians, and they left fewpermanent memorials behind them ; but with theexpulsion of the " Shepherd " kings began an eraof great architectural activity lasting for fourhundred years, down to the period assigned tothe exodus of the Jews (i.e.rom 1700 to 1300 B.C).This was the great temple-building age, the"Theban period,"which witnessed the culminationof Egyptian power and artistic greatness, andproduced the greater number of the noblestbuildings in the country. Constructively, how-ver,

there was a falling-offrom the precisionand careful work of the earlier periods. Themasonry was hastilyand clumsily wrought, angleswere inaccuratelyset out, and columns irregularlyspaced ; in many respects the work bears marksof carelessness and haste which detract considerablyfrom its merit. In spite of technical defects,however, the buildingsof this period were nobleworks which still remain the chief glory ofEgyptian architecture.

The cause of this architectural revival is notfar to seek. Before the period of the " Shepherd "kings, and during their rule, the inhabitants ofthe Nile valley had not been a fighting nation.But when Aahmes ascended the throne of UpperEgypt (dr. 1700 B.C.),he set himself the taskof ridding the country of the invaders,and, afterpursuing them into Palestine, completely routedthem. As a result of this victory,many thousands

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of slaves were brought back by the king onhis return to Egypt. These advantages, andvarious successes over the Syrians, whetted theappetitesof the Egyptians for further conquests,and they henceforth became a nation of con-uerors.

Under Thothmes III. (dr. 1600 B.C.)their " sphere of influence " advanced by leapsand bounds. Each year witnessed new expeditions,which brought into the country not only enormousquantities of treasure, but vast numbers ofprisoners of war " for the object of the king wasto capture rather than to kill. This wholesaleimportation of captives had an immediate effectupon the architecture of the country. By theirforced labour Thothmes was enabled to erecttemples and other vast structures which placedhim in the first rank of Egyptian builders.

The great cityof this period was Thebes " the" hundred-gated Thebes " of Homer " which waspracticallythe capitalof the country. Memphis,situated farther north, nearer to the delta of theNile, vied with Thebes in the magnificence ofits temples ; but its remains which have comedown to us are comparatively unimportant, owingto the fact that the site has been used as aquarry for the supply of materials to Cairo andadjoining modern towns. Thebes, however, wasmore fortunately situated : no great city hassprung up in its neighbourhood, and its buildingshave suffered only from the wasting hand oftime, more merciful than that of man.

The great building monarchs of the Thebanperiod were Thothmes III.,Amenhotep III.,Seti I.,and Rameses II., each of whom endeavoured to

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surpass the f fforts of his predecessor with some" new temple, nobler than the last." Their names,it will be seen, appear m connection with thegreatest temple structures of this era.

The most imposing of all the Theban buildingswas the great temple at Karnak, 1,200 .feetlong, around which were grouped several smallerones ; at Luxor, two miles farther south, wasanother v?."t palace-temple. The groups on theopposite bank of the river included the sepulchraltemple of Amenhotep III. " second only to thatof Karnak " and the Ramessium, built entirelyby the great Rameses.

The principal work of Thothmes was therebuilding of a portion of the great temple atKarnak. Isolated examples of this master-builder'swork are familiar to Europeans. In front of thegrand entrance to the temple at Karnak heerected two obelisks; one of these, which nowstands before the church of S. John Lateran inRome, is the largest and most splendid monu-ent

of its kind extant. He built, or addedto, temples at Heliopolis, Abydos, Denderah,Memphis, and many other places both in Egyptand in Nubia. An obelisk of this monarch hasbeen re-erected at Constantinople ; another, whichstood originallyat Heliopolis and afterwards atAlexandria, is now to be seen on the ThamesEmbankment, where we know it as " Cleopatra'sNeedle"; its companion has crossed the Atlanticand has been erected in New York.

Amenhotep continued the building of the templeat Karnak, and erected a vast new temple, ofwhich, however, hardly a trace remains, for it has

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suffered from the inundations of the Nile ; but anenduring memorial of the king, and of an architectbearing the same name, survives in the twomutilated colossi,fifty-sixeet high, of which onehas been known, since the days of the Greeks, asthe "vocal Memnon."

By far the greatest and most impressive of allthe buildingsof this period was the grand templeof Ammon at Karnak. Like many of our mediaevalcathedrals, this was the work of successive kingsand generations; its walls and columns, coveredwith inscriptions,urnish almost a complete historyof the Theban kings.

The temple was begun by Usertesen I., thegreat king of the twelfth dynasty (dr. 2400 B.C.).After an interval of several centuries,Thothmes I.continued the work, adding a courtyard surroundedby a colonnade of Osirid pillars. Thothmes III.constructed a magnificent columnar hall,143 feetby 53 feet " dimensions which had never beforebeen approached in a building of this form. Healso set to work to restore the ancient sanctuaryof Usertesen, reverently preserving all the linesof the old building,and recording the details ofthe restoration in an inscriptionn the walls.

But the great glory of the temple was theHypostyle Hall of Seti I. (dr. 1350 B.C.),amiliarto all travellers in modern Egypt, the most im-osing

structure of the kind in the world's history.The hall measured 340 by 170 feet,itsmassive roofbeing carried by 134 columns in sixteen rows ; theshafts of the two central rows, which supported thehigher portion of the roof, were more than 60 feethigh and almost 1 2 feet in diameter. " No language,"

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writes Fergusson, " can convey an idea of itsbeauty,and no artist has yet been able to reproduceits form so as to convey to those who have not seenit an idea of its grandeur. The mass of its centralpiers, illumined by a flood of light from theclerestory,nd the smaller pillarsof the wingsgradually fading into obscurity,are so arrangedand lightedas to convey an idea of infinite space ;at the same time the beauty and massiveness ofthe forms, and the brilliancyof their coloureddecorations, all combine to stamp this as thegreatest of man's architectural works, but such aone as it would be impossible to reproduce,except in such a climate and in that individualstylein which, and for which, it was created."

This wonderful hall was almost entirelybuiltduring the reign of Seti I. Upon his death, itwas completed by his son Rameses II., betterknown to Bible-readers as the Pharaoh of theOppression. He added the fifty-fourolumns onthe south side. In the methods of constructionthere are distinct evidences of deterioration ascompared with much of the work of the moreancient Egyptians. Where, at an earlier date,monolithic columns of red granite would havebeen used, we find at this period soft sandstonebuilt up in drums. Thus, in order to insure thestrength of the columns, it was necessary to makethem excessivelymassive, and by this they lostmore of grace than they gained in dignity.

It would have been impossible for the Egyptianmonarchs to erect such stupendous structuresbut for the fact that they were able, throughtheir victorious wars, to bring into the country

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practicallyended with the reign of the greatRameses.

At Karnak the chief object of each monarchwas to surpass, in extent and magnificence,the buildings of his predecessors, without regardto congruity of plan. But in the Ramessiumat Thebes, a temple wholly built by the greatRameses, we see the plan of a typicaltemple ofthe period. The fagade was formed by twomassive pyramidal towers (pylons),etween whichwas the entrance doorway ; in many cases thisfacade was situated obliquelywith regard to the

I-""""

i...TTTT-irp-T---- P.

FIG. 5. Plan of Ramessium,

temple building. The doorway gave access toa great fore-court, flanked by colonnades, whichin turn led to an inner court, smaller than thefirst,but more richly decorated with statuary.Both courts were open to the sky.

Beyond these we reach the Hypostyle Hall "the chief feature in the larger temples. In thecentre of this,two rows of loftycolumns supportedthe higher portion of the roof, the remainder ofthe space being occupied by ranges of smallercolumns. The central portion of the roof washigher than that at the sides,an arrangement whichallowed light to be admitted through perforatedstone panels, fixed in the wall which connected

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the upper portion of the roof with the lower, inthe manner of the clerestorywindows of Gothicarchitecture. Beyond this hall were severalsmaller chambers, which appear to have been setapart for use by the king or the priests.

The columns were brilliantlyoloured, andtheir capitals were varied to suit the positionsin which they were placed, with due regard tothe light; those of the lofty and well-lightedcentral pillarswere bell-shaped,but the columnsat the side had bud-shaped capitals wide at thebase and tapering towards the top " a form whichallowed the decoration, lighted from above, to beseen to advantage.

After the Exodus ensued a long period of decayand inactivitylastingfor almost a thousand years,until the old gloriesof Egypt were, to some extent,revived by the Ptolemies. Under their rule and,later,under the Romans, the land enjoyed again aseason of great prosperity. Temples were erectedwhich vied in size and splendour with those ofthe great Theban age. Of these, none is morebeautiful than the temple of Isis at Philag,theplan of which is a striking illustration of thedisregard of accuracy and of regularitywhichcharacterised many buildings of the Egyptians.As evidence of the conservatism of this old nationof builders, it is interestingto note that thestructures of this period bear no trace of Greek orRoman influence,either in the architectural detailsor in the decorations which covered the walls ; sothat, until their true place in historywas assignedto them through the interpretation of thehieroglyphic inscriptions,ome of the Ptolemaic

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buildingswere considered to be anterior to thoseof the great Theban period. The Greeks and theRomans were accustomed to set out their workswith great accuracy ; but at Philae the Egyptiansevidentlyworked to their own methods, for thereare hardly two parallelwalls, or a right angle, inthe building. Imposing temples of this period arefound also at Denderah and at Edfou " the latterthe most perfectlypreserved temple in Egypt.

We have seen that in the temple-structuresof

FIG. 6. " Egyptian Columns.

the Egyptians one of the most important featureswas the column. Its constant use within thebuildingswas probably encouraged, as tending toadd to the prevailing air of mystery which thepriestsmade it their business to foster. To someextent it was necessitated by the constructivesystem employed, for the great stone slabs whichformed the roof requiredstrong support at frequentintervals. The column thus graduallybecame thechief medium for obtainingdecorative effect.Many varieties were used ; they were invariably

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massive, and rarely exceeded six diameters inheight. The shaft tapered towards the top, andwas usuallyeither circular or clustered ; sometimesit was fluted,s at Beni-Hasan. In many examplesthe column was reduced in diameter at the base,the point where the greatest strengthwas required ;this,and the use, above the capital,of an abacus ofsmaller dimensions than the shaft itself,ended togive it an overgrown, bulky appearance, making itlook, as it were, weak through excess of strength.The chief forms of capitalsin use were : (a)the bell-shaped capital(centralcolumns, Karnak), whichproduced many graceful forms, and to which, aswe shall see later,the early Corinthian capitalsof,the Greeks bore a strikingresemblance; (b) thethe clustered lotus bud, representing a cluster ofunopened buds of the lotus flower, (with thiscapitala clustered column was used) ; and ("r)hepalm capital. Most of these forms were derivedfrom plant-life.In Egypt, at the present day,bundles of reed plasteredwith mud may frequentlybe seen in use as columns ; several small bundles,each tightlybound, are banded together and forma shaft sufficientlyigid to support heavy weights.This primitive arrangement was copied, probablyfirst in wood, and later in stone, and is undoubtedlythe origin of the clustered and banded lotuscolumn.

For the interior of the temples, colour, ratherthan form, was relied upon for decorative effect.In the dim lightof the columnar halls,mouldingsand carving could not have been seen to advantage,and brilliant colouring was essential. The wallsand columns were covered with a profusion of

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hieroglyphicinscriptionsand of paintings,n whichthe designs were either outlined or cut in lowrelief before the colour was applied. Where coarsesandstone had been used in the erection of thebuilding,a smooth surface for the colour wasobtained by the use of stucco, with which theimperfections-of the stone were filled up.

Next in antiquityto the civilisation of the Nilevalley was that of the great kingdom which wasestablished along the banks of the Euphrates "A ssyria.

Unlike the monumental structures of Egypt,the Assyrian remains have survived only in afragmentary state, for little save the foundationsis left of the enormous palaces of this once mightykingdom. Excavations which have been carriedon at Nineveh the capital,and at Khorsabad,have revealed almost complete plans of the royaldwellings,showing that they were of remarkableextent and magnificence. Portions of the greatgateway of the palace of Khorsabad may be seenin the British Museum. The immense scale ofthis portal,with its human-headed winged bulls19 feet high, enables us to form some opinionof the massive grandeur which characterisedthese vast buildings of the Assyrians. Owingto the extensive use of sun-dried bricks in lieuof harder materials, the structures lacked thedurabilityof the Nile valley temples. So far ascan be determined from the bas-reliefs and thestructural remains, the architecture " apart fromthe applied ornamental forms " had comparativelylittle artistic merit.

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That the Assyrians, like the Egyptians, under-toodthe principlesof the arch has been proved

by a fine arched gateway, discovered by M. Placeat Khorsabad, and by remains of arched drainsand of brick vaulting. On existingbas-reliefs arefound representations of domed buildings,fromwhich it may be assumed that this form of roofwas not unknown, though it is improbable that itwas used to any extent.

The prominent feature in Egyptian temples "the column " did not occupy an important placein the architecture of the Assyrians;with the exception of the bas-reliefs,heexistingremains reveal no trace of itsuse. On the sculptures a form ofcolumn, with small volutes, is repre-^ented, which may claim to be theiprototype of the column of the GreekIonic order. The interior walls of theIpalaces were lined, to the height of FJGabout 10 feet, with alabaster slabs, on Assyrianwhich were represented, in low relief, Column,battle and hunting scenes and mytho-ogical

subjects. Many of these slabs are to befound in the chief museums of Europe.

With the Persians who, under Cyrus (536 B.C.),became masters of these older monarchies, anotherstyleof architecture was developed which attainedgreat magnificence under Darius and Xerxes.Before their period of conquest the Persians hadbeen simple in their mode of life,with littlearchitecture of their own. Under later monarchs,very different in character from the great conqueror

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Cyrus, they acquired luxurious habits, and soonsurpassed even the Assyrians in the splendourand the extent of their palaces. Persian splendourand luxury culminated in the great capital atPersepolis, or Takht-i-Jamshyd (the Throne ofJamshyd), as it is still called by the inhabitantsof the district,fter its mythical founder and ruler.In the treasury of this great city it is said thatAlexander, on his entry, found wealth to theamount of thirtymillions sterling.

Here the chief buildings rested upon vastplatforms and terraces carved out of the solidrock, which stillremain, while almost every vestigeof the mighty halls and palaces which coveredthem has disappeared. With the exception ofa few ruins,hardly a monument remains to markthe desolate site of the old luxurious civilisation :"

The Lion and the Lizard keepThe Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep :And Bahrain, that great Hunter " the Wild AssStamps o'er his head, but cannot break his sleep.The great Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis was

undoubtedly one of the most extensive and im-osingbuildings of ancient times, having an area

of 350 by 300 feet,or almost twice the area of thegreat Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. Its roof wassupported by loftycolumns, no less than 64 feetin height,4 feet 6 inches in diameter, fluted, andslightlytapering. Many of the capitalswere ofremarkable design, in the shape of a doublebracket, formed by the forepart of two bullsplaced back to back. Frequently between thebracket and the column, as in the illustration,

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II

GREEK ARCHITECTURE

THE civilisation of the " Dark Continent " was manycenturies ahead of that of Europe ; and, long afterart had reached its zenith among the inhabitantsof the Nile valley, we find Europe still in the" prehistoric stage " by which we mean that thepeople had not yet acquired the art of writingtheir historyin the form of permanent architecture.The earliest traces of European civilisation andarchitecture " if we except the recent discoveriesin Crete " date back no further than the age ofHomer and of Troy ; of Atreus, Agamemnon, andhis other heroes of the Trojan war (dr. 1180 B.C.).Of the men who lived before these times, and whobuilt up this great civilisation,e know absolutelynothing : they have all,as Horace tells us, passedinto oblivion :"

Brave men have lived in times of old,Ere Agamemnon first drew breath ;But ah ! no bard their praises told,And all are lost in nameless death.

They lacked, however, not only the sacred bard,but also that more trustworthyhistorian of antiquity" the architect. The brave men who lived beforeAgamemnon left no enduring architecture behindthem, and their history unlike that of the oldEgyptians " is a sealed book to us. A few monu-ents

of Agamemnon's period stillexist,and supply

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the only reliable information which we possess ofthe history of that time ; but our knowledge ofthem must ever remain scanty. Homer, indeed,sang bravely of the deeds of these men, but inthe writings of the old poets it is impossible toseparate facts from fiction. "The age of Homer,"as Ruskin tells us, "is surrounded with darkness,his very personality with doubt. Not so that ofPericles ; and the day is coming when we shallconfess that we have learnt more of Greece outof the crumbled fragments of her sculpture thaneven from her sweet singers or soldier historians."

Although European civilisation germinated inGreece, we have little authentic Grecian historybefore the date of the first Olympiad (776 B.C.).The few remains of buildingsof an earlier date thanthis are therefore of great interest,although theyappear not to have had any direct influence uponthe architecture of the later,or Hellenic, period.These early structures consist chieflyof fortifica-ions,

tombs, and walls, the work of a peoplecalled Pelasgi (i.e.sailors),robably Phoenicians,who were the dominant race in Greece at theperiod assigned to the Trojan war (1180 B.C.),and who preceded, and were totallydistinct from,the Greeks.

The most important of these remains are foundat Tiryns, the mythical city of Perseus, and atMycenae, the capital,according to Homer, ofAtreus and Agamemnon. Remains of walls arefound in many other parts of the country "Cyclopean masonry, as it is called,for the methodof construction was suggestive of the work ofgiants, and tradition ascribed its origin to the

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Cyclopes. The chief feature of the work is theemployment of enormous blocks of stone, irregularlyshaped, or coursed, and fitted together withoutmortar. At Tiryns the acropolis,is surroundedby a wall of this character ; a similar wall atMycenae contains the great Gate of Lions, probablythe most ancient example extant of Greek sculpture.This gateway consists of two monolithic piersanda massive lintel : the wall was " corbelled " over insuch a way that the lintel was relieved from itsweight,the triangularspace thus formed being filled

in with a sculptured group repre-entingtwo lions supporting a

column which tapers from the toptowards the base.

The earliest existingstructure inGreece possessing architecturalmerit, and of regularform, is the so-

__

called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae.FIG. 9." Lion This is in realitya tomb, consistingGate, Mycenze. of two subterranean chambers in

communication with one another.The larger chamber is shaped like a beehive,roofed over with a kind of dome, composed ofmassive blocks of stone laid without mortar. Thebuilders appear to have been unacquainted withthe use of the arch, for although the roof is domicalin form, as seen from the interior,the structuralmethod adopted differs from arched, or truedomical, construction in a most material point.The stones " as in the Lion Gate and other open-ngs

in the old walls of the acropolis are notbuilt in the radiatingform of a true arch, but arelaid in a series of horizontal courses, so that each

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course overhangs the one below it ; the space isthus graduallynarrowed until the projectingcoursesmeet at the top " an arrangement similar to theroofs over the galleriesn the Pyramids. Immenseblocks of stone are used in the structure ; thelintel over the inner doorway is a single block27 feet long and 16 feet deep, weighing not lessthan 120 tons. The chief architectural feature ofthe building was the entrance doorway, flankedby columns entirelycovered with elaborate zig-zagornamentation, showing a fairlydeveloped style,with traces of Egyptian and Asiatic influences.

These earlier works in Greeceare separated from the later de-elopment

of true Greek architec-ureby an absolute break in

form and construction. Helleniccivilisation was developed, not bythe Pelasgi,but by the Greeks, orHellenes, who succeeded them,and it was the art which theyevolved " the " classical architec-ure

" of Greece, as it is called " which has beenthe parent of all the styles throughout Europein succeeding centuries.

Suggestions were, no doubt, gathered fromEgypt and from Asia, but in the main the archi-ecture

of Greece appears to have been an originalcreation. The period during which it flourishedwas a comparatively short one, for the date ofthe oldest known building" a temple of the Doricorder at Corinth " is not earlier than 650 B.C.For two centuries after this, art progressed until,after the defeat of the Persians, it reached its

FIG. io.Section throughthe Treasury of

Atreus.

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38 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE "

culmination at Athens during the great Pericleanage (460-400 B.C.) A period of reaction thenensued, followed by a short-lived but splendidrevival under Alexander the Great, and, on hisdeath (323 B.C.),by a decline from which itnever recovered.

The buildings,throughout these periods, uponwhich the ancient Greeks lavished their genius,were the temples. These differed from the templesof the old Egyptians in almost all points saveone " the frequent use of the column as thedominant feature of the design. But the Egyptiansbuilt their temples with a view to impress theworshipper by the mystery, the richness, andthe grandeur of the interior : for this reason, andfor constructive purposes, the columns were placedinside the building. With the Greeks, on theother hand, the temples \yere comparatively small ;they were not built as vast memorials of thegreatness of despotic monarchs, nor were theyrequired for the accommodation of crowds ofworshippers. The roofs had not the massivesolidityof the Egyptian structures, and few sup-orts

were necessary; moreover, the buildingswere designed for external effect. In the Greektemples, therefore, the principal columns wereranged on the outside.

As a rule,the building occupied a conspicuousposition,that it might be visible from all pointsand be admired by all. The Greeks' form ofworship was not congregational: itconsisted chieflyin prayers offered up outside the sanctuary, " fromany point within view of the temple, to the deitywhose image was enshrined in it. To provide

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shelter for this image was, in fact,the chief purposeof the temple. Thus the plan was invariablysimple.In the smaller buildings,four walls formed anoblong chamber, the naos, in which was placed thestatue of the deity. A portico with columns, thepronaos, gave access to this chamber; the wholestood upon a platform, and was covered by asimple roof terminating in a gable at each end. Inthe largertemples, as we shall see later in the Par-henon,columns were ranged all round, forming aperistyle,nd at the back of the sacred cell a secondchamber was sometimes added, to serve probablyasa treasury in which to de-osit

the votive offerings.Stone, frequently marble,was the material used inthe construction throughout,except in the roofs, whichwere of wood covered with FIG. u." Plan of Smallmarble tiles. The perishable Greek Temple,roofs have all disappeared,and with them has been lost all evidence regardingthe method adopted by the Greeks for the lightingof the temples ; for with one exception the greattemple at Agrigentum " the walls of all knownbuildings of this kind were windowless. Thequestion of the lightingof the Greek temple hasgiven rise to much speculation,the most accept-ble

theory being that the light was admittedthrough a row of windows high up over theinternal colonnades.

Reference has already been made to the " Doricorder" of Greek architecture,and throughout thisStory we shall constantly have to refer to the

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" classical orders." The term requires a fewwords of explanation.

To the casual observer, Greek temples wouldall bear a strikingresemblance to one another ;yet among the designs there existed three quitedistinct styles. Each style was marked by theuse of its peculiar form of column, and, accom-anying

this, was a series of mouldings andproportions,found only in conjunction with thatcolumn. Among the Greeks the " three orders "were called the Doric, the Ionic,and the Corinthian.The Doric order, the earliest of the three, wasmarked by simplicity,trength,severity; the Ionicwas more gracefuland ornate ; and the Corinthian,the last to make its appearance, still more richand exuberant in detail. The Corinthian orderhad hardly established itself before Greece cameunder the sway of Rome; but with the Romans,who adopted and remodelled the architecture ofGreece, it became the most popular, as well asthe most beautiful,of the orders.

The earliest example of the Doric order inGreece is the temple at Corinth (650 B.C.),theoldest Greek temple of which we have any record.Several columns of this building, carrying aportion of the entablature,still stand, and showthe design to be somewhat crude, yet with all thecharacteristic features of the order ; the columnsare monolithic, stumpy, and massive. Laterexamples show marked improvement in proportionand workmanship. In the Theseum, or so-calledtemple of Theseus, at Athens (465 B.C.),forexample, the shafts are more slender and themouldings more refined. But it was not until

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structure stood upon a " stylobate,"or raisedpavement, three steps in height.

In conjunction with this plan, let us considerthe features which constitute a design of the Doricorder. The column of this order, as the illustrationshows, has no base, but is set directly upon the

stone floor or platform : its dia-eteris greatest at the foot,and

from this point it tapers towardsthe top, not in a straightline,but with a subtle convex curve,or swelling,called the "entasis."Around the shaft are flutes,orshallow channels, twenty, or some-imes

sixteen, in number, with asharp edge between them. Sur-ountingthe shaft is a plain,

sturdy capital, made up of asquare slab, or " abacus," uponwhich the superstructure rests,with a circular cushion called the" echinus," spreading out fromthe top of the shaft to receive

FIG. 13. tne weignt fr"m tne abacus. TheThe Doric Order, grooves on the face of the column

are carried up until they arechecked by a band of fillets just below thecapital.

The upper portion of the design,supported bythe columns, is called the entablature. Thisconsists, first of a horizontal marble beam or" architrave," upon which the weight rests, andby which it is distributed to the columns. Beingthe supportingmember of the entablature, the

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architrave was almost invariablyleft plain, lestornamentation of its surface should detract fromits appearance of strength. Above the architraveruns the frieze, which, in the Doric order, wasdivided into square panels, or " metopes," separ-ted

by slightlyrojectingblocks,called "triglyphs"(three channels), on the face of which are cutvertical grooves. As will be seen from the sketch,atriglyphoccurs over each column, and one betweeneach pairof columns. In many cases the metopeswere filled in with sculpture in relief. Theremaining portion of the entablature, above thefrieze,is the " cornice."

We see, then, that the leading features of theorder are the column and its entablature, thelatter consisting of three parts " the plain archi-rave,

the frieze,with its metopes and triglyphs,and the cornice. On the underside of the cornicewill be noticed a series of marble slabs (mutules),each having a number of small projectionsresembling wooden pins, or nail-heads.

At the ends of the building the upper membersof the cornice are made to follow the lines ofthe sloping roof until they meet in the centre atthe top, while the lower portion is carried alonghorizontally above the frieze. The triangularspace thus formed is called the pediment; and,as the most prominent part of the design,containedthe finest of the sculpture with which the templeswere frequently adorned.

The main details of the Doric order appearto have been derived from early forms of con-truction

in timber. The architrave representsthe beam which would be found in a similar

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position in a wooden building; the triglyphscorrespond to the ends of cross-beams, made upof three planks, or perhaps grooved for decora-ive

effect ; and there seems little reason todoubt that the mutules are reminiscences of thesloping ends of rafters studded with nails.The other feature, however " the column " doesnot suggest a wooden prototype ; as we havebefore noticed, it is probable that the tombs ofBeni-Hasan, or the temples of the Nile valley,

FIG. 14." The Parthenon Restored.

furnished the rough models from which the Greeksevolved this, the most dignifiedfeature of theirarchitecture.

We have mentioned the Parthenon as thenoblest example of a temple of the Doric order.Careful measurements of this building haverevealed the existence of a number of refinementsin its construction " with a view to the correction ofopticalillusions " which help us to appreciatetheextraordinarythought and care which the Greeksbestowed on their designs. The best known ofthese refinements is the " entasis,"r swellingof

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the outlines of the columns. The bounding linesof the shaft,which appear straight,re in realityconvex " curved outwards from the straightline "to the extent only of three-quarters of an inchin a, height of more than 31 feet. Thiscurve is not noticeable to the eye, but is justsufficient to counteract the tendency which existsin a straight-sidedcolumn to look hollow in themiddle.

Again, the underside of the architrave appearsto be perfectlystraight. Now a long, horizontalline, which is perfectly straight,tends to lookas though it " sags " or droops in the centre.To compensate for this, the horizontal lines ofthe entablature are all slightlycurved upwardstowards the centre, deviating from a straightlineto the extent of about 3 inches. The lines ofthe steps are curved in a similar way.

Another subtle correction is applied to thevertical lines,to counteract the apparent tendencyof the building to spread outwards at the top.The columns are not truly vertical,but are setwith an inclination, so that they all convergeslightlytowards the top. The slope could notbe detected by the eye ; but it was consideredthat,by affectingthe beholder insensibly,it helpedto give the building the appearance of reposeand of solidity. So slightis the inclination thatcolumns at opposite ends of the temple deviatefrom the vertical to the extent of not more than2 inches ; so that their axes, if produced, wouldmeet at a point more than a mile above theground !

The Parthenon is built of Pentelic marble from

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46 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTUREthe neighbouringquarries. All the marble blockswere laid without mortar, and were worked "probably ground together so carefullythat thejoints were only visible by occasional differencesof colour. The columns were built up of cylindrical" drums," which appear to have been first rough-hewn, and then finished and fluted after they hadbeen fixed in position.

Of the sculptureswhich adorned this wonderfulbuildingmany fine examples are now in thethe British Museum, where they form the chiefportion of the collection known as the Elginmarbles. When Lord Elgin was ambassador toTurkey in 1800, Athens was in the hands of theTurks, who were busily engaged in dilapidatingthe buildingson the Acropolis,in order to disposeof fragments to travellers. Seeing that the worksof art were receiving daily injury, Lord Elginwas induced to consent to the removal of wholepieces of sculpture, which were thus saved fromdestruction, and eventually found a resting-placein our national museum.

The bas-reliefs in the metopes of the frieze "executed with remarkable vigour represented thebattle of the Centaurs and the Lapithae; manyof these, as well as the colossal groups of statuarywhich filled the pediments, were doubtless thework of Pheidias himself. Among the pedimentsculpturesis a noble statue of Theseus reclining." I should say," said one of our most eminentsculptors,hen givingevidence before a Committeeof the House of Commons, " that the back ofthe Theseus was the finest thing in the world."In connection with this remark, let us remember

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THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE 4?

that the statue was executed for a position some50 or 60 feet above the eye, so that it could notbe examined closelyby any spectator. Moreover,the back of the statue was turned towards thewall of the building and away from the spectator :it could not, therefore, be seen by any one. Thisexample serves to illustrate the surpassing ex-ellence

and the thoroughness which marked thework of the Greeks at their best period. Truly"

In the elder days of ArtBuilders wrought with greatest careEach minute and unseen part,

for we find in the Parthenon that all the workwhich was invisible tothe spectator was ascarefullyand as religi-usly

finished as thatwhich was immediatelyin sight!

Colour decorationwas an essential partof the Doric temple FIG. 15. -Doric Capital, show-design. The Parthe- ing Colour Decoration,non, at the time ofPericles, did not present a front of dazzlingwhite marble, for the entire building, on theexterior as well as on the internal walls,was richlydecorated with colour. The frieze, with itsmetopes and triglyphs,was brilliant with blueand red, the glare of the walls and columns wastoned down to a pale yellow tint, and themouldings and capitalswere decorated with frets,egg and dart, and other ornaments in dark colours,

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so that the whole design presented an appearanceof richness and gaiety rather than of simpledignity.

Time would have dealt gentlywith the Parthenon,if man had been more merciful. Until the seven-eenth

century it suffered chiefly from neglect;but in 1687 a terrible calamity overtook it,whilethe city was being besieged by the Venetians.Athens at that time was in possession of theTurks, who converted the Acropolis into a citadel,and stored the greater portion of their ammunitionin the Parthenon. During the bombardment aVenetian shell,fallinginto the temple, explodedthe gunpowder and wrecked a great part of thebuilding. The Venetian commander followed uphis work of destruction by breaking up, in acareless effort to remove it, a large portion ofthe statuary from the west front. Few attemptswere then made to restore the structure, or toprotect it from the damaging effects of exposureto rain and weather, and the work of decay wenton speedily.

Goodly buildings left without a roofSoon fall to ruin ;

the unprotected parts soon began to suffer fromthe wet, and the iron cramps and dowels, whichwere largelyused in the construction,rusted andcaused the marble to crack and fall to pieces.

A century later,as we have seen, Lord Elginprevented the complete destruction of many ofthe sculptures by removing them. This actionhas been keenly criticised ; but if ever the endmay be said to justifythe means, Lord Elgin's

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tombs take the form of a boat turned upside down,beams, planks,and even the keel being laboriously

FIG. 16." Ionic Order.

reproduced in the stone. With such evidence beforeus it is easy to understand how reminiscences oftimber construction have survived in the designs

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of those early builders of Greece who drew theirinspirationfrom these sources.

The Ionic order consists of a column andentablature, made up in the same way as theDoric, but differing in the details and in thegeneral proportions. The shaft is more slender " "from eight to ten diameters in height and issurmounted by a peculiar capital which formsthe most strikingfeature of the style. It willbe noticed that the abacus is small, and that thecushion upon which it rests terminates on eachside in a feature like a scroll,which is known asthe "Ionic volute."

The column does not spring directlyfrom thepavement, like the Doric shaft, but stands upona moulded base. Upon the surface of the shaftare twenty-four grooves, or flutes,rather deeperthan those of the Doric order, and separatedfrom each other by a fillet. The architrave isplain, generally with three facias ; the frieze hasno triglyphs,but is either plain or enriched withan uninterrupted design carved in relief. Acharacteristic feature in the cornice is the " dentil "course, a row of narrow blocks or tooth-like pro-ections

which " like the Doric triglyphs areprobably reminiscences of primitive forms ofconstruction in wood. The crowning member ofthe cornice was frequently enriched with carving,which took the place of the colour decoration ofthe Doric order.

The Ionic capitalwas richer and more elaborate,though less vigorous, than the Doric ; itpossessed, however, an awkward feature in thatit was not four-sided : the front differed from the

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side, and at the angle of a colonnade the two-sided capital was very noticeable. It was usual,therefore, to treat the corner capitalwith voluteson the two exterior faces, the scrolls at the outerangle meeting one another at an angle of 45",in the manner shown in the illustration (p.50).

More numerous remains of buildings of theIonic order exist in Asia Minor than elsewhere;but the finest and most notable example of thestyle is the Erechtheum, on the Acropolis at

Athens. This buildingshows much variety ofdetail of the most re-ined

order, and " anunusual feature in thetemple designs of theGreeks " considerableirregularity of plan.This is due partly to

FIG. ly.-lonic Capital from the difference of levels,the Erechtheum. rendered necessary by

the uneven site; but itis chieflyaccounted for by the fact that in the onedesign were included shrines of several deities "Athene, Pandrosus, and Erechtheus.

The Erechtheum was begun in 479 B.C., andwas not completed until seventy years later,sothat it was in course of erection throughout thewhole of the Periclean period. A unique featureof the design is the little south porch, the entabla-ure

of which is supported by female figures(caryatids)n the place of columns. One of thecaryatids and some examples of the carvedornament, borrowed from the Assyrian honey-

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suckle, may be seen among the other treasures ofancient Greece in the British Museum.

The plan of this building underwent alterationsin the early days of Christianity,when it was inuse as a Christian church ; but the wars of theseventeenth century are chiefly responsible forthe mutilated condition of the temple at thepresent day. When Lord Elgin was in Athensat the beginning of last century, the vestibulewas being used as a powder magazine, to whichaccess could be obtained only through an openingin the wall which had been built up between thecolumns.

The first building to be completed of all thosenow on the Acropolis was the small Ionic templeof Nike Apteros " " Wingless Victory " " which waserected about 466 B.C. This consists of a squarecella with a front portico of four columns. Thebuilding appears now to be in a fair state ofpreservation; at one time, however, it had beencompletely pulled down, and its details built intoa Turkish fortress or powder magazine, some ofthe sculpturesbeing fixed upside down. It wasrebuilt about sixtyyears ago from the old materials.

Perhaps the most magnificent of all the struc-uresever erected by the Greeks was the Ionic

temple at -Ephesus, dedicated to the great " Dianaof the Ephesians." This building was almosttotallydestroyed, possibly by an earthquake, sothat the very site of it was unknown until it wasdiscovered by an English architect, Mr. Wood,in 1871. The British Museum possesses thesculptured drum of one of the " columna. celatce"referred to by Pliny, from whom we know that

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there were thirty-sixf these sculptured columns,and that one of them was by a renowned artistnamed Scopas. The beauty of the work seemsto justifythe high opinion of the Greeks, whoincluded the great temple of Ephesus among theseven wonders of the world.

Although the Doric and Ionic orders were quitedistinct in their respectiveproportionsand features,they were occasionally combined in the samebuilding,as in the Pro-

pylaea,the noble gatewaywhich gave access to theAcropolisat Athens. Inthe temple of ApolloEpicurius at Bassse inArcadia, designed byIctinus,one of the archi-ects

of the Parthenon,the exterior columns wereDoric, but a row of pierson each side of the in-erior

was treated withIonic capitals and de-ails.FIG. 1 8." Corinthian

Capital.

The third order " the Corinthian " was of littleimportance in pure Greek architecture : it appearsto have been used, before the time of the Romanconquest, for comparativelysmall monuments. Asused by the Greeks, the order resembled theIonic in all its features,with the exception of thecapital. The most graceful example is the chor-agic monument erected at Athens (335 B.C.)byLysicrates, in commemoration of his victory in

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the choral competitions ; a capitalfrom this monu-entis shown in the illustration.

The Corinthian capitalwas the great creationof the later period of Greek architecture. Probablythe first suggestions of the form were taken fromthe temples of the Egyptians, for there exists astrikingresemblance between some of the bell-shaped capitalsof Egypt and the earliest Greekexamples of the Corinthian order; but to theGreek artists is due the introduction of the anglevolutes and of the acanthus decoration whichcombine to make the capital such an exquisitework of art.

Although the Alexandrian age was an era ofgreat magnificence, it was, in reality, decadentperiod so far as art was concerned ; and after thedeath of Alexander (323 B.C.)architecture neverrecovered its lost ground. It must be rememberedthat true Greek architecture ceased almost imme-iately

after the country had come under thebaneful influence of conquering Rome " i.e.aboutthe beginning of the second century B.C. Amongthe vast undertakings of this Roman periodwas the temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens,a magnificent building of the Corinthian order,begun about 170 B.C., but not completed until3oo years later. When Sulla entered Athens withhis army, he carried off several of the capitalsandother portions of this temple to Rome, where theyprobably served the Romans as models of theCorinthian order.

Before leaving Greece, mention must be madeof some buildingsof which remains exist, other

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56 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTUREthan temples. The largest structures were thetheatres for dramatic representations,which werebuilt frequently in an excavation of the slopinghillside,n the form shown. In the centre was analtar to Dionysus, the space around " the orchestra" being occupied by the chorus ; the actorsappeared on a small stage, while the audienceoccupied stone or marble seats, ranged in semi-ircular

tiers. In the theatre of Dionysus atAthens accommodation was provided for about30,000 spectators.

The Greeks built few im-ortanttombs. The most

celebrated was the mauso-eumat Halicarnassus in

Caria " another of the sevenwonders of the world "which received its namefrom Mausolus, to whose

FIG. 19." Plan of Greek memory it was erected byTheatre. his wife Artemesia (dr.350B.C.). This tomb was a

splendid structure in the Ionic style,richlydeco-atedwith sculpture. Portions of the colossal

chariot and horses which surmounted the pyramidalroof may be seen in the "Mausoleum room" ofthe British Museum.

Some of the memorial stones (steles)sed bythe Greeks were beautifullycarved, and it isinterestingo notice that on many of them arefound sculptured representations of the arch. Al-hough

the Greek builders were undoubtedlyacquainted with the arch, they appear, so far asour knowledge goes, never to have made any

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foundation of Rome, it appears certain that atthe date assigned to it (753 B.C.)a people calledEtruscans were flourishingin a highly civilisedstate in the immediate neighbourhood. TheEtruscans appear to have been a race of Asiaticorigin,who were possessed of great constructiveskill, and had a certain amount of artistic

FIG. 20. " Cloaca Maxima.

perception, which enabled them to exerciseconsiderable influence upon the earlier architectureof Rome. In fact, during the first 500 years ofits existence, Rome, as regards its architecture,was virtuallyan Etruscan city.

The Etruscan monuments which still remainin Italy consist chieflyof walls and tombs. Ofthe city walls we find examples at Volterra,Perugia, Cortona, and elsewhere : the masonry isin some cases polygonal, in others, laid in

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horizontal courses, and is of the character previouslyreferred to" as "Cyclopean," the separate blocksbeing of an enormous size. A new feature " avirue form of arch " was used for the gateways inthese walls.

This new constructional principle the arch "was fully understood by the Etruscans. One ofthe earliest examples of its use is the CloacaMaxima, a great work executed during the reignof the Tarquins (about 600 B.C.)for the purposeof draining the lower parts of the city. It isroofed over with an arch of large stones in threeconcentric rings; and so skilfullyid the buildersconstruct their work that in many places the archremains stillintact.

Etruscan tombs, of two kinds, rock-cut andstructural,are found in great numbers throughoutCentral Italy. These contained, as a rule, onechamber only, in the form of an ordinary room ;for it appears to have been the object of theconstructors to make the dead tenant feel ascomfortable as possible in the tomb : the wallswere covered with paintings, and the chamberfrequentlywas provided with furniture cut out ofthe solid rock, and with a number of utensils ofuse in everyday life.

The tombs have proved more permanent thanthe temples, for all traces of the latter havedisappeared. We gather our information aboutthem chiefly from the works of Vitruvius, aprolific,but not altogether reliable, writer ofthe first century A.D. In his description hetells us that the temples were of two kinds,circular and rectangular,the rectangularbuildings

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having three cells and being devoted to theworship of three deities. So far as our recordsgo, the most important of these was the templeof Jupiter Capitolinus,on the Capitol, begun byTarquinius Superbus, and destroyed by fire in80 B.C. It was adorned with many ornaments andstatues of terra-cotta, or baked clay, of whichthe Etruscans made great use. The terra-cottavases, for which they were celebrated, are wellknown in the present day ; on many of theseGreek myths were represented, a proof that thedesignershad come under the influence of the artof the Greeks.

We have noticed that the most important andnovel feature in the works of the Etruscans wasthe intelligentnd scientific use of the arch. Thearchitecture of the two great nations of whom thepreceding chapters have treated was essentially" trabeated " (trabs, a beam)" i.e. the openingswere covered, and the superincumbent weightsupported, by a flat horizontal beam or lintel.In Roman architecture, which we are about toconsider, a new method of construction wasemployed ; for the principle of the arch, adoptedfrom the Etruscans, soon revolutionised the artof building. The Romans received this newfeature, and learnt their earlylessons in building,from Etruria ; but their architecture developedlittle until conquering Rome came into contactwith the treasures and masterpieces of Greece.

The taste for the architecture of Greece firstmanifested itself in Rome in the time of the Scipios,about 200 B.C. Greece had become practicallyprovince of Macedonia, and the victoryof Paulus

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over the Macedonians, in 168 B.C., brought herunder the influence of Rome. At a later period,when some disputehad arisen between the Achaean sand the Spartans, the latter applied to Rome forhelp,and in response the Consul Mummius settledthe question by landing in Greece and taking pos-ession

of Corinth (146 B.C.). After carryingoff allthe art treasures, and stipulatingin his ignoranceas to their value " that if any were lost by thecarriers they should be replaced by others of equalvalue, he set fire to the city. From this timeGreece became the happy hunting-ground forworks of art : the artistic treasures were freelypillaged, and their importation naturally hadimmense influence upon the buildingswhich werespringingup in Rome ; Greek architects also wereintroduced into Italy, and under these circum-tances

there was soon evolved that modified formof Grecian architecture known as " Roman."

We see, then, that Roman architecture was notan independent creation. Broadly speaking, itmay be said to have resulted from the fusing ofthe stylesof the Greeks and the Etruscans. Uponthe architecture of the Greeks was graftedthe newconstructional principle,the arch, which at onceenlarged its scope ; but the refined, intellectualwork of the Greeks was out of place in a citysuch as Rome was destined to be. " Rome hadno time for the cultivation of the arts of peace,and as little sympathy for their gentler influences.Conquest, wealth, and consequent power, were theobjects of her ambition ; for these she sacrificedeverything, and by their means she attained apinnacle of greatness that no nation had reached

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before or has since. Her arts have all the impressof this greatness, ^afid are characterised by the samevulgar grandeur which marks everythingshe did."That such an authority as Fergusson can applythe term " vulgar grandeur " to the architecture ofRome is sufficient evidence that,despite the factthat one was derived from the other, there was,between the two, a great gulf fixed.

Before dealing with the forms which architectureassumed in the hands of the Romans, we mustsay a few words about one special feature " themethod of construction " which had an importantbearing upon the architecture of Rome, and whichwas radicallydifferent from that employed by theGreeks.

The Romans, as a nation,possessed littleartisticfeeling; but they were an inventive,and a thoroughlypractical,people, and they had an unrivalledknowledge of construction and of the use ofmaterials. In the earliest periods of their historytheir buildingswere constructed of solid masonry ;but, before the first century B.C., the use of anartificial material came into vogue, by means ofwhich it was possibleto employ unskilled labourto a vast extent, and in the erection of every classof building; it became possible,ith this,to build,not only on a vast scale,but at once cheaply andspeedily. This material was concrete.

Concrete is an artificial conglomerate made bymixing together lime or cement, sand, water, andgravel or small stones. The lime, in its moiststate, absorbs carbonic acid from the air and turnsinto carbonate of lime, or limestone,which, cominginto contact with the sand and stones, sets and

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forms a solid mass as hard as stone. In the build-ngsof the Romans this material was employed

far more extensively than any other; indeed,without concrete, it is safe to say that it wouldhave been impossiblefor the constructors to havecarried out so successfully the gigantic under-akings

which, down to the present day, remainthe wonder of the " eternal city."

The Roman concrete was exceptionallystrong ;one of its chief ingredientswas a volcanic productcalled pozzolana (from Pozzuoli,where it has alwaysbeen largelyobtained),which, when broken upand incorporated with the lime, made a naturalcement of extraordinary strength and hardness.From the first century B.C. onwards, this con-lomerate

was extensivelyemployed in the con-tructionof almost every buildingof ancient Rome.

Brickwork or masonry was used merely as a facingfor the concrete mass. The boast of Augustus "recorded by Suetonius " that he found Rome brickand left it marble must therefore not be interpretedtoo literally.Under his auspices the citywitnesseda period of great splendour and marble wasextensivelyused : many of the temples and other'structures of the Augustan age were built solidlyof the finest marble ; but the majority of the worksof this and the later periods were nothing morethan concrete piles,hidden behind a veneer ofmarble or brickwork.

The visitor among the ruins of ancient Rome,who sees walls, apparently of fine brick-work, onall sides, finds it difficult to realise that brickswere never used constructionally. Yet carefulexamination discloses the fact that even the

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f64 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTUREthinnest walls were merely cased with bricks andfilled in with concrete. The great domed Pan-heon

is a glaringexample of a concrete massposing as a brick structure. Externallythe wallpresents a solid face of brickwork,in which tiersand arcades of brick arches are arranged, asthough concentratingthe weight upon piers; yetthe arches are, structurally,f no value whatever,for the brickwork of which they consist formsmerely a casing of 4 or 5 inches,upon a solid con-rete

wall 20 feet thick.We see, then, that the constructive methods of

the Romans differed in most essential points fromthose of the Greeks. In the Greek's buildingevery part did the work which it was supposed todo, and which it appeared to do ; never was thereany attempt at deception. " Beauty is truth " formedpart of his artistic creed, and he had a horror ofdeceit in any form. The Roman, on the otherhand, openly revelled in it. Of the Roman it maybe said that,as regards his architecture,he abso-utely

could not tell the truth " " splendide men-dax" he was gloriouslyuntruthful. But, likemany evil-doers,he prospered, and, by his newmethods, was able to build quicklyand on a grandscale. " He went in,"says Ruskin,

'' for a cheapand easy way of doing that whose difficultyasits chief honour," and was enabled, by means ofhis inventive genius, to greatlyenlarge the scopeof the architecture which had been handed downto him from the Greeks. In his hands the artwas not confined to the buildingof temples,butwas applied to new forms and adapted, in anoriginaland daring manner, to the varied require-

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4. The Corinthian, the favourite order with theRomans, in whose hands it developed into themost beautiful feature of their architecture.

5. The Composite, a poor attempt at an im-rovemin which the Ionic volutes were com-ined

with the lower portion of the Corinthianacanthus capital.

We saw that the story of architecture in Greecewas told almost entirelyby her temples. This was

FIG. 22. " Plan of a Roman Temple.

not the case in Rome : temple buildingwas not thestrong point with the Romans " though in the timeof Augustus the citymust have been well suppliedwith them " and very few remains now exist.

The illustration shows the plan of an earlytemple of the Ionic order, the so-called templeof Fortuna Virilis (correctly,f Fors Fortuna).There is some uncertainty regarding the date ofthis building,but it probably belongs to the earlypart of the first century B.C. As Professor Middle-ton points out, the date, in this and in other cases,

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may be approximately ascertained by an examina-ionof the materials used in the construction.

In the early period the only stone used by theRomans was "tufa," a soft volcanic stone whichcould be easily dressed, even with brorve tools.A somewhat harder volcanic stone, "peperino,"then came into use, and, at a later period," travertine,"which was more durable, and harderto work. Travertine was sparingly used beforethe first century B.C. In the temple of FortunaVirilis the columns of the portico and the"engaged" columns ranged round the cell wallsare of travertine ; the remainder of the work isbuilt in tufa.

The temple stood upon a loftypodium, or base,so that a flightof steps in front was required togive access to the higher floor level. The ceKis short and wide, and is divided by piers whichhelp to carry the roof. The porticois inordinatelydeep, and, ranging with its side columns, we seea series of " engaged " columns " i.e. half-columnsapplied to the face of the wall as purely decorativefeatures. From the earliest period of Romanbuildingthe column was not so important a featurein their architecture as it was with the Greeks ;and, as the arch and vault came into use, it beganto lose its significance,and gradually becamelittle more than a decorative accessory, tacked onto the structural part of the design.

The details of the temple of Fortuna Viriliswere thoroughly Greek in their character, andwere probably executed by Greek artists ; whilethe square cell and the deep portico are elementsin the design due to Etruscan influence.

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Greek artists were probably responsible for thedetails of two circular temples of this earlyperiod" the so-called temples of Vesta at Rome andat Tivoli. In each of these the circular cell wassurrounded by a peristyle of twenty Corinthiancolumns, with capitalsof great beauty.

As might be expected, we find that,throughoutthe earlier period, when much of the designingwas entrusted to Greek architects,the buildingsof Rome were characterised by simplicity andpurity of style; but the increasing splendour ofthe empire was soon reflected in its architecture,which culminated in the reign of Augustus (27B.C. " A.D. 14), the golden age of art and ofliterature. This period produced the finest,thoughby no means the most colossal,of the worksof Rome, for Augustus employed the best ofGreek sculptors,who helped to some extent torevive the glories of ancient Greek architecture.Moreover, his artists and workmen were keptbusy, for during this emperor's reign were builtno less than twelve temples, including those ofCastor and Pollux, of Jupiter Tonans on theCapitol,and of Mars Ultor ; in addition to theseworks he restored or helped to complete morethan eighty others,and numerous secular buildings.

Rome contains comparatively few temple re-ains,for a reason to be mentioned later. The

most striking are the three noble Corinthiancolumns of the temple of Castor and Pollux (aboutA.D. 6), for a long time considered to be theremains of the temple of JupiterStator,which standup among the ruins of the Forum. The quarriesof Mount Pentelicus, near Athens, provided the

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marble, and Greek architects undoubtedly furnishedthe design and the details,which are among thefinest to be found in Rome.

Most of the buildingsof Rome were utilitarian,and even the temples appear to have been usefulfor purposes other than of worship. The templeof Castor and Pollux, for example, served as anoffice for checking weights and measures, formany bronze weights exist with the inscription"ex ad\ Castor-.'1''showing that they had been ex-mined

and verified in the temple.It has been mentioned that the Romans excelled

in the art of construction,and that the materialsused by them were of the most enduring kind.How comes it, then, that, of the colossal andnumerous buildings erected at this period, so fewremain to-day,even in a fragmentary state ?

The disappearance of the old monuments maybe accounted for in two ways. Firstly,by thewanton destruction, at the hands of successiveemperors, of the works of their predecessors.Each new ruler,either as a bid for popularityorin his own self

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