The eight columns will be 8 x 81=68, being a trifle less than one third of the area, and the voids or intercolumns about double, or the remaining two thirds.

A discrepance between practice and theory, unless extremely wide, must not be allowed to interfere with principles, and we have therefore no hesitation in candidly submitting a synoptical view of some of the most celebrated examples of antiquity in which a comparison is exhibited between the voids and supports; certain it is that in every case the former exceed the latter, and that in the earlier examples of Doric, the ratio between them nearly approached equality. In comparing, however, the supports with the weights, there is every appearance of that part of the theory being strictly true, for in taking a mean of the six examples of the Dorie order, the supports are to the weights as 1:116; in the five of the Ionic order as 1; 1·05; and in the four of the Corinthian order as 1; 104: a coincidence so remarkable, that it must be attributed to something more than accident, and deserves much more extended consideration than it has hitherto received.

There is a curious fact connected with the hypothesis which has been suggested that requires notice; it is relative to the area of the points of support for the edifice which the arrangement affords. In fig. 866. the hatched squares represent the plans of quarter piers of columns in a series of intercolumniations every way, such intercolumniations being of two diamaters, or four semidiameters. These, added to the quarter piers, make six semidiaters, whose square 36 is therefore the area to be covered with the weight. The four quarter piers or columns = 4, hence the points of support are of the area =0.111. Now in the list (1583.) of the principal buildings in Europe the mean ratio is 0·168 differing only 0-057 from the result here given; but if we select the following buildings, the mean will be found to differ much less.

Fig. 866.

2532. The subservient parts of an order, called mouldings, and common to all the orders, are eight in number. They are-1. The ovolo, echinus, or quarter round. (Fig. 867.) It is formed by a quadrant, or sometimes more of a circle, but in Grecian examples its section is obtained by portions of an ellipse or some other conic section. This latter observation is

applicable to all mouldings of Greek examples, and we shall not repeat it in enumerating the rest of them. It is commonly found under the abacus of capitals. The ovolo is also almost always placed between the corona and dentils in the Corinthian cornice: its form gives it the appearance of seeming fitted to support another member. It should be used only in situations above the level of the eye. 2. The talon, ogee, or reversed Cua (fig. 868.) seems also, like the ovolo, a moulding fit for the support of another. 3. The cyma, cyma recta, or cymatium (fig. 869.) seems well contrived for a covering and to shelter other members. The cyma recta is only used properly for crowning members, though in Palladio's Doric, and in other examples, it is found occasionally in the bed mouldings under the corona. 4. The torus (fig. 870.), like the astragal presently to be mentioned, is shaped like a rope, and seems intended to bind and strengthen the parts to which it is applied; while, 5. The scotia or trochilos (fig. 871.), placed between the fillets which always accompany the tori, is usually below the eye; its use being to separate the tori, and to contrast and strengthen the effect of other mouldings as well as to impart variety to the profile of the base. 6. The cavetto, mouth, or hollow (fig. 872.) is chiefly used as a crowning moulding, like the cyma recta. In bases and capitals it is never used. By workmen it is frequently called a casement. 7. The astragal (fig. 873.) is nothing more than a small torus, and, like it, seems applied for the purpose of binding and strengthening. The astragal is also known by the names of bead and baguette. 8. The fillet, listel, or annulet (fig. 874.) is used at all heights and in all situations. Its chief office is the separation of curved mouldings from one another.

2533. Sir William Chambers observes on these different mouldings that their inventors meant to express something by their different figures, and that the destinations above mentioned "may be deduced not only from their figures, but from the practice of the ancients in their most esteemed works; for if we examine the Pantheon, the three columns in the Campo Vaccino, the temple of Jupiter Tonans, the fragments of the frontispiece of Nero, the basilica of Antoninus, the forum of Nerva, the arches of Titus and Septimius Severus, the theatre of Marcellus, and indeed almost every ancient building, either at Rome or in other parts of Italy and France, it will be found that in all their profiles the cyma and cavetto are constantly used as finishings, and never applied where strength is required. That the ovolo and talon are always employed as supporters to the essential members of the composition, such as the modillions, dentils, and corona; that the chief use of the torus and astragal is to fortify the tops and bottoms of columns, and sometimes of pedestals;" ... "and that the scotia is employed only to separate the members of bases, for which purpose the fillet is likewise used not only in bases but in all kinds of profiles. It is the fitness of these forms for their ends in their several situations that gives them a positive and natural beauty, which is immediately destroyed by their change of position, as primary forms of architecture; and the author just quoted well observes, "that Palladio erred in employing the cavetto under the corona in three of his orders, and in making such frequent use through all his profiles of the cyma as a supporting member. Nor has Vignola been more judicious in finishing his Tuscan cornice with an ovolo; a moulding extremely improper for the purpose, and productive of a very disagreeable effect; for it gives a mutilated air to the whole profile, so much the more striking, as it resembles exactly that half of the Ionic cornice which is under the corona."

2534. The simplest method of describing the contours of mouldings is to form them of

quadrants of circles. Those of the ovolo, talon, cyma, and cavetto being equal to their height, and those of the curve parts of the torus, and astragal equal to half their height. Circumstances, however, often justify a variation from the rule; and if that be the case, the ovolo, talon, cyma, and cavetto may be either described from the summits of equilateral triangles, or be composed of portions of the ellipsis, which latter was almost constantly used by the Greeks. By means of it also the scotia may be produced, as well as by quadrants of circles; but the curved part of the torus and astragal is always semicircular in form, and if more projection is wanted it is obtained by the use of straight lines.

ORNAMENTS OF MOULDINGS.

2535. In ornamenting the profile of an order, repose requires that some mouldings should be left plain. If all were enriched, confusion instead of variety would result. Except for particular purposes, the square members are rarely carved. There are but few examples in the best age of the art in which the corona is cut; indeed at this moment the only one that occurs to us wherein work is in fine style is that of the three columns in the Campo Vaccino. So where the ovolo above and talon below it are carved, the dentil band between them should be uncut. Scamozzi, in the third chapter of his sixth book, inculcates that ornaments should be neither profuse nor abundant, neither are they to be too sparingly introduced. Thus they will be approved if applied with judgment and discretion. Above all things, they are to be of the most beautiful forms and of the exactest proportions; ornaments in buildings, being like the jewels used for the decoration of princes and princesses and persons of high rank, must be placed only in proper situations. Neither must variety in ornaments be carried to excess. We have to recollect that, being only accessories, they must not obtrude upon but be kept subordinate to the main object. Thus ornaments applied to mouldings should be simple, uniform, and combining not more than two distinct forms in the same enrichment; and when two forms are used on the same moulding they should be cut equally deep, so that an uninterrupted appearance may be preserved. Mouldings of the same form and size on one and the same profile should be similar; and it is moreover a requisite of the greatest importance, so to distribute the centres of the ornaments employed that the centre of one may fall exactly over the centres of those below, of which the columns of the Campo Vaccino form an example for imitation in this respect. Nothing is more offensive than, for example, to see the middle of an egg placed over the edge of a dentil, and in another part of the same moulding to see them come right, centre over centre, and the like negligent and careless distribution. This may always be avoided by making the larger parts regulate the smaller. Thus where there are modillions they must be made to govern the smaller ornaments above and below them, and these smaller ones should always be subdivided with a view to centring with the larger parts. The larger parts are dependent on the axes of the columns and their intercolumniations; but all these must be considered in profiling the order. It will of course be necessary to give the ornaments such forms as may be consistent with the character of the order they enrich. The enrichment of a frieze depends upon the destination of the building, and the ornaments may have relation to the rank, quality, and achievements of the proprietor. We do not agree with Chambers in condemning the introduction of arms, crests, and cyphers, as an unbecoming vanity in the master of the fabric. These may often be so introduced as to indicate the alliances of the family, and thus give a succinct history of its connections. In Gothic architecture we know the practice induced great beauty and variety. We have before observed, in Sect. I. of this Book (2520.), that the instruments and symbols of pagan worship are highly indecorous, not to say ludicrous, on edifices devoted to the Christian religion.

2536. In carving ornaments they must be cut into the solid, and not carved as if they were applied on the solid, because the latter practice alters their figure and proportion. In fact, every moulding should be first cut with its contour plain, and then carved, the most prominent part of the ornament being the actual surface of the moulding before carving, observing that all external and re-entering angles are kept plain, or have only simple leaves with the central filament expressed on or in the angle. In the circular temple of Tivoli the principle of cutting the ornament out of the solid is carried out so far, that the leaves, as usual in most examples of the Corinthian order, instead of being mere appliquées to the bell of the capital, are actually cut out of it.

2537. The degree of relief which ornaments ought to have is dependent on their distance from the eye and the character of the composition: these matters will also regulate the degree of finish they ought to possess. There are some mouldings whose profile is indicative of bearing weight, as the ovolo and talon, which by being deeply cut, though themselves heavy in character, are thereby susceptible of having great lightness imparted to them, whilst such as the cyma and cavetto should not be ornamented deep in the solid. The imitation from nature of the objects represented should be carefully observed, the result whereof will impart beauty and interest to the work on which such attention is bestowed.

CHARACTERS OF THE ORDERS.

2538. In the First Book of this work, Sect. XI. (133, et seq.) we have considered the history of the five orders of architecture; we shall here offer some general observations upon them before proceeding to the detail of each separately. The orders and their several characters and qualities do not merely appear in the five species of columns into which they have been subdivided, but are distributed throughout the edifices to which they are applied, the column itself being the regulator of the whole composition. It is on this account the name of orders has been applied to the differently formed and ornamented supports, as columns, which have received the names of the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite orders, whereof the three first are of Grecian origin, and the two last, it is supposed, of Italian or Roman origin. Each of these, by the nature of its proportions, and the character resulting from them, produces a leading quality, to which its dimensions, form, and ornaments correspond. But neither of the orders is so limited as to be confined within the expression of any single quality. Thus the strength indicated in the Doric order is capable of being modified into many shades and degrees of that quality. We may satisfy ourselves of this in an instant by reference to the early compared with the later Doric column of the Greeks. Thus the columns of the temple at Corinth are only four diameters high, while those of the portico of Philip are six and a half.

2539. As the Doric seems the expression of strength, simplicity, and their various modes, so the Ionic, by the rise in height of its shaft and by the slenderness of its mass, as well as by the elegance of its capital, indicates a quality intermediate between the grave solidity of the Doric and the elegant delicacy of the Corinthian. Bounded on one side by strength, and by elegance on the other, in the two orders just named, the excess of elegance in the Corinthian order ends in luxury and richness, whereof the character is imprinted on it.

2540. We cannot here refrain from giving, in the words of the excellent Sir Henry Wotton, a quaint and homely, but most admirable description of these five orders, from his Elements of Architecture. "First, the Tuscan is a plain massive rural pillar, resembling some sturdy, well-limbed labourer, homely clad, in which kind of comparisons, Vitruvius himself seemeth to take pleasure." (Lib. iv. cap. 1.) . . . "The Dorique order is the gravest that hath been received into civil use, preserving, in comparison of those that follow, a more masculine aspect and little trimmer than the Tuscan that went before, save a sober garnishment now and then of lions' heads in the cornice, and of triglyphs and metopes always in the frize." . . "To discern him will be a piece rather of good heraldry then of architecture, for he is knowne by his place when he is in company, and by the peculiar ornament of his frize, before mentioned, when he is alone." ... "The Ionique order doth represent a kind of feminine slendernesse; yet, saith Vitruvius, not like a light housewife, but, in a decent dressing, hath much of the matrone." . . . "Best known by his trimmings, for the bodie of this columne is perpetually chaneled, like a thick-pleighted gowne. The capitali dressed on each side, not much unlike women's wires, in a spiral wreathing, which they call the Ionian voluta.".. "The Corinthian is a columne lasciviously decked like a courtezan, and therefore in much participating (as all inventions do) of the place where they were first born, Corinth having beene, without controversie, one of the wantonest towns in the world." . . . "In short, as plainness did characterise the Tuscan, so, much delicacie and varietie the Corinthian pillar, besides the height of his rank." "The last is the compounded order, his name being a briefe of his nature: for this pillar is nothing in effect but a medlie, or an amasse of all the precedent ornaments, making a new kinde by stealth, and though the most richly tricked, yet the poorest in this, that he is a borrower of his beautie." Each of the orders, says De Quincy, is, then, in the building to which it is applied, the governing principle of the forms, taste, and character of that system of moral order met with in Grecian architecture which alone seems to have suited the physical order of proportions with each part, so that what is agreeable, ornate, and rich is equally found in the whole as in the parts.

2541. On the two Latin orders we do not think it necessary to say more than that they will be fully described in following pages. The invention of new orders must arise out of other expressions of those qualities which are already sufficiently well and beautifully expressed; hence we consider, with De Quincy, to attempt such a thing would be vain. Chambers thus expresses himself on this subject, without the philosophy of De Quincy, yet with the feelings of a learned and experienced architect: "The ingenuity of man has hitherto, not been able to produce a sixth order, though large premiums have been offered, and numerous attempts been made, by men of first-rate talents to accomplish it. Such is the fettered human imagination, such the scanty store of its ideas, that Doric, lonic, and Corinthian have ever floated uppermost, and all that has ever been produced amounts to nothing more than different arrangements and combinations of their parts, with some trifling deviations, scarcely deserving notice; the whole tending generally more to diminish than to increase the beauty of the ancient orders." Again: The suppression of parts of

the ancient orders, with a view to produce novelty, has of late years been practised among us with full as little success; and though it is not wished to restrain sallies of imagination, nor to discourage genius from attempting to invent, yet it is apprehended that attempts to alter the primary forms invented by the ancients, and established by the concurring approbation of many ages, must ever be attended with dangerous consequences, must always be difficult, and seldom, if ever, successful. It is like coining words, which, whatever may be their value, are at first but ill received, and must have the sanction of time to secure them a current reception."

2542. In the progress of the five orders, from the Tuscan up to the Composite, taking seven diameters for the height of the Tuscan column, and eleven for that of the Composite, if the entablature be taken of the same absolute height in all, and at the same time in height one quarter of that of the column, we shall have the height of the entablature in terms of the diameter of the column, as follows:

2543. Vitruvius tells us that the ancients were accustomed to assign to the Tuscan column seven of its diameters for the height; to the Doric, eight; to the Ionic, nine; and to the Corinthian and Composite, ten. Scamozzi, the leader of the moderns, adopts similar proportions. But these are not to be considered as more than an approximation to the limits, nor as relating to the proportions between the heights and diameters of the ancient Doric examples, whereof in our First Book we have examined certain specimens. This work cannot be extended to a representation of the variety under which the orders have appeared in their various examples of each order. The works in which they are contained must be consulted for particulars of detail in this respect. Our intention is to give general information on the subject, and to follow, with few exceptions, in that respect, the precepts of Vignola, as tending to the most generally pleasing results, and as being also those which have been adopted on the Continent for general instruction in the art.

2544. We have already spoken (2524, et seq.) of the general proportion of the height of the entablature to that of the column as one fourth, and, without returning to the discussion of the propriety of that proportion, will only here incidentally mention that Scamozzi, Barbaro, Alberti, and Palladio have not assigned so great a height to their entablatures, chiefly, it appears, because they seemed to consider the slenderness of the columns in the more delicate orders unsuited to the reception of heavy burdens. If, however, the reader will bear in recollection what has been said at the beginning of this section relative to the supports and weights, it will directly occur to him that the practice these great masters sanctioned is not founded upon just deductions. Chambers seems to have had a glimpse of this theory, but without any notion of its developement, when he says, "It must be remembered that,. though the height of an entablature in a delicate order is made the same as in a massive one, yet it will not, either in reality or in appearance, be equally heavy, for the quantity of matter in the Corinthian cornice A (fig. 875.) is considerably less than in the Tuscan cornice B, and the increased number of parts composing the former of these will of course make it appear far lighter than the latter." He was, however, nearer the exact truth where he speaks in a previous passage of the possibility of increasing the intervals between the columns.

2545. The diminution or tapering form given to a column, whereof all the authors find the type, whether truly or not, in that of the trunk of a tree, in the ancient examples, sometimes commences from the foot of the shaft, sometimes from a quarter or one third of its height, in which case the lower part is a perfect cylinder. Though the latter method has been mostly adopted by modern artists, the former seems more to have prevailed among the ancients. Of the method of entasis, that is, of swelling columns as they rise, we have already spoken in the First Book (144.). A curve of diminution, if we may so term it, in which the lower part does not much vary from the cylinder, but never much exceeding its boundary for the height of one third upwards, is the best, and to something like that we now come. Blondel (Resolution des quatre principaux Problemes d'Architecture) says, that the best and simplest instrument for the diminution of columns is that invented by Nicomedes for describing the first conchoid, which, applied at the bottom of the shaft, gives, by continued motion, both the swelling and the diminution. Vignola had not strictly anticipated Blondel in this method, which, it is said, was that used for the columns in the Pantheon; but the old master had come so near to it that we shall first describe Vignola's method, and then that proposed by Blondel. Vignola having already spoken of the common practice, says,