architrave, frieze, and cornice. The total height of his profile in our measures is 32 modules and 9 parts, being much higher than that of Palladio.

2598. Scamozzi's profile greatly resembles that of Palladio. His pedestal is 3 diameters, and the base of his column half a diameter in height. The shaft of his column, without base or capital, is 8 diameters and one twelfth high, and the capital 1 diameter and a sixth. The entablature is one fifth part of the column in height, and the whole of the profile in our measures is nearly 29 modules and 7 parts.

SECT. VIII.

PEDESTALS.

2599. We think it necessary to devote a small portion of this chapter to the consideration of pedestals, on account of the great difference which exists in the examples of the orders, and this we shall place in a tabular form, previous to the general remarks it will be necessary to make.

TABLE SHOWING THE HEIGHT OF PEDESTALS IN ANCIENT AND MODERN WORKS.

2600. The minutes used in the above table are each equal to one sixtieth of the diameter of the shaft.

2601. Whether the pedestal is to be considered a component part of an order is of little importance. There are so many cases that arise in designing a building, in which it cannot be dispensed with, that we think it useful to connect it with the column and entablature, and have consequently done so in the examples already given of the several orders. Vitruvius, in the Doric, Corinthian, and Tuscan orders, makes no mention of pedestals, and in the Ionic order he seems to consider them rather as a necessary part in the construction of a temple than as belonging to the order itself.

2602. A pedestal consists properly of three parts, the base, the die, and the cornice. "Some authors," says Chambers, "are very averse to pedestals, and compare a column raised on a pedestal to a man mounted on stilts, imagining they were first introduced merely through necessity, and for want of columns of a sufficient length. "It is indeed true," he continues, "that the ancients often made use of artifices to lengthen their columns, as appears by some that are in the baptistery of Constantine at Rome; the shafts of which, being too short for the building, were lengthened and joined to their bases by an undulated sweep, adorned with acanthus leaves; and the same expedient has been made use of in some fragments which were discovered a few years ago at Nismes, contiguous to the temple of Diana. Nevertheless, it doth not seem proper to comprehend pedestals in

the number of these artifices, since there are many occasions on which they are evidently necessary, and some in which the order, were it not so raised, would lose much of its beautiful appearance. Thus, within our churches, if the columns supporting the vault were placed immediately on the ground, the seats would hide their bases and a good part of their shafts; and in the theatres of the ancients, if the columns of the scene had been placed immediately on the stage, the actors would have hid a considerable part of them from the audience; for which reason it was usual to raise them on very high pedestals, as was likewise necessary in their triumphal arches; and in most of their temples the columns were placed on a basement or continued pedestal (stylobata), that so the whole might be exposed to view, notwithstanding the crowds of people with which these places were frequently surrounded. And the same reason will authorise the same practice in our churches, theatres, courts of justice, or other public buildings where crowds frequently assemble. In interior decorations, where, generally speaking, grandeur of style is not to be aimed at, a pedestal diminishes the parts of the order, which otherwise might appear too clumsy; and has the farther advantage of placing the columns in a more favourable view, by raising their base nearer to the level of the spectator's eye. And in a second order of arcades there is no avoiding pedestals, as without them it is impossible to give the arches any tolerable proportion. Sometimes, too, the situation makes it necessary to employ pedestals, an instance of which there is in the Luxembourg at Paris; where, the body of the building standing on higher ground than the wings, the architect was obliged to raise the first order of the wings on a pedestal, to bring it upon a level with that of the body or corps de logis of the building, which stands immediately on the pavement."

2603. The dies of pedestals are occasionally decorated with tablets or with sunk panels whose margins are moulded; but, generally speaking, such practices are to be avoided. In very large pedestals the surface may be thus broken, as in single monumental columns, which, at best, are but paltry substitutes for originality. Habit has reconciled us to view with pleasure the Trajan and Antonine columns, the monument of London, and the column of Napoleon in the Place Vendôme at Paris, in each of which the pedestals are ornamented in some way or other, so as to tell in some measure the story of the person in whose honour they were erected, or, as in the basso-relievo of the London column, the event which it records. But care must be taken when inscriptions are used to preserve a rigid adherence to truth, and not to perpetuate a lie, as was the case in the monument just named, against a most worthy portion of the people of the British empire.

2604. As respects the employment of pedestals, we should advise the student, except under very extraordinary circumstances, to avoid the use of them under columns which are placed at a distance from the main walls of an edifice, as, for example, in porches peristyles, or porticoes, -a vice most prevalent in the Elizabethan architecture, or rather the cinque-cento period, which the people of this day are attempting with all its absurdities to revive. Here we must again quote our author, Sir William Chambers, whose excellent work we have used above, and on which we shall continue to draw largely. "With regard," he says, "to the application of pedestals, it must be observed, that when columns are entirely detached, and at a considerable distance from the wall, as when they are employed to form porches, peristyles, or porticoes, they should never be placed on detached pedestals, as they are in some of Scamozzi's designs, in the temple of Scisi (Assisi) mentioned by Palladio, and at Lord Archer's house, now Lowe's hotel, in Covent Garden; for then they indeed may be compared to men mounted on stilts, as they have a very weak and tottering appearance. In compositions of this kind, it is generally best to place the columns immediately on the pavement, which may be either raised on a continued solid basement, or be ascended to by a flight of fronting steps, as at St. Paul's, and at St. George's Bloomsbury; but if it be absolutely necessary to have a fence in the intercolumniations, as in the case of bridges or other buildings on the water, or in a second order, the columns may then, in very large buildings, be raised on a continued plinth, as in the upper order of the western porch of St. Paul's, which in such case will be sufficiently high and in smaller buildings, wherever it may not be convenient or proper to place the balustrade between the shafts, the columns may be placed on a continued pedestal, as they are in Palladio's designs for Signor Cornaro's house at Piombino, and at the villa Arsieri, near Vicenza, another beautiful building of the saine master." The same author continues: "The base and cornice of these pedestals must run in a straight line on the outside throughout, but the dies are made no broader than the plinths of the columns, the intervals between them being filled with balusters, which is both really and apparently lighter than if the whole pedestal were a continued solid." The author quoted then proceeds to caution the student against the employment of triangular, circular, and polygonal pedestals, and such as are swelled and have their die in the form of a baluster, or are surrounded by cinctures. These extravagances were rife in the age of Louis XV., but notwithstanding the zeal of the jobbing upholsterers and decorators of the present day, who are the curse of all architectural art, we hope they will never be permanently revived in this country, though their introduction has already proceeded to a considerable extent.

SECT. IX.

INTERCOLUMNIATIONS.

2605. An intercolumniation is the clear distance between two columns measured at the lower diameter of their shafts. This distance must depend principally on the order employed in the Tuscan, for example, the nature of its composition allows a greater width between columns than would be admissible in the Corinthian order, independent of what has already been stated in Sect. II. (2524, et seq.) in respect of supports and loading; and this because of the enrichments of the several orders requiring that they should take their departures (to use a phrase borrowed from another science) from the axes of their respective columns. The ancient names (which are still preserved) of the different intercolumniations are described by Vitruvius in his second and fourth books. They are- the pycnostyle, wherein the space between the columns is 1 diameter and a half, as its etymology from TUKVOS and Tuλos imports (thick in columns), an intercolumniation used only in the Ionic and Corinthian orders; the systyle (oUOTUλos, with columns a little more apart), wherein the interval between the columns is a little greater; the eustyle (evoTvλos, or wellcontrived interval), wherein the intercolumniation is of 2 diameters and a quarter; the diastyle (diaoruλos, with a more extended interval between the columns), having an intercolumniation of 3 diameters; and the aræostyle (apatogтvλos, with few columns), wherein the interval is 4 diameters. In the Doric order the triglyphs necessarily regulate the intercolumniations, inasmuch as the

triglyph should fall over the axis of the column; hence the intercolumniations in this order are either systyle monotriglyph (that is, with a single triglyph in the intercolumniation), or 1 diameter; diastyle, or of 2 diameters; or aræostyle, which will make the interval 4 diameters, as will be immediately understood on reference to fig. 894.; wherein A is the sysytle monotriglyph intercolumniation of 3 modules; B, that of the diastyle, or 6 modules; and C, the aræostyle, or of 8 modules. The intercolumniation marked D serves for

Fig. 894.

the application of coupled columns, wherein the rule seems necessarily to be that the space between the columns may be increased, so that the requisite number of supports according to the order and intercolumniation is preserved.

2606. The intervals of the Tuscan order are indicated in fig. 895., wherein A shows the intercolumniation called eustyle of 4 modules; B, the diastyle of 6 modules; and C, the aræostyle of 8. D, of 1 module, is the space of coupled columns.

The intercolumniations in this order are scarcely susceptible of rules other than those we have indicated in our previous discussion on the orders generally in Sect. II. (2523, et seq.), wherein we have entered on the subject at such length that we refrain from saying more in this place. We may, however, observe, that the application of the principles there mentioned are so intimately connected with this section, that the separation of one from the other would destroy all our scheme for keeping the student in the right path. Hereafter

2607. In fig. 896., of Ionic intercolumniations, A is the eustyle arrangement; B, that of the diastyle; C, that of the aræostyle; and D, that of coupled columns.

2608. Fig. 897. is a similar application of the intercolumniations to the Corinthian order, wherein also A exhibits the eustyle; B, the diastyle; and C, the aræostyle intervals: D also showing the space used of 1 module for coupled columns.

B

B

Fig. 896.

Fig. 897.

2609. Sir William Chambers, for whose observations we have much respect, and, indeed, to whose valuable labours we acknowledge ourselves much indebted,—seems to have had a distant glimpse of the doctrine of equal weights and supports, but knew not exactly how to justify his notions on the subject. He therefore avoids the main question by attributing the pycnostyle intercolumniation rather to necessity than choice; observing, that "as the architraves were composed of single stones or blocks of marble, extending from the axis of one column to that of another, it would have been difficult to find blocks of a sufficient length for diastyle intervals in large buildings." But this is a reason altogether unsatisfactory, inasmuch as we know that they were sufficiently masters of masonry to have conquered any such difficulty. We are much more inclined to agree with him when he says (always, however, reverting to the principle of equal supports and weights), "With regard to the aræostyle and Tuscan intercolumniations, they are by much too wide either for beauty or strength, and can only be used in structures where the architraves are of wood, and where convenience and economy take place of all other considerations: nor is the diastyle sufficiently solid in large compositions." These considerations, however, may be always safely referred to the doctrines laid down in Section II. of this Chapter, already alluded to; and, indeed, that reference is justified by the instruc tions of Vitruvius in the second chapter of his third book, wherein he directs that the thickness of the column should be augmented in an enlarged intercolumniation: as, for example, supposing the diameter of a column in the pycnostyle species to be taken one tenth of the height, it should in an aræostyle be one eighth; arguing, that if in an aræostyle the thickness of the columns exceed not a ninth or tenth part of their height, they appear too slender, and in the pycnostyle species the column at one eighth of its height is clumsy and unpleasant in appearance. Upon this passage Chambers observes, "that the intention of Vitruvius was good, but the means by which he attempts to compass it insufficient. His design was to strengthen the supports in proportion as the intervals between them were enlarged; yet according to the method proposed by him this cannot be effected, since one necessary consequence of augmenting the diameter of the column is enlarging the intercolumniation proportionably. Palladio and Scamozzi have however admitted this precept as literally just, and by their manner of applying it have been guilty of very con siderable absurdity." We are not at all inclined to admit the truth of the opinion of Chambers; for, again reverting to the doctrine of the supports and loading, which was unknown to him, it is to be remembered that increase in the space of the intercolumniation immediately involves increase of weight in the load or entablature, and therefore seems to demand increase of diameter to the supports. Palladio and Scamozzi were not therefore guilty of the absurdity laid to their charge.

2610. Among the other reasons for our adopting the practice of Vignola is that he has observed so much uniformity in his intercolumniations, except of the Doric order, wherein the triglyphs prevent it, aware as we are that the practice has by many able writers been much condemned. Chambers even says that his practice in this respect is "preferable to any other, as it answers perfectly the intention of Vitruvius, preserves the character of each order, and maintains in all of them an equal degree of real solidity."

2611. With the exception of the Doric order, wherein the most perfect arrangement of the detail results from the interval produced by the ditriglyph, there can be no doubt that, abstractedly considered, the diastyle and eustyle intercolumniations are very convenient in use, and may be employed on most occasions, except, as just mentioned, in the Doric order.

2612. In setting out the intervals between columns especial care must be taken that the centres of modillions, dentils, and other ornaments in the entablature fall over the axes of the columns. It is on this account that Vignola gives about two diameters and a third to the intervals in all the orders except the Doric, instead of two diameters and a quarter, as required by Vitruvius; an alteration which removes the difficulty and greatly simplifies the rules.

2613. Cases from many circumstances often occur where greater intercolumniations than the eustyle and diastyle are too narrow for use, and the moderns, headed by Perrault, have adopted an interval which that master has called aræosystyle. This disposition is obtained without infringing on the law of weights and supports, to which we have already so often alluded. In it the columns are coupled, as shown in the preceding figures, the interval being formed by swo systyle intercolumniations, the column separating them being, as Chambers observes, "approached towards one of those at the extremities, sufficient room being only left between them for the projection of the capitals, so that the great space is 3 diameters wide, and the small one only half a diameter." One of the finest examples of this practice is to be seen in the façade of the Louvre, (see fig. 176.) which in many respects must be considered as the finest of modern buildings. The objections of Blondel to the practice are not without some weight, but the principal one is the extra expense incurred by it; for certain it is that it requires nearly double the number of columns wanted in the diastyle, besides which it cannot be denied that it causes considerable irregularities in the entablatures of the Doric, Corinthian, and Composite orders, which, however, are not apparent in the other two. It is, nevertheless, so useful in cases of difficulty which constantly arise, that we should be sorry to exclude the practice altogether, though we cannot recommend it for unlimited adoption.

2614. A great many expedients have been employed to obviate the irregularity of the modillions in the Corinthian and Composite orders, arising from the grouping of columns. We, on this head, agree with Chambers, whose instructions we subjoin in his own words: "The simplest and best manner of proceeding is to observe a regular distribution in the entablature, without any alteration in its measures, beginning at the two extremities of the building, by which method the modillions will answer to the middle of every other column, and be so near the middle of the intermediate ones, that the difference will not easily be perceivable. The only inconvenience arising from this practice is, that the three central intercolumniations of the composition will e broader by one third of a module than is necessary for eleven modillions: but this i a very trifling difference, easily divided and rendered imperceptible if the extent be a ything considerable." In the Doric order, the grouping of columns is not so easily managed, and therein our author recommends the expedient employed by Palladio, in the Palazzo Chiericato, and in the Basilica at Vicenza. In the last-named, the coupled columns are only 21 minutes apart, thus making the space between the axes 2 modules and 21 minutes, that is, 6 minutes beyond the breadth of a regular metope, and 2 half-triglyphs. To conceal the excess, the triglyphs are 31 minutes broad, and their centres are carried 1 minute within the axis of the column, and the metope is 3 minutes broader than the others. These small differences are not perceptible without a very critical and close examination of the distribution. In this arrangement

the attic base of Palladio should be employed, because of its small projection, and the larger intercolumniation must be aræostyle.

2615. Intercolumniations should be preserved of equal width in all peristyles, galleries, porticoes, and the like; but in loggias or porches, the middle interval may be wider than the others by a triglyph, a modillion or two, and a few dentils, that is, if there be no coupled columns at the angles nor groupings with pilasters, in which cases all the other intervals should be of the same dimensions. It has been observed by Blondel, that on occasions where several rows of columns are used, as, for instance, in the curved colonnades of the piazza of St. Peter's, the columns ought as much as possible to be in straight lines, because otherwise the arrangement can only be understood by viewing it from the centre of the figure employed. The observation is well worth the student's consideration, for the resulting effect of a departure from this rule, as Chambers has properly observed, is "nothing but confusion to the spectator's eye from every point of view." The same author condemns, and with justice, though in a smaller degree, the use of "engaged pilasters or half columns placed behind the detached columns of single, circular, oval, or polygonal peristyles, as may be seen in those of Burlington House. Wherefore," he says, "in buildings of that kind, it will perhaps be best to decorate the back wall of the peristyle with windows or niches only." We can hardly suppose it here necessary to caution the student against the use of intercolumniations without reference to the absolute