proportions would have been somewhat more pleasing. It is true that a trifling irregularity would have been introduced into the triglyphs of the upper order, or rather the metopæ between them; but that might have been easily provided against by a very trifling alteration in the height of the frieze itself. This fault of making the voids too large pervades Chambers's examples, and but that we might have been thought too presuming we should have slightly altered the proportions, little being requisite to bring them under the laws which we have thought to be founded on reason and analogy. We have indeed throughout this work refrained from giving other than approved examples, preferring to confine ourselves to observations on them when we have not considered them faultless. 2659. In the figure the clear width of the lower arcade is 73, and its height 14 modules. The width of each pier is 1 module. Of the upper arcade the width is 9, and the height 18-233 modules. The width of the piers is 14 module each. The height of the plinth of the lower order is 1 module, that of the column, including base and capital, 14 modules, the entablature 3. The height of the pedestal of the upper order is 3.733 modules, of the column with its base and capital 16, and of the entablature 3.733 modules. In the proportions between the voids and solids above taken the balustrade is not considered as a solid, because, in fact, it is nothing more than a railing for the protection of those using the upper story. As we have expressed our desire to give the examples of others rather than our own, we feel bound to recommend the student to set up the diagram in question, with the simple alteration of reducing the solids nearly to an equality with the voids, which may be done with sufficient accuracy by assigning to the lower arcade a module less in width than Chambers has done; and we venture to say that he will be surprised at the difference, as regards grace and elegance, which will result from the experiment. It is to be understood that no change is proposed in the other dimensions of the ordonnance, the width of piers, orders, entablatures, all remaining untouched. Fig. 919. 2660. In fig. 920. we give another example from Chambers, which, in our opinion, requires a rectification to bring it into proper form. Herein the Ionic is used above the Doric arcade, and the voids to the solids are as 3.33 to 2.98, being much more than equal to them. In this, as in the former example, we should have preferred a greater equality between the solids and voids, though in that under consideration there is a nearer approximation to it. 2661. In the figure the clear width of the lower arch is 8, and its height 16 modules; the width of each pier is 1 module. Of the upper arcade the width is 10, and the height 201 modules. The width of the piers is 1 module each. The height of the plinth of the lower order is 1 module that of the column, including the base and capital, 163 modules, and of the entablature 4 modules. The height of the pedestal of the upper order 4 modules, of the column, including base and capital, 18 modules, and of the entablature 4, and of the balustrade above it 31. 2662. The dimensions of the Ionic and Corinthian arcades in fig. 921. are as follow: - Clear width of lower arch 9 modules, its height 181 modules. The width of each pier is 1 module. Of the upper arcade the width of an arch 153 modules, and its height 23 modules. The width of the piers is 14 module each. The height of the plinth to the lower order is 13 module; of the column, including base and capital, 18 modules; the entablature 4 modules. The pedestal of the upper order is 4 modules high; column, including base and capital, 20 modules; entablature 4 modules; and, lastly, the balustrade is 33 modules in height. 2663. Fig. 922. is an arrangement adopted by Palladio in his basilica at Vicenza, being the dimensions, or nearly, of the arcades on the flanks. The intermediate ones are much wider. In the basilica, however, the entablature breaks round the columns of the orders. The width between the axes of the columns of the lower order is 15 of their modules. The arch is 15 modules high and 7 wide. The order wherefrom the arch springs is 10 modules high; from axis to axis of the small columns in the lower arcade is 9 modules. The height of the plinth is 1 module, of the principal columns, including bases and plinths, 16] modules, and of their entablature 4 modules. In the upper arcade the distance between the axes of the principal columns is 18 of their modules. Their pedestals are 4 modules high, the columns, including bases and capitals, 18 modules, and entablature 4 modules high. The width of the arch is 93 modules, and its height 20 modules. The height of the small columns is 11.733 modules high, including their entablature. 2664. The use of arcades above arcades seems from its nature almost confined to public buildings, as among the ancients to their theatres and amphitheatres. In the in Fig. 922. terior quadrangles or courts of palaces they have been much employed on the Continent, and in the magnificent design made by Inigo Jones for the palace at Whitehall are to be found some very fine examples. SECT. XIII. BASEMENTS AND ATTICS. 2665. When the order used for decorating the façade of a building is placed in the middle or second story, it is seated on a story called the basement. The proportion of its height to the rest must in a great measure depend on the use to which its apartments are to be appropriated. "In Italy," observes Chambers, "where their summer habitations are very frequently on that floor, the basements are sometimes very high. At the palace of Porti, in Vicenza, the height is equal to that of the order placed thereupon; and at the Thiene, in the same city, its height exceeds two thirds of that of the order, although it be almost of a sufficient elevation to contain two stories; but at the Villa Capra, and at the Loco Arsieri, both near Vicenza, the basement is only half the height of the order; because in both these the ground floor consists of nothing but offices." It may hence be gathered that no absolute law can be laid down in reference to the height of a basement story. Yet we may state, generally, that a basement should not be higher than the order it is to support, for it would in that case detract from the principal part of the composition, and, in fact, would be likely to interfere with it. Besides which, the principal staircase then requires so many steps that space is wasted for their reception. Neither," says Chambers, "should a basement be lower than half the height of the order, if it is to contain apartments, and consequently have windows and entrances into it; for whenever that is the case the rooms will be low, the windows and doors very ill formed, or not proportional to the rest of the composition, as is observable at Holkham: but if the only use of the basement be to raise the ground floor, it need not exceed three, four, or at the most five or six feet in height, and be in the form of a continued pedestal." 2666. Basement stories are decorated generally with rustic work of such various kinds, that we fear it would be here impossible to describe or represent their varieties. Many are capriciously rock-worked on their surface, others are plain, that is, with a smooth surface. The height of each course, including the joints, should on no account be less than one module of the order which the basement supports; their length may be from once and a half to thrice their height. As respects the joints, these may be square or chamfered off. When square joints are used, they should not be wider than one eighth part of the height of the rustic itself, nor narrower than one-tenth, their depth not exceeding their width. When the joints are chamfered, the chamfer should be at an angle of forty-five degrees, and the whole width of the joint from one third to one fourth of the height of the rustic. 2667. The courses are sometimes (often on the Continent) laid without showing vertical joints; but, as Chambers says, this " has in general a bad appearance, and strikes as if the building were composed of boards rather than of stone. Palladio's method seems far preferable, who, in imitation of the ancients, always marked both the vertical and the horizontal joints; and whenever the former of these are regularly and artfully disposed, the rustic work has a very beautiful appearance." We shall presently make a few remarks on the subject of rustics; but here, to continue and finish that more immediately under consideration, have to add, that when a high basement is used, it is not uncommon to crown it with a cornice, as may be seen in fig. 909.; but the more common practice is to use a platband only (as in fig. 911.), whose height should not be greater than that of a rustic exclusive of the joint. Of a similar height should be made the zoccolo or plinth; but this may, and ought, perhaps, to be somewhat higher. When arches occur in basements, the platband, which serves for the impost, should be as high as a course of rustics, exclusive of the joint; and if the basement be finished with a cornice, such basement should have a regularly moulded base at its foot; the former to be about one thirteenth of the whole height of the basement, and the base about one eighteenth, without the plinth. 2668. The Attic— which is used instead of a second order where limits are prescribed to the height of a building, examples whereof may be seen at Greenwich Hospital, and in the Valmarano palace, by the great Palladio, at Vicenza- should not exceed in height one-third of the order whereon they are placed, neither ought they to be less than one quarter. Bearing some resemblance to a pedestal, the base, die, and cornice whereof they are composed may be proportioned much in the same way as the respective divisions of their prototypes. They are sometimes continued without, and sometimes with, breaks over the column or pilaster of the order which they crown. If they are formed with pilasters, such ought to be of the same width as the upper diameter of the order under them, never more. In projection they should be one quarter of their width at most. They may be decorated with sunk moulded panels if necessary; but this is a practice rather to be avoided, as is most especially that of using capitals to them -a practice much in vogue in France under Louis XV. 2669. We now return to the subject of the rock-worked rustic, whereof, above, some notice was promised. The practice, though occasionally used by the Romans, seems to have had its chief origin in Florence, where, as we have in a former Book (329.) observed, each palace resembled rather a fortification than a private dwelling. Here it was used to excess; and if variety in the practice is the desire of the student, the buildings of that city will furnish him with an almost infinite number of examples. The introduction of it gives a boldness and an expression of solidity to the rustics of a basement which no other means afford. In the other parts of Italy it was sparingly applied, but with more taste. Vignola and Palladio seem to have treated it as an accident productive of great variety rather than as a means of decoration. The last-named architect has in the Palazzo Thiene carried it to the utmost extent whereof it is susceptible. Yet, with this extreme extent of application, the design falls from his hands full of grace and feeling. To imitate it would be a dangerous experiment. De Brosse failed at the Luxembourg, and produced an example of clumsiness which in the Palazzo Pitti does not strike the spectator. 2670. Rustics and rockwork on columns are rarely justifiable except for the purpose of some particular picturesque effect which demands their prominence in the scene, or street view, as in the gateway at Burlington House in Piccadilly, -a splendid monument of the great talent of Lord Burlington. SECT. XIV. PILASTERS. 2671. Pilasters, or square columns, were by the Romans termed antæ, by the Greeks parastata. This last word implies the placing one object standing against another, a sufficiently good definition of the word, inasmuch as in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they are engaged in or backed against a wall, or, in other words, are portions of square columns projecting from a wall. 2672. It is usual to call a square column, when altogether disengaged from the wall, a pillar or pier; and we are inclined to think, notwithstanding the alleged type of trees, that the primitive supports of stone buildings were quite as likely to have been square as round, and that the inconvenience attendant upon square angles may have led the earliest builders to round off the corners, and gradually to bring them to a circular plan. Isolated pillars are rarely found among the examples left us by the ancients; the little temple at Trevi furnishes, indeed, an example, but not of the best period of the art. The principal points to be attended to in their use are their projection, diminution, the mode of uniting the entablature over them with that of their columns, and their flutings and capitals. 2673. In respect of the projection of pilasters, Perrault says they should project one half, and not exceed that by more than a sixth, as in the frontispiece of Nero, unless circumstances require a different projection. The pilasters of the Pantheon project only a tenth part of their width; and sometimes, as in the forum of Nerva, they are only a fourteenth part. But when pilasters are to receive the imposts of arches against their sides, they are made to project a fourth part of their diameter; and this is a convenient proportion, because in the Corinthian order the capital is not so much disfigured. Hence, when pilasters are made to form re-entering angles, they should project more than half their diameter. Many and various opinions have been formed on the propriety of diminishing pilasters. Perrault, with whom we incline to agree, thinks that when one face only projects, pilasters should not be diminished. Those at the flanks of the portico of the Pantheon are without diminution. But when pilasters are on the same line as columns, we want to lay the entablature from one to the other without any projection, in which case the pilaster must be diminished in the same degree as the column itself, speaking of the front face, leaving the sides undiminished, as in the temple of Antoninus and Faustina. When the pilaster has two of its faces projecting from the wall, being on the angle, and one of those faces answers to a column, such face is diminished similarly to the column, as in the portico of Septimius, where the face not corresponding to the column receives no diminution. There are, however, ancient examples where no diminution is practised, as in the interior of the Pantheon, where it is so small as not to be very apparent, being much less than that of the column, as is also the case in the temple of Mars Ultor, and in the arch of Constantine. In these cases, the custom of the ancients is sometimes to place the architrave plumb over the column, which brings it within the line of the pilaster. This may be seen in the temple of Mars Ultor, in the interior of the Pantheon, and in the portico of Septimius. Sometimes this excess is divided into two parts, one whereof goes to the excess of projection of the architrave above the column, and the other half to the deficiency of extent above the pilaster, as in the forum of Nerva. The whole matter is a problem of difficult solution, which Chambers has avoided, but which, with reference to the examples we have cited, will not be attended with difficulty to the student in his practice. 2674. We have above seen that pilasters, when used with columns, are subject to the form and conditions of the latter. As to their flutings we are left more at liberty. In the portico of the Pantheon we find the pilasters fluted and the columns plain. This, however, may have been caused by the difficulty of fluting the latter, which are of granite, whilst the pilasters are of marble. On the other hand, we sometimes find the columns fluted and the pilasters plain, as in the temple of Mars Ultor, and the portico of Septimius Severus. Generally, too, it may be observed that when pilasters project less than half their diameter, their return faces are not fluted. In respect of the number of the flutes, if the examples of the ancients were any guide, could have been no fixed rule; for in the portico of the Pantheon, the arch of Septimius Severus, and that of Constantine, seven flutes only are cut on the pilasters, whilst the flutes of the pilasters in the interior of the Pantheon are nine in number. This, however, is to be observed, that the flutes must always be of an odd number, except in re-entering pilasters, wherein four are placed instead of three and a half, and five instead of four and a half, when the whole pilaster would have nine. This is done to prevent the ill effect which would be produced in the capital by the bad falling of the leaves over the flutes. 2675. We shall hereafter give from Chambers some representations of pilaster capitals, which, except as regards their width, resemble those of the order they accompany. The practice of the ancients in this respect was very varied. Among the Greeks the form of the pilaster capital was altogether different from that of the column, seeming to have no relationship to it whatever; but on this point the student must consult the works on Grecian antiquities, an example whereof will be found in fig. 883. 2676. A pilaster may be supposed to represent a column and to take its place under many circumstances; and, notwithstanding all that was said on the subject by the Abbé Langier, many years ago, against the employment of pilasters altogether, we are decidedly of opinion that they are often useful and important accessories in a building. It would be difficult to enumerate every situation wherein it is expedient to use pilasters rather than insulated or engaged columns. In internal apartments, where the space is restricted, a column appears heavy and occupies too much room. The materials, morever, which can be obtained, often restrict the architect to the use of pilasters, over which the projections of the entablature are not so great; indeed, as the author in the Encyclopedie Methodique ob serves, a pilaster may be considered as a column in bas-relief, and is thus, from the diminished quantity of labour and material in it, simpler and more economical in application. That in houses and palaces of the second class the decoration by pilasters is of great service may be amply shown by reference to the works of Bramante, San Gallo, Palladio, and the other great masters of Italy, no less than in this country to those of Jones, Wren, and Vanbrugh. 2677. In profiling the capitals of Tuscan and Doric pilasters there can of course arise no difficulty; they follow the profiles of those over the columns themselves. In the capitals, however, of the other orders, some difficulties occur: these are thus noticed by Chambers. "In the antique Ionic capital, the extraordinary projection of the ovolo makes it necessary either to bend it inwards considerably towards the extremities, that it may pass behind the volutes, or, instead of keeping the volutes flat in front, as they commonly are in the antique, to twist them outwards till they give room for the passage of the ovolo. Le Clerc " (Traité d'Architecture) "thinks the latter of these expedients the best, and that the artifice may not be too striking, the projection of the ovolo may be considerably diminished, as in the annexed design" (fig. 923.), "which, as the moulding can be seen in front only, will occasion no disagreeable effect." 2678. "The same difficulty subsists with regard to the passage of the ovolo behind the angular Ionic volutes. Le Clerc therefore advises to open or spread the volutes sufficiently to leave room for the ovolo to pass behind them, as in the design" (fig. 924.)" annexed; which may be easily done, if the projection of the ovolo is diminished. Inigo Jones has in the Banqueting House made the two sides of the volutes parallel to each other, according to Scamozzi's manner, and at the same time has continued the ovolo in a straight line under them, so that the volutes have an enormous projection; which, added to the other faults of these capitals, renders the whole composition unusually defective and exceedingly ugly." Fig. 923. Fig. 924. 2679. "What has been said with regard to the passage of the ovolo behind the volutes in the Ionic order is likewise to be remembered in the Composite; and in the Corinthian the lip or edge of the vase or basket may be bent a little inwards towards its extremities, by which means it will easily pass behind the volutes. The leaves in the Corin- Fig. 925. 2680. It is desirable to avoid the use of pilasters at inward angles penetrating each other, because of the irregularity such practice produces in the entablatures and capitals. One break is quite as much as should be ever tolerated, though in many of the churches in Rome they are multiplied with great profusion of mutilated capitals and entablatures; "than which," observes Chambers," nothing can be more confused or disagreeable." |