THE

MODERN PRECEPTOR.

CHAPTER XI.

OF ARCHITECTURE.

THE term Architecture is formed from the Greek language, signifying originally the chief trade or handicraft: but it has long been confined to the art of constructing edifices of every kind, for the use and comfort of man. Shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, even in the genial climates where the human race were first planted, and protection from the wild beasts of the field, must have been amongst the first wants of men; architecture, however rude and simple, must therefore have been one of the earliest arts to which necessity gave birth.

Vitruvius, whose celebrated treatise on Architecture was composed in the reign of Augustus, has left us the following fanciful conjectures on the origin and progress of the art of building. Antiently," says he, "men lived in woods and inhabited caves, but at last, taking the hint perhaps from the birds of the air, which build their nests with equal ingenuity and industry, they formed for themselves huts. These were probably at first of a conical figure,

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because this figure is of very simple construction, consisting of branches of trees spreading wide at the bottom, and united in a point at the top, covering the whole with reeds, leaves and clay, to defend them from the tempest. Finding however in the course of time this conical figure inconve nient, on account of the slope of its sides, they changed the form of their huts, giving them that of a cube or of a parallelopiped. Having marked out the space to be occupied, they fixed in the ground several upright trunks of trees to form "the sides, filling their intervals with branches closely interwoven and covered with clay. The sides being thus completed, four long beams were placed on the upright trunks which, being well joined at the angles, kept the sides firm, and likewise served to support the covering or roof of the building, composed of many joists on which were laid beds of reeds, leaves and clay.

"When the art of rearing their habitations was thus far advanced, men began to contrive methods of rendering them durable and elegant as well as commodious. They took off the bark and other unevennesses of the trunks forming the sides, raised them above the humidity of the ground by placing them on stones, and covered each upright post or trunk with a flat stone to defend it from the rain. The spaces between the ends of the joists were closed with elay or some similar substance, and the ends of the joists themselves were covered with thin boards cut in the form of the ornamental parts now called triglyphs. The position of the roofs was likewise altered: for being, on account of its flatness, unfit for throwing off the rains, the roof was raised in the middle into the form of a triangle or gable,, by placing rafters on the joists to support the branches, turf, and other materials composing the covering.

"From these simple elements architecture took its beginning for when buildings of wood were laid aside, and men set themselves to construct more solid and stately

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edifices of stone or clay dried in the sun, they still imitated those parts which necessity had originally introduced into their dwellings; insomuch that the upright trunks, with the stones at their upper and lower ends, presented the original model of columns, capitals and bases; and the beams, joists, rafters, layers of materials, that formed the covering, produced the several parts of improved architecture called architraves, friezes, triglyphs, cornices, with all their attending ornaments.

The first buildings were, it may be imagined, rough and uncouth; but when from experience and observation rules had been formed, proper tools invented, and facility in executing designs had been acquired, men made rapid advances towards perfection, and at length discovered certain modes of building which succeeding ages have regarded with the highest veneration."

Architecture is divided into various modes, deriving their names from a principal member of the edifice, viz. the column. These modes, or orders as they are usually termed, are five, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corintbian, invented as is generally supposed amongst the several Grecian nations whose names they bear; the other two orders, the Tuscan and the Composite, are the production of Italy, in its different stages of rudeness and refinement.

An order in architecture consists of two principal parts, the column and the entablature, of which each is composed of three inferior parts: those of the column are the base or foundation on which it rests, the shaft or tall tapering part, and the capital or ornamental portion at the summit: those of the entablature are, in their order rising upwards, the architrave, the freeze, and the cornice. These parts are again subdivided into many smaller members, by whose number, form and dimensions, each order is characterised.

The Tuscan is the most simple and solid of the five orders it consists of few parts, is devoid of ornament, but so

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massy as to be capable of supporting the greatest weight. The height of the Tuscan column is always seven times the diameter of its lower end, and the diameter of the top of the shaft is commonly made five-sixth parts of that at the bottom.

The Doric Order is next in strength to the Tuscan. It is considered to be the most antient of all the orders, and in its form and ornaments retains considerable resemblance to the structure of the original hut already described from Vitruvius, the triglyphs on its frieze representing the ends of the joists, and the mutules of the cornice imitating the rafters. The height of the Doric column, including its base and capital, is eight diamaters, or sixteen semidiameters, also called modules, of its lower end. In many of the most antient Greak buildings now remaining, the Doric column appears to spring immediately out of the ground, without any base; and in' this manner it is given by Vitruvius, who says that the base was first introduced in the Ionic order.

The Ionic Order is more tall and slender than the preceding, its appearance is simple yet graceful and majestic; its ornaments are few, so that it has been compared toa venerable matron, in delicate and becoming rather than magnificent attire; the base which is said to have been first einployed in this order has been supposed to imitate her sandals. Among the antients the proportions of the Ionic order seem to have been more accurately determined than those of any other; for very little variation is discovered in its measures on such antique monuments as have subsisted to our times. The height of the Ionic column is nine diameters, or eighteen modules of its lower end: the shaft of the column may be either plain or chanelled into flutings extending in some cases the whole height, in others only one-third of the height from the base.

One ornament peculiar to the Ionic column is the scrol

VOL. II.

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or

or volute which adorns the capital, supposed to be borrowed from the curling locks of a female figure, or more probably from the turning down of the bark on the primitive column made of the rude trunk of a tree.

The proportions of the Corinthian order are very delicate : it is divided into a great variety of parts, and enriched with a profusion of ornaments. The Corinthian column should be in height ten diameters, or twenty modules of its lower end: when the entablature is enriched, the shaft should be chanelled or fluted.

The beautiful capital of the Corinthian order is said to have owed its origin to the following circumstance :-A young Corinthian maid dying, her nurse brought her playthings in a basket, and placed it on the ground beside the tomb; the basket, covered with a flat tile, by accident rested on a plant of Acanthus: the leaves springing up round the basket, and meeting with the projecting edge of the tile, were turned downwards at the extremities. sculptor, Callimachus, passing by the tomb, observed the graceful appearance of this group, and soon after introduced it as an ornament of the capital of a Corinthian column.

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The Composite Order is, as its name imports, not so properly a separate order as one composed of members and ornaments borrowed from the others: in general appearance it seems to be only a variety of the Corinthian, being like it tall and slender; but the capital, in addition to the basket and leaves, admits the scroll or volute of the Ionic order.

In general, in all the five orders, the whole height of the entablature is allowed to be one fourth part of that of the whole column.

Besides columns properly so called, Pilasters form a very essential part of architecture. The chief use of pilasters is to support great weights, in particular arches: for though columns are in some cases introduced with arches thrown from the one capital to the other, yet as columns gradually

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