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capital on its elevation, as in fig. 857, and such was the mode we were formerly in the habit of adopting. It however induces such a confusion of lines, that we have long since abandoned it, and have no hesitation in recommending the process here given as the best and most likely to avoid confusion. It is of course unnecessary, in making drawings, to project more than the shadow of one capital, as in a portico, or elsewhere, similar capitals, similarly exposed to the light, will project similar shadows, so that the projection on one serves for the projection on all of them.

2484. For instruction upon the mode in which reflected light acts upon objects in shade and shadow, we must refer the learner to the contemplation of similar objects in relief. The varieties of reflexes are almost infinite; and though general rules might be laid down, they would necessarily be so complicated, that they would rather puzzle than instruct, and under this head we recommend the study of nature, which will be found the best instructress the student can procure.

SECT. IV.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION.

2485. The end of architecture, without whose aid no other art can exist, is not merely to please the eye, but so to provide against the changes of the seasons as to be serviceable to man. Pleasure to the eye may, however, result from the useful, well combined with the beautiful modifications whereof it is susceptible. It is in combining thus that the genius of the architect is exhibited. The art of decorating a well-proportioned edifice is a very secondary and comparatively easy part of his work, though requiring, of course, the early cultivation of his taste and an intimate acquaintance with the parts, whereof this may be taught and that acquired; but the distribution and arrangement of the several portions on the plan, upon which every accessory is dependent, requires great knowledge and considerable experience. And in this is involved not only the general convenience and effect of the building, but what is of much consequence to the proprietor, the cost of the work. None but those practically conversant with the planning of a building would believe the saving that may be produced by proper distribution. In the case of many external breaks, for instance, much addition arises in the length of walls enclosing the edifice, without generally increasing the convenience of the interior, but always when the elevation comes to be adapted to the plan, with the certainty of breaking up the masses, and destroying the simplicity of the effect. This is mentioned merely as an instance of simplicity of plan always producing simplicity of section and elevation.

2486. All ornament in architecture is non-essential, inasmuch as the pleasure received by the eye is not its end. To public and private utility, the welfare and comforts of individuals, which are the ends of the art, every other point must be sacrificed; and it is only when these have been accomplished that we are to think of decoration. An anecdote is related of a certain nobleman, who, having boasted to a friend of the beauty of the façade of his house, which within was exceedingly ill contrived, was told that he thought the peer would do well to take the house opposite, that he might be thus always able to look at it. Those who make the internal parts of an edifice subservient to the project of a façade, and adjust their plan and section to the elevation, must be considered as making the end of less importance than the ornament of the building. Those who work in this mode produce little variety in their designs, which, numerous though they be, consist of but few different combinations, whilst those that result from the natural order of making the façade subservient to the internal parts, which the plan and section impose, are susceptible of infinite variety and decoration.

2487. It is not, however, to be supposed that we are, in what has been said, sanctioning the student's neglect of careful composition and adjustment of the façades. Upon the adaptation of the different fronts of the building to sort with the internal convenience, the greatest care should be bestowed. It is from these his reputation is likely to flow, because they are the parts most susceptible of comprehension by the public. The architect will, upon every succeeding day's experience, find that the two objects are not incompatible; but if such a case, which is possible, arise, he had far better sacrifice the façade, considering first the comforts of those who are to inhabit the house, and then the gratification of those who are only to look at it.

2488. Durand has well observed that compositions conducted on the above principles must please. "Has not nature," says that author, "attached pleasure to the satisfaction of our wants, and are our most lively pleasures other than the satisfaction of our most pressing wants? These wants are better satisfied in the interior distribution of a building than in the exterior." Who leaves the Pantheon without more satisfaction than he expected from the view of the portico, fine though it be? Again, faulty as are both St. Peter's and St. Paul's, will any one who understands the subject aver that he has received more pleasure from their respective façades than from their noble interiors? The pleasurable sensations produced by both are entirely dependent on their interior distribution. But when we find that in the former of these buildings there is no mockery of a dome, the interior and exterior being as far dependent on each other as the circumstances of construction would permit, whilst the dome of the latter is worse than a mockery, the interior and exterior domes having nothing in common with each other, the last being no more than a timber leaded appurtenance to the fabric, Wren, with all his greatness, for great he was, shrinks into nothingness by the side of Michael Angelo, although the external form of the dome of London be more elegant than that of the Vatican. This is a strong but not a forced illustration of our opinions, the good sense whereof must be left for appreciation to our readers, who, we doubt not, on a little reflection, will concur with us.

The

2489. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the student will find that a good distribution of his plan leads him, with anything like ordinary tact, to the composition of good sections and good elevations, far better, indeed, than he could arrive at by pursuing an opposite course. In domestic Gothic architecture, this is notorious, for in that a regular distribution of the openings would often produce the tamest and least picturesque effect. Gothic architects placed windows internally where only they would be serviceable, letting them take their chance in the exterior. It is not to be understood, because such would be rather outré, that this method will exactly suit the principles of composition in Italian architecture; but it is well known to practical men that a required opening in a particular place, instead of being a blemish, may be converted on many occasions into a beauty. Indeed, it is incontrovertibly true that distribution and disposition are the first objects that should engage the architect's attention, even of him whose great aim is to strike the attention by ornament, which can never please unless its source can be traced to the most convenient and economical distribution of the leading parts. Theorists may be laughed at, but it does not move us, nor diminish our regret to see many architects without any other theory than that whereon, in an inverted position, their own wild fancies are grafted. If what we have stated be true, and from the nature of things we cannot imagine a controversy can arise upon our observations, the talent of the architect is to be estimated, as Durand properly observes, according to his solution of the two following problems: —

First. For a given sum, as in private buildings, to erect the most convenient and suitable house for his employer.

Second.

The requisites in a building being given, as in public buildings, to erect it at the smallest possible expense.

2490. An investigation of all the modes of accomplishing these desiderata can only be fully effected in a work of much larger extent than this; but we have, in the practical parts of our volume, so prepared the reader, that he will not generally be at a loss in respect of the construction of a building, whatever its nature or destination

SECT. V.

DRAWINGS NECESSARY IN COMPOSITION,

2490a. For the thorough comprehension of a projected edifice, at least three drawings are necessary, the plan, the section, and the elevation. The first is a horizontal section of it. the second the vertical section, which shows the building as if it were cut in half, that hall nearest the spectator being removed from its plan, so as to permit the inner parts to become visible, and the third is the geometrical appearance of the front represented as if viewed from an infinite distance, in which no convergence of the lines would be seen.

24906. In making a design, it is always better to put the general idea together on a single sheet of paper, and consequently, in most cases, on a small scale. This, in afterwards making the drawings, is, as may be necessary, increased in size. The three parts being drawn under one another, as shown in fig. 895a, wherein the middle diagram is the plan, the lower one the section, and the upper one the elevation. By thus beginning on a single sheet, in which the whole is before the eye, the corresponding lines are more readily transferred from one part to another. Having drawn through the middle of the paper the vertical AA, cut at right angles by the horizontal line BB, draw the required centres or axes of the walls CC and DD, and supposing the building is to be square, with the same opening of the compasses set out the axes of the return walls EE and FF. Having determined the thickness of the walls, one half may be set out on each side the axes, as in ee, ff, cc, and dd, and then the lines showing the thick- c nesses of the walls may be drawn. The width of openings in the walls may be next set out, half on each side the axes BB and AA, first drawn towards bb and aa, and the lines drawn to their places. Having thus proceeded, we shall discover that not only has the plan been drawn, but at the same time a considerable portion of the section and elevation. To distinguish the voids from the solids, the latter should be coloured or hatched, and then the next step will be as follows:- DParallel to the principal axis BB, draw the ground lines GG and GG. From these lines the heights of the building, its cornice and openings, may be set up in the section and elevation; and afterwards, the height of the roof and projection of the cornice having been determined, they may be set out and drawn. In the section, as in the plan, it is usual either to colour or hatch the solid parts, as we have done in the figure.

B

G

b

G

B

D

G

2490c. Simple as the above process may be, it contains the whole elementary part of the mechanical process necessary for making a design. It might have been conducted on a more complicated mass, but had we done so, it would not have been so well understood, and we therefore deprecate any observations on the simpleness of our process by those who have been brought to know these things by practice and experience. We do not, however, feel we should discharge our duty before closing this section, without a censure on the attempt to convert drawings of geometrical elevations and sections into picturesque representations, because such practice is not only injurious to the art, but is dishonest, and has a tendency to mislead the architect's employer; and we are sorry to say that it is not unfrequently done with such a view. We denounce it, and without hesitation aver that the casting of shadows on a design is only admissible for the purpose of showing the relative depths of projecting parts; and when so admitted, the medium should be confined to Indian ink or sepia, and thrown in merely in masses, the apertures being just slightly filled in with the same colour.

E

Fig. 859a.

SECT. VI.

WORKING DRAWINGS.

249. Working drawings are those made of the parts at large for executing the works, which could not be well done from drawings on a small scale, wherein the small parts would not be either sufficiently defined, or could not be figured so as to enable the workman to set out his work with accuracy. They are generally in outline, except the sectional parts, which are frequently tinted to bring the profiles more readily before the eye.

2491a. It is obvious that though drawings made to a twelfth or a twenty-fourth part of their real size may well enough supply the wants of the workman where there is no complication in the distribution and arrangement, and where there is a simple treatment of regular forms, of right angles and the like; yet in all cases wherein we have to deal with the minor details of architecture, and in construction, where the variety of forms used is infinite from the variety of the circumstances, nothing short of drawings of the full, or at the least of half, the size will safely guide the workman.

24916. The art of making working drawings, which must have been well understood at all periods of the practice of architecture, involves a thorough knowledge of projection, or descriptive geometry, and consists in expressing by lines all that occurs for the development of every part of the details of a building, in plan, elevation, and profile, each part being placed for the use of the workman with clearness and precision. All the rules by which working drawings are wrought are dependent on the matter in this work already communicated to the reader, excepting only those details of the orders, and some other matters, which will be found in Book III. But we shall here, nevertheless, briefly replace before him the leading principles whereon working drawings are to be prepared. And first, he is to recollect that solids are only represented by the faces opposite to the eye; secondly, that the surfaces by which solids are enclosed are of two sorts, that is, rectilinear or curvilinear. Those bodies in which these properties are combined may be divided into three sorts: 1. Those which are bounded by plane surfaces, such as prisms, pyramids, and generally all straight work. 2. Those in which there is a mixture of straight and curved lines, as cylinders, cones, or portions of them, voussoirs of vaulting, and the like; and 3. Those solids wherein a double flexure occurs, as in the sphere, spheroid, and in many cases of voussoirs.

2491c. We should, however, unnecessarily use our limited space by further entering on these matters, on which enough has been said in previous sections. The plain truth is, that working drawings are to be so made for the use of the artificer as to embody on a scale, to prevent any mistake, all the information which this work has already given on construction, and that which follows in the more refined view of architecture as a fine art.

2491d. In works whose magnitude is not of the first class, the drawing of every part, both in construction and in those which involve the work as one of art, should be given of the full size whereof it is proposed to be executed. Where the building is large, as also the parts, this may be dispensed with; but then it becomes (the detail being drawn on a smaller but fully intelligible scale) the duty of the architect to see that the drawings he furnishes are faithfully drawn out to the full size by the artificer on proper moulds. Often it is useful—never, indeed, otherwise-to offer up, as it is called, small portions of mouldings on the different parts of a building, to ascertain what the effect may be likely to be at the heights fixed for their real places. In these matters he should leave no means untried to satisfy himself of the effect which his first drawings in small is likely to produce when executed.

2491e. We have presumed that the architect is so far educated as to have acquired a full knowledge of all that rules can teach, and that, strictly speaking, he has proportioned his work in conformity with them. Still, in real practice, there are constantly so many circumstances which concur in making it almost necessary to depart from established rules, such as surrounding buildings, where it is of importance to give predominance to a part for the purpose of making it a feature, that the expedient of trying a portion of the proposed detail in the place it is actually to occupy, is a matter that we would advise every architect to adopt after he has made and studied the working drawings whereof we treat. 2491f. We have not alluded to the matters of carpentry and joinery, in which it is often necessary to give the artificer information by means of working drawings; but the methods of trussing in carpentry, and of framing in joinery, often require working drawings. What has already been exhibited under those heads (2031, et seq.) will prevent his being left uninstructed, and will, moreover, have afforded such information as to prepare him, by the exercise of his own ingenuity, for such cases as may not have been specially given in the examples herein contained. We therefore here close our observations under this section by an intimation to the student, that the proper preparation of working drawings for the use of the artificer tests his acquaintance with the theory and practice of the art, and is of the utmost importance to the pocket of the employer, which it is his duty as a gentleman incessantly to protect.

BOOK III.

PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE.

CHAP. I.

GRECIAN AND ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE.

SECT. I.

BEAUTY IN ARCHITECTURE.

2192. THE existence of architecture as a fine art is dependent on expression, or the faculty of representing, by means of lines, words, or other media, the inventions which the architect conceives suitable to the end proposed. That end is twofold; to be useful, and to connect the use with a pleasurable sensation in the spectator of the invention. In eloquence and poetry the end is to instruct, and such is the object of the higher and historical classes of painting; but architecture, though the elder of the arts, cannot claim the rank due to painting and poetry, albeit its end is so much more useful and necessary to mankind. In the sciences the end is utility and instruction, but in them the latter is not of that high moral importance, however useful, which allows them for a moment to come into competition with the great arts of painting, poetry, and eloquence. It will be seen that we here make no allusion to the lower branches of portrait and landscape painting, but to that great moral and religious end which fired the mind of Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel, and of Raffaelle Sanzio in the Stanze of the Vatican and in the Cartoons. Above the lower branches of painting just mentioned, the art whereof we treat occupies an exalted station. In it though the chief end is to produce an useful result, yet the expression on which it depends, in common with the other great arts, brings each within the scope of those laws which govern generally the fine arts whose object is beauty. Beauty, whatever difference of opinion may exist on the means necessary to produce it, is by all admitted to be the result of every perfection whereof an object is susceptible, such perfections being altogether dependent on the agreeable proportions subsistent between the several parts, and those between the several parts and the whole. The power or faculty of inventing is called genius. By it the mind is capable of conceiving and of expressing its conceptions. Taste, which is capable of being acquired, is the natural sensation of a mind refined by art. It guides genius in discerning, embracing, and producing beauty. Here we may for a moment pause to inquire what may be considered a standard of taste, and that cannot be better done than in the words used on the subject by Hume (Essay xxiii.): "The great variety of tastes," says that author, " as well as of opinion, which prevails in the world, is too obvious not to have fallen under every one's observation. Men of the most confined knowledge are able to remark a difference of taste in the narrow circle of their acquaintance, even where the persons have been educated under the same government and have early imbibed the same prejudices. But those who can enlarge their view to contemplate distant nations and remote ages are still more surprised at the great inconsistence and contrariety. We are apt to call barbarous whatever departs widely from our own taste and apprehension, but soon find the epithet of reproach retorted on us, and the highest arrogance and self-conceit is at last startled on observing an equal assurance on all sides, and scruples, amidst such a contest of sentiment, to pronounce positively in its own favour." True as are the observations of this philosopher in respect of a standard of taste, we shall nevertheless attempt to guide the reader to some notion of a standard of taste in architecture.

2493. There has lately grown into use in the arts a silly pedantic term under the name of Esthetics, founded on the Greek word 'Awenrikòs, one which means having the power of perception by means of the senses; said to be the science whereby the first principles in all the arts are derived, from the effect which certain combinations have on the mind as con nected with nature and reason: it is, however, one of the metaphysical and useless additions

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