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of Therma, as the great aqueduct ran near it, the interior has two sides decorated with six Corinthian columns, and in the wall between each column is a niche (called tabernacle by the moderns). Each is placed on a pedestal, and at the sides have pilasters alternately surmounted by segmental and triangular pediments. We do not, however, consider it necessary to enumerate the various Roman works wherein the niche finds a place, and shall therefore do no more than refer the student to the Pantheon, the temple of Peace, the arch of Janus, at Rome, and to its exuberant employment at Palmyra, Baalbec, and Spalato. The buildings cited will furnish him with examples of all sorts and characters.

2776. The dresses of niches seem to bear an analogy to those of windows and doors in their form and decoration; the niche may really be considered as an opening in a wall, and indeed there are, in the arch of Claudius Drusus, now the Porta Maggiore, at Rome, openings used as niches, in which an object placed may be seen from either side of the wall. It therefore appears not improper to dress the niche with the ornaments which custom has sanctioned for doors and windows. The author of the article "Niche" in the Encyclopedie Methodique, has divided niches into three classes. The first are such as are square on the plan, and either square or circular-headed. These are the simplest, and are without dressings of any sort. Second, such as are square on their plans, and with square heads, but ornamented with dressings, or crowned with a simple platband supported by two consoles. In the third class are included all niches whose plan and heads are semicircular, either ornamented with festoons, or with dressings, or with columns and entablature. These, says the author, are to be introduced into buildings according to their several characters, from simple to highly enriched, as requisite.

2777. Some architectural authors have laid down positive rules for the proportions of niches. According to others the proportion is found in a niche twice and a half its width in height; and indeed this produces a proportion not inelegant. But in considering the classes separately, they have divided the width of the niches invariably into twelve parts. To a niche of the first class they give twenty-eight of such parts; to one of the second class, thirty; and to one of the third class, thirty-one parts. This reduction, however, of the proportions of a niche seems to us to partake of empiricism; and we would rather always trust to an educated eye than to rules which seem to have no basis on fitness and propriety. It is, moreover, to be recollected that all rules of art can be considered only as mean terms, serving more as approximations than positive laws for the guidance of the artist in the different combinations he imagines.

2778. The use of tiers of niches over each other is condemned by J. F. Blondel, unless separated by a line of entablature between them, which may seem to indicate the existence of a floor; otherwise, he observes, one figure seems to stand on the head of another. This, however, is an abuse of reasoning; not that it is to be understood that we think the practice very allowable. The recommendation of this master in respect of the relation between niches and the statues that are to occupy them is worthy of attention. He opposes, and we think with great propriety, the placing a statue without a plinth in the niche. The plinth is, indeed, necessary to the good effect of every statue; and to pretend that the imitation in marble could or ever was intended to be mistaken for the object it imitates, would be to leave behind all those matters of convention in art for which the spectator is well prepared. In architectural decoration, no less than in the abstract imitation of the objects of sculpture, no one is desirous of believing them natural and living, but only as models of imitation.

2779. The following observations are from Chambers, relative to the size of the statues used in niches. "The size of the statue depends upon the dimensions of the niche; it should neither be so large as to seem rammed into it, as at Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome, nor so small as to seem lost in it, as in the Pantheon, where the statues do not occupy above three quarters of the height of the niche, and only one half of its width. Palladio, in arched niches, makes the chin of his statues on a level with the top of the impost (springing), so that the whole head is in the coved part. In the nave of St. Peter's, at Rome, the same proportion has been observed, and it has a very good effect. The distance between the outline of the statue and the sides of the niche should never be less than one third of a head, nor more than one half, whether the niche be square or arched; and when it is square, the distance from the top of the head to the soffite of the niche should not exceed the distance left on the sides. The statues are generally raised on a plinth, the height of which may be from one third to one half of a head; and sometimes, where the niches are very large in proportion to the architecture they accompany, as is the case when an order comprehends but one story, the statues may be raised on small pedestals, by which means they may be made lower than usual, and yet fill the niche sufficiently, it being to be feared lest statues of a proper size to fill such niches should make the columns and entablature appear trifling. The same expedient must also be made use of whenever the statues in the niches, according to their common proportions, come considerably larger than those placed at the top of the building. A trifling disparity will not be easily perceived, on ac

count of the distance between their respective situations; but if it be great, it has s very bad effect; and therefore this must be well attended to and remedied, either by the above-mentioned method, or by entirely omitting statues at the top of the building, leaving the balustrade either free, or placing thereon vases, trophies, and other similar ornaments." Further on in the same work, the author says that "niches, being designed as repositories for statues, groups, vases, or other works of sculpture, must be contrived to set off the things they are to contain to the best advantage; and therefore no ornaments should ever be introduced within them, as is sometimes injudiciously practised, the cove of the niche being either filled with a large scollop shell, or the whole inside with various kinds of projecting rustics, with moulded compartments, either raised or sunken, or composed of different coloured marbles, for all these serve to confuse the outline of the statue or group. It is even wrong to continue an impost within the niche, for that is of considerable disadvantage to the figures, which never appear so perfect as when backed and detached on a plain smooth surface. An excess of ornaments round the niche should likewise be avoided, and particularly masks, busts, boys, or any representation of the human figure, all which serve to divide the attention, and to divert it from the principal object."

2780. "The depth of the niche should always be sufficient to contain the whole statue, or whatever else it is to contain, it being very disagreeable to see statues, or any other weighty objects, with false bearings, and supported on consoles or other projections, as is sometimes done, and in the case of niches, the side views become exceedingly uncouth; for in these a leg, an arm, a head, in short, those parts alone which project beyond the niche. appear and look like so many fragments, stuck irregularly into the wall." We trust we shall be excused for this and many other long quotations from Chambers, on account of the strong common sense with which they abound, though not always expressed in the most elegant language that might have been selected.

2781. We conclude the section with a few examples of niches, whose general proportions are sufficiently to be derived from the figures which represent them, and which, therefore, will not require our more minute description in this place, the diagrams themselves being the more useful mode of submitting the subject to the student.

11

Fig. 986.

Fig. 987.

Fig. 988.

Fig. 989.

2782. Fig. 986. is the simple niche, square and circular in the head and in the plan; in the latter we have before, as a general rule, given the proportion of its height as twice and a half that of its width; but the former, or the square-headed one, may be a double square, yet it never should exceed in height twice and a half its width.

2783. Fig. 987. is a common form of using the niche where the opening of windows with which it is accompanied requires a correspondent square recess for the niches, as also in interiors where the leading lines may require such an expedient.

2784. Fig. 988. shows the method of introducing niches in a rusticated basement, which is often requisite. The rustics are received on a flat ground, in which the niche is formed. The reader is not to understand that any of the

figures are intended as models for imitation, but merely as modes on which, in using them, he may so work as to reduce them to his own views in the design whereon he is engaged.

2785. Fig. 989. is from the plate of Palladio's Egyptian Hall, and exhibits the violation of Chambers's excellent maxim of not allowing the impost to be continued round the springing of the niche. If niches are merely introduced for play of light and shadow without reference to their reception of statues, the practice of this abuse may be tolerated; but certainly not in cases where statues are to be placed in them.

2786. Fig. 990. is the niche accompanied by entablature, pediment, architraves, consoles, and pedestals, as in the windows which have already

Fig. 990.

Fig. 991.

been given, and their proportions will serve as a guide in this; the only difference being, that a niche is inserted within the architrave of the opening.

2787. Fig. 991. is imitated from one of the niches of the Pantheon, for the details whereof the reader may refer to Desgodetz.

SECT. XXII.

CHIMNEY PIECES.

2788. It is not our intention to devote much of a space, necessarily restricted, to the consideration of designs for chimney pieces; not because we consider them unworthy of the serious attention of the student, nor because the ever-varying fashion of the day seems to create a desire for new forms, but because they come under the category of doors and windows (strange as it may seem) in respect of the relation of the void to the solid parts. We are not aware that any view of this nature has heretofore been involved in the consideration of them. but we are not the more on that account to be driven from our hypothesis. The examples of chimney pieces that have been given by Chambers, and, before him, by old Serlio, were but fashions of their respective days; and if it be possible to establish something like a canon on which they might be designed, we apprehend it would be useful to the student.

2789. A chimney piece is the ornamental decoration applied to the aperture of a chimney opening, and it seems but reasonable that in its general distribution it should be subject to those laws which regulate the ornaments of other openings. The forms and fancies into which this ornament of a room may be changed are infinite, and we therefore consider that if its appendages can be drawn into a consistent shape we shall be of service in the few

A

B

C

Fig. 992.

remarks subjoined.

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In fig. 992. the chimney opening to be decorated is 4.0 wide and 3 feet 6 inches high; its area is therefore equal to 4: 0 × 36=14 feet. The principle here recommended is to make the two supporting pieces equal to one half of that area, or seven feet, and the supported piece B equal to the other half. Now, as the height is 3: 6, 7 we shall have =2 for the width of the two piers, that is, each will be one foot wide. By 3.5 the addition of these to the width of the opening, the dimension becomes six feet; and as B is to contain seven feet superficial, it follows that 7=1 is the height of B that it may

contain 7 feet.

2790. In fig. 993. we have shown the method of developing the principle; in it the supports, load, and void bear the same relation to each other as in the preceding figure. The entablature is divided into three equal parts for the architrave, frieze, and cornice, and trusses are placed on the pilasters by the sides of the architrave. The tablet is of course

not absolutely required, and the trusses may be formed of leaves instead of being plain, as here shown.

2791. Fig. 994. is another mode of using the proportions given in fig. 992., and upon it, as well as that last given, we have only to observe, they are not introduced as specimens of design, but solely with the view of illustrating a principle. The projection of chimneypieces should not generally be greater than the whole width of the support, nor less than half.

2792. We wish we could give some rule for adjusting the size of a chimney opening to that of the room it is to warm. Morris, in his Lectures on Architecture, before quoted, imagined that he had found out one, and he speaks with confidence on the results which follow its use; but we confess we are not satisfied with them. We nevertheless should be wrong in omitting it, and therefore give his words for the consideration of the student. The first rule is as follows: "To find the height of the opening of the chimney from any given magnitude of a room, add the length and height of the room together, and extract the square root of that sum, and half that root will be the height of the chimney." The second rule is as follows:- To find the breadth of a chimney from any given magnitude

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of a room, add the length, breadth, and height of the room together, and extract the square root of that sum, and half that root will be the height of the chimney." The third rule he gives is, "To find the depth of a chimney from any given magnitude, including the breadth and height of the same, add the breadth and height of the chimney together, take one fourth of that sum, and it is the depth of the chimney." His fourth and last rule is, “To find the side of a square or funnel proportioned to clear the smoke from any given depth of the chimney, take three fourths of the given depth, and that sum is the side of the square of the funnel. Observe, only, that in cube rooms the height is equal to the breadth, and the foregoing rules are universal." The rules given by Chambers are extremely vague and general. He says that "in the smallest apartments the width of the aperture is never made less than from three feet to three feet six inches; in rooms from twenty to twentyfour feet square, or of equal superficial dimensions, it may be four feet wide; in those of twenty-five to thirty, from four to four and a half; and in such as exceed these dimensions, the aperture may be extended to five or five feet six inches; but should the room be extremely large, as is frequently the case of halls, galleries, and salons, and one chimney of these dimensions neither afford sufficient heat to warm the room nor sufficient space round it for the company, it will be much more convenient, and far handsomer, to have two chimney pieces of a moderate size than a single one exceedingly large, all the parts of which would appear clumsy and disproportioned to the other decorations of the room." It is well so to place the chimney as that persons on entering a room may at once see it. In this climate a cheerfulness is imparted by the sight of a fire; but it is not to be so placed as to be opposite a door, neither ought it, if possible to be avoided, to be so placed as to have a door on either side of it. There are, however, circumstances under which even the last-named category cannot be avoided, but it is always well if it can. The fact is, that the further the door can, generally speaking, be removed from a chimney, the better; and the architect must, if the plan admit it (and he ought so to distribute his parts), avoid all cross draughts of air in a room. Angular chimneys are only admissible in small rooms where space and other considerations permit no other means of introducing a chimney. We can hardly think it necessary to say, with Chambers, that "whenever two chimneys are introduced in the same room they must be regularly placed, either directly facing each other, if in different walls, or at equal distances from the centre of the wall in which they hoth are placed. He observes, however, with a proper caution to the student, that "the Italians frequently put their chimneys in the front walls, between the windows, for the benefit of looking out while sitting by the fire; but this must be avoided, for by so doing that side of the room becomes crowded with ornaments, and the other sides are left too bare; the front walls are much weakened by the funnels, and the chimney shafts at the top of the building, which must necessarily be carried higher than the ridges of the roofs, have, from their great length, a very disagreeable effect, and are very liable to be blown down." All these objections, however, may be easily answered, and the funnels collected, or shafts, as they then become, be, with skill, made even ornamental to a building. It is in cases like these that the power of the architect above the artisan is manifest.

2793. Where the walls of a building are sufficiently thick, their funnels rise within the thickness of the walls, but in walls of a mean thickness this cannot be accomplished, for under such circumstances the walls and chimney pieces will necessarily project into the rooms, and if the break be great, the effect is unpleasant; but this may always be obviated by making arched recesses on each side, which, in commoner rooms, may be occupied by presses or closets, thus enabling the architect to carry the cornice unbroken round the room, a point which should never be forgotten, inasmuch as by the cornice or entablature of the apartment being carried round it without a break, which gives the ceiling an unbroken and regular form, a regularity is preserved infinitely more satisfactory to the eye than the disagreeable appearance of a broken, and, we may say, disjointed cornice.

2794. Of the materials employed in the construction of chimney pieces, nothing more is requisite than to say that the costliness of the material must follow the wealth of the founder of the building. Marble, however, is the material usually employed, and the various sorts known are not unfrequently intermixed, so as to produce a pleasing effect. When the aid of the sculptor is called in, much latitude is allowed in the proportions; but on this head we hope we may, without prejudice, deliver our opinion, that the effect has never amounted to anything like what might have been expected from his extraneous aid; and the solution is easy: his object is not to produce a work in harmony with the apart ment, but rather to exhibit his own powers.

2795. In the external appearance of chimney shafts, so as to group them with the building to which they belong, no architect can be put in competition with Sir John Vanbrugh. Those of Blenheim, Castle Howard, and other of his buildings, exceed all praise, and deserve the closest investigation of the student. They become in his works, as they always should do, parts of the building, inseparably connected with it, and their removal would detract from the majesty of the structure with which they are connected. On this point we are certain that the best advice that can be given to the student is a constant

contemplation of the works of Vanbrugh. In these days there seems to be a return to good feeling in this respect; and we hope it will, for the credit of the English school, be followed up.

SECT. XXIII.

STAIRCASES.

2796. A staircase is an enclosure formed by walls or partitions, or both, for the reception of an ascent of stairs, with such landings as may be necessary. Of the construction of stairs we have treated in previous sections; this will be confined to general observations on them and their enclosures.

2797. Scarcely any subdivision of a building is of more importance, as respects the character of the architect and the comfort and pleasant occupancy of it by his employer, than its principal and subordinate staircases. There is, moreover, no part, perhaps, in which more room is left for architectural and picturesque display. In our own country there are some extraordinary examples of great beauty produced in staircases on comparatively small scales; whence the student may learn that without great space he may produce very imposing effects. One of these may be still seen, though in a very neglected state, as are most of the buildings attached to the collegiate church of Westminster, at one of the prebendal houses there built by our great master Jones. It is a specimen of his consummate skill as an artist, and well worth the attention of the student, if he can obtain admittance to view it; but if he cannot, we may refer him to some plates executed from drawings made by us many years since, and published in the first and best edition of Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London (Lond. 1828). The extreme space occupied by the staircase in question does not exceed 24 by 23 feet; and within these small dimensions he contrived a staircase fit for a palace. So highly did the late Sir John Soane think of this bijou that he had a series of drawings made to illustrate its parts, and exhibited them in his lectures at the Royal Academy.

2798. It is almost unnecessary to impress upon the student that an excess rather than a deficiency of light is requisite in a staircase, and that it should be easily accessible from all parts of the building. Those laws upon which the ease of persons ascending and descending depend will form the subject of two subsections shortly following (2804. and 2814.), to which we particularly recommend the reader's attention. They are of the utmost importance, and we record with surprise that they have not been attended to by architects generally of late years. We have crept up staircases in houses of consequence, which deserved little more than the name of ladders, and we are sorry to say that this defect is found even in the works of Chambers himself; but never in those of Jones and Wren. We shall with these remarks proceed to further observations on the subject, which has already been partially touched upon in 2176. et seq.

2799. We know little of the staircases of the Greeks and Romans, and it is remarkable that Vitruvius makes no mention of a staircase, as an important part of an edifice; indeed his silence seems to lead to the conclusion that the staircases of antiquity were not constructed with the luxury and magnificence to be seen in more recent buildings. The best preserved ancient staircases are those constructed in the thickness of the walls of the pronaos of temples for ascending to the roofs. Of this sort remains are found in several peripteral temples. That of the temple of Concord at Agrigentum is still entire, and consists of forty-one steps. According to Pausanias, similar staircases existed in the temple of the Olympian Jupiter at Elis. They were generally winding and spiral, like the inside of a shell, and hence are called scale a lumaca by the Italians, and by the French escaliers en limaçon. Sometimes, as in the Pantheon at Rome, instead of being circular on the plan, they are triangular; so were they in the temple of Peace, and in the baths of Dioclesian. 2800. Very few vestiges of staircases are to be seen in the ruins of Pompeii; from which it may be inferred that what there were must have been of wood, and, moreover, that few of the houses were more than one story in height. Where they exist, as in the building at the above place called the country house, and some others, they are narrow and inconvenient, with steps sometimes a foot in height. Occasionally, too, we find private staircases mentioned, as in the description of Pliny's Tusculan villa, where one was placed by the side of the dining room, and appropriated to the use of the slaves who served the repast.

2801. The author of the article "Escalier" in the Encyc. Method. observes that the magnificence of the staircase was but tardily developed in modern architecture, and that it owed much of its luxury to the perfection to which a knowledge of stereotomy brought the science of masonry. The manners too and the customs of domestic life for a length of time rendered unnecessary more than a staircase of very ordinary description. Thus in the earliest palaces the staircases seem to have been constructed for the use of the inha

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