7 2856. Let us, for example, take a few only of the combinations which may be formed from the simple 1 square, as in the first sixteen diagrams of fig. 1021., by dividing it in both directions into two, three, and four parts. The thick lines of the diagrams may be considered as representing either walls or suits of apartments, in which latter case the open spaces between them become courts. In reference also to the vertical combinations connected with the dispositions in question, some parts of them may consist of one, other parts of two and three stories, as well for additional accommodation of the whole building to its purpose as for producing variety of outline in the elevation. If, as in some of the diagrams, we omit some of the axes used for the division, such omissions produce a new series of subdivisions almost to infinity. By this method large edifices may be most advantageously designed; it enables us to apply to the different leading axes the combinations suitable to the destination of the building. Considered however as merely an exercise for the student, the use of it is so valuable that we do not believe any other can be so beneficially employed by those masters who profess to teach the art. We have not gone into the subdivisions of the circle in detail, contenting ourselves with the two most obvious dispositions. These are susceptible of as great variety as the square, observing however that the leading axes must be concentric. 10 13 16 # 17 O Fig. 1021. 15 18 2857. Following up the method just proposed, let us imagine a design consisting of a certain number of similar and dissimilar parts placed in certain relations to each other. Now, having fixed clearly in our mind the relative situations of the several parts and the mode by which they are connected with each other, we shall have a distinct perception of the work as a whole. We may abbreviate the expression of a design by a few marks, as in fig. 1022., wherein the crosses represent square apartments, and the simple lines are the expressions of parallelograms, whose relative lengths may be expressed by the lengths of the lines. The next step might be to ex pand these abbreviations into the form + given in fig. 1023., on which we may indi- Fig. 1022. + Fig. 1023. X or any other number of interaxal parts square. This, then, will be the width of the apartments whose forms are that of a parallelogram; and inasmuch as in this apartment the diameter of the vault will be diminished by two interaxes, which results from the use of the four angular columns, the groined vault will be of the width of three interaxes, and the same arrangement will govern the rest of the apartments. In the centre an open court is attendant on the disposition, as indicated by the diagram. The section which is the result of the combination, subject however to other regulation in the detail, is given under the plan of the figure, and the elevation above it entirely depends upon, and is regulated by the joint combination of the plan and section. The example is given in the most general way, and with the desire of initiating the student in the theory of his art. The building here instanced might serve some public purpose, such as a gallery for the reception o painting or sculpture, or at least give the hint for one; but our object is not to be mis understood, we seek only to give the tyro an insight into the principles of composition. 2859. It is not our intention to enter further on the variety which follows the method of designing, of which the foregoing are only intended as hints; but we cannot leave the subject without submitting another example for the study of the reader. Our desire is that of establishing general principles, whereof fig. 1026. is a more complete illus tration than those that have preceded it. The abbreviated form of the horizontal disposition is shown at A, and in B it is further extended, and will be found to be very similar to that of No. 15. in fig. 1021. In the example the interaxal divisions are not drawn through the Fig. 1024. Fig. 1025. plan, but it will be immediately seen that the space allotted to the whole width of the apartments is three in number. In the centre a circular apartment is introduced and covered with a dome, which might have been raised, in the vertical combination, another story, and thus have added more majesty to the elevation. And here we repeat, that in A Fig. 1026. designing buildings of more than one story, (for it cannot be too often impressed on the mind of the student), the combination of the vertical with the horizontal distribution will suggest an infinite variety of features, which the artist may mould to his fancy, although it must be so restrained as to make it subservient to the rules upon which fitness depends. 2860. We close this portion of the subject with an example in perspective from Durand. The general plan, A, fig. 1026., will be found similar to No. 11 in fig. 1021., and the distribution may be a good practice for the student to develope. It is an excellent example for exhibiting of what plastic nature are the buildings which the vertical combinations will admit as based on those which are horizontal. SECT. V. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF PROPortion. (The following pages of this section were originally compiled by the late Edward Cresy for his Encyclopædia of Civil Engineering, published by Messrs. Longmans, who have now deemed it preferable to place it in this edition of Gwilt's Encyclopædia of Architecture, · as being in every respect a more suitable place for it.) (1867). That branch of the principles of architecture which is most intimately connected with the architect's practice, the proportioning of masses, or the arrangements for the supports of an edifice, must be the objects of his unwearied study and attention. We shall, therefore, here endeavour to point out, as briefly as possible, the general features which in this respect belong to the two oldest divisions, viz. the Greek, and the Roman, architecture. That part of Greece which lies to the south of Thessaly, near the foot of Mount Otbrys, is supposed to have contained the capital of Hellen, who left his kingdom to his three sons Eolus, Dorus, and Xuthus, the second son becoming the founder of the Dorian race, and the youngest that of the Ionian. The Architecture can hardly be said to have existed as a science until the Dorians perfected that style, which we find in the temples and other buildings scattered throughout those islands and countries in the Mediterranean Sea which received Doric colonies. dwellings of these early civilisers of mankind were plain and simple; the laws of Lycurgus forbade the use of any carving or decoration, their doors being fashioned only with the saw, and their roofs by the axe; but in their temples and public edifices, they were encouraged to bestow more labour and superior workmanship: the Dorian architecture appears never to have undergone any great change; the same style, and almost the same proportions, are found in most of the examples that have been spared us. These people spread a knowledge of the arts of construction wherever they settled; and we find them at a very early period in the northern districts of Greece, under the Olympian chain of mountains, in the island of Crete, on the eastern side of the northern coast, on which is situated the town of Cnossus with its harbours, Heracleum and Apollonia, at which latter places their religious rites were celebrated. After having overrun Thessaly, they sent from thence a colony to the district of Driopis, called the Doric Tripolis, between Eta and Parnassus, from the union of the three cities Bæum, Cytinium, and Erineus, and, subsequently, when Acyphas was added, Tetrapolis. The country next occupied by the Doric tribes extended from the river Sperchius beyond Eta to Parnassus and Thermopylæ, but the most important of their migrations was that called the Return of the Heraclidæ. After this period they were for a short time driven into Attica, where they received protection from Theseus, and when again settled in the Peloponnesus, they sent out colonies to Rhodes, Cnidus, and Cos, led by princes of the Heraclidæ from Argos and Epidaurus. Another colony from Trozen was established at Halicarnassus. The towns which composed the Tripolis of Rhodes, together with Cnidus, Cos, and Halicarnassus, formed the Doric league called Hexapolis, but after the separation of the latter place, Pentapolis: this league met on the Triapian promontory to celebrate the rites of Apollo and Ceres. A colony was sent from Lindos to Telos; others from Cos, Nisyrus and Calydna; from Argos to Carpathus, now the island of Scapanta; from Cnidus to Syme, a town of Asia Minor; from Megara a migration took place, which settled at Astypalea, one of the Cyclades; and others to Anaphe, Thera, Phalegandros, Melos, Myndus, Mylasa, Cryassa, Synnada, and Noricum in Phrygia. The Rhodians founded Gage, and Corydalla in Lycia, on the shores of Asia Minor; Phaselis on the confines of that country; Pamphylia; and Soli in Cilicia. According to Thucydides, about 713 years before Christ, Antiphemus led a colony from Lindus, and founded the town of Gela in Sicily. DOS Corinth sent out numerous colonies from Lechæum in the Cresaan Gulf, which founded Syracuse about 760 years before Christ; Molycrion, Chalcis, towns of Eolia; Salicum in Acarnania; Ambracia and Anactorium in Epirus; Leucadia, now the island of St. Maura, which was formerly joined to the continent by a narrow isthmus; Corcyra, on the coast of Epirus; Epidamnus in Macedonia; Apollonia Potidæa, with several others. Issa, an island in the Adriatic, was peopled from Syracuse Megara, situated between Corinth and Athens on the Sinus Saronicus, after it became a part of the territory of the Heraclidæ, sent colonies to Astacus in Bithynia and Chalcedon, another city in that province opposite to Byzantium, Selymbria in Thrace, and Heraclea in Pontus, celebrated for its naval power. Megara also colonised Hybla in Sicily, famous for its wild thyme and honey, which people founded Selinus. Sparta founded Tarentum about 700 years before Christ, which at one time comprised thirteen tributary cities within its government, and could muster 100,000 foot and 3000 horse. From Gela, which was colonised from Lindus in the Island of Rhodes, originated Agrigentum, a place of considerable importance at the time the Cretan Phalaris obtained the sovereignty; indeed Crete and Rhodes jointly may be said to be the founders of Agrigentum. In following the progress of the Heraclidæ along the shores of the Mediterranean to the Pillars of Hercules, we find wherever they settled those beautiful examples of construction in masonry which we can never be weary of admiring and studying. The temples in the Doric style in Sicily are of great beauty, and they may be some years anterior to those now remaining in Greece, but the difference cannot be very great: those at Syracuse and Agrigentum were constructed from the spoils obtained when Hiero defeated the Carthaginian general Hamilcar at Himera, and those at Athens were not built till some time after the defeat of Xerxes; but by some of the historians it is said that both battles were fought on the same day, that whilst Hiero was obtaining his independence, the Persians were overthrown at Salamis. Some time, however, elapsed after these victories before the Athenians and other states of Greece which had been engaged in the war recovered their prosperous condition; and it was not until the time of Pericles, which is nearly 50 years after the building of the temples at Agrigentum and Syracuse, that the restoration of the Parthenon and other public buildings throughout Greece was undertaken. The temples at Selinus are said to have been built when the city was founded, 620 years before Christ, and it is asserted they were entirely destroyed when the inhabitants deserted the city 250 years after its foundation could this be proved, they would rank among the first erected. The Propylea at Athens was built by Mnesicles in the 85th Olympiad; and a few years afterwards, when Pericles governed, Ictinus completed the Parthenon, and probably the temple of Theseus. The temples at Sunium and Phygalia were also the work of that renowned architect, and are deservedly ranked for their proportions and execution among the most graceful productions of Greek architecture. The temple of Jupiter Panhellenius in the Island of Egina was founded by Eacus before the Trojan war, but the ruins we now admire no doubt may be referred to the time of Pericles. The source of those beautiful effects which have received the almost instinctive admiration of every age and country can only be traced by correct measurement, and a careful observation of the proportions of the masses, which will almost irresistibly convince us that in temples and fronts of porticoes one general law prevailed, and was applied to all tetrastyle, hexastyle, and octastyle arrangements, based upon the proportion of a cube. This is found to govern most of the designs executed from the time of Pericles to the death of Alexander, the golden age of Greek art, when sculptors, painters, architects, and engineers were called forth to vie with each other in their several branches, and workmen of skill and ingenuity were found to embody the suggestions of their imagination; and the results would lead us to suppose that the acmé of perfection was attained, for since that period none of the productions either in sculpture or architecture have equalled those of the Greeks in the simple elegance of their design, or the excellence of their execution. Tetrastyle Porticoes with four columns exhibit the simplest, and perhaps the earliest, application of the Doric order; the entire façade is comprised within a square, the height being divided into three portions, the upper constituting the entablature, and the other two-thirds being divided equally between the supports and their three intercolumniations, making the latter a little more than a diameter. We may imagine the square divided in its height and width by 8, making altogether 64 compartments of equal area; the upper 8 devoted to the pediment will have, when the inclined sides are set out, a diminution of onehalf their area, four whole squares being rejected in those parts above the pediment, the area of the tympanum being only equal to four. The entire mass is thus reduced to the area of 60 of these squares, which are thus disposed of; 20 are given to the supports, or 5 cubes to each column, 20 are divided between the three intercolumniations, and the remaining 20 constitute the load supported; the columns are 5 diameters in height, and bear no more than their own weight, a due harmony being obtained through. out; the eye is satisfied that the load cannot distress its supports, and the spaces. between the supporting masses are again proportioned and made equal to either, so that we have a triple division, one, the perpendicular arrangements of the supports, another their just distribution or equal distances, and the third, the entablature proportioned to the strength that is to carry it, all of which are comprised within the boundary of a square. The tetrastyle porticoes that remain are not numerous, and none are perfect; three have been selected, which will enable us to test the idea we have attempted to define. First, that at Eleusis, the entire width of which is 20 feet 6 inches, the height 21 feet 6 inches; and if we reject half the height of the pediment we shall have a square : the united diameter of the columns only varies 5 inches in width from those of the intercolumniations. Fig. 1027. TETRASTYLE PORTICOes. If we divide the height into three, rejecting, as already observed, half the pediment, which in this case is 1 foot 1 inch, we have for the height of the square 20 feet 4 inches, whilst the entire width is 20 feet 6 inches, a difference not very great: this divided into three, and giving two-thirds to the height of the columns, would make them only 13 feet 6 inches and 8 seconds, whilst they really are 14 feet 2 inches in height. In this example the entire height, which we may call 21 feet 5 inches, is divided into three, two parts of which constitute the height of the columns. In the Temple of Themis at Rhamnus, the width is 20 feet 11 inches, and the height the same, the diameters of the columns being in excess 3 inches only above the width of the intercolumniations. In the Doric Portico at Athens, the entire height equals nearly the width. Hexastyle Porticoes. The practice of the Dorian architects, in setting out a temple with six columns in front, appears sometimes to have been to divide the width into twelve parts, the height without the pediment being made equal to eight of them; thus forming a façade within a parallelogram or a square and a half: as the ninth division in height cuts the pediment in half, we have thirty-six squares for the entablature or mass supported, being the same quantity found in the six columns and the five intercolumniations; at other times we find the entire width divided into nine parts, and six given to the height, one of which indicates the pediment, thus rising a ninth : if a circle be described in the tympanum, and a horizontal line drawn through the centre, cutting off a twelfth of the height, the remaining being divided into three equal parts, the upper third, or entablature, being the part supported, the remaining are divided between the columns and their interspaces; thus making the columns equal to of the height comprised between the centre of the tympanum and the platform upon which they were placed. If we take each of these nine parts as 5 feet, we have 45 feet for the width, 30 for the height, including the 5 feet for the rise of the pediment, which if we divide by the horizontal line, to obtain its true area or quantity, we shall have 2 feet 6 inches for its mean height, and 6 feet 8 inches for that of the level entablature: for as we have observed, these two dimensions, which make 9 feet 2 inches, must be equal to half the height of the columns, or the whole will not be divided into three parts; or, which is the same thing, the height from the centre of the pediment must be divided into three parts, and the upper division taken for the entablature. These proportions are exceedingly simple in their application; if it were intended that the columns and the spaces between them should be equal, half the width of the façade, or 22 feet 6 inches, should be distributed among the intercolumniations, and the other half divided among the columns. The Temple of Theseus at Athens is one of the best preserved as well as the most admired, and was probably erected soon after the Parthenon; it is of Pentelican marble, adorned with admirable sculptures. The total width of its hexastyle portico is 45 feet, and its height, instead of 30, is 31 feet; the extra foot, which prevents it being an exact square and a half, is given to the pediment, which probably has undergone some change, as it rises much more than the ninth of its whole extent. |