THE GREEK AND ROMAN ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE.
Although Egypt and Assyria are justly credited with the creation of the
models and the invention of the methods that subsequently aroused to
life the artistic genius of the Greeks, yet the fact remains that, from
all the wealth of artistic forms bequeathed to succeeding ages by the
nations of hoary antiquity, prior to the Grecian period, nothing has
survived except those forms which Greece has selected from her
predecessors, and after remodelling them by her own standards of beauty
and fitness, has left them as imperishable models of art for all nations
that follow her. All historic art and architecture, whether classic or
what not, since the days of Pericles, is based on Greek art,
notwithstanding the many modifications which we see in Byzantine,
Saracenic, Romanesque, and their offshoots. All of them owe their life
and vitality to Greek traditions and to Greek principles.
We have seen that in the earlier Greek buildings, such as Mycenian
palaces, timber construction must have largely entered into the
architecture of that period, and it is quite likely that timber was used
for the greater part of the Greek domestic dwellings, which may account
for no remains of them having been found.
The rock-cut tombs of Lycia, in Asia Minor, afford to us a further proof
of timber construction which may have been in use in the Early Greek
period in Europe, and these tombs of Lycia tend to throw a side light on
the probable forms of Greek construction that existed between the date
of the Mycenian buildings and that of the oldest Doric remains that are
at present known, for the Lycians had free intercourse with the Ionians
and European Greeks. The earlier Lycian tombs are of a great antiquity,
and the same form of tomb has been used in Lycia down to periods when
Greece was far advanced in art (Figs. 298 and 299).
[Illustration: Fig. 298.—Lycian Rock-built Tomb at Pinara. (P. & C.)]
The Lycians formed a connecting link with the Anterior Asiatics and the
Ionian Greeks. Their origin and their language were Asiatic, but the
greater part of their art was the product of Hellenic artists from
Ionian Greece, and, therefore, the Lycians must have been intimately
connected with the Greeks, and must have played an important part in the
development of Hellenic culture.
[Illustration: Fig. 299.—Lycian Rock-built Tomb at Pinara. (P. & C.)]
The Greek temples were in some respects related to the Egyptian temple.
The pillar and beam construction was copied from Egypt, and also the
rectangular plan. The great distinction between the two was that rows of
columns were placed outside the temples of the Greeks, which gave to
them a light and airy appearance, while in contradistinction the
Egyptians had their rows of columns inside the great hypostyle halls and
galleries of their temples which gave to them the effect of oppressive
gloominess. Broadly speaking, the Greek temple was something of the
model of an Egyptian temple turned inside out.
The interior of a Greek temple was simply a rectangular _cella_ or cell
where the statue of the god or goddess was set up, and sometimes a
smaller chamber behind called the treasury. The smaller temples
consisted of the cella only. A row of lighter columns sometimes
supported the roof of the cella, as in the case of the Parthenon. It was
only in the case of the larger temples that we find more than one cell,
while the Egyptian temple was often a maze of large and small chambers,
the multitude adding to the mystery sought for in all Egyptian
architecture. The Greek temples were usually placed on a basement of
steps, and built on elevated positions. The Greeks sought all publicity
in the honouring of their deities, and in pleasing the passer-by with
the sight of their beautiful buildings, on which their best decoration
was shown on the outside.
Greek architecture dates from the end of the Archaic age down to the
death of Alexander the Great, from about B.C. 600 to B.C. 333.
It is usually divided into three Styles or, as they are called,
“Orders,” namely, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. The Doric
represents the European phase of the Greek style, the Ionic and
Corinthian having more of the Asiatic features. The three orders were in
use in Greece at the same time, that is to say, a more severe and
correct phase of the Doric—the older order—was used after buildings in
the newer orders had appeared. Thomson, in his “Ode to Liberty,” has
alluded to the orders in the lines—
“First, unadorn’d
And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose;
The Ionic then, with decent matron grace,
Her airy pillar heaved; luxuriant last,
The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wealth.”
The Greeks made use of the vertical and horizontal line in their
architecture; the curved line was not used, except, of course, in
decoration. The half-diameter of the column was the module or unit by
which the whole building was measured, and the column was limited in
height according to the diameter of its base. This did not preclude
freedom in design; on the contrary, freedom was allowed and practised to
such an extent that hardly two Grecian buildings of any one order were
alike in proportion or design. Even the mouldings were varied in curve
and proportion; these members that were with the Romans merely segments
of circles, were in section with the Greeks either parts of the curve of
the ellipse or parabola, and in many cases were designed by freehand.
Some very subtle devices to overcome natural optical effects when
viewing the buildings have been discovered by Mr. Pennethorne and Mr.
Penrose, more especially in the Parthenon.
It is well known that the _entasis_, or slight swelling made in Greek
columns, which makes a convex line of their profiles, is done to prevent
the column from looking hollowed in the centre, which it would do if it
were perfectly straight; but in addition to this the architects above
named have discovered in the Parthenon a correction in the vertical
lines, to prevent the apparent tendency which all high vertical lines
have to spread out at the top, in the making of the columns to incline
slightly inwards; and the steps of the basement and horizontal lines of
the architraves are found to be slightly curved upwards in the middle to
prevent the tendency that all long horizontal lines have to droop in the
middle.
Thus we learn how admirably painstaking, and how well the Greeks applied
their profound knowledge to their architecture, as they did in
everything else.
The joints of their marble masonry were as a rule so fine and accurate
in the fitting together, that it has been said a razor edge could not be
inserted between them.
[Illustration: Fig. 300.—The Parthenon. Greek Doric, enlarged Section of
Annulets at A.]
The Greek Doric order (Fig. 300) is without a base; the shaft of the
column has twenty flutings; sunk lines or rings encircle the shaft a
little below the moulding of the capital. This moulding—the echinus—is
of the best possible profile that a supporting member could have; it is
divided from the shaft by three or five annulets. Above the echinus
rests the square tile-like cap—the abacus—which carries the architrave.
The latter is a marble beam with square ends, and above the architrave
is the frieze separated by a band (_taenia_). The frieze has triglyphs
alternating with metopes. The former consists of channelled pier-like
forms one over and one between each column, and the metopes are square
panels between two triglyphs on which are usually found sculptured
subjects. At the bottom of each triglyph, separated by a fillet, is a
row of pegs, cylindrical or conical in shape, called “guttæ” or drops.
Above the frieze the cornice projects, which in profile consists of a
flat band—the corona—and the crowning member, an ovolo moulding. Under
the projecting eave of the cornice are slanting slabs of marble—parallel
to the roof tiles—placed one over each triglyph, and one over each
metope. These are called mutules, and they have rows of guttæ on their
under surface.
The crowning members of the cornice are carried around the sloping lines
of the triangular pediments at each end of the building. On the
pediments were sculptured the figure subjects that had usually some
relation to the divinity to whom the temple was dedicated; as, for
example, on the Parthenon pediment the story of the birth of Athene was
the subject executed and designed by Phidias, who also was the sculptor
of the celebrated Panathenic frieze that adorned the outer part of the
cella of the Parthenon. Ictinus was the architect of the Parthenon and
also of the temples of Apollo Epicurius at Bassæ and at Phigallia, both
in Arcadia. The Parthenon was finished about B.C. 438.
[Illustration: Fig. 301.—Temple on the Ilissus; Greek Ionic.]
The Greek Ionic order in its capital and ornaments is quite distinct
from the Doric, and has more mouldings. The general plan of the temple
is the same as in the Doric, but the proportions of the various parts
are more slender. It has been generally thought that the Ionic volute
was a development of the volutes from the Persian capital at Persepolis,
but it is more likely, as before stated (on page 87), that their
prototype is found on capitals derived from the Egyptian lotus. The
architrave is sometimes plain and sometimes divided into three facias.
The frieze was usually occupied with sculpture, and the base of the
column was composed of a double torus, with a hollow between; the lower
torus was plain, and the upper one fluted (Fig. 301).
The Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Erectheum, and the Mausoleum of
Halicarnassus were among the finest examples of the Ionic order.
The Corinthian order was more Roman than Greek, though of Greek
invention, and was a rich type of architecture that suited the growing
vanity for love of display with the Romans, who eagerly appropriated it
in the second century B.C., and erected many fine buildings in this
order; but often enriching the mouldings and all plain spaces almost
beyond recognition.
The most perfect and truly beautiful example of the Greek Corinthian is
the small Choragic monument of Lysikrates at Athens (Frontispiece). Its
praises and merits have been spoken and written of by almost every
architect of eminence; it may be said of it and of the Parthenon that
for proportion, and for marvellous unity of parts, and also for the
perfect marriage of sculpture with architecture, no buildings have ever
been erected to equal them.
The bell of the Corinthian capital, as in the Lysikrates monument, is
surrounded at the base by a row of water-plant leaves; acanthus leaves
spring from these, and out of the latter spring volutes (_cauliculi_),
the larger ones of which meet at the upper corners; the four smaller
ones meet in the middle, and from the junction of the upper middle ones
an upright palmate appears; rosettes are placed between each of the
eight acanthus leaves. The abacus is moulded and curved in plan. The
capital, as a whole, is designed in a masterly way, so as to give the
utmost variety and contrast of beautiful forms (Fig. 302). The frieze is
sculptured with figures which illustrate the story of Dionysus and the
Tyrrhenian pirates (Frontispiece).
[Illustration: Fig. 302.—Capital of the Lysikrates Monument; Greek
Corinthian.]
The Etruscans were a race of people who settled in the west of Italy,
between the Arno and the Tiber, at a very early date. Their origin is
uncertain, but they are supposed to have come from Asia Minor. They were
known as great builders, and were well skilled in all the arts. In their
larger works of fortifications and great walls they used stones of an
enormous size (Cyclopean). Many places in Italy still attest to the
presence of the Etruscans by the remains of these Cyclopean walls.
[Illustration: Fig. 303.—Etruscan Door from Perugia.]
They were considerably advanced in architecture and the minor arts at
the time when Rome was first beginning to show its signs of power, and
were the architects and builders who executed all the works for the
early Romans. The Etruscans used the arch very much in building, a
feature that the Greeks, although they were acquainted with its use, did
not think it necessary in their trabeated system of building. It was, on
the other hand, a very favourite feature with the Etruscans, from whom
the Romans learnt the use of it. The Tarquins were an Etruscan family
who were masters of Rome in the sixth century B.C., and it was under
these Emperors that the great sewer, known as the Cloaca Maxima, was
built, part of which is still in existence.
This work consists of an arched waterway built in three concentric rings
of large wedge-shaped stones (_voussoirs_). The Etruscans constructed
temples, palaces, and dwelling-houses, all of which have perished or
have been destroyed, and only a few remains of their walled cities
survive. The gate of Perugia (Fig. 303) is the remains of a
characteristic Etruscan building. The arch is seen in perfect
construction, and the Doric frieze; above is seen a little Ionic column.
Etruscan architecture was mostly a kind of Doric with a round shaft.
According to Vitruvius the Etruscan temple consisted of three cells,
with one or more rows of columns in front, the distance between the
columns, or intercolumniation, being much greater than in Greek temples.
Sometimes the temple consisted of a circular cell only and a porch, like
the later development of this form in the Roman temple at Tivoli, and
the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Many Etruscan tombs have been found,
consisting of rock-built and detached structures. Some of the rock-built
tombs at Castel d’Asso have beams and rafters cut out of the rock in
imitation of wooden construction, and also figures cut out in high
relief all around the chambers. Great quantities of vessels in pottery
and metal-work objects, and also jewellery, have been found in recesses
of the walls and roofs of these chambers. The temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus at Rome was an Etruscan building. The Etruscan religion was
dark and full of superstition; their gods were mostly deities of the
thunder and lightning and subterranean spirits rather than divinities of
comfort and mercy, and the Romans adopted most of them in their
mythology. The Romans having mastered the principle of the arch, made
very good use of it. The greater number of their principal buildings
were erected in a mixture of the arch and trabeated system.
The Roman Doric and Ionic orders were ill-proportioned in their various
members, bad in profiling, and also very heavy in appearance. The
Theatre of Marcellus is an example of the former in its lower columns,
and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis an example of the latter.
[Illustration: Fig. 304.—Roman Corinthian, half Capital of Mars Ultor.]
The Tuscan order is noted for a more elegant development of the Etruscan
smooth column, and a great projection of cornice. A good example of this
order may be seen in the portico of St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden,
London, designed by Inigo Jones.
[Illustration: Fig 305.—Roman Corinthian, Entablature, Capital, and Base
of the Pantheon.]
The Corinthian order received better treatment at the hands of the
Romans; some of their buildings are fine examples of this order.
Some of the Roman Corinthian capitals are well designed, and have a very
grand and imposing effect, as that of the Mars Ultor (Fig. 304) and the
Pantheon. The Mars Ultor capital is undoubtedly fine and rich in the
extreme; that of the Pantheon is more restrained; and in both of them is
used the olive-leaf variety of acanthus, each tine or leaflet of which
is hollowed out; and thus the whole capital in a full light would have a
sparkling effect of light and shade, so that even at a great height and
distance from the eye none of the modelling would be lost to sight.
The Roman Corinthian has more mouldings, and has modillions or brackets
in the cornice instead of the usual Greek dentils (Fig. 305). The
entablature from the Temple of Jupiter Tonans (Fig. 306) is an example
of the inordinate love of over-richness and display that was so
characteristic of the Romans.
The Baths of Caracalla and of Diocletian are the only ones that have
remained to us in any state of preservation, and show from the remains
what splendid examples of public buildings they must have been. They
were built of brick mostly, and lined with stucco on which frescoes were
painted.
[Illustration: Fig. 306.—Roman Corinthian, Entablature of Jupiter
Tonans.]
The Baths of Caracalla, at the foot of the Aventine Hill, were erected
A.D. 217. They covered a rectangular piece of ground about 1,150 feet
each way, and were a great assemblage of bath-rooms, public and private,
of cold, vapour, and hot baths; swimming and other kinds of bath,
gymnasium hall, libraries, reading-rooms, assembly halls, &c., all
comprised under the one roof, surrounding the open courtyard in which
was the principal swimming bath, in a building 730 ft. by 380 ft. in
dimension. In the centre and at the back of this group of buildings was
a circular hall, with a domed roof, called the Solar cell, the walls of
which were lined with brass. Some of the finest of Roman statuary
adorned these halls. The principal hall of the Baths of Diocletian,
erected at the beginning of the fourth century A.D. is called the
Ephebeum, and is still used as the Church of Santa Maria Degli Angeli.
It is almost 300 ft. long by 90 ft. wide, and was restored by
Michelangelo. Its roof consists of three great cross vaults supported by
eight granite columns, 45 ft. in height. Another class of buildings that
the Romans were fond of was the amphitheatres. Remains of them have been
found throughout the Roman Empire, the most stupendous of which was the
Coliseum or Flavian Amphitheatre. It was begun by the Emperor Vespasian
and finished by his son Titus, and its ruins still attest to its
greatness.
[Illustration: Fig. 307.—Bas-relief on the Arch of Titus. (P. & C.)]
It is elliptical in plan, is four stories in height; the three lowest
are pierced with eighty openings, semi-circular arched, with columns and
piers between. The first story is Doric, the second Ionic, and the third
Corinthian. Each column and pier is raised on a stylobate, and the
columns carry entablatures continuously around the building.
[Illustration: Fig. 308.—Jewish Candlestick, Arch of Titus. (P. & C.)]
An almost solid wall is the feature of the fourth story, which has a
series of Corinthian pilasters, and projecting brackets for carrying the
awning poles. The façade is built of stone quarried from the
neighbouring hills, and the interior portions are built of brick. The
dimensions are 620 ft. in length, 513 ft. wide, and 162 ft. in height.
Double corridors run around the building on each floor, and it had seats
for more than 80,000 spectators. Chariot races, mimic sea-fights, when
the arena would be flooded artificially with water, gladiatorial
combats, and fights with wild animals and bulls, were among the
amusements of the Romans that were performed in the amphitheatres.
[Illustration: Fig. 309.—Roman Composite Order, from the Arch of Titus.]
Other monuments, such as triumphal columns and arches, were erected by
the Emperors to commemorate their victories, and these were of the most
elaborate and rich description. The column of Marcus Aurelius, known as
the Antonine column, and the column of Trajan set up by that Emperor in
Trajan’s Forum at Rome in commemoration of his victory over the Dacians,
are the two best known of these commemorative monuments. The latter
column has been reproduced, and a cast of it may be seen in the South
Kensington Museum. The original is nearly 133 ft. high, and is richly
sculptured with bas-reliefs on marble slabs fastened together in a
spiral form around the central structure. The order is Doric, the shaft
being set up on a large pedestal with very fine sculptures of figures,
armour, and inscriptions.
The triumphal arches are rectangular masses of masonry with arched
openings, sometimes with one arch and sometimes three, a large one and
two smaller ones, as the arches of Constantine and Septimus Severus; and
sometimes smaller ones had piers and pilasters with a lintel entablature
instead of an arch, as in the Goldsmith’s Arch in Rome. The arch of
Titus (erected to commemorate the taking of Jerusalem A.D. 70), which is
one of the finest of these monuments, is interesting for two reasons:
one is that it has reliefs on it recording the capture of Jerusalem,
with the representation of the seven-branched golden candlestick of the
Temple (Figs. 307, 308), and the other is that the arch itself is one of
the finest examples of the architectural order that was created by the
Romans—the Composite—(Fig. 309), which is a grafting of the Ionic on the
Corinthian.
The decoration of this order is extremely rich in character: the lower
half of the capital has the Corinthian leaves, while the upper half is
almost the whole of the Ionic voluted capital added; the cornice has
both the Ionic dentils and the Corinthian modillions. The arch of
Septimus Severus and the Baths of Diocletian are of the Composite order.