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_ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY_
_OF ALL AGES_
ARCHITECTURE
CLASSIC AND EARLY CHRISTIAN
BY PROFESSOR T. ROGER SMITH, F.R.I.B.A.
AND
JOHN SLATER, B.A., F.R.I.B.A.
[Illustration: THE PARTHENON AT ATHENS, AS IT WAS IN THE TIME OF
PERICLES, _circa_ B.C. 438.]
_ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY_
ARCHITECTURE
CLASSIC AND EARLY CHRISTIAN
BY T. ROGER SMITH, F.R.I.B.A.
_Professor of Architecture, University Coll. London_
AND
JOHN SLATER, B.A., F.R.I.B.A.
[Illustration: ATRIUM OF A ROMAN MANSION.]
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET
1882.
[_All rights reserved._]
LONDON. PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
PREFACE.
This handbook is intended to give such an outline of the Architecture
of the Ancient World, and of that of Christendom down to the period of
the Crusades, as, without attempting to supply the minute information
required by the professional student, may give a general idea of the
works of the great building nations of Antiquity and the Early
Christian times. Its chief object has been to place information on the
subject within the reach of those persons of literary or artistic
education who desire to become in some degree acquainted with
Architecture. All technicalities which could be dispensed with have
been accordingly excluded; and when it has been unavoidable that a
technical word or phrase should occur, an explanation has been added
either in the text or in the glossary; but as this volume and the
companion one on Gothic and Renaissance Architecture are, in effect,
two divisions of the same work, it has not been thought necessary to
repeat in the glossary given with this part the words explained in
that prefixed to the other.
In treating so very wide a field, it has been felt that the chief
prominence should be given to that great sequence of architectural
styles which form the links of a chain connecting the architecture of
modern Europe with the earliest specimens of the art. Egypt, Assyria,
and Persia combined to furnish the foundation upon which the splendid
architecture of the Greeks was based. Roman architecture was founded
on Greek models with the addition of Etruscan construction, and was
for a time universally prevalent. The break-up of the Roman Empire was
followed by the appearance of the Basilican, the Byzantine, and the
Romanesque phases of Christian art; and, later on, by the Saracenic.
These are the styles on which all mediaeval and modern European
architecture has been based, and these accordingly have furnished the
subjects to which the reader's attention is chiefly directed. Such
styles as those of India, China and Japan, which lie quite outside
this series, are noticed much more briefly; and some matters--such,
for example, as prehistoric architecture--which in a larger treatise
it would have been desirable to include, have been entirely left out
for want of room.
In treating each style the object has not been to mention every phase
of its development, still less every building, but rather to describe
the more prominent buildings with some approach to completeness. It is
true that much is left unnoticed, for which the student who wishes to
pursue the subject further will have to refer to the writings
specially devoted to the period or country. But it has been possible
to describe a considerable number of typical examples, and to do so in
such a manner as, it is hoped, may make some impression on the
reader's mind. Had notices of a much greater number of buildings been
compressed into the same space, each must have been so condensed that
the volume, though useful as a catalogue for reference, would have, in
all probability, become uninteresting, and consequently unserviceable
to the class of readers for whom it is intended.
As far as possible mere matters of opinion have been excluded from
this handbook. A few of the topics which it has been necessary to
approach are subjects on which high authorities still more or less
disagree, and it has been impossible to avoid these in every instance;
but, as far as practicable, controverted points have been left
untouched. Controversy is unsuited to the province of such a manual as
this, in which it is quite sufficient for the authors to deal with the
ascertained facts of the history which they have to unfold.
It is not proposed here to refer to the authorities for the various
statements made in these pages, but to this rule it is impossible to
avoid making one exception. The writers feel bound to acknowledge how
much they, in common with all students of the art, are indebted to the
patient research, the profound learning, and the admirable skill in
marshalling facts displayed by Mr. Fergusson in his various writings.
Had it been possible to devote a larger space to Eastern architecture,
Pagan and Mohammedan, the indebtedness to him, in a field where he
stands all but alone, must of necessity have been still greater.
The earlier chapters of this volume were chiefly written by Mr.
Slater, who very kindly consented to assist in the preparation of it;
but I am of course, as editor, jointly responsible with him for the
contents. The Introduction, Chapters V. to VII., and from Chapter X.
to the end, have been written by myself: and if our work shall in any
degree assist the reader to understand, and stimulate him to admire,
the architecture of the far-off past; above all, if it enables him to
appreciate our vast indebtedness to Greek art, and in a lesser degree
to the art of other nations who have occupied the stage of the world,
the aim which the writers have kept in view will not have been missed.
T. ROGER SMITH.
_University College, London._
_May, 1882._
[Illustration: FRIEZE FROM CHURCH AT DENKENDORF.]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION. 1