ARCHITECTURE

brance of the danger that constantly menaced them as a nation. It was not, indeed, until after the flight of the general of Xerxes, and the victory of Them is toc les, that a general restoration of their monuments was commenced, and the citv of Athens rebuilt; a city whose edifices might be considered, as M. Quatremdre de Quincy has well observed, as so many trophies of the victory at Salamls. This was the epoch of a pure and grand style of architecture, and, indeed, of art generally. The sculpture of that period is marked by the same character of purltv, sublimity, and grandeur; and the Elgin marbles, fortunately now po e ed by this country, exhibit a perfection which has never been approached by modern art, and which we scarcely conceive can be surpa ed. It was in this age that the temple of Minerva, known by the name of the Par the non (because that godde preserved her virginity pure and inviolate), was erected; a building which displays, perhaps, the finest model of the Doric order. The Ionic order seems, at this period, to have likewise received the finishing touches of that grace and elegance whereof it was susceptible. This order, pa ing from Greece to Asia Minor, seems, in that enervating climate, to have acquired elegance and finish at the expense almost of solidity. Whether we are indebted for its invention to the people whose name it bears, is of little importance. Upon the relation of Vitruvius no dependence can be placed. At the period, however, x)f the erection of the temple of Minerva Polias at Athens, which was about the time we have alluded to, if seems to have been brought to a state of perfection that leaves us nothing to desire. The capitals of this example are splendid specimens of decorated architecture. By a substitution of acanthus leaves for the olive, laurel, and lotus leaves of the Egyptian capital, Call i mach us is said to have invented the Corinthian capital, the feature which distinguishes the Corinthian from the Ionic order. The tale seems an idle one; but though almost threadbare, "we cannot omit it, and will give it in the words of the author who has recorded it. " A Corinthian virgin, of marriageable years, fell a victim to a violent disorder. After her interment, her ^lurse, collecting in a basket those articles to whicli she had shown a partiality when alive, carried them to her tomb, and placed a tile on the basket, for the longer preservation of its contents. The basket was accidentally placed on the root of an acanthus plant, which, pre ed by the weight, shot forth, towards spring, its stems and large foliage, and in the course of its growth reached the angles of the tile, and thus formed volutes at the extremities. Call i mach us, who for his great ingenuity and taste was called Cat a technos by the A then i ans, happening at this time to pa by the tomb, observed the basket, and the delicacy of the foliage which surrounded it. Pleased with the form and novelty of the combination, he constructed, from the hint thus afforded, columns of this species in the country about Corinth, and arranged its proportions, determining their proper measures by periijct rules." The annexed diagram gives a representation of the circumstance, as usually found in architectural works: the reader, however is at liberty to make his own representation of it, which will most probably be as near the truth as that here given. But few ancient examples of the Corinthian order are extant of so early a date as the age of Alexander. Its delicacy and slenderne render it very susceptible of the ravages of time; and it has been suggested, that the value of the material of which the columns and capitals of this order were made, excited the cupidity of the Romans to remove them. Tlie general opinion runs, that architecture, as well as the other arts, was carried into Etruria by the Pelasgi, at which period Doric was the only order in use in Greece, and was the only one, moreover, as far as can be judged of, adopted by the Pelasgi. But they changed its character, stripping it of triglj^phs, and adding to it a base The Romans, who borrowed their earliest architecture from the Etruscans, adopted, under the name of Tuscan, this Doric order, thus cheated of its fair proportions, which is in truth but a species of Doric. Rome appears to have been indebted to the people of Etruria for its earliest work of any note. It has always been supposed, that to an Etruscan architect was confided the construction of the immense sewer which drained the city, and in which might be discerned a presage of its future grandeur. The undecorated and simple art of Etruria suited the roughne and austerity of a warlike and then needy people. The art of architecture was long neglected among them. Their temples and palaces for a long period were protected from the seasons by a covering of nothing there than clay and straw. Marble and slavery entered Rome together, under the reign of August us. Effeminacy had been induced by tlie riches of the known world which centered In the city, whose inhabitants did not apprehend that slavery would follow in the train of the arts which were bound to the triumphal chariot. August us, sensible that the only mode of tranquillising the people, when liberty was no more, would be by introducing the pleasures and luxuries attendant on the arts, exerted himself most zealously for their prosperity: his conduct on this point is sufiiciently exemplified in the boast attributed to him, " That he found the city built of brick, and left it constructed with marble." Livy compliments him as the founder or restorer of temples, " Templorum omnium conditorem aut restitutorem." His patronage drew the most skilful Grecian artists to Rome, which now became the capital of the arts, and architecture reached all the perfection it could there attain. It was under August us that Vitruvius wrote his work on architecture, the only ancient text-book on the art that has reached us. It has been of late the fashion to decry the utility of this author. Those that have done so know little of the art. Though in matters relating to the history of architecture, our author deals somewhat in fable, the more important parts of his work are invaluable; and if one of the most profound architects that ever existed could dignify Vitruvius with the title of " our great master," it ill becomes the small fry of the present age to carp at him. Under Agrippa, the son-inlaw of August us, the Pantheon was raised; one of the most magnificent examples of Roman grandeur. Amongst other superb structures he introduced baths, and constructed a considerable number of fountains, temples, . Under the succe ors of August us, the public buildings of the nation continued to increase; but the art began to degenerate in the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. It could not be expected, that it would revive under such a personage aj Nero, who deprived the finest statues of their heads to substitute his own portrait on their shoulders. He was, however, a great encourager of buildings on a highly decorated and colo al scale; witne the Domus Aurea, built for him by Severus and Celer, in which, from all accounts, richne and luxury themselves were exhausted. The wisdom and greatne of character of the emperor Trajan were infused into the buildings of his reign. The triumphal arches, but especially his column and forum, incontestably prove the rise of the art under his auspices, at which time his architect, Apollo dor us, who raised the column to liis memory, was highly patronised. Hadrian and the An to nines were also much devoted to the art, in which the former himself practised. Marcus Aurclius was so attached to the arts, that he became a pupil of Diognetus. Ant on in us Pius, at ancient Lanuvium, built a country house, whose ruins at the present day afstonish by their extent: as an index to its magnificence, it may be mentioned that a cock for regulating the supply of water, of the weight of forty pounds, and formed of silver, has been extracted from its ruins. The art, however, was then in its decline, and soon after disappeared under his succe ors. The arch of Septimus Severus is an extraordinary falling off from what it had been; and it is difficult, in such a short period, namely, since the reign of Marcus Aurelius, to conceive how the art of sculpture, more especially, could have become so debased. The details of what is called the goldsmiths' arch indicate the decay of good taste; its profiles are bad, and the ornaments overloaded. For a short time architecture was prevented from entirely sinking, by the fostering hand of Alexander Severus; but the fall of the western empire completed its ruin: it is, however, from the reign of Gallienus, whose arch proves to what a state it was reduced, that we must reckon the total extinction of the arts. Architecture was indeed most likely to have survived the general wreck, and perhaps was not completely involved in the universal ruin. In an age when no sculptor existed, the baths erected by Diocletian exhibited a grandeur manifest even in their stupendous remains; it seems, however, that a bad taste must have reigned in the design of them, inasmuch as we learn from history, so overloaded with ornament was the edifice, that during the public games a great number of spectators lost their lives by the fall of some of the flowers from the ceilings and entablatures. Diocletian's palace at Spalatro is another proof of the enormous efforts made by that emperor, and of what the art could then do. About the same time, or in the time of Aurelian, were erected the extensive buildings in Ccelosyria, at Balbec, and Palmyra: vicious as they are in taste, one is astonished at th'c vastne of the plans, the boldne of the undertaking, and the funds lavished on their construction. There is nothing more instructive to a student on the rise, progre , and decline of Romau art, because the eye can almost cover it at one glance, than an examination of a series of Roman coins; and it is recommended, as likely to make an impre ion on the mind much stronger than the most elaborate treatises on the subject. Though architecture, from various causes, was des  Page 88 r lined to survive the other arts, its protracted existence could not extend beyond the period of the removal of the seat of empire to Byzantium. The endeavours of Const an tine to erect his city into a metropolis that should rival Rome, which he spoiled of its treasures, were vain;;ill his efforts to embellish it with the most splendid monuments only proved how ineffectual are the attempts of kings to subject the arts to their power. That which Constant i no left behind him in the eternal city and the rest of Italy fell a prey to the unrestrained fury of the ■ Visigoths. The edifices which they afterwards reconstructed were from fragments of those they had destroyed; but their ignorance or forgetfulne of the stations and proportions in which they had originally been used, induced a sad confusion of the different members — entablatures inverted, and other grotesque arrangements, were to be seen in their buildings. The vast number of columns which the ruins supplied was used as piers for arcades, from which originated, beyond doubt, the plan of the Gothic cathedral, after its pa age through various modifications. Quatremdre de Quincy attributes (Enc. Method.) the use of the arch springing from columns to the ignorance of the builders of the period, who knew not, he a umes, the mode of connecting the different lengths of an architrave; but it seems scarcely probable that they, who so well knew the mode of connecting the vou oirs of an arch, should have been deficient in understanding the principle in question, which is either that of the arch itself or of the simplest joggling. From this period to the restoration of the arts at a late period, all sight of the original types seems to have been lost; and in the end arose a style under the name of Gothic, which will be separately treated of. Here occurs a considerable gap in the history of the art: all is dark on the subject, though the ancient taste does not seem to have pa ed away altogether. The first glimmer of returning light appears under Just in i an, in the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, in the sixth and seventh centuries. It was the chef-d'oeuvre of the lower empire, and perliaps, indeed, the only specimen it has left us. The cliurch of St. Mark at Venice rose in the tenth or eleventh century; it was the work of Greek architects, and is invaluable in tracing the history of architecture: its plan and its beautiful proportions remind the spec-. tat or of the magnificence of the ancients. Nearly about the same period other cities of Italy began to exhibit advances in the art. In 1013 the Florentines laid the foundations of the church of S. Mini a to; but the most extraordinary monument of the period was the cathedral at Pisa, erected by Buschetto da Dulichio, a Greek architect, in 1016: this building is lined both inside and outside with marble, and the roof is borne on four ranks of columns of the same material. The commerce of the risans enabled them to explore the Levant, the islands on the coast of Asia Minor, Egypt, and Africa, for the most costly and precious marbles which were used in the work. Pamters and sculptors were brought from Greece to embellisii their buildings, and these contributed to introduce a better taste in the arts. Had Buschetto lived to form a school here, there can be little doubt that architecture would have been at once re-established; but such does not appear to have been the case, and the succe ful cultivation of it was, consequently, deferred for a time. The falling tower, as it is usually called, or campanile, at Pisa, was raised close to the cathedral in the twelfth century; its inclination evidently arises from a failure in the foundation; its style evinces but little progre as compared with the cathedral. In the thirteenth century the church of the Virgin of A isi was erected in Tuscany, and the castel del Ovo at Naples I the first by Lapo, and the last by Fucio, both Florentines. Nicolo da Pisa, their countryman and cotemporary, was employed on several edifices of consideration in Bologna, Padua, and Venice. His greatest work was the church at Padua, dedicated to St. Anthony, the sculpture in which is chiefly from his hand. The church, however, at Florence, dell a sant is sima Trinita, is his finest work, of which it is no small encomium to say that it was the admiration of so great a man as M. A. da Buonarotti. Arnolfo di Lapo built the church of St. Croce, and designed the cathedral also at Florence of Santa Maria de' Fieri. All the cities of Italy, indeed, at this epoch seemed to be emulous of outvying each other. Btiolo Barbetta was engaged at Venice on the church of Santa Maria Formosa; many works were in progre at Bologna; the marble chapel of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, about the year 121.6, was executed by March i one: every effort indicated the speedy restoration of pure art. These scintillations, however, of good taste ■ were confined to Italy; in the other parts of Europe the Gothic style, — one, mdeed, in some of its monuments, of stupendous grandeur, of which we shall treat in another article, — was prevalent, and soon afterwards in Germany carried to the utmost pitch of perfection. It was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that the ^ cathedral at Str as bourg was erected, under the designs of & Jirwin Steinbeck. The fourteenth century produced also I ARCHITECTURE. in France and England some extraordinary Gothic structures. In Italy architecture was fast approaching to a perfect restoration. John of Pisa son of the Nicholas whom we have just mentioned, was employed by his townsmen on the Campo Santo. This public cemetery was in the Gothic style, and is remarkable for the elegant simplicity of its plan and the beauty of its details. It is a singular link of the chain of history of this art: there is no difficulty in discerning the struggle in the mind of the architect to free himself from those Gothic shackles which seemed to hang on it as an impediment to an immediate return to the cla ic taste of the land, which became completely restored in Italy in the fifteenth century. The troubles throughout Europe were stilled at the time that Brunelleschi appeared as the restorer of genuine art, to which title he has a just and honourable claim. By a diligent investigation of the remains of ancient Rome, with the scale and compa es in his hand, he succeeded in reviving the ancient rules of artj the just use of the orders, and was himself the first to njake a practical application of his discoveries. He well knew how to unite theory with practice, and from a profound acquaintance with the monuments of antiquity was led to the principles of sound construction, without which all other knowledge in architecture is usele . The cathedral at Florence, begun in the Gothic style by Arnolpho, was reserved for Brunelleschi to finish, which he effected with a boldne worthy his genius. He sunnounted the church with the tambour dome, which had, though projected by the original designer, been considered by the artists of the age more as a phantom of the imagination than a subject for reality. We have not room here to record the strange schemes that were proposed for carrying the project into execution; the facility with which the architect effected his object marks him as an artist, in that age, of surprising resources and ability. The erection of the dome and cupola of Santa Maria de' Fiori opened the road for some of the grandest examples of human skill applied to the art: it was the subject of eulogy from Michael Angelo, and is still the astonishment of those who know how to appreciate the difficulties by which it was surrounded. The school formed by Brunelleschi spread by means of his disciples through Italy, and propagated the art in that revived state, which acquired liberal and enlightened protectors in the Medicis, the dukes of Milan, and many nobles of Italy, who opened their palaces to its profe ors, and the learned generally. These latter, who had after the arrival of cardinal Be arion and other Greeks rendered Italy illustrious by their labours, soon opened the works of Vitruvius to the architect, in which they were considerably aided by Leo Battista Albert i, of the noble and ancient family of the Albert is of Florence, who himself did not disdain to practise architecture, as an art. Bold and ingenious as Brunelleschi his predece or, his designs have the further charms of a grace and elegance which the former did not exhibit; and his work on the art, the only one at that period which could be put jn competition with the ancient master Vitruvius, whose obscurity in many parts left much for experience to di ipate, displayed such vast stores of erudition, such a profound knowledge of construction, and so accurate an acquaintance with the works of the ancients, that ii not only contributed to its firm establishment, but left little to desire on the theory and practice of architecture. About the period that Albert i was thus engaged, an extraordinary work in the history of the art appeared from th,e pen of Francesco Colonna (in 1467), under the title of " Poliphili Hypnerotomachia," and published in folio by Aldus. This book is now extremely rare; it is replete with plates, some of great beauty, from wood blocks, and in it the author, in a supposed dream, promulgates sound precepts, noble ideas, and principles valuable to the amateur and architect. Felibien recommends to the artist its perusal, which he considers almost as nece ary as that of Vitruvius. Indeed the poetic descriptions in it of pyramids, mausolea, colo al statues, circi, amphitheatres, temples, and palaces, seem to have made more impre ion at the time than the dry doctrines of Vitruvius, and Italy soon saw realised the poetic dreams of the author. In the period of a century and a half the cities of Italy were embellished with the works of Bramante, 31. A. -da Buonarotti, Raphael, Julio Romano, San Gallo, Baltazar Peruzzi, Giocondo, San Michel i, Sansovino, Serlio, Pirro Ligorio, Vignola, Palladio, Scamozzi, and a long list of others whose names are an honour to their country. It was late before pure art reached this country. In it Inigo Jones ^s the father of architecture, and we, fortunately, still po e some of his beautiful designs. Ra can scarcely be said to have completely emancipated himself from the trammels of the debased Elizabeth an style, as it is called, till the beginning of the reigi, of Charles I., which was a splendid epoch of the arts in this country. From many concurrent causes, the French Page 89