Architecture

(-tekt-yur.) [ L. architectura.] The art of inventing and drawing designs for buildings, or the science which teaches the method of constructing any edifice for use or ornament. It is divided into civil, military, and naval, according as the erections are for civil, military, or naval purposes; and, for the sake of convenience, other divisions are sometimes introduced. Civil A. appears to have been among the earliest inventions, and its works have been commonly regulated by some principles of hereditary imitation. Whatever rude structure the climate and materials of any country have obliged its early inhabitants to adopt for their temporary shelter, the same structure, with all its prominent features, has been afterwards in some measure kept in view by their refined and opulent posterity. To Greece we are indebted for the three principal orders of A., the Doric, the lo nic, and the Corinthian; Rome added the Tuscan and the Composite, both formed out of the former. Each of these orders has a particular expre ion; so that a building may be rude, solid, neat, delicate, or gay, according as the Tuscan, the Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian, or the Composite is employed. The columns of the several orders are easily distinguishable by the ornaments that are peculiar to their capitals; but the scientific difference consists in their proportions. The Tuscan order is characterized by its simplicity and strength. It is devoid of all ornament. The Doric is enlivened with ornaments in the frieze and capital, and the shaft is often fluted. The Ionic is ornamented with the volute scroll, or spiral: its ornaments are in a style between the plainne of the Doric and the richne of the Corinthian. The Corinthian is known by its capital being adorned with two sorts of leaves, between which rise little stalks, of which the volutes that support the highest part of the capital are formed. The Composite is nearly the same as the Corinthian, with an addition of the Ionic volute. In their private buildings the Roman architects followed the Greeks; but in their public edifices they far surpa ed them in gorgeous magnificence. During the Dark Ages which followed the destruction of the Roman empire, the cla ic A. of Greece and Rome was lost sigh of, or most unskilfully copied; but was again revived by the Italians at the time of the restoration of letters. [s. 43]