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Whatare we to think of the Roman bridges and aqueducts? Are we to be men in our attitude toward them? or shall we try to see them with the unfriendly eyes of Grecian supermen?
It seems to me that many Grecian supermen are terrible persons in their criticism of architecture. Often they are so cocksure in their contempt for Roman art that they write down their verdicts without any thought, and also in uncouth English, as if a slatternly habit of mind were a fit companion for their proclaimed belief in the supremacy of Greek masterpieces. Years ago, in the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” one of these superlative judges told the world that Roman bridges and aqueducts “were really of a more engineering than architectural character, being in the main utilitarian.” What does this ungainly language mean? Was a Roman temple less utilitarian than a Roman aqueduct? less needful as a part of the national life? Why should a lover of Greek art write absurdly on the Roman genius? I am told, for instance, by another Grecian, that the Pont du Gard, a Roman masterpiece, three or four leagues from Nîmes, in France, has “rough masonry.” What next? A very strong man, a Sandow, in comparison with a Tom Thumb, is a man of rough muscle and sinew,and if Tom Thumb is to be our standard of symmetry and grace, then Sandow is a masterful error in proportion and vitality. To describe the Pont du Gard as “rough” is to be a pigmy in a very foolish attitude to Roman power; and it proves also that the critic has a defective appreciation of his own vaunted hobby, the might and magnificence of Greek architecture.
Does anyone know why British writers are reluctant to admire in art those virile gifts of the spirit that win victories and promise a great future? Why is it that our criticisms are honeyed with sweet phrases? We prattle about “tender sentiment,” and “exquisite refinement,” and “gracious and gentle tact,” as if these female qualities only and alone could make fame permanent in the arena of the centuries. Is a passion for “refinement” to turn us into valetudinarians? Surely the Roman genius, in a supreme monument such as the Pont du Gard, is the very tonic for which we ought to have an inborn care and liking? Yet some professors of taste, being devotees of the epicene, condemn it as a “rough” genius, just as bad climbers revile the Alps.
When J. J. Rousseau visited the Pont du Gard he was awed into silence by the immensity of the three arcades. For the first time in his life he understood the grandeur of the Roman spirit in adventurous achievement.“Le Pont du Gard,”he wrote in his“Confessions,” “était le premier ouvrage des Romains que j’eusse vu. Je m’attendais à un monument digne des mains qui l’avaient construit; pour le coup, l’objet passa mon attente, et ce fut la seule fois en mavie. Il n’appartenait qu’aux Romains de produire cet effet. L’aspect de ce simple et noble ouvrage me frappa d’autant plus, qu’il est au milieu d’un désert où le silence et la solitude rendent l’objet plus frappant et l’admiration plus vive; car ce prétendu pont n’était qu’un aqueduc. On se demande quelle force a transporté ces pierres énormes si loin de toute carrière, et a réuni les bras de tant de milliers d’hommes dans un lieu où il n’en habite aucun? Je parcourus les trois étages de ce superbe édifice,[63]que le respect m’empêchait presque d’oser fouler sous mes pieds. Le retentissement de mes pas sous ces immenses voûtes me faisait croire entendre la forte voix de ceux qui les avaient bâties. Je me perdais comme un insecte dans cette immensité: je sentais, tout en me faisant petit, je ne sais quoi qui m’élevait l’âme, et je me disais en soupirant: ‘Que ne suis-je né Romain!’ Je restai là plusieurs heures dans une contemplation ravissante; je m’en revins distrait et rêveur, et cette rêverie ne fut pas favorable à Mme. W—-.... Elle avait bien songé à me prémunir contre les filles de Montpellier, mais non pas contre le Pont du Gard! On ne s’avise jamais de tout.”
I give this quotation in the original French because the flavour of Rousseau cannot be translated. As well try to keep the flavour of champagne by mixing this wine with water. Besides, I wish to contrast the elusive vanity ofRousseau with the alert and appealing manliness of Charles Kingsley, another ardent devotee of the Pont du Gard. In 1864 he wrote as follows to hiswife:—[64]
“My first impression of the Pont du Gard was one of simple fear. ‘It was so high that it was dreadful,’ as Ezekiel says. Then I said, again and again, ‘A great people and a strong. There hath been none like before them, nor shall be again for many generations.’ As, after fifteen miles of the sea of mulberry, olive, and vine, dreary from its very artificial perfection, we turned the corner of the limestone glen, and over the deep blue rock-pool, sawthat thinghanging between earth and heaven, the blue sky and green woods showing through its bright yellow arches, and all to carry a cubic yard of water to Nismes, twenty miles off, for public baths and sham sea-fights (naumachiæ) in the amphitheatre, which even Charlemagne, when he burnt the Moors out of it, could not destroy!—Then I felt the brute greatness of that Roman people; and an awe fell upon me as it may have fallen on poor Croc, the Rook, king of the Alemans—but that is a long story—when he came down and tried to destroy this city of the seven hills, and ended in being shown about in an iron cage asThe Rook. But I doubt not when he and his wild Alemans came down to the Pont du Gard they said it was the work of dwarfs—of the devil? We walked up to the top, through groves ofIlex,Smilax, andCoronella(the first time I have seen it growing), and thenwe walked across on the top. The masonry is wonderful, and instead of employing the mountain limestone of the hills, they have brought the most splendid Bath oolite[65]from the hills opposite. There are the marks cut by the old fellows—horse-hoofs, hatchets, initials, etc., as fresh as paint. The Emperor (1864) has had it all repaired from the same quarries, stone for stone. Now, after 1600 years, they are going to bring the same water into Nismes by it. When we crossed, I was in a new world.Genista anglica, the prickly needle furze of our commons (rare with us), is in great golden bushes; and box, shrubby thyme, a wonderful blue lily, bee-orchis and asters, white, yellow, purple (which won’t dry, for the leaves fall off). Then wild rosemary, and twenty more plants I never saw. We went below into a natural park of ilex and poplar (two or three sorts), and watched such butterflies and the bridge, till C—— said, ‘This is too perfect to last,’ which frightened me and made me pray. And there was reason—for such a day I never had in my life of beauty and wonder ... and yet thereis one thing more glorious and precious than the whole material universe—and that is a woman’s love....”
PONT DU GARD FROMTHE PONT DU GARD FROM ABOVE THE FIRST TIER; SHOWING BELOW THE MODERN BRIDGE FOR GENERAL TRAFFIC OVER THE GARDON
THE PONT DU GARD FROM ABOVE THE FIRST TIER; SHOWING BELOW THE MODERN BRIDGE FOR GENERAL TRAFFIC OVER THE GARDON
A classic tradition says that the huge stones in the Pont du Gard were joined together by iron clamps. Is this true? Each iron clamp, if any were used by the masons, connected a voussoir to an interior archstone.[66]From time to time the Romans employed iron rods bent at the ends andfastened into stones with molten lead; such rods have been discovered among the ruins of a Roman bridge over the North Tyne, at Chollerford, near Hexham. This was a bridge with a wooden superstructure, probably, as no voussoir has been found among the litter of pier-stones.
The Pont du Gard is very tall; it soars, and to a height that exceeds forty-seven metres. The first tier has six arches, the second has eleven, the third has thirty-five. In the middle tier the length is 257 m. 90 cm. Note, too, that the architectural centre of the design is determined by the rocky channel of the Gardon; we find it not in the centre of the bridge but on the north in the arch under which the river flows. It is the biggest arch of all, with a span of 25 m. 30 cm., while the neighbour on each side is narrower by nearly six metres. The other bays of the first arcade dwindle in span to 15 m. 75 cm.[67]As to the centre of the second tier, it corresponds with that of the first, for the largest vault is above the river; it carries four little arches of the third arcade, while its companions support only three. Some critics see nothing more than the unequal size of these arcades, when the real point is to find the architectural centre, whence the composition radiates, majestic and imperious. The topmost arches and their crowning dignify the whole structure with a completeness akin to that which is given to a long range of columns by a fine entablature and cornice.
And we must note the symbol of prosperity—a phallus—carved twice in low-relief on the Pont du Gard. On the western side it graces a springing voussoir in the third arch of the second tier; and there is another on the keystone of the greatest arch, where the river passes. Here the emblem is a double phallus, and when it is touched by sunlight it looks as young as hope, not as uncertain as prosperity.
We cannot put a date on this Roman masterpiece, because in this matter there are differences of opinion. M. Ménard, historian of Nîmes, attributes the work to Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, who is said to have ordered its construction about nineteen years before the Birth of Christ. The architecture belongs to the Tuscan order. Its vaults are semicircular, and spring from ledges, or imposts, about 50 centimetres high, and as much in projection. There are four parallel rings of stone in the vaults of the first tier, and three in the second, while the third tier has either one or two. This Roman method of building the under surface of an arch, by laying stones in parallel bands or rings, side by side, but not bonded together, was copied in the Middle Ages (p.82). One point more: the water channel of the aqueduct, placed on top of the third arcade, is 1 m. 30 cm. wide and 1 m. 60 cm. high; it is nearly blocked up with a thick deposit of lime, but when this substance is detached we find on the side walls a deep layer of cement coloured red. The bed of this channel is a solid floor, 22 cm. in thickness, and its component parts are small pebbles mixed with lime and gritty sand.
Like other antique monuments, the Pont du Gard has been ravaged by the brutality of mankind. At the end of the seventeenth century, for instance, during years of religious warfare, so called, the Pont du Gard was often crowded with fugitives and with troops, who made a footway for themselves along the upstream side above the first arcade by means of a strong platform corbelled out from new imposts. Over this road cavalry and artillery passed at full speed, not only shaking the bridge, but causing the topmost tier to develop a curve which is still noticeable. At last the province of Languedoc interfered, and in 1670 careful restoration was begun.
Years later, in 1743, theétats générauxdecided that a good highway should be built up against the eastern side of the Pont du Gard; and this new bridge, finished in 1747, was perhaps justified by its utility, though it harmed a classic monument. There have been a good many modern restorations, and one day the aqueduct itself may be brought into use again, in accordance with the wishes expressed by a great manypersons.[68]