Entrance to the tomb
Rock-cut Tomb at Myra, in Lycia.Imitation of Timber Construction in Stone.
Abacus, a square tablet which crowns the capital of the column.Acanthus, a plant, the foliage of which was imitated in the ornament of the Corinthian capital.Agora, the place of general assembly in a Greek city.Alæ(Lat.wings), recesses opening out of the atrium of a Roman house.Alhambra, the palatial fortress of Granada (fromal hamra—the red).Ambo, a fitting of early Christian churches, very similar to a pulpit.Amphitheatre, a Roman place of public entertainment in which combats of gladiators, &c., were exhibited.Antæ, narrow piers used in connection with columns in Greek architecture, for the same purpose as pilasters in Roman.Arabesque, a style of very light ornamental decoration.Archaic, primitive, so ancient as to be rude, or at least extremely simple.Archivolt, the series of mouldings which is carried round an arch.Arena, the space in the centre of an amphitheatre where the combats, &c., took place.Arris, a sharp edge.Astragal, a small round moulding.Atrium, the main quadrangle in a Roman dwelling-house; also the enclosed court in front of an early Christian basilican church.Baptistery, a building, or addition to a building, erected for the purposes of celebrating the rite of Christian baptism.Basement, the lowest story of a building, applied also to the lowest part of an architectural design.Bas-relief, a piece of sculpture in low relief.Bird’s-beak, a moulding in Greek architecture, used in the capitals of Antæ.Byzantine, the style of Christian architecture which had its origin at Byzantium (Constantinople).Carceres, in the ancient racecourses, goals and starting-points.Cartouche, in Egyptian buildings, a hieroglyphic signifying the name of a king or other important person.Caryatidæ, human figures made to carry an entablature, in lieu of columns in some Classic buildings.Cavædiam, another name for the atrium of a Roman house.Cavea, the part of an ancient theatre occupied by the audience.Cavetto, in Classic architecture, a hollow moulding.Cella, the principal, often the only, apartment of a Greek or Roman temple.Chaitya, an Indian temple, or hall of assembly.Circus, a Roman racecourse.Cloaca, a sewer or drain.Columbarium, literally a pigeon-house—a Roman sepulchre built in many compartments.Columnar, made with columns.Compluvium, the open space or the middle of the roof of a Roman atrium.Corona, in the cornices of Greek and Roman architecture, the plain unmoulded feature which is supported by the lower part of the cornice, and on which the crowning mouldings rest.Cornice, the horizontal series of mouldings crowning the top of a building or the walls of a room.Cuneiform, of letters in Assyrian inscriptions, wedge-shaped.Cyclopean, applied to masonry constructed of vast stones, usually not hewn or squared.Cyma(recta, or reversa), a moulding, in Classic architecture, of an outline partly convex and partly concave.Dagoba, an Indian tomb of conical shape.Dentil band, in Classic architecture, a series of small blocks resembling square-shaped teeth.Domus(Lat.), a house, applied usually to a detached residence.Dwarf-wall, a very low wall.Echinus, in Greek Doric architecture, the principal moulding of the capital placed immediately under the abacus.Entablature, the superstructure—comprising architrave, frieze and cornice—above the columns in Classic architecture.Entasis, in the shaft of a column, a curved outline.Ephebeum, the large hall in Roman baths in which youths practised gymnastic exercises.Facia, in Classic architecture, a narrow flat band or face.Fauces, the passage from the atrium to the peristyle in a Roman house.Flutes, the small channels which run from top to bottom of the shaft of most columns in Classic architecture.Forum, the place of general assembly in a Roman city, as the Agora was in a Greek.Fresco, painting executed upon a plastered wall while the plaster is still wet.Fret, an ornament made up of squares and L-shaped lines, in use in Greek architecture.Garth, the central space round which a cloister is carried.Girder, a beam.Grouted, said of masonry or brickwork, treated with liquid mortar to fill up all crevices and interstices.Guttæ, small pendent features in Greek and Roman Doric cornices, resembling rows of wooden pegs.Hexastyle, of six columns.Honeysuckle Ornament, a decoration constantly introduced into Assyrian and Greek architecture, founded upon the flower of the honeysuckle.Horse-shoe Arch, an arch more than a semicircle, and so wider above than at its springing.Hypostyle, literally “under columns,” but used to mean filled by columns.Impluvium, the space into which the rain fell in the centre of the atrium of a Roman house.Insula, a block of building surrounded on all sides by streets, literally an island.Intercolumniation, the space between two columns.Keyed, secured closely by interlocking.Kibla, the most sacred part of a Mohammedan mosque.Lâts, in Indian architecture, Buddhist inscribed pillars.Mammisi, small Egyptian temples.Mastaba, the most usual form of Egyptian tomb.Mausoleum, a magnificent sepulchral monument or tomb. From the tomb erected to Mausolus, by his wife Artemisia, at Halicarnassus, 379B.C.Metopes, literally faces, the square spaces between triglyphs in Doric architecture; occasionally applied to the sculptures fitted into these spaces.Minaret, a slender lofty tower, a usual appendage of a Mohammedan mosque.Monolith, of one stone.Mortise, a hollow in a stone or timber to receive a corresponding projection.Mosque, a Mohammedan place of worship.Mutule, a feature in a Classic Doric cornice, somewhat resembling the end of a timber beam.Narthex, in an early Christian church, the space next the entrance.Obelisk, a tapering stone pillar, a feature of Egyptian architecture.Opus Alexandrinum, the mosaic work used for floors in Byzantine and Romanesque churches.Ovolo, a moulding, the profile of which resembles the outline of an egg, used in Classic architecture.Pendentive, a feature in Byzantine and other domed buildings, employed to enable a circular dome to stand over a square space.Peristylar, orPeripteral, with columns all round.Peristylium, orPeristyle, in a Roman house, the inner courtyard; also any space or enclosure with columns all round it.Piscina, a small basin usually executed in stone and placed within a sculptured niche, fixed at the side of an altar in a church, with a channel to convey away the water poured into it.Polychromy, the use of decorative colours.Precincts, the space round a church or religious house, usually enclosed with a wall.Presbytery, the eastern part of a church, the chancel.Profile(of a moulding), the outline which it would present if cut across at right angles to its length.Pronaos, the front portion or vestibule to a temple.Propylæa, in Greek architecture, a grand portal or state entrance.Prothyrum, in a Roman house, the porch or entrance.Pseudo-peripteral, resembling, but not really being peristylar.Pylon, orPro-Pylon, the portal or front of an Egyptian temple.Quadriga, a four-horse chariot.Romanesque, the style of Christian architecture which was founded on Roman work.Rotunda, a building circular in plan.Sacristy, the part of a church where the treasures belonging to the church are preserved.Shinto Temples, temples (in Japan) devoted to the Shinto religion.Span, the space over which an arch or a roof extends.Spina, the central wall of a Roman racecourse.Stilted, raised, usually applied to an arch when its centre is above the top of the jambs from which it springs.Struts, props.Stupa, in Indian architecture, a mound or tope.Stylobate, a series of steps, usually those leading up to a Classic temple.Taas, a pagoda.Tablinum, in a Roman house, the room between the atrium and the peristyle.Talar, in Assyrian architecture, an open upper story.Tenoned, fastened with a projection or tenon.Tesselated, made of small squares of material, applied to coarse mosaic work.Tetrastyle, with four columns.Thermæ, the great bathing establishments of the Romans.Topes, in Indian architecture, artificial mounds.Trabeated, constructed with a beam or beams, a term usually employed in contrast to arches.Triclinium, in a Roman house, the dining-room.Triglyph, the channelled feature in the frieze of the Doric order.Tumuli, mounds, usually sepulchral.Typhonia, small Egyptian temples.Velarium, a great awning.Vestibule, the outer hall or ante-room.Volutes, in Classic architecture, the curled ornaments of the Ionic capital.Voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones of which arches are made.
Abacus, a square tablet which crowns the capital of the column.
Acanthus, a plant, the foliage of which was imitated in the ornament of the Corinthian capital.
Agora, the place of general assembly in a Greek city.
Alæ(Lat.wings), recesses opening out of the atrium of a Roman house.
Alhambra, the palatial fortress of Granada (fromal hamra—the red).
Ambo, a fitting of early Christian churches, very similar to a pulpit.
Amphitheatre, a Roman place of public entertainment in which combats of gladiators, &c., were exhibited.
Antæ, narrow piers used in connection with columns in Greek architecture, for the same purpose as pilasters in Roman.
Arabesque, a style of very light ornamental decoration.
Archaic, primitive, so ancient as to be rude, or at least extremely simple.
Archivolt, the series of mouldings which is carried round an arch.
Arena, the space in the centre of an amphitheatre where the combats, &c., took place.
Arris, a sharp edge.
Astragal, a small round moulding.
Atrium, the main quadrangle in a Roman dwelling-house; also the enclosed court in front of an early Christian basilican church.
Baptistery, a building, or addition to a building, erected for the purposes of celebrating the rite of Christian baptism.
Basement, the lowest story of a building, applied also to the lowest part of an architectural design.
Bas-relief, a piece of sculpture in low relief.
Bird’s-beak, a moulding in Greek architecture, used in the capitals of Antæ.
Byzantine, the style of Christian architecture which had its origin at Byzantium (Constantinople).
Carceres, in the ancient racecourses, goals and starting-points.
Cartouche, in Egyptian buildings, a hieroglyphic signifying the name of a king or other important person.
Caryatidæ, human figures made to carry an entablature, in lieu of columns in some Classic buildings.
Cavædiam, another name for the atrium of a Roman house.
Cavea, the part of an ancient theatre occupied by the audience.
Cavetto, in Classic architecture, a hollow moulding.
Cella, the principal, often the only, apartment of a Greek or Roman temple.
Chaitya, an Indian temple, or hall of assembly.
Circus, a Roman racecourse.
Cloaca, a sewer or drain.
Columbarium, literally a pigeon-house—a Roman sepulchre built in many compartments.
Columnar, made with columns.
Compluvium, the open space or the middle of the roof of a Roman atrium.
Corona, in the cornices of Greek and Roman architecture, the plain unmoulded feature which is supported by the lower part of the cornice, and on which the crowning mouldings rest.
Cornice, the horizontal series of mouldings crowning the top of a building or the walls of a room.
Cuneiform, of letters in Assyrian inscriptions, wedge-shaped.
Cyclopean, applied to masonry constructed of vast stones, usually not hewn or squared.
Cyma(recta, or reversa), a moulding, in Classic architecture, of an outline partly convex and partly concave.
Dagoba, an Indian tomb of conical shape.
Dentil band, in Classic architecture, a series of small blocks resembling square-shaped teeth.
Domus(Lat.), a house, applied usually to a detached residence.
Dwarf-wall, a very low wall.
Echinus, in Greek Doric architecture, the principal moulding of the capital placed immediately under the abacus.
Entablature, the superstructure—comprising architrave, frieze and cornice—above the columns in Classic architecture.
Entasis, in the shaft of a column, a curved outline.
Ephebeum, the large hall in Roman baths in which youths practised gymnastic exercises.
Facia, in Classic architecture, a narrow flat band or face.
Fauces, the passage from the atrium to the peristyle in a Roman house.
Flutes, the small channels which run from top to bottom of the shaft of most columns in Classic architecture.
Forum, the place of general assembly in a Roman city, as the Agora was in a Greek.
Fresco, painting executed upon a plastered wall while the plaster is still wet.
Fret, an ornament made up of squares and L-shaped lines, in use in Greek architecture.
Garth, the central space round which a cloister is carried.
Girder, a beam.
Grouted, said of masonry or brickwork, treated with liquid mortar to fill up all crevices and interstices.
Guttæ, small pendent features in Greek and Roman Doric cornices, resembling rows of wooden pegs.
Hexastyle, of six columns.
Honeysuckle Ornament, a decoration constantly introduced into Assyrian and Greek architecture, founded upon the flower of the honeysuckle.
Horse-shoe Arch, an arch more than a semicircle, and so wider above than at its springing.
Hypostyle, literally “under columns,” but used to mean filled by columns.
Impluvium, the space into which the rain fell in the centre of the atrium of a Roman house.
Insula, a block of building surrounded on all sides by streets, literally an island.
Intercolumniation, the space between two columns.
Keyed, secured closely by interlocking.
Kibla, the most sacred part of a Mohammedan mosque.
Lâts, in Indian architecture, Buddhist inscribed pillars.
Mammisi, small Egyptian temples.
Mastaba, the most usual form of Egyptian tomb.
Mausoleum, a magnificent sepulchral monument or tomb. From the tomb erected to Mausolus, by his wife Artemisia, at Halicarnassus, 379B.C.
Metopes, literally faces, the square spaces between triglyphs in Doric architecture; occasionally applied to the sculptures fitted into these spaces.
Minaret, a slender lofty tower, a usual appendage of a Mohammedan mosque.
Monolith, of one stone.
Mortise, a hollow in a stone or timber to receive a corresponding projection.
Mosque, a Mohammedan place of worship.
Mutule, a feature in a Classic Doric cornice, somewhat resembling the end of a timber beam.
Narthex, in an early Christian church, the space next the entrance.
Obelisk, a tapering stone pillar, a feature of Egyptian architecture.
Opus Alexandrinum, the mosaic work used for floors in Byzantine and Romanesque churches.
Ovolo, a moulding, the profile of which resembles the outline of an egg, used in Classic architecture.
Pendentive, a feature in Byzantine and other domed buildings, employed to enable a circular dome to stand over a square space.
Peristylar, orPeripteral, with columns all round.
Peristylium, orPeristyle, in a Roman house, the inner courtyard; also any space or enclosure with columns all round it.
Piscina, a small basin usually executed in stone and placed within a sculptured niche, fixed at the side of an altar in a church, with a channel to convey away the water poured into it.
Polychromy, the use of decorative colours.
Precincts, the space round a church or religious house, usually enclosed with a wall.
Presbytery, the eastern part of a church, the chancel.
Profile(of a moulding), the outline which it would present if cut across at right angles to its length.
Pronaos, the front portion or vestibule to a temple.
Propylæa, in Greek architecture, a grand portal or state entrance.
Prothyrum, in a Roman house, the porch or entrance.
Pseudo-peripteral, resembling, but not really being peristylar.
Pylon, orPro-Pylon, the portal or front of an Egyptian temple.
Quadriga, a four-horse chariot.
Romanesque, the style of Christian architecture which was founded on Roman work.
Rotunda, a building circular in plan.
Sacristy, the part of a church where the treasures belonging to the church are preserved.
Shinto Temples, temples (in Japan) devoted to the Shinto religion.
Span, the space over which an arch or a roof extends.
Spina, the central wall of a Roman racecourse.
Stilted, raised, usually applied to an arch when its centre is above the top of the jambs from which it springs.
Struts, props.
Stupa, in Indian architecture, a mound or tope.
Stylobate, a series of steps, usually those leading up to a Classic temple.
Taas, a pagoda.
Tablinum, in a Roman house, the room between the atrium and the peristyle.
Talar, in Assyrian architecture, an open upper story.
Tenoned, fastened with a projection or tenon.
Tesselated, made of small squares of material, applied to coarse mosaic work.
Tetrastyle, with four columns.
Thermæ, the great bathing establishments of the Romans.
Topes, in Indian architecture, artificial mounds.
Trabeated, constructed with a beam or beams, a term usually employed in contrast to arches.
Triclinium, in a Roman house, the dining-room.
Triglyph, the channelled feature in the frieze of the Doric order.
Tumuli, mounds, usually sepulchral.
Typhonia, small Egyptian temples.
Velarium, a great awning.
Vestibule, the outer hall or ante-room.
Volutes, in Classic architecture, the curled ornaments of the Ionic capital.
Voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones of which arches are made.
N.B. For the explanation of other technical words found in this volume, consult the Glossary given with the companion volume on Gothic and Renaissance Architecture.
The Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.
Decorative capital of a column
ARCHITECTURE may be described as building at its best, and when we talk of the architecture of any city or country we mean its best, noblest, or most beautiful buildings; and we imply by the use of the word that these buildings possess merits which entitle them to rank as works of art.
The architecture of the civilised world can be best understood by considering the great buildings of each important nation separately. The features, ornaments, and even forms of ancient buildings differed just as the speech, or at any rate the literature, differed. Each nation wrote in a different language, though the books may have beendevoted to the same aims; and precisely in the same way each nation built in a style of its own, even if the buildings may have been similar in the purposes they had to serve. The division of the subject into the architecture of Egypt, Greece, Rome, &c., is therefore the most natural one to follow.
But certain broad groups, rising out of peculiarities of a physical nature, either in the buildings themselves or in the conditions under which they were erected, can hardly fail to be suggested by a general view of the subject. Such, for example, is the fourfold division to which the reader’s attention will now be directed.
All buildings, it will be found, can be classed under one or other of four great divisions, each distinguished by a distinct mode of building, and each also occupying a distinct place in history. The first series embraces the buildings of the Egyptians, the Persians, and the Greeks, and was brought to a pitch of the highest perfection in Greece during the age of Pericles. All the buildings erected in these countries during the many centuries which elapsed from the earliest Egyptian to the latest Greek works, however they may have differed in other respects, agree in this—that the openings, be they doors, or be they spaces between columns, were spanned by beams of wood or lintels of stone (Fig.1). Hence this architecture is called architecture of the beam, or, in more formal language, trabeated architecture. This mode of covering spaces required that in buildings of solid masonry, where stone or marble lintels were employed, the supports should not be very far apart, and this circumstance led to the frequent use of rows of columns. The architecture of this period is accordingly sometimes called columnar, but it has no exclusive claim to theepithet; the column survived long after the exclusive use of the beam had been superseded, and the term columnar must accordingly be shared with buildings forming part of the succeeding series.
Decorated with figures and text
Fig. 1.—Opening spanned by a Lintel. Arch of the Goldsmiths, Rome.
The second great group of buildings is that in which the semicircular arch is introduced into construction, andused either together with the beam, or, as mostly happened, instead of the beam, to span the openings (Fig.2). This use of the arch began with the Assyrians, and it reappeared in the works of the early Etruscans. The round-arched series of styles embraces the buildings of the Romans from their earliest beginnings to their decay; it also includes the two great schools of Christian architecture which were founded by the Western and the Eastern Church respectively,—namely, the Romanesque, which, originating in Rome, extended itself through Western Europe, and lasted till the time of the Crusades, and the Byzantine, which spread from Constantinople over all the countries in which the Eastern (or Greek) Church flourished, and which continues to our own day.
A plainer arch, with only two figures and small sections of text
Fig. 2.—Opening Spanned by a Semicircular Arch. Roman Triumphal Arch at Pola.
Fig. 3.—Openings Spanned by Pointed Arches. Interior of St. Front, Périgueux, France.
The third group of buildings is that in which the pointed arch is employed instead of the semicircular arch to span the openings (Fig.3). It began with the rise of Mohammedan architecture in the East, and embraces all the buildings of Western Europe, from the time of the First Crusade to the revival of art in the fifteenth century.This great series of buildings constitutes what is known as Pointed, or, more commonly, as Gothic architecture.
The fourth group consists of the buildings erected during or since the Renaissance (i.e.revival) period, and is marked by a return to the styles of past ages or distant countries for the architectural features and ornaments of buildings; and by that luxury, complexity, and ostentation which, with other qualities, are well comprehended under the epithet Modern. This group of buildings forms what is known as Renaissance architecture, and extends from the epoch of the revival of letters in the fifteenth century, to the present day.
The first two of these styles—namely, the architecture of the beam, and that of the round arch—are treated of in this little volume. They occupy those remote times of pagan civilisation which may be conveniently included under the broad term Ancient; and the better known work of the Greeks and Romans—the classic nations—and they extend over the time of the establishment of Christianity down to the close of that dreary period not incorrectly termed the Dark ages. Ancient, Classic, and early Christian architecture is accordingly an appropriate title for the main subjects of this volume, though, for the sake of convenience, some notices of Oriental architecture have been added. Gothic and Renaissance architecture form the subjects of the companion volume.
It may excite surprise that what appears to be so small a difference as that which exists between a beam, a round arch, or a pointed arch, should be employed in order to distinguish three of the four great divisions. But in reality this is no pedantic or arbitrary grouping. The mode in which spaces or openings are covered lies at the root of most of the essential differences between styles ofarchitecture, and the distinction thus drawn is one of a real, not of a fanciful nature.
Every building when reduced to its elements, as will be done in both these volumes, may be considered as made up of its (1) floor or plan, (2) walls, (3) roof, (4) openings, (5) columns, and (6) ornaments, and as marked by its distinctive (7) character, and the student must be prepared to find that the openings are by no means the least important of these elements. In fact, the moment the method of covering openings was changed, it would be easy to show, did space permit, that all the other elements, except the ornaments, were directly affected by the change, and the ornaments indirectly; and we thus find such a correspondence between this index feature and the entire structure as renders this primary division a scientific though a very broad one. The contrast between the trabeated style and the arched style may be well understood by comparing the illustration of the Parthenon which forms our frontispiece, or that of the great temple of Zeus at Olympia (Fig.4), with the exterior of the Colosseum at Rome (Fig.5), introduced here for the purposes of this comparison.
Fig. 4.—Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Restored according to Adler.
A division of buildings into such great series as these cannot, however, supersede the more obvious historical and geographical divisions. The architecture of every ancient country was partly the growth of the soil,i.e.adapted to the climate of the country, and the materials found there, and partly the outcome of the national character of its inhabitants, and of such influences as race, colonisation, commerce, or conquest brought to bear upon them. These influences produced strong distinctions between the work of different peoples, especially before the era of the Roman Empire. Since thatperiod of universal dominion all buildings and styles have been influenced more or less by Roman art. We accordingly find the buildings of the most ancient nations separated from each other by strongly marked lines of demarcation, but those since the era of the Empire showing a considerable resemblance to one another. The circumstance that the remains of those buildings only which received the greatest possible attention from their builders have come down to us from any remote antiquity, has perhaps served to accentuate the differences between different styles, for these foremost buildings were not intended to serve the same purpose in all countries. Nothing but tombs and temples have survived in Egypt. Palaces only have been rescued from the decay of Assyrian and Persian cities; and temples, theatres, and places of public assembly are the chief, almost the only remains of architecture in Greece.
A strong contrast between the buildings of different ancient nations rises also from the differing point of view for which they were designed. Thus, in the tombs and, to a large extent, the temples of the Egyptians, we find structures chiefly planned for internal effect; that is to say, intended to be seen by those admitted to the sacred precincts, but only to a limited extent appealing to the admiration of those outside. The buildings of the Greeks, on the other hand, were chiefly designed to please those who examined them from without, and though no doubt some of them, the theatres especially, were from their very nature planned for interior effect, by far the greatest works which Greek art produced were the exteriors of the temples.
Fig. 5.—Part of the Exterior of the Colosseum, Rome. (Now in Ruins.)
The works of the Romans, and, following them, those of almost all Western Christian nations, were designedto unite external and internal effect; but in many cases external was evidently most sought after, and, in the North of Europe, many expedients—such, for example, as towers, high-pitched roofs, and steeples—were introduced into architecture with the express intention of increasing external effect. On the other hand, the Eastern styles, both Mohammedan and Christian, especially when practised in sunny climates, show in many cases a comparative disregard of external effect, and that their architects lavished most of their resources on the interiors of their buildings.
Passing allusions have been made to the influence of climate on architecture; and the student whose attention has been once called to this subject will find many interesting traces of this influence in the designs of buildings erected in various countries. Where the power of the sun is great, flat terraced roofs, which help to keep buildings cool, and thick walls are desirable. Sufficient light is admitted by small windows far apart. Overhanging eaves, or horizontal cornices, are in such a climate the most effective mode of obtaining architectural effect, and accordingly in the styles of all Southern peoples these peculiarities appear. The architecture of Egypt, for example, exhibited them markedly. Where the sun is still powerful, but not so extreme, the terraced roof is generally replaced by a sloping roof, steep enough to throw off water, and larger openings are made for light and air; but the horizontal cornice still remains the most appropriate means of gaining effects of light and shade. This description will apply to the architecture of Italy and Greece. When, however, we pass to Northern countries, where snow has to be encountered, where light is precious, and where the sun is low in the heavens for thegreater part of the day, a complete change takes place. Roofs become much steeper, so as to throw off snow. The horizontal cornice is to a large extent disused, but the buttress, the turret, and other vertical features, from which a level sun will cast shadows, begin to appear; and windows are made numerous and spacious. This description applies to Gothic architecture generally—in other words, to the styles which rose in Northern Europe.
Showing steep roof and turret of northern architecture
Fig. 6.—Timber Architecture. Church at Borgund.
The influence of materials on architecture is also worth notice. Where granite, which is worked with difficulty,is the material obtainable, architecture has invariably been severe and simple; where soft stone is obtainable, exuberance of ornament makes its appearance, in consequence of the material lending itself readily to the carver’s chisel. Where, on the other hand, marble is abundant and good, refinement is to be met with, for no other building material exists in which very delicate mouldings or very slight or slender projections may be employed with the certainty that they will be effective. Where stone is scarce, brick buildings, with many arches, roughly constructed cornices and pilasters, and other peculiarities both of structure and ornamentation, make their appearance, as, for example, in Lombardy and North Germany. Where materials of many colours abound, as is the case, for example, in the volcanic districts of France, polychromy is sought as a means of ornamentation. Lastly, where timber is available, and stone and brick are both scarce, the result is an architecture of which both the forms and the ornamentation are entirely dissimilar to those proper to buildings of stone, marble, or brick, as may be seen by a glance at our illustration of an early Scandinavian church built of timber (Fig.6), which presents forms appropriate to a timber building as being easily constructed of wood, but which would hardly be suitable to any other material whatever.
Fig. 7.—Egyptian Cornice.
THE origin of Egyptian architecture, like that of Egyptian history, is lost in the mists of antiquity. The remains of all, or almost all, other styles of architecture enable us to trace their rude beginnings, their development, their gradual progress up to a culminating point, and thence their slow but certain decline; but the earliest remains of the constructions of the Egyptians show their skill as builders at the height of its perfection, their architecture highly developed, and their sculpture at its very best, if not indeed at the commencement of its decadence; for some of the statuary of the age of the Pyramids was never surpassed in artistic effect by the work of a later era. It is impossible for us to conceive of such scientific skill as is evidenced in the construction of the great pyramids, or such artistic power as is displayed on the walls of tombs of the same date, or in the statues found in them, as other than the outcome of a vast accumulation of experience, the attainment of which must imply the lapse of very long periods of time since the nation which producedsuch works emerged from barbarism. It is natural, where so remote an antiquity is in question, that we should feel a great difficulty, if not an impossibility, in fixing exact dates, but the whole tendency of modern exploration and research is rather to push back than to advance the dates of Egyptian chronology, and it is by no means impossible that the dynasties of Manetho, after being derided as apocryphal for centuries, may in the end be accepted as substantially correct. Manetho was an Egyptian priest living in the third centuryB.C., who wrote a history of his country, which he compiled from the archives of the temples. His work itself is lost, but Josephus quotes extracts from it, and Eusebius and Julius Africanus reproduced his lists, in which the monarchs of Egypt are grouped into thirty-four dynasties. These, however, do not agree with one another, and in many cases it is difficult to reconcile them with the records displayed in the monuments themselves.
The remains with which we are acquainted indicate four distinct periods of great architectural activity in Egyptian history, viz.: (1) the period of the fourth dynasty, when the Great Pyramids were erected (probably 3500 to 3000B.C.); (2) the period of the twelfth dynasty, to which belong the remains at Beni-Hassan; (3) the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, when Thebes was in its glory, which is attested by the ruins of Luxor and Karnak; and (4) the Ptolemaic period, of which there are the remains at Denderah, Edfou, and Philæ. The monuments that remain are almost exclusively tombs and temples. The tombs are, generally speaking, all met with on the east or right bank of the Nile: among them must be classed those grandest and oldest monuments of Egyptian skill, thePyramids, which appear to have been all designed as royal burying-places. A large number of pyramids have been discovered, but those of Gizeh, near Cairo, are the largest and the best known, and also probably the oldest which can be authenticated.[1]The three largest pyramids are those of Cheops, Cephren, and Mycerinus at Gizeh (or, as the names are more correctly written, Suphis, Sensuphis, and Moscheris or Mencheris). These monarchs all belonged to the fourth dynasty, and the most probable date to be assigned to them is about 3000B.C.The pyramid of Suphis is the largest, and is the one familiarly known as the Great Pyramid; it has a square base, the side of which is 760 feet long,[2]a height of 484 feet, and an area of 577,600 square feet. In this pyramid the angle of inclination of the sloping sides to the base is 51° 51′, but in no two pyramids is this angle the same. There can be no doubt that these huge monuments were erected each as the tomb of an individual king, whose efforts were directed towards making it everlasting, and the greatest pains were taken to render the access to the burial chamber extremely hard to discover. This accounts for the vast disproportion between the lavish amount of material used for the pyramid and the smallness of the cavity enclosed in it (Fig.8).
The material employed was limestone cased with syenite (granite from Syene), and the internal passages were lined with granite. The granite of the casing has entirelydisappeared, but that employed as linings is still in its place, and so skilfully worked that it would not be possible to introduce even a sheet of paper between the joints.
Showing the interior passages and chambers
Fig. 8.—Section across the Great Pyramid (of Cheops or Suphis).
The entrance D to this pyramid of Suphis was at a height of 47 ft. 6 in. above the base, and, as was almost invariably the case, on the north face; from the entrance a passage slopes downward at an angle of 26° 27′ to a chamber cut in the rock at a depth of about 90 feet below the base of the pyramid. This chamber seems to have been intended as a blind, as it was not the place for the depositionof the corpse. From the point in the above described passage—marked A on our illustration of this pyramid—another gallery starts upwards, till it reaches the point C, from which a horizontal passage leads to another small chamber. This is called the Queen’s Chamber, but no reason has been discovered for the name. From this point C the gallery continues upwards till, in the heart of the pyramid, the Royal Chamber, B, is reached. The walls of these chambers and passages are lined with masonry executed in the hardest stone (granite), and with an accuracy of fitting and a truth of surface that can hardly be surpassed. Extreme care seems to have been taken to prevent the great weight overhead from crushing in the galleries and the chamber. The gallery from C upwards is of the form shown in Fig.9, where each layer of stones projects slightly beyond the one underneath it. Fig.11is a section of the chamber itself, and the succession of small chambers shown one above the other was evidently formed for the purpose of distributing the weight of the superincumbent mass. From the point C a narrow well leads almost perpendicularly downwards to a point nearly at the bottom of the first-mentioned gallery; and the purpose to be served by this well was long a subject of debate. The probability is that, after the corpse had been placed in its chamber, the workmen completely blocked up the passage from A to C by allowing large blocks of granite to slide down it, these blocks having been previously prepared and deposited in the larger gallery; the men then let themselves down the well, and by means of the lower gallery made their exit from the pyramid. The entrances to the chamber and to the pyramid itself were formed by huge blocks of stone which exactly fitted into grooves prepared for them with themost beautiful mathematical accuracy. The chief interest attaching to the pyramids lies in their extreme antiquity, and the scientific method of their construction; for their effect upon the spectator is by no means proportionate to their immense mass and the labour bestowed upon them.
Showing the stepped construction
Fig. 9.—Ascending Gallery in the Great Pyramid.
Showing the construction
Fig. 10.—The Sepulchral Chamber in the Pyramid of Cephren at Gizeh.
Fig. 11.—The Construction of the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid.
In the neighbourhood of the pyramids are found a large number of tombs which are supposed to be those of private persons. Their form is generally that of amastabaor truncated pyramid with sloping walls, and their construction is evidently copied from a fashion of wooden architecture previously existing. The same idea of making an everlasting habitation for the body prevailed as in the case of the pyramids, and stone was therefore the material employed; but the builders seem to have desired to indulge in a decorative style, and as they were totally unable to originate a legitimate stone architecture, we find carved in stone, rounded beams as lintels, grooved posts, and—most curious of all—roofs that are an almost exact copy of the early timber huts when unsquared baulks of timber were laid across side by side to form a covering. Figs.12and13show this kind of stone-work, which is peculiar to the old dynasties, and seems to have had little influence upon succeeding styles.
A remarkable feature of these early private tombs consists in the paintings with which the walls are decorated, and which vividly portray the ordinary every-day occupations carried on during his lifetime by the person who was destined to be the inmate of the tomb. These paintings are of immense value in enabling us to form an accurate idea of the life of the people at this early age.
Fig. 12.—Imitation of Timber Construction in Stone, from a Tomb at Memphis.
Fig. 13.—Imitation of Timber Construction in Stone, from a Tomb at Memphis.
It may possibly be open to doubt whether the dignified appellation of architecture should be applied to buildingsof the kind we have just been describing; but when we come to the series of remains of the twelfth dynasty at Beni-Hassan, in middle Egypt, we meet with the earliest known examples of that most interesting feature of all subsequent styles—the column. Whether the idea of columnar architecture originated with the necessities of quarrying—square piers being left at intervals to support the superincumbent mass of rock as the quarry was gradually driven in—or whether the earliest stone piers were imitations of brickwork or of timber posts, we shall probably never be able to determine accurately, though the former supposition seems the more likely. We have here monuments of a date 1400 years anterior to the earliest known Greek examples, with splendid columns, both exterior and interior, which no reasonable person can doubt are the prototypes of the Greek Doric order. Fig.14is a plan with a section, and Fig.15an exterior view, of one of these tombs, which, it will be seen, consisted of a portico, a chamber with its roof supported by columns, and a small space at the farther end in which is formed the opening of a sloping passage or well, at the bottom of which the vault for the reception of the body was constructed. The walls of the large chamber are lavishly decorated with scenes of every-day life, and it has even been suggested that these places were not erected originally as tombs, but as dwelling-places, which after death were appropriated as sepulchres.
Showing view between columns
Section.
Showing position of columns
Fig. 14.—Plan and Section of the Tomb at Beni-Hassan.
The columns are surmounted by a small square slab, technically called an abacus, and heavy square beams or architraves span the spaces between the columns, while the roof between the architraves has a slightly segmental form. The tombs of the later period, viz. of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, are very different from those ofthe twelfth dynasty, and present few features of architectural interest, though they are remarkable for their vast extent and the variety of form of their various chambers and galleries. They consist of a series of chambers excavated in the rock, and it appears certain that the tomb was commenced on the accession of each monarch, and was driven farther and farther into the rock during the continuance of his reign till his death, when all work abruptly ceased. All the chambers are profusely decorated with paintings, but of a kind very different from those of the earlier dynasties. Instead of depicting scenes of ordinary life, all the paintings refer to the supposed life after death, and are thus of very great value as a means of determining the religious opinions of theEgyptians at this time. One of the most remarkable of these tombs is that of Manephthah or Sethi I., at Bab-el-Molouk, and known as Belzoni’s tomb, as it was discovered by him; from it was taken the alabaster sarcophagus now in the Soane Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. To this relic a new interest is given by the announcement, while these pages are passing through the press, of the discovery of the mummy of this very Manephthah, with thirty-eight other royal mummies, in the neighbourhood of Thebes.
Showing entrance to the tomb
Fig. 15.—Rock-cut Façade of Tomb at Beni-Hassan.
Of the Ptolemaic period no tombs, except perhaps a few at Alexandria, are known to exist.
It is very doubtful whether any remains of temples of the time of the fourth dynasty—i.e.contemporaneous with the pyramids—exist. One, constructed on a most extraordinary plan, was supposed to have been discovered about a quarter of a century ago, and it was described byProfessor Donaldson at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861, but later Egyptologists rather incline to the belief that this was a tomb and not a temple, as in one of the chambers of the interior a number of compartments were discovered one above the other which were apparently intended for the reception of bodies. This singular building is close to the Great Sphinx; its plan is cruciform, and there are in the interior a number of rectangular piers of granite supporting very simple architraves, but there are no means of determining what kind of roof covered it in. The walls seem to have been faced on the interior with polished slabs of granite or alabaster, but no sculpture or hieroglyphic inscriptions were found on them to explain the purpose of the building. Leaving this building—which is of a type quite unique—out of the question, Egyptian temples can be generally classed under two heads: (1) the large principal temples, and (2) the small subsidiary ones called Typhonia or Mammisi. Both kinds of temple vary little, if at all, in plan from the time of the twelfth dynasty down to the Roman dominion.