The encyclopaedia of the fine arts : forming a portion of the Encyclopaedia metropolitana.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The encyclopaedia of the fine arts : forming a portion of the Encyclopaedia metropolitana. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/748 (page 248)
    ■vrchitec- existing examples of Egypt were executed, or restored, ture. by Grecian artists at the time that this intercourse sub- sisted between the two Countries. We are far, how- ever, from thinking that this opinion is well founded, because, on account of the extreme veneration enter- tained by the Egyptians for every object connected with their Religion, they never suffered any but their Priests, or persons subordinate to them, to perform any of the services required about their sacred edifices; it is not likely, therefore, that foreigners would be allowed to change the style of their Architecture. CHAPTER IV. Description of the Grecian Doric Temples In Greece, as well as in Egypt, nearly all the most ancient specimens of regular Architecture, yet remaining, are the Temples which were consecrated to the Gods. These, being constructed with great solidity, and not subject to the mutations which affect buildings intended 'freinaH1 for domestic purposes, might be expected to survive all such edifices; and, as they possess, at the same time, a simplicity of character which causes their form to approach very near to what is supposed to have been that of the primitive model, it will be proper, in describ- ing the Grecian buildings, to begin with the Temples. This we purpose to do after having stated the different denominations which, according to Vitruvius, were as- signed to them, on account of the disposition and num- ber of the columns employed. General The Greek Temples were, almost universally, rec- plan of the tangular, only one or two examples remaining of ancient a circular or polygonal form, though, no doubt. Temples. many sucb existed formerly. These, however, were small, in some cases the building consisted merely of a row of columns, disposed on the circumference of a circle, and covered by a roof; in others, a space was enclosed by a cylindrical wall, covered by a roof, which projected beyond the wall, and was supported by a circular range of columns. These Temples were said to be monopteral. The plan of the generality of the rectangular Temples in Greece and her colonies was a simple parallelogram, a form which also prevailed in the Temples of Egypt. In some of the smaller Temples a row of columns was placed in front; but, in most cases, there was a row both in front and rear. And the superior Temples were, gene- rally, surrounded by one, or even two ranges of columns. The Temple was divided into two or more parts ; in the front, and, sometimes, in the rear face was formed a porch ; beyond this, or between the two, was the naos, or body of the building, into which the worshippers were admitted ; and, at one extremity, separated from it by a wall, was, sometimes, an apartment called opis- thodomus, to contain the treasures of the Temple or of the State, and into which the Priest, or the chief Magis- trates only, were allowed to enter. The porch in front was called pronaos, and that in the rear, posticos. The interior of the naos was without ornament, and, gene- rally, received its light from the door only, or, perhaps, from openings formed in the roof; though, in some cases, windows were formed in the walls. The roofs of the rectangular Temples were formed in Temples are, in ge- neral, the most an- two inclined planes, extending from front to rear, meet- Part 1. ing in a ridge over the middle, and forming a triangular v-—1 pediment at each extremity. Above the walls, at the angles of the building, are generally placed acroteria, or pedestals, which rise through the roof to about the level of the centre of the tympanum. On the upper surface of each of these pedestals a square place is sunk, probably for the reception of some figure which might be intended to ornament the roof. The simplest form of the rectangular Temple was that in which the two side walls were carried out from the naos, to form the porch before mentioned, at one or both extremities of the building. These projecting walls were terminated on the front, or on both faces of the build- ing, by pilasters, which, thus situated, were called antce; and, hence, this kind of Temple was said to be in antis. Between the pilasters in front were placed two or more columns which, with the pilasters, sup- ported the entablature. When columns were placed at one extremity of the Distinctions building, in advance of the line joining the antae, the of Temples Temple was said to be prostyle ; the entablature was accurdingto placed over the front columns, and returned on the right and left as far as the antae, or, perhaps, quite along the columns. sides of the building. If columns were placed, in a similar way, at both extremities of the building, it was said to be amphiprostyle. A Temple having columns entirely surrounding the walls was called peripteral; in which kind of Temple a space equal to an intercolumniation, that is, to the distance between two columns, is supposed by Vitruvius to be left between the columns and each of the side walls of the naos; to which spaces the Greeks gave the name of pteromata. When the exterior of a Temple was not surrounded by a peristyle or colonnade, the Temple was said to be apteral. A Temple was of the kind called dipteral, when it had two ranges of columns resting on the pavement, and en- tirely surrounding the naos. When there were two rows of columns in front and rear, and only a single row on each flank, the temple was said to be pseudodipteral. In this case, a space equal to the extent of two intercolumnia- tions existed between each of the side walls and the columns. A Temple was called Hypcdhral when it had a row of columns in the interior at some distance from each of the four walls. The space between the walls and the columns may, in some cases, have been covered by a roof, but the central space enclosed by the columns had none. Hypaethral Temples being those of the greatest magnitude, had, generally, a double range of columns surrounding the naos on the exterior; and they are supposed by some to have been mostly, if not always, dedicated to Jupiter; but this is very doubtful. Vitruvius, in the I Id Chapter of his IHd Book, dis- Distincticns tinguishes Temples according to the magnitudes of the ol Temples intervals of the columns ; thus a Temple is said to be (he intereo- pycnostyle when the interval between the nearest sides lumniations. of the columns is equal to once and a half the diameter of the column. It is said to be systyle, when that in- terval is equal to two diameters. But he considers both these kinds as inconvenient, because persons entering the Temple arm in arm cannot pass between the columns. The next kind is called eustyle, in which the intervals were equal to two diameters and a quarter, or two and a half, except one interval, viz. that in the middle of the