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[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH.]




A

HISTORY OF ART

FOR

BEGINNERS AND STUDENTS

PAINTING--SCULPTURE--ARCHITECTURE


WITH

_COMPLETE INDEXES AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS_


BY

CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT

AUTHOR OF "HANDBOOK OF LEGENDARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL ART," "PAINTERS,
SCULPTORS, ENGRAVERS, ARCHITECTS AND THEIR WORKS," "ARTISTS OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY," ETC.

[Illustration]

    NEW YORK
    FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
    MDCCCXCI




    COPYRIGHT, 1887,
    BY FREDERICK A. STOKES,

    SUCCESSOR TO WHITE, STOKES, & ALLEN.




[Illustration]

CONTENTS.


    CHAPTER I.
                                                                 PAGE
    ANCIENT OR HEATHEN ARCHITECTURE. 3000 B.C. TO A.D. 328,         1
        EGYPT,                                                      2
        ASSYRIA,                                                   20
        BABYLON,                                                   29
        PERSIA,                                                    34
        JUDEA,                                                     44
        GREECE,                                                    46
        ETRURIA,                                                   71
        ROME,                                                      74


    CHAPTER II.

    CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE. A.D. 328 TO ABOUT 1400,                87
        GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE,                                       93
        BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE,                                   117
        SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE,                                   123


    CHAPTER III.

    MODERN ARCHITECTURE. A.D. 1400 TO THE PRESENT TIME,           133
        ITALY,                                                    134
        SPAIN,                                                    145
        FRANCE,                                                   153
        ENGLAND,                                                  166
        GERMANY,                                                  172
        THEATRES AND MUSIC HALLS,                                 179
        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,                                 181

    GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS,                                  191

    INDEX,                                                        195




[Illustration]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                                 PAGE
    The Pyramids of Ghizeh,                            _Frontispiece_
    The Ascent of a Pyramid,                                        4
    View of Gallery in the Great Pyramid,                           5
    Poulterer's Shop,                                               6
    Rock-cut Tomb (Beni-Hassan),                                    6
    The Hall of Columns at Karnak,                                 10
    Pillar from Thebes (showing the Three Parts),                  11
    Sculptured Capital,                                            12
    Palm Capital,                                                  12
    Pillar from Sedingæ,                                           12
    The Great Sphinx,                                              13
    Cleopatra's Needles,                                           15
    Pavilion at Medinet Habou,                                     17
    Temple on the Island of Philæ,                                 18
    Gateways in Walls of Khorsabad,                                21
    Entrance to Smaller Temple (Nimrud),                           22
    Pavement Slab (from Koyunjik),                                 23
    Remains of Propylæum, or Outer Gateway (Khorsabad),            24
    Plan of Palace (Khorsabad),                                    25
    Relief from Khorsabad. A Temple,                               26
    Restoration of an Assyrian Palace,                             28
    Elevation of the Temple of the Seven Spheres at Borsippa,      31
    Birs-i-Nimrud (near Babylon),                                  33
    Masonry of Great Platform (Persepolis),                        36
    Parapet Wall of Staircase. _Persepolis._ (Restored),           37
    Ruins of the Palace of Darius (Persepolis),                    38
    Gateway of Hall of a Hundred Columns,                          39
    Double-horned Lion Capital,                                    40
    Complex Capital and Base of Pillars (Persepolis),              40
    Base of Another Pillar (Persepolis),                           40
    Ground-plan (Restored) of Hall of Xerxes (Persepolis),         41
    Part of a Base of the Time of Cyrus (Pasargadæ),               42
    The Tomb of Cyrus,                                             43
    Roof of One of the Compartments of the Gate Huldah,            45
    Temple of Diana (Eleusis),                                     48
    Gravestone from Mycenæ (Schliemann),                           49
    Small Temple at Rhamnus,                                       50
    The Parthenon. _Athens._ (Restored),                           51
    Plan of Temple of Apollo (Bassæ),                              52
    From the Parthenon (Athens),                                   53
    Ionic Architecture,                                            55
    Ionic Base,                                                    55
    Attic Base,                                                    55
    Base from Temple of Hera (Samos),                              56
    Ionic Capital (front view),                                    56
    Ionic Capital (side view),                                     56
    From Monument of Lysicrates (Athens),                          57
    Corinthian Order,                                              58
    Caryatid,                                                      59
    Stool, or Chair (Khorsabad),                                   59
    The Acropolis. _Athens._ (Restored),                           63
    The Erechtheium. _Athens._ (Restored),                         66
    Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. _Athens_,                     68
    The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Restored),                     69
    Tombs at Castel d'Asso,                                        71
    Principal Chamber of the Regulini-Galeassi Tomb,               72
    Arch at Volterra,                                              73
    Gateway (Arpino),                                              73
    Arch of Cloaca Maxima (Rome),                                  74
    Composite Order, from the Arch of Septimius Severus (Rome),    75
    Doric Arcade,                                                  76
    Ground-plan of Pantheon (Rome),                                77
    Interior of the Pantheon,                                      78
    Longitudinal Section of Basilica of Maxentius,                 79
    Arch of Constantine (Rome),                                    82
    Arch of Trajan (Beneventum),                                   83
    Tomb of Cecilia Metella,                                       84
    Columbarium near the Gate of St. Sebastian (Rome),             85
    Interior of Basilica of St. Paul's (Rome),                     88
    The Cathedral of Chartres,                                     91
    Church of St. Nicholas (Caen),                                 95
    Façade of Cathedral of Notre Dame (Paris),                     96
    Clustered Pillar,                                              97
    Buttress,                                                      97
    Hinge,                                                         97
    Iron-work,                                                     97
    Gargoyle,                                                      97
    Nail-head,                                                     98
    Scroll,                                                        98
    Section of Church (Carcassone). With Outer Aisles Added in
            Fourteenth Century,                                    99
    Spires of Laon Cathedral,                                     100
    Portal of the Minorites' Church (Vienna),                     101
    External Elevation, Cathedral of Paris,                       102
    Wheel Window, from Cathedral (Toscanella),                    103
    Collegiate Church. _Toro._ (From Villa Amil),                 105
    St. Paul, Saragossa,                                          106
    Cloister (Tarazona),                                          107
    Rood-screen, from the Madeleine (Troyes),                     108
    Palace of Wartburg,                                           109
    Tower of Cremona,                                             111
    St. Mark's Cathedral (Venice),                                113
    Section of San Miniato (near Florence),                       115
    San Giovanni degli Eremiti (Palermo),                         116
    Church of St. Sophia. _Constantinople._ (Exterior View),      118
    Lower Order of St. Sophia,                                    119
    Upper Order of St. Sophia,                                    120
    Interior View of Church of St. Sophia,                        121
    Mosque of Kaitbey,                                            124
    The Call to Prayer,                                           125
    Exterior of the Sanctuary in the Mosque of Cordova,           127
    Court of the Lions (Alhambra),                                131
    The Cathedral of Florence and Giotto's Campanile,             135
    View of St. Peter's (Rome),                                   137
    Section of St. Peter's,                                       139
    East Elevation of Library of St. Mark,                        141
    The Doge's Palace (Venice),                                   143
    Great Court of the Hospital of Milan,                         144
    The Escurial (near Madrid),                                   147
    Façade of the Church of St. Michael (Dijon),                  155
    Façade of the Dome of the Invalides (Paris),                  156
    The Pantheon (Paris),                                         157
    The Madeleine (Paris),                                        159
    Pavilion de l'Horloge and Part of the Court of the Louvre,    161
    Château of Chambord,                                          163
    Porte St. Denis (Paris),                                      164
    Arc de l'Étoile (Paris),                                      165
    East Elevation of St. Paul's (Covent Garden),                 167
    St. Paul's, London (from the West),                           168
    St. George's Hall (Liverpool),                                169
    Windsor Castle,                                               170
    The Houses of Parliament (London),                            171
    The Brandenburg Gate (Berlin),                                174
    The Basilica at Munich,                                       175
    The Ruhmeshalle (near Munich),                                176
    The Museum (Berlin),                                          177
    The Walhalla,                                                 178
    The New Opera House (Paris),                                  180
    The United States Capitol (Washington),                       182
    State Capitol (Columbus, Ohio),                               183
    Sir William Pepperell's House (Kittery Point, Maine),         185
    Old Morrisania (Morrisania, New York),                        187
    Residence at Irvington, New York,                             189




[Illustration]

ARCHITECTURE.




CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT OR HEATHEN ARCHITECTURE.

3000 B.C. TO A.D. 328.


Architecture seems to me to be the most wonderful of all the arts. We
may not love it as much as others, when we are young perhaps we cannot
do so, because it is so great and so grand; but at any time of life one
can see that in Architecture some of the most marvellous achievements
of men are displayed. The principal reason for saying this is that
Architecture is not an imitative art, like Painting and Sculpture. The
first picture that was ever painted was a portrait or an imitation of
something that the painter had seen. So in Sculpture, the first statue
or bas-relief was an attempt to reproduce some being or object that the
sculptor had seen, or to make a work which combined portions of several
things that he had observed; but in Architecture this was not true. No
temples or tombs or palaces existed until they had first taken form in
the mind and imagination of the builders, and were created out of space
and nothingness, so to speak. Thus Painting and Sculpture are imitative
arts, but Architecture is a constructive art; and while one may love
pictures or statues more than the work of the architect, it seems to
me that one must wonder most at the last.

We do not know how long the earth has existed, and in studying the
most ancient times of which we have any accurate knowledge, we come
upon facts which prove that men must have lived and died long before
the dates of which we can speak exactly. The earliest nations of whose
Architecture we can give an account are called heathen nations, and
their art is called Ancient or Heathen Art, and this comes down to the
time when the Roman Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity,
and changed the Roman Capitol from Rome to Constantinople in the year
of our Lord 328.

The buildings and the ruins which still remain from these ancient times
are in Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Judea, Asia Minor, Greece, Etruria, and
Rome. Many of these have been excavated or uncovered, as, during the
ages that have passed since their erection, they had been buried away
from sight by the accumulation of earth about them. These excavations
are always going on in various countries, and men are ever striving
to learn more about the wonders of ancient days; and we may hope that
in the future as marvellous things may be revealed to us as have been
shown in the past.


EGYPT.

As we consider the Architecture of Egypt, the Great Pyramid first
attracts attention on account of its antiquity and its importance. This
was built by Cheops, who is also called Suphis, about 3000 years before
Christ. At that distant day the Egyptians seem to have been a nation of
pyramid-builders, for even now, after all the years that have rolled
between them and us, we know of more than sixty of these mysterious
monuments which have been opened and explored.

Of all these the three pyramids at Ghizeh (Fig. 1) are best known, and
that of Cheops is the most remarkable among them. Those of you who have
studied the history of the wars of Napoleon I. will remember that it
was near this spot that he fought the so-called Battle of the Pyramids,
and that in addressing his soldiers he reminded them that here the
ages looked down upon them, thus referring to the many years during
which this great pyramid had stood on the border of the desert, as if
watching the flight of Time and calmly waiting to see what would happen
on the final day of all earthly things.

There have been much speculation and many opinions as to the use for
which these pyramids were made, but the most general belief is that
they were intended for the tombs of the powerful kings who reigned in
Egypt and caused them to be built.

The pyramid of Cheops was four hundred and eighty feet and nine inches
high, and its base was seven hundred and sixty-four feet square. It
is so difficult to understand the size of anything from mere figures,
that I shall try to make it plainer by saying that it covers more than
thirteen acres of land, which is more than twice as much as is covered
by any building in the world. Its height is as great as that of any
cathedral spire in Europe, and more than twice that of the monument on
Bunker Hill, which is but two hundred and twenty feet, and yet looks
very high.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE ASCENT OF A PYRAMID.]

When it was built it was covered with a casing of stone, the different
pieces being fitted together and polished to a surface like glass;
but this covering has been torn away and the stones used for other
purposes, which has left the pyramid in a series of two hundred and
three rough and jagged steps, some of them being two feet and a half
in height, growing less toward the top, but not diminishing with any
regularity. The top is now a platform thirty-two feet and eight inches
square. Each traveller who ascends this pyramid has from one to four
Fellahs or Arabs, who pull him forward or upward by his arms, or push
him and lift him from behind, and finally drag him to the top (Fig. 2).
When he thinks of all the weary months and days of the twenty years
during which it is said that those who built it worked, cutting out the
stone in the quarries, moving it to the spot where it was required, and
then raising it to the great heights and fitting it all in place, he
regards his fatigue in its ascent as a little thing, though at the time
it is no joke to him.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--VIEW OF GALLERY IN THE GREAT PYRAMID.]

Many of the pyramids were encased in stone taken from the Mokattam
Mountains, which were somewhat more than half a mile distant; but the
pyramid of Cheops was covered with the red Syenite granite, which must
have been quarried in the "red mountain," nearly five hundred miles
away, near to Syene, or the modern Assouan. The interior of the pyramid
is divided into chambers and passages (Fig. 3), which are lined with
beautiful slabs of granite and constructed in such a way as to prove
that at the remote time in which the pyramids were built Egyptian
architects and workmen were already skilled in planning and executing
great works. Of the seventy pyramids known to have existed in those
early days, sixty-nine had the entrance on the north side, leaving
but a single exception to this rule; all of them were situated on the
western side of the River Nile, just on the edge of the desert, beyond
the strip of cultivable ground which borders the river.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--POULTERER'S SHOP.]

Near the pyramids there are numerous tombs, which are built somewhat
like low houses, having several apartments with but one entrance from
the outside. The walls of these apartments are adorned with pictures
similar to this one of a poulterer's shop (Fig. 4); they represent the
manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians with great exactness.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--ROCK-CUT TOMB, BENI-HASSAN.]

The tombs at Beni-Hassan are among the most ancient ruins of Egypt, and
are very interesting (Fig. 5). They were made between 2466 and 2266
B.C. They are on the eastern bank of the Nile, and are hewn out of the
solid rock; they are ornamented with sculptures and pictures which
are full of interest; it has been said that these tombs were built by
the Pharaoh, or king, of Joseph's time, and one of the paintings is
often spoken of as being a representation of the brethren of Joseph;
but of this there is no proof. The colors of the pictures are fresh
and bright, and they show that many of the customs and amusements of
that long, long ago were similar to our own, and in some cases quite
the same. The manufactures of glass and linen, cabinet work, gold
ornaments, and other artistic objects are pictured there; the games of
ball, draughts, and _morra_ are shown, while the animals, birds, and
fishes of Egypt are all accurately depicted.

An interesting thing to notice about these tombs is the way in which
the epistyle--the part resting upon the columns--imitates squarely-hewn
joists, as if the roof were of wood supported by a row of timbers.
When we come to the architecture of Greece we shall see that its most
important style, the Doric, arose from the imitation in stone of the
details of a wooden roof, and from a likeness between these tombs and
the Doric order, this style has been named the Proto-Doric.

The tombs near Thebes which are called the "Tombs of the Kings,"
and many other Egyptian tombs, are very interesting, and within a
short time some which had not before been observed have been opened,
and proved to be rich in decorations, and also to contain valuable
ornaments and works of art, as well as papyri, or records of historical
value.

The most magnificent of all the Egyptian tombs is that of King Seti
I., who began to reign in 1366 B.C. He was fond of splendid buildings,
and all the architects of his time were very busy in carrying out his
plans. His tomb was not discovered until 1817, and was then found by an
Italian traveller, whose name, Belzoni, has been given to the tomb. The
staircase by which it is entered is twenty-four feet long, and opens
into a spacious passage, the walls of which are beautifully ornamented
with sculptures and paintings. This is succeeded by other staircases,
fine halls, and corridors, all of which extend four hundred and five
feet into the mountain in which the tomb is excavated, making also a
gradual descent of ninety feet from its entrance. It is a wonderful
monument to the skill and taste of the architects who lived and labored
more than three thousand years ago.

The two principal cities of ancient Egypt were Memphis and Thebes. The
first has been almost literally taken to pieces and carried away, for
as other more modern cities have been built up near it, the materials
which were first used in the old temples and palaces have been carried
here and there, and again utilized in erecting new edifices.

Thebes, on the contrary, has stood alone during all the centuries that
have passed since its decline, and there is now no better spot in which
to study the ancient Egyptian architecture, because its temples are
still so complete that a good idea can be formed from them of what they
must have been when they were perfect. The ruins at Thebes are on both
banks of the Nile, and no description can do justice to their grandeur,
or give a full estimate of their wonders; but I shall try to tell
something of the palace-temple of Karnak, which has been called "the
noblest effort of architectural magnificence ever produced by the hand
of man."

The word palace-temple has a strange sound to us because we do not now
associate the ideas which the two words represent. Many palaces of more
modern countries and times have their chapels, but the union of a grand
temple and a grand palace is extremely rare, to say the least. Perhaps
the Vatican and St. Peter's at Rome represent the idea and spirit of
the Egyptian palace-temples as nearly as any buildings that are now in
existence.

The Egyptian religion controlled all the affairs of the nation. The
Pharaoh, or king, was the chief of the religion, as well as of the
State. When a king came to the throne he became a priest also, by
being made a member of a priestly order. He was instructed in sacred
learning; he regulated the service of the temple; on great occasions
he offered the sacrifices himself, and, in fact, he was considered
not only as a descendant of gods, but as a veritable god. In some
sculptures and paintings the gods are represented as attending upon
the kings, and after the death of a king the same sort of veneration
was paid to him as that given to the gods. This explains the building
of the palace and temple together, and shows the reason why the gods
and the kings, and the affairs of religion and of government, could
not be separated. As we study the arts of different countries we are
constantly reminded that the religion of a people is the central point
from which the arts spring forth. From its teachings they take their
tone, and adapt their forms and uses to its requirements. I refer to
this fact from time to time because it is important to remember that it
underlies much of the art of the world.

It may be said that all the art of Egypt was devoted to the service of
its religion. Of course this is true of that used in the decoration
of the temples; it is also true of all that did honor to the kings,
because they were regarded as sacred persons, and all their wars and
wonderful acts which are represented in sculpture and painting, and by
statues and obelisks, are considered as deeds that were performed for
the sake of the gods and by their aid.

It was also the religious belief in the immortality of the soul that
led the Egyptians to build their tombs with such care, and to provide
such splendid places in which to lay the body, which was the house of
the spirit.

In the study of Architecture it will also be noted that a country
which has no national religion--or one in which the government and
the religion have no connection with each other--has no absolutely
national architecture. It will have certain features which depend upon
the climate, the building materials at command, and upon the general
customs of the people; but here and there will be seen specimens of
all existing orders of architecture, and buildings in some degree
representing the art of all countries and periods; such architecture
is known by the term composite, because it is composed of portions of
several different orders, and has no absolutely distinct character.

This palace-temple of Karnak is made up of a collection of courts and
halls, and it is very difficult to comprehend the size of all these
parts which go to make up the enormous whole. The entire space devoted
to it is almost twice as large as the whole area of St. Peter's at
Rome, and four times as great as any of the other cathedrals of
Europe; a dozen of the largest American churches could be placed within
its limits and there still be room for a few chapels. All this enormous
space is not covered by roofs, for there were many courts and passages
which were always open to the sky, and one portion was added after
another, and by one sovereign and another, until the completion of the
whole was made long after the Pharaoh who commenced it had been laid in
one of the tombs of the kings.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE HALL OF COLUMNS AT KARNAK.]

The most remarkable apartment of all is called the great Hypostyle
Hall, which high-sounding name means simply a hall with pillars (Fig.
6). This hall and its two pylons, or entrances, cover more space than
the great cathedral of Cologne, which is one of the largest and most
famous churches of all Europe.

This splendid hall had originally one hundred and thirty-four
magnificent columns, of which more than one hundred still remain; they
are of colossal size, some of them being sixty feet high without the
base or capital, which would increase them to ninety feet, and their
diameter is twelve feet. This large number of columns was necessary to
uphold the roof, as the Egyptians knew nothing of the arch, and had no
way of supporting a covering over a space wider than it was possible
to cover by beams. The hall was lighted by making the columns down the
middle half as high again as the others, so that the roof was lifted,
and the light came in at the sides, which were left open.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--PILLAR FROM THEBES.

Showing the three parts.]

As I must speak often of columns, it is well to say here that the
column or pillar usually consists of three parts--the base, the shaft,
and the capital (Fig. 7). The base is the lowest part on which the
shaft rests. Sometimes, as in the Grecian Doric order, the base is
left out. The capital is the head of the column, and is usually the
most ornamental part, giving the most noticeable characteristics of
the different kinds of pillars. The shaft is the body of the pillar,
between the base and capital, or all below the capital when the base is
omitted.

The Egyptian pillars seem to have grown out of the square stone piers
which at first were used for support. The square corners were first
cut off, making an eight-sided pier; then some architect carried the
cutting farther, and by slicing off each corner once more gave the
pillar sixteen sides. The advantage of the octagonal piers over the
square ones was that the cutting off of sharp corners made it easier
for people to move about between them, while the play of light on
the sides was more varied and pleasant to the eye. The sixteen-sided
pillar did not much increase the first of these advantages, while the
face of its sides became so narrow that the variety of light and shade
was less distinct and attractive. It is probable that the channelling
of the sides of the shaft was first done to overcome this difficulty,
by making the shadows deeper and the lights more striking; and we
then have a shaft very like that of the Grecian Doric shown in the
picture in Fig. 40, or the Assyrian pillars in Figs. 29 and 30. In
the Egyptian pillars it was usual to leave one side unchannelled and
ornament it with hieroglyphics. In time the forms of the Egyptian
pillars became very varied, and the richest ornaments were used upon
them. The columns in the hall at Karnak are very much decorated with
painting and sculptures, as Fig. 6 shows. The capitals represent the
full-blown flowers and the buds of the sacred lotus, or water-lily. In
other cases the pillars were made to represent bundles of the papyrus
plant, and the capitals were often beautifully carved with palm leaves
or ornamented with a female head. (See Figs. 8, 9, and 10).

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--SCULPTURED CAPITAL.]

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--PALM CAPITAL.]

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--PILLAR FROM SEDINGA.]

The whole impression of grandeur made by the Temple of Karnak was
increased by the fact that the Temple of Luxor, which is not far away,
is also very impressive and beautiful, and was formerly connected with
Karnak by an avenue bordered on each side with a row of sphinxes cut
out of stone. These were a kind of statue which belonged to Egyptian
art, and originated in an Egyptian idea, although a resemblance to it
exists in the art of other ancient countries (Fig. 11).

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--THE GREAT SPHINX.]

Before the Temple of Luxor stood Colossi, or enormous statues, of
Rameses the Great, who built the temple, and not far distant were two
fine obelisks, one of which is now in Paris.

There was much irregularity in the lines and plan of Egyptian palaces
and temples. It often happens that the side walls of an apartment
or court-yard are not at right angles; the pillars were placed so
irregularly and the decorations so little governed by any rule in their
arrangement, that it seems as if the Egyptians were intentionally
regardless of symmetry and regularity.

The whole effect of the ancient Thebes can scarcely be imagined; its
grandeur was much increased by the fact that its splendid buildings
were on both banks of the Nile, which river flowed slowly and
majestically by, as if it borrowed a sort of dignity from the splendid
piles which it reflected, and which those who sailed upon its bosom
regarded with awe and admiration. There are many other places on the
Nile where one sees wonderful ruins of ancient edifices, but we have
not space to describe or even to name them, and Thebes is the most
remarkable of all.

        "Thebes, hearing still the Memnon's mystic tones,
        Where Egypt's earliest monarchs reared their thrones,
        Favored of Jove! the hundred-gated queen,
        Though fallen, grand; though desolate, serene;
        The blood with awe runs coldly through our veins
        As we approach her far-spread, vast remains.
        Forests of pillars crown old Nilus' side,
        Obelisks to heaven high lift their sculptured pride;
        Rows of dark sphinxes, sweeping far away,
        Lead to proud fanes and tombs august as they.
        Colossal chiefs in granite sit around,
        As wrapped in thought, or sunk in grief profound.

        "The mighty columns ranged in long array,
        The statues fresh as chiselled yesterday,
        We scarce can think two thousand years have flown
        Since in proud Thebes a Pharaoh's grandeur shone,
        But in yon marble court or sphinx-lined street,
        Some moving pageant half expect to meet,
        See great Sesostris, come from distant war,
        Kings linked in chains to drag his ivory car;
        Or view that bright procession sweeping on,
        To meet at Memphis far-famed Solomon,
        When, borne by Love, he crossed the Syrian wild,
        To wed the Pharaoh's blooming child."

The obelisks of ancient Egypt have a present interest which is almost
personal to everybody, since so many of them have been taken away
from the banks of the Nile and so placed that they now overlook the
Bosphorus, the Tiber, the Seine, the Thames, and our own Hudson River;
in truth, there are twelve obelisks in Rome, which is a larger number
than are now standing in all Egypt.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLES.]

The above cut (Fig. 12) shows the two obelisks known as Cleopatra's
Needles, as they were seen for a long time at Alexandria. They have
both crossed the seas; one was presented to the British nation by
Mehemet Ali, and the other, which now stands in Central Park, was a
gift to America from the late Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha.

The obelisks were usually erected by the kings to express their worship
of the gods, and stood before the temple bearing dedications of the
house to its particular deity; they were covered with the quaint,
curious devices which served as letters to the Egyptians, which we
call hieroglyphics, and each sovereign thus recorded his praises, and
declared his respect for the special gods whom he wished to honor.
They were very striking objects, and must have made a fine effect
when the temples and statues and avenues of sphinxes, and all the
ancient grandeur of the Egyptians was at its height; and these grave
stone watchmen looked down upon triumphal processions and gorgeous
ceremonials, and kings and queens with their trains of courtiers passed
near them on their way to and from the temple-palaces.

It is always interesting to study the houses and homes of a
people--domestic architecture, as it is called; but one cannot do that
in Egypt. It may almost be said that but one ancient home exists, and
as that probably belonged to some royal person, we cannot learn from it
how the people lived. There were many very rich Egyptians outside of
the royal families, and they dwelt in splendor and luxury; on the other
hand, there were multitudes of slaves and very poor people, who had
barely enough to eat to keep them alive and enable them to do the work
which was set them by their task-masters.

The house of which we speak is at Medinet Habou, on the opposite side
of the Nile from Karnak (Fig. 13). It has three floors, with three
rooms on each floor, and is very irregular in form. But if we have no
ancient houses to study in Egypt, we can learn much about them from the
paintings which still exist, and we may believe that the cities which
surrounded the old temples fully displayed the wealth and taste of the
inhabitants. These pictures show the houses in the midst of gardens
laid out with arbors, pavilions, artificial lakes, and many beautiful
objects, such as we see in the fine gardens of our own day.

[Illustration: FIG. 13.--PAVILION AT MEDINET HABOU.]

After about 1200 B.C. there was a long period of decline in the
architecture of Egypt; occasionally some sovereign tried to do as the
older kings had done, but no real revival of the arts occurred until
the rule of the Ptolemies was established; this was after 332 B.C.,
when Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, who had ruled in Egypt
about one hundred and ninety-five years.

Under the Ptolemies Egypt was as prosperous as she had been under the
Pharaohs, but the arts of this later time never reached such purity
and greatness as was shown in the best days of Thebes; the buildings
were rich and splendid instead of noble and grand, or, as we might say,
"more for show" than was the older style.

It is singular that, though the Egypt of the Ptolemies was under Greek
and Roman influence, it still remained essentially Egyptian. It seems
as if the country had a sort of converting effect upon the strangers
who planned and built the temples of Denderah, and Edfou, and beautiful
Philæ, and made them try to work and build as if they were the sons of
the pure old Egyptians instead of foreign conquerors. So true is this
that before A.D. 1799, when scholars began to read hieroglyphics, the
learned men of Europe who studied art believed that these later temples
were older than those of Thebes.

Outside of Thebes there is no building now to be seen in Egypt which
gives so charming an impression of what Egypt might be as does the
lovely temple on the island of Philæ (Fig. 14). Others are more sublime
and imposing, but none are so varied and beautiful.

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--TEMPLE ON THE ISLAND OF PHILÆ.]

There is no more attractive spot in Egypt than this island, and when we
know that the priests who served in the Temple of Isis here were never
allowed to leave the island, we do not feel as if that was a misfortune
to them. It was a pity, however, that none but priests were allowed to
go there, and in passing I wish to note the fact that this was the
most ancient monastery of which we know; for that it was in simple
fact, and the monks lived lives of strict devotion and suffered severe
penance.

The buildings at Philæ, as well as most of those of the Ptolemaic age,
had the same irregularity of form of which we have spoken before; their
design, as a whole, was fine, but the details were inferior, and it
often happens that the sculpture and painting which in the earlier
times improved and beautified everything, lost their effect and really
injured the appearance of the whole structure.

At first thought one would expect to be able to learn much more about
the manners and customs of the later than of the earlier days of Egypt,
and to find out just how they arranged their dwellings. But this is not
so, for history tells us of nothing save the superstitious religious
worship of the conquerors of Egypt. There are no pictures of the
houses, or of the occupations and amusements of the people; no warlike
stories are told; we have no tombs with their instructive inscriptions;
not even the agricultural and mechanical arts are represented in the
ruins of this time. The fine arts, the early religion, the spirit of
independence and conquest had all died out; in truth, the wonderful
civilization of the days of the pyramid-builders and their descendants
was gone, and when Constantine came into power Egypt had lost her place
among the nations of the earth, and her grandeur was as a tale that is
told.

The weakness of Egyptian architecture lay in its monotony or sameness.
Not only did it not develop historically, remaining very much the same
as long as it lasted, but the same forms are repeated until, even with
all their grandeur, they become wearisome. The plan of the temples
varies little; the tendency toward the shape of the pyramid appears
everywhere; while the powerful influence of the ritual of the Egyptian
religion gives a strong likeness among all the places of worship. The
Greeks performed the most important parts of their service in the open
air before their temples, and almost all their care was lavished on
exteriors; the Egyptians, on the other hand, elaborated the interior
with great abundance of ornaments, yet without that power of adaptation
which gave so great an air of variety and grace to Grecian art.

A second and even more serious fault in Egyptian architecture is a
want of proportion. In natural organized objects there is always a
fixed proportion between the parts, so that if a naturalist is given a
single bone of an animal he can reproduce with considerable exactness
the entire beast. In art it is necessary to follow this principle
of adapting one part to another, and without this both grace and
refinement are wanting. The Egyptian temples are often too massive, so
that they impress by their size simply, and not by any beauty of plan
or arrangement.

Yet for grandeur and impressiveness no nation has ever excelled the
Egyptians as builders. One may prefer the style and the ornamentation
of the Greeks, or the forms and arrangement of the Gothic order; but,
taken as a whole, the combination of architecture, sculpture, painting,
and hieroglyphics which goes to make up an Egyptian temple, with the
addition of the obelisks, the avenues of sphinxes and the Colossi,
which all seemed to belong together--these, one and all, result in
a whole that has never been surpassed in effect during the thirty
centuries that have rolled over the earth since Cheops built his
magnificent tomb on the great desert of Egypt.


ASSYRIA.

Our knowledge of Egyptian history is more exact than that of some other
ancient nations, because scholars have been able to read Egyptian
hieroglyphics for a much longer time than they have read the cuneiform
or arrow-headed inscriptions which are found in Assyria, Babylon,
and Persia. But we know a great deal about the ruins of Assyria, and
especially of the cities of Nineveh and Khorsabad, where there are
wonderful architectural remains.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--GATEWAYS IN WALLS OF KHORSABAD.]

The walls which surrounded Nineveh are an important part of its ruins.
It is said that in the days of the earliest sovereign these walls were
one hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots could drive
abreast on their top. This story does not seem unreasonable, for all
the years that have passed, and all the dust and deposit of these ages
that are collected about the foot of the walls, still leave some places
where they are forty-six feet high and from one to two hundred feet
wide. The lower portion was of limestone, and the upper of sun-dried
bricks; the blocks of stone were neatly hewn out and smoothly polished.
The walls surrounded the city, which was so large that one hundred and
seventy-five thousand people could live there, and we know that its
inhabitants were very numerous. The gates which opened through the
walls were surmounted by lofty towers, and it is supposed that shorter
towers were built upon the walls between the gateways (Fig. 15).

The above plans show the arrangement of gateways which have been
excavated. It seems that there were four separate gates, and between
them large chambers which may have been used by soldiers or guards.
The two outer gates were ornamented by sculptured figures of colossal
bulls with human heads and other strange designs; but the inner gates
had a plain finish of alabaster slabs. It is thought that arches
covered these gateways like some representations of gates which are
seen on Assyrian bas-reliefs. Within the gates there is a pavement
of large slabs, in which the marks worn by chariot wheels are still
plainly seen.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.--ENTRANCE TO SMALLER TEMPLE, NIMRUD.]

We learn that the Assyrians made their religion a prominent part of
their lives. The inscriptions of the kings begin and end with praises
and prayers to their gods, and on all occasions religious worship is
spoken of as a principal duty. We know that the monarchs devoted much
care to the temples, and built new ones continually; but it also
appears from the excavations that have been made that they devoted
the best of their art and the greatest sum of their riches to the
palaces of their kings. The temple was far less splendid than the
palace to which it was attached as a sort of appendage. This was
undoubtedly due to the fact that the Assyrian kings received more than
the monarchs of any other ancient people divine honors while still
living; so that the palace was regarded as the actual dwelling of a
god. The inner ornamentation of the temples was confined to religious
subjects represented on sculptured slabs upon the walls, but no large
proportion of the wall was decorated, and the rest was merely plastered
and painted in set figures. The gateways and entrances were guarded by
sacred figures of colossal bulls, or lions (Fig. 16), and covered with
inscriptions; there was a similarity between the palace entrances and
those of the temples.

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--PAVEMENT SLAB FROM KOYUNJIK.]

The palaces were always built on artificial platforms, which were made
of solid brick or stone, or else the outside walls of the platforms
were built of these substances and the middle part filled in with dirt
and rubbish. Sometimes the platforms, which were from twenty to thirty
feet high, were in terraces and flights of steps led up and down from
one to another. It also happened that more than one palace was erected
on the same platform; thus the size and form of the platforms was much
varied, and when palaces were enlarged the platforms were changed also,
and their shape was often very irregular. The tops of the platforms
were paved with stone slabs or bricks, the last being sometimes as
much as two feet square; the pavements were frequently ornamented with
artistic designs (Fig. 17), and inscriptions are also found upon them.

[Illustration: FIG. 18.--REMAINS OF PROPYLÆUM, OR OUTER GATEWAY,
KHORSABAD.]

At the lower part of the platform there was a terrace on which several
small buildings were usually placed, and near by was an important
gateway, or, more properly, a propylæum, through which every one must
pass who entered the palace from the city. The next cut (Fig. 18) shows
one of these grand entrances decorated with the human-headed bulls
and the figure of what is believed to be the Assyrian Hercules, who
is most frequently represented in the act of strangling a lion. Much
rich ornament was lavished on these portals, and the entrance space was
probably protected by an arch.

Below these portals, quite down on a level with the city, there were
outer gateways, through which one entered a court in front of the
ascent to the lower terrace.

[Illustration: FIG. 19.--PLAN OF PALACE, KHORSABAD.]

The principal apartments of the palaces were the courts, the grand
halls, and the small, private chambers. The fine palaces had several
courts each; they varied from one hundred and twenty by ninety feet, to
two hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty feet in size, and were
paved in the same way as the platforms outside (Fig. 19).

The grand halls were the finest portions of these splendid edifices;
here was the richest ornament, and the walls were lined with sculptured
slabs, while colossal bulls, winged genii, and other figures were
placed at the entrances. Upon the slabs the principal events in the
lives of the monarchs were represented, as well as their portraits, and
religious ceremonies, battles, and many incidents of interest to the
nation (Fig. 20).

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--RELIEF FROM KHORSABAD. A TEMPLE.]

The slabs rested on the paved floors of the halls and reached a height
of ten or twelve feet; above them the walls were of burnt brick,
sometimes in brilliant colors; the whole height of the walls was from
fifteen to twenty feet. The smaller chambers surrounded these grand
halls, and the number of rooms was very large; in one palace which has
been but partially explored there are sixty-eight apartments, and it
is not probable that any Assyrian palace had less than forty or fifty
rooms on its ground floor. Of all the palaces which have been examined
that of Khorsabad is best known and can be most exactly described. It
is believed that Sargon, a son of Sennacherib, built it, and it is very
splendid.

After entering at the great portal one passes through various courts
and corridors; these are all adorned with sculptures such as have
been described above; at length one reaches the great inner court of
the palace, which was a square of about one hundred and fifty feet
in size. This court had buildings on two sides, and the other sides
extended to the edge of the terrace of the platform on which the
palace was built, and commanded broad views of the open country. On
one side the buildings contained the less important apartments of the
officers of the court; the grand state apartments were on the other
side. There were ten of these at Khorsabad; five were large halls,
four were smaller chambers, and one a long and narrow room. Three of
the large halls were connected with one another, and their decorations
were by far the most splendid of any in the palace. In one of them
the sculptures represented the king superintending the reception and
chastisement of prisoners, and is called the "Hall of Punishment." The
middle hall has no distinguishing feature, but the third opened into
the "Temple Court," on one side of which the small temple was situated.
The lower sculptures of the middle and third halls represented the
military history of Sargon, who is seen in all sorts of soldier-like
positions and occupations; some of the upper sculptures represent
religious ceremonies.

On one side of the Temple Court there were several chambers called
Priests' Rooms, but the temple itself and the portions of the palace
connected with it are not as well preserved as the other parts, and
have nothing about them to interest us in their study.

The palaces of Nineveh are much less perfect than the palace-temples
of Thebes, and cannot be described with as much exactness. There is no
wall of them still standing more than sixteen feet above the ground,
and we do not even know whether they had upper stories or not, or how
they were lighted--in a word, nothing is positively known about them
above the ground floors, and it is very strange that the sculptures
nowhere represent a royal residence. But what we do know of the
Assyrians proves that they equalled and perhaps excelled all other
Oriental nations as architects and designers, as well as in other
departments of art and industry.

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--RESTORATION OF AN ASSYRIAN PALACE.]

This representation of an Assyrian palace (Fig. 21) is a restoration,
as it is called, being made up by a careful study of the remains and
such facts as can be learned from bas-reliefs, and cannot be wholly
unlike the dwellings of the king-gods. It is pleasing in general
appearance, and for lightness and elegance is even to be preferred
to Egyptian architecture, though it is far inferior in dignity and
impressiveness.

The Assyrians knew the use of both column and arch, but never developed
either to any extent. They also employed the obelisk, and it is
noticeable that instead of terminating it with a pyramid, as was the
case in Egypt, they capped it with the diminishing terraces, which
is the fundamental form which underlies all the architecture of the
country, as the smooth pyramid is the most prominent element in the
architecture of Egypt.


BABYLON.

It is probable that Babylon was the largest and finest of all the
ancient cities. The walls which surrounded it, together with its
hanging gardens, were reckoned among the "seven wonders of the world"
by the ancients. Its walls were pierced by a hundred gates and
surmounted by two hundred and fifty towers; these towers added much to
the grand appearance of the city; they were not very high above the
walls, and were probably used as guard-rooms by soldiers.

The River Euphrates ran through the city. Brick walls were built upon
its banks, and every street which led to the river had a gateway in
these walls which opened to a sloping landing which extended down
to the water's edge; boats were kept at these landings for those
who wished to cross the stream. There was also a foot-bridge across
the river that could be used only by day, and one writer, Diodorus,
declares that a tunnel also existed which joined the two sides of the
river, and was fifteen feet wide and twelve feet high in the inside.

The accounts of the "Hanging Gardens" make it seem that they resembled
an artificial terraced mountain built upon arches of masonry and
covered with earth, in which grew trees, shrubs, and flowers. It is
said by some writers that this mountain was at least seventy-five feet
high, and occupied a square of four acres; others say that in its
highest part it reached three hundred feet; but all agree that it was a
wonderful work and very beautiful.

In the interior of the structure machinery was concealed which raised
water from the Euphrates and filled a reservoir at the summit, from
which it was taken to moisten the earth and nourish the plants. Flights
of steps led up to the top, and on the way there were entrances to fine
apartments where one could rest. These rooms, built in the walls which
supported the structure, were cool and pleasant, and afforded fine
views of the city and its surroundings. The whole effect of the gardens
when seen from a distance was that of a wooded pyramid. It seems a pity
that it should have been called a "Hanging Garden," since, when one
knows how it was built, this name is strangely unsuitable, and carries
a certain disappointment with it.

The accounts of the origin of this garden are interesting. One of
them says that it was made by Semiramis, a queen who was famous for
her prowess as a warrior, for having conquered some cities and built
others, for having dammed up the River Euphrates, and performed many
marvellous and heroic deeds. It is not probable that any woman ever did
all the wonders which are attributed to Semiramis, but we love to read
these tales of the old, old time, and it is important for us to know
them since they are often referred to in books and in conversation.

Another account relates that the gardens were made by Nebuchadnezzar
to please his Median queen, Amytis, because the country round about
Babylon seemed so barren and desolate to her, and she longed for the
lovely scenery of her native land.

What we have said will show that the Babylonians were advanced in
the science of such works as come more properly under the head of
engineering; their palaces were also fine, and their dwelling-houses
lofty; they had three or four stories, and were covered by vaulted
roofs. But the Babylonians, like the Egyptians, lavished their best
art upon their temples. The temple was built in the most prominent
position and magnificently adorned. It was usually within a walled
inclosure, and the most important temple at Babylon, called that of
Belus, is said to have had an area of thirty acres devoted to it. The
chief distinguishing feature of a Babylonish temple was a tower built
in stages (Fig. 22).

[Illustration: FIG. 22.--ELEVATION OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SEVEN SPHERES
AT BORSIPPA.]

The number of the stages varied, eight being the largest. At the summit
of the tower there was a chapel or an altar, and the ascent was by
steps or an inclined plane which wound around the sides of the tower.
The Babylonians were famous astronomers, and it is believed that these
towers were used as observatories as well as for places of worship. At
the base of the tower there was a chapel for the use of those who could
not ascend the height, and near by, in the open air, different altars
were placed, for the worship of the Babylonians included the offering
of sacrifices.

Very ancient writers describe the riches of the shrines at Babylon as
being of a value beyond our belief. They tell of colossal images of the
gods of solid gold; of enormous lions in the same precious metal; of
serpents of silver, each of thirty talents' weight (a talent equalled
about two thousand dollars of our money), and of golden tables, bowls,
and drinking-cups, besides magnificent offerings of many kinds which
faithful worshippers had devoted to the gods. These great treasures
fell into the hands of the Persians when they conquered Babylon.

The Birs-i-Nimrud has been more fully examined than any other
Babylonish ruin, and a description of it can be given with a good
degree of correctness. As it now stands, every brick in it bears the
name of Nebuchadnezzar; it is believed that he repaired or rebuilt it,
but there is no reason to think that he changed its plan. Be this as it
may, it is a very interesting ruin (Fig. 23). It was a temple raised
on a platform and built in seven stages; these stages represented
the seven spheres in which the seven planets moved (according to the
ancient astronomy), and a particular color was assigned to each planet,
and the stages colored according to this idea. That of the sun was
golden; the moon, silver; Saturn, black; Jupiter, orange; Mars, red;
Venus, pale yellow, and Mercury, deep blue.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.--BIRS-I-NIMRUD, NEAR BABYLON.]

It is curious to know how the various colors were obtained. The lower
stage, representing Saturn, was covered with bitumen; that of Jupiter
was faced with bricks burned to an orange color; that of Mars was made
of bricks from a bright red clay and half burned, so that they had a
blood-red tint; the stage dedicated to the sun was probably covered
with thin plates of gold; that of Venus had pale yellow bricks; that of
Mercury was subjected to intense heat after it was erected, and this
produced vitrification and gave it a blue color; and the stage of the
moon was coated in shining white metals.

Thus the tower rose up, all glowing in colors and tints as cunningly
arranged as if produced by Nature herself. The silvery, shining band
was probably the highest, and had the effect of mingling with the
bright sky above. We can scarcely understand how glorious the effect
must have been, and when we try to imagine it, and then think of the
present wretched condition of these ruins, it gives great force to
the prophecies concerning Babylon which foretold that her broad walls
should be utterly broken down, her gates burned with fire, and the
golden city swept with the besom of destruction.

We know so little of the arrangement of the palaces of Babylon that we
cannot speak of them in detail. They differed from those of Assyria in
two important points: they are of burnt bricks instead of those dried
in the sun which the Assyrians used, and at Babylon in the decoration
of the walls colored pictures upon the brick-work took the place of
the alabaster bas-reliefs which were found in the palaces of Nineveh.

These paintings represented hunting scenes, battles, and other
important events, and were alternated with portions of the wall upon
which were inscriptions painted in white on a blue ground, or spaces
with a regular pattern of rosettes or some fixed design in geometrical
figures. A sufficient number of these decorations have been found
in the ruins of Babylon to prove beyond a doubt that this was the
customary finish of the walls. We also know that the houses of Babylon
were three or four stories in height, but were rudely constructed and
indicate an inferior style of domestic architecture.


PERSIA.

The Persians were the pupils of the Assyrians and Babylonians in Art,
Learning, and Science, and they learned their lessons so well that
they built magnificent palaces and tombs. Temples seem to have been
unimportant to them, and we know nothing of any Persian temple remains
that would attract the attention of travellers or scholars.

The four most important Persian palaces of which we have any good
degree of knowledge are that of Ecbatana, the ruins of which are very
imperfect; a second at Susa, of which the arrangement is known; a
third at Persepolis, which is not well enough preserved for any exact
description to be given; and a fourth, the so-called Great Palace,
near Persepolis, in which the latest Persian sovereigns lived. This
magnificent palace was burned by Alexander the Great before he or his
soldiers had seen its splendor. The story is that he made a feast at
which Thais, a beautiful and wicked woman, appeared, and by her arts
gained such power over Alexander that he consented to her proposal to
fire the palace, and the king, wearing a crown of flowers upon his
head, seized a torch and himself executed the dreadful deed, while all
the company followed him with acclamations, singing, and wild shouts.
At last they surrounded and danced about the dreadful conflagration.

The poet Dryden wrote an ode upon "Alexander's Feast" in 1697 which has
a world-wide reputation. I quote a few lines from it:

        "'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won
          By Philip's warlike son:
        Aloft, in awful state,
        The godlike hero sate
          On his imperial throne;
        His valiant peers were placed around,
        Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound
        (So should desert in arms be crowned);
          The lovely Thais by his side
          Sate, like a blooming Eastern bride,
        In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
          Happy, happy, happy pair!
            None but the brave,
            None but the brave,
        None but the brave deserves the fair.

        "Behold how they toss their torches on high,
          How they point to the Persian abodes,
        And glittering temples of their hostile gods!
        The princes applaud with a furious joy,
        And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;
            Thais led the way
            To light him to his prey,
        And, like another Helen, fired another Troy."

Much study and time has been given to the examination of the ruins of
Persepolis, and the whole arrangement of the city has been discovered
and is made plain to the student of these matters by means of the many
charts, plans, and photographs of it which now exist. I shall try to
tell you something of the Great Palace of Persepolis, and the other
palaces near it and on the platform with it, for the Persians, like the
Assyrians and Babylonians, built their palaces upon platforms. This
one of which we speak was distinct from the city, but quite near it,
and is in almost perfect condition.

[Illustration: FIG. 24.--MASONRY OF GREAT PLATFORM, PERSEPOLIS.]

It is composed of large masses of hewn stone held together by clamps
of iron or lead. Many of the blocks in this platform wall are so large
as to make their removal from the quarries and their elevation to the
required height a difficult mechanical task, which could only have been
performed by skilled laborers with good means for carrying on their
work. The wall was not laid in regular blocks, but was like this plate
(Fig. 24).

The platform was not of the same height in all its parts, and seems
to have been in several terraces, three of which can still be seen.
The buildings were on the upper terrace, which is about forty-five
feet above the plain and very large; it is seven hundred and seventy
feet long and four hundred feet wide. The staircases are an important
feature of these ruins, and when all the palaces were in perfection
these broad steps, with their landings and splendid decorations, must
have made a noble and magnificent effect. The ascent of the staircases
was so gradual and easy that men went up and down on horseback, and
travellers now ascend and descend in this way.

There is little doubt that the staircases of Persepolis were the
finest that were ever built in any part of the world, and on some
of them ten horsemen could ride abreast. The broadest, or platform
staircase, is entirely without ornament; another which leads from the
platform up to the central or upper terrace is so elaborately decorated
that it appears to be covered with sculptures. There are colossal
representations of lions, bulls, Persian guardsmen, rows of trees, and
continuous processions of smaller figures. In some parts the sculptures
represent various nations bringing tributes to the Persian monarch; in
other parts all the different officers of the court and those of the
army are seen, and the latter appear to be guarding the stairs. (See
Fig. 25.)

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--PARAPET WALL OF STAIRCASE, PERSEPOLIS
(RESTORED).]

In a conspicuous position on this ornamental staircase there are
three slabs; on two there is no design of any sort; on the third an
inscription says that this was the work of "Xerxes, the Great King,
the King of Kings, the son of King Darius, the Achæmenian." This
inscription is in the Persian tongue, and it is probable that it was
the intention to repeat it on the slabs which are left plain in some
other languages, so that it could easily be read by those of different
nations; it was customary with the ancients to repeat inscriptions in
this way.

The other staircases of this great platform are all more or less
decorated with sculptures and resemble that described; they lead to
the different palaces, of which there are three. The palaces are those
of Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes Ochus, and besides these there are
two great pillared halls; one of these is called the "Hall of One
Hundred Columns," and the other _Chehl Minar_, or the "Great Hall of
Audience."

This view of the palace of Darius gives an idea of the appearance
of all these buildings. A description of them would be only a wordy
repetition of the characteristics of one apartment and hall after
another, and I shall leave them to speak of the magnificent halls which
are the glory of the ruins of Persepolis, and the wonders of the world
to those who are acquainted with the architectural monuments of the
Turkish, Greek, Roman, Moorish, and Christian nations. (See Fig. 26.)

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--RUINS OF THE PALACE OF DARIUS, PERSEPOLIS.]

The Hall of a Hundred Columns was very splendid, as one may judge
from this picture of its gateway (Fig. 27); but the _Chehl Minar_, or
Great Hall of Audience, which is also called the Hall of Xerxes, was
the most remarkable of all these edifices. Its ruins occupy a space
of almost three hundred and fifty feet in length and two hundred and
forty-six feet in width, and consist principally of four different
kinds of columns. One portion of this hall was arranged in a square,
in which there were six rows of six pillars each, and on three sides
of this square there were magnificent porches, in each of which there
were twelve columns; so that the number of pillars in the square was
thirty-six, and that of those in the three porches was the same. These
porches stood out boldly from the main building and were grand in their
effect.

[Illustration: FIG. 27.--GATEWAY OF HALL OF A HUNDRED COLUMNS.]

The columns which remain in various parts of this hall are so high
that it is thought that they must originally have measured sixty-four
feet throughout the whole building. The capitals of the pillars were of
three kinds: the double Horned Lion capital (Fig. 28) was used in the
eastern porch, and was very simple; in the western porch was the double
Bull capital, which corresponded to the first in size and general form,
the difference being only in the shape of the animal.

[Illustration: FIG. 28.--DOUBLE HORNED LION CAPITAL.]

The north porch faced the great sculptured staircase, and was the real
front of the hall. On this side the columns were much ornamented. The
following plates show the entire design of them, and it will be seen
that the bases were very beautiful (Figs. 29 and 30).

[Illustration: FIG. 29.--COMPLEX CAPITAL AND BASE OF PILLARS,
PERSEPOLIS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 30.--BASE OF ANOTHER PILLAR, PERSEPOLIS.]

The capitals have three distinct parts; at the bottom is a sort of
bed of lotus leaves, part of which are turned down, and the others
standing up form a kind of cup on which the next section above rests.
The middle section is fluted and has spiral scrolls or volutes, such
as are seen in Ionic capitals, only here they are in a perpendicular
position instead of the customary horizontal one. The upper portion had
the same double figures of bulls as were on the columns of the western
colonnade. The decoration on the bases was made of two or three rows
of hanging lotus leaves, some round and others pointed in form. The
shafts of these pillars were formed of different blocks of stone joined
by iron cramps; they were cut in exact and regular flutings, numbering
from forty-eight to fifty-two on each pillar.

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--GROUND PLAN (RESTORED) OF HALL OF XERXES,
PERSEPOLIS.]

This plan of the Hall of Audience will help you to understand its
arrangement more clearly (Fig. 31).

The square with the thirty-six columns, and the three porches with
twelve columns each, are distinctly marked. The most ornamental pillars
were on the side with the entrance or gateway. The two small rooms on
the ends of the main portico may have been guard-rooms.

We can only regret that, while we know certain things about this hall,
there is still much of which we know nothing. However, there are many
theories concerning it. Some authorities believe that it was roofed,
while others think that it was open and protected only by curtains
and hangings, of which the Persians made much use. As we cannot know
positively about it, and Persepolis was the spring residence of the
Persian kings, it is pleasant to fancy that this splendid pillared hall
was a summer throne-room, having beautiful hangings that could be drawn
aside at will, admitting all the spicy breezes of that sunny land,
and realizing the description of the palace of Shushan in the Book of
Esther, which says, "In the court of the garden of the king's palace;
where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine
linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds were
of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and
black marble."

Here the king could receive all those who sought him; the glorious
view of the plains of Susa and Persepolis, the breezes which came to
him laden with the odors of the choicest flowers would soothe him to
content, and realize his full desire for that deep breath from open air
which gives a sense of freedom and power. We know that no Oriental, be
he monarch or slave, desires to live beneath a roof or within closed
doors.

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--PART OF A BASE OF THE TIME OF CYRUS,
PASARGADÆ.]

The column was in Persia developed with a good deal of originality
and much artistic feeling; and one fine base of the time of Cyrus is
especially interesting for its close resemblance to the base of certain
Ionic pillars afterward made in Greece (Fig. 32).

The tombs of the royal Persians were usually hewn out of the solid
rock; the tomb of Cyrus, only, resembles a little house; this plate
gives a representation of it (Fig. 33).

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--THE TOMB OF CYRUS.]

The one apartment in this tomb is about eleven feet long, seven feet
broad, and seven feet high; it has no window, and a low, narrow doorway
in one of the end walls is the only entrance to it. Ancient writers say
that the body of Cyrus in a golden coffin was deposited in this tomb.

Seven other tombs have been explored; they are excavations in the sides
of the mountains high enough to be prominent objects to the sight,
and yet difficult of approach. The fronts of these tombs are much
ornamented, and the internal chambers are large; there are recesses for
the burial-cases, and these vary in number, some having only space for
three bodies. The tomb of Darius had three recesses, in each of which
there were three burial-cases; but this was an unusually large number.
The tombs near Persepolis are the finest which have yet been examined.

The most noticeable characteristic of Persian architecture is its
regularity. The plans used are simple, and only straight lines occur in
them; thus, all the angles are right angles. The columns are regularly
placed, and the two sides of an apartment or building correspond to
each other. The magnificent staircases, and the abundance of elegant
columns which have been called "groves of pillars" by some writers,
produced a grand and dignified effect. The huge size of the blocks of
stone used by Persian builders gives an impression of great power in
those who planned their use, and demands for them the respect of all
thoughtful students of these edifices.

The faults of this architecture lay in the narrow doorways, the small
number of passages, and the clumsy thickness of the walls. But these
faults are insignificant in comparison with its beauties, and it is all
the more to be admired that it was invented by the Persians, not copied
from other nations, and there is little doubt that the Greeks profited
by its study to improve their own style, and through this study
substituted lightness and elegance for the clumsy and heavy effect of
the earliest Grecian architecture.


JUDEA.

There is so much of religious, historical, romantic, and poetical
association with the land of Judea, that it is a disappointment to
know that there are no remains of Judean architecture from which to
study the early art-history of that country; it is literally true that
nothing remains.

The ruins of Jerusalem, Baalbec, Palmyra, Petra, and places beyond
the Jordan are not Jewish, but Roman remains. The most interesting
remnant is a passage and gateway which belonged to the great temple at
Jerusalem. This passage is situated beneath the platform of the temple;
it is called "The Gateway Huldah." The width of it is forty-one feet,
and at one point there is a magnificent pillar, called a monolith,
because it is cut from a single stone. This pillar supports four
arches, which divide the passage into as many compartments, each one
of which has a flat dome. On these domes or roofs there were formerly
beautiful ornamental designs, one of which remains, and is like this
picture (Fig. 34). Its combination of Oriental and Roman design proves
that it cannot be very old, but must have been made after the influence
of the Romans had been felt in Judea.

[Illustration: FIG. 34.--ROOF OF ONE OF THE COMPARTMENTS OF THE GATE
HULDAH.]

Since the excavations in Assyria, and through the use of the knowledge
obtained there and in other ancient countries, and by comparing this
with the descriptions of the Bible and the works of Josephus, some
antiquarians have made plans and drawings of what they believe that
the temple at Jerusalem must have been at the time of the Crucifixion.
The result of this work has little interest, for two reasons: first,
because we do not know that it is correct; second, because even at the
time to which it is ascribed, it was not the ancient temple of Solomon.
That had been destroyed, and after the return of the Jews from the
Captivity, was rebuilt; again, it had been changed and restored by the
Romans under Herod, so that it had little in reality, or by way of
association, to give it the sacred and intense interest for us which
would belong to the true, ancient temple at Jerusalem.

        "Lost Salem of the Jews, great sepulchre.
          Of all profane and of all holy things,
        Where Jew and Turk and Gentile yet concur
          To make thee what thou art, thy history brings
          Thoughts mixed of joy and woe. The whole earth rings
        With the sad truth which He has prophesied,
          Who would have sheltered with his holy wings
        Thee and thy children. You his power defied;
        You scourged him while he lived, and mocked him as he died!

        "There is a star in the untroubled sky,
          That caught the first light which its Maker made,--
        It led the hymn of other orbs on high;
          'Twill shine when all the fires of heaven shall fade.
          Pilgrims at Salem's porch, be that your aid!
        For it has kept its watch on Palestine!
          Look to its holy light, nor be dismayed,
        Though broken is each consecrated shrine,
        Though crushed and ruined all which men have called divine."


GREECE.

The earliest history of Greece is lost in what we may call the Age of
Legend. From that period have come to us such marvellous stories of
gods and goddesses, and all sorts of wonderful happenings and doings,
that even the most serious and wise scholars can learn little about it,
and it remains to all alike a kind of delightful fairy-land.

Back to that remote age one can send his fancy and imagination to
feast upon the tales of wondrous bravery, passionate love, dire
revenge, and supernatural occurrences of every sort until he is weary
of it all. Then he is glad to come back to his actual life, in which
cause and effect are so much more clearly seen, and which, if more
matter-of-fact, is more comfortable than the hap-hazard existence of
those remarkable beings who were liable to be changed into beasts, or
trees, or almost anything else at a moment's notice, or to be whisked
away from the midst of their families and friends and set down to
starve in some desolate place where there was nothing to eat, and no
one to listen to complaints of sorrow or hunger.

This legendary time in Grecian history begins nobody knows when, and
ends about one thousand years before the birth of Christ. Our only
knowledge of it comes from the mythology which we have inherited from
the past, and the two poems of Homer, called the "Iliad" and the
"Odyssey."

The "Iliad" recounts the anger of Achilles and all that happened in the
Trojan War; the "Odyssey" relates the wonderful adventures of Ulysses.
Probably Homer never thought of such a thing as being an historian--he
was a poet--much less did he dream of being the only historian of any
certain time or age; but since, in the course of his poems, he refers
to the manners and customs of the years that had preceded him, and
gives accounts of certain past events, he is, in truth, the prime
source from which we learn the little that we know of the prehistoric
days in Greece.

It is believed that Homer wrote about 850 B.C., and after that date
we have nothing complete in Greek literature until the time of
Herodotus, who is called the "Father of History" and was born in 484
B.C. Thus four centuries between Homer and Herodotus are left with no
authoritative writings.

The legendary or first period of Greek history was followed by five
hundred years more of which we have no continuous history; but facts
have been gathered here and there from the works of various authors
which make it possible to give a reliable account of the Greece of that
time. For our purpose in this book we go on to a still later time, or
a third period, which began about 500 B.C., in which the architecture
and art which we have in mind, when we use the general term Greek Art,
originated.

It is true that before this temples had been erected of which we
have some knowledge, and the elegant and ornate articles which Dr.
Schliemann has found in his excavations at Troy and Mycenæ prove
that the art of that remote time reached a high point of excellence.
The temples and other buildings of which we know anything, and which
belonged to the second period, were clumsy and rude when compared with
the perfection of the time which we propose to study.

Before we speak of any one edifice it is best to understand something
of the various orders of Greek architecture, more especially as the
terms which belong to it and had their origin in it are now used in
speaking of architecture the world over, and from being first applied
to Greek art have grown to be general in their application.

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--GRAVESTONE FROM MYCENÆ (SCHLIEMANN).]

In the most ancient days of Greece the royal fortresses were the finest
structures, but in later days the temple became the supreme object
upon which thought and labor were lavished. The public buildings which
served the uses of the whole people were second in consideration, while
the private dwellings were of the least importance of all. The Greek
temple was built upon a raised structure like those of Assyria and
other Oriental nations, but the Greek temple was much smaller, and by
a dignified and simple elegance in detail, and a harmony in all its
parts, it expressed a more noble religious sentiment than could be
conveyed by all the vast piles of massive confusion that had abounded
in more Eastern lands.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.--TEMPLE OF DIANA, ELEUSIS.]

The earliest and simplest Greek temples were merely small, square
chambers made to contain an image of a god, and in later times, when
the temples came to be splendid and grand, the apartment containing
the sacred image was still called the _cella_ or cell, as it had been
named from the first. The simplest form of temple was like the little
cut (Fig. 36), and had two pillars in the centre of the front and two
square pilasters at the front end of the side walls. These pilasters
are called _antæ_, and the whole style of the building is called
_distyle in antis_; the word distyle denotes the two pillars, and the
expression means two pillars with antæ.

[Illustration: FIG. 37.--SMALL TEMPLE AT RHAMNUS.]

The above picture shows the next advance that was made in form (Fig.
37). A porch was added to the cell, the two parts being separated
by a wall with a doorway in it. After a time the number of pillars in
front was increased to six, and the two outer ones were the first of a
row which extended along the entire length of the sides of the temple,
thus forming a peristyle, or a row of columns entirely around the cell;
the cell itself remained, according to the original plan, in the centre
of the building. The ground plan of such a temple is given in the next
wood-cut (Fig. 38).

[Illustration: FIG. 38--PLAN OF TEMPLE OF APOLLO, BASSÆ.]

A large proportion of the Greek temples were built in this manner, and
were called _hexastyle_ from the six columns on the front.

The different orders of ancient Greek architecture are called the
Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. The Greeks were very fond of
the Doric order, and used it so extensively as to make it almost
exclusively their own. The picture of the Parthenon will help you to
understand the explanations of the characteristics of the Doric order
(Fig. 39).

[Illustration: FIG. 39--THE PARTHENON. _Athens_. (RESTORED.)]

As you see, the pillars had no base, but rested directly on the upper
plinth of the foundation of the building. The shaft of the column is
cut in flutings, and the number of them varies from sixteen to twenty;
the latter number being most frequently used. The capital of the column
is divided into two portions; the lower one is called the _echinus_,
and projects beyond the shaft and supports a square tile or block which
is called the _abacus_, and this is the architectural name for the
upper member of all capitals to columns. The _architrave_ or principal
beam above these columns rests directly on the capitals and runs around
the building. This architrave is made of separate blocks of marble
or stone, and is finished at the top by a small strip of the same
materials, which is called a _tenia_. This cut, which gives a section
of the Parthenon on a larger scale than the last picture, will enable
you to find the different portions more easily (Fig. 40).

[Illustration: FIG. 40.--FROM THE PARTHENON, ATHENS.]

Above the architrave and resting on it is the _frieze_; this is
ornamented with fluted spaces called _triglyphs_, because they are
cut in three flutings. The spaces between the triglyphs are called
_metopes_, and sometimes left plain, and sometimes ornamented with
sculptures, as is the case in the frieze of the Parthenon. Under the
triglyphs six little blocks, or drops, are placed so that they lay
over the architrave. Above the frieze there is another narrow strip,
or tenia, like that upon the architrave. Above all this rests the
_cornice_, and underneath the cornice are one or more rows of the
small, drop-like blocks such as make the lower finish of the triglyphs;
in the lower band of the cornice separate blocks are placed over each
triglyph and each metope, with a small space between.

It is important to know that the architrave, frieze, and cornice,
all taken together, form what is called the _entablature_; and the
entablature occupies the whole of the broad space between the top of
the capitals of the pillars and the lower edge of the roof.

The triangular space formed by the sloping of the roof upon the ends
of a building is called the _pediment_, and, as you will see in the
picture of the Parthenon, its pediment was ornamented with elaborate
sculptures which are spoken of in the volume of this series which is
devoted to that art. It was customary to thus ornament the pediment and
to paint the walls of the cella and other portions of the building, so
that while the pure Doric style seems at first sight to be stiff and
straight in its effect, it becomes rich and ornamental by the use of
sculpture and painting, and yet remains solid and stable.

The Doric style may be regarded as a native growth in Greece, as almost
every detail of its construction and its ornaments may be traced back
to the early wooden buildings of the people, as the architecture
of the tombs of Beni-Hassan had been. The triglyphs, for instance,
represent the ends of the beams upon which the rafters rested, while
the bas-reliefs between took the place of the votive offerings which
in the primitive temples were placed in the open spaces between the
beams. It is not necessary here to go into all the particulars of this
resemblance, which perhaps learned men have sometimes carried too far,
and which are rather difficult to understand; it is enough to say that
there are excellent reasons for regarding the theory as, upon the
whole, sound, although, of course, the Grecian architects modified and
enriched the forms which the simple timber work had suggested.

[Illustration: FIG. 41.--IONIC ARCHITECTURE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 42.--IONIC BASE, FROM PRIENE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 43.--ATTIC BASE.]

The next great order was called the Ionic, and has a close relation
with certain forms found in Asia Minor. This picture of an Ionic
capital and entablature is taken from the Temple of Athena at Priene
(Fig. 41). Its scroll-like capital recalls those of the pillars in the
Great Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis, shown in Figs. 28 and 29, and many
examples of even closer resemblance might be given. The order differed
from the Doric principally in the ornamentation of its capitals and
in the fact that the columns have bases. These cuts show different
kinds of bases belonging to the Ionic order. The first is from the
temple at Priene (Fig. 42), and the second is the form known as the
Attic base (Fig. 43). The third is especially interesting from its
close resemblance to the ancient Persian base shown in Fig. 32, and is
another illustration of the Eastern origin of this order (Fig. 44).

[Illustration: FIG. 44.--BASE FROM TEMPLE OF HERA, SAMOS.]

The Ionic capital is very easily recognized by its spiral projections,
or scrolls, which are called volutes (Fig. 45). These are so placed
that they present a flat surface on the opposite sides of the capital,
like the picture below (Fig. 46); sometimes the volutes are finished by
a rosette in the centre.

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--IONIC CAPITAL (FRONT VIEW).]

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--IONIC CAPITAL (SIDE VIEW).]

The shaft of the Ionic column is sometimes plain and sometimes fluted;
the flutings number twenty-four, and are separated by a narrow, plain
band or fillet. In some ancient examples of the Ionic order the entire
entablature is left plain, but in many instances there are bands of
carvings, as in the first Ionic example given above; in some modern
Italian architecture even more ornament has been added.

The three, or sometimes two, layers or bands of stone which form the
Ionic architrave project a little, each one more than the other, and
the ornamented band above it serves to separate it from the frieze so
as to make these two portions of the entablature quite distinct from
each other. The frieze is never divided into set spaces as in the Doric
order, but when ornamented has a continuous design in relief.

The lower part of the cornice is frequently cut in little pieces or
dentals which form what is called the "tooth-like ornament;" these
have the effect of hanging from underneath the cornice. There is a
certain pleasing effect in Ionic architecture which, perhaps, appeals
to our taste at first sight more forcibly than does the severe elegance
of the Doric order. Nevertheless, the latter is a higher type of art,
and it is not probable that it can ever be superseded by any new
invention or lose the prestige which it has held so long.

[Illustration: FIG. 47.--FROM MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES, ATHENS.]

That which is called the Corinthian order differs very little from the
Ionic except in the capital, but as this was so prominent a member of
the Ionic style, the difference seems greater than it really is. It is
therefore not necessary to speak of its parts in detail. The Choragic
Monument of Lysicrates at Athens is as good a specimen of the order as
remains at this time, and of this we give an illustration (Fig. 47).

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--CORINTHIAN ORDER.]

The Corinthian order of architecture does not belong to the early
period of art in Greece. It came after the influence of Oriental
architecture had been shown in the Ionic style; and perhaps the
beautiful Corinthian capital may have been suggested by the palm-leaf
and lotus capitals of Egypt. What has been said of other orders will
help you in understanding this; but I shall tell you especially about
its capital, as that is its distinguishing feature. The form of the
capital may be called bell-shaped, and it is set round with two rows of
leaves, eight in each row; above these is a third row of leaves, or of
a sort of small twisted husks, which supports eight small volutes. The
abacus or top portion of the capital is cut out at the corners so that
sharp projections are made, called horns, and one volute comes directly
under each horn of the abacus. This cut (Fig. 48) gives a more distinct
idea of the capital than does that above, and you will see that four
of the volutes really form the upper corners of the capital. The four
other volutes meet on two opposite sides of the capital; sometimes
they are interwoven, and a flower, or rosette, or some other ornament
is placed above them and lays up over the abacus. Different kinds
of leaves are used in making this capital; olive, water plant, and
acanthus are all thus employed; there is a very pretty legend as to its
origin which makes the acanthus seem to be the only one which belongs
to it, and is as follows:

It was the custom in Greece to place a basket upon the new-made graves
in which were the viands which those there buried had preferred when
in life. About 550 B.C. a lovely virgin died at Corinth, and her nurse
arranged the basket with care and covered it with a tile. It happened
that the basket was set directly over a young acanthus plant, and the
leaves grew up about it in such a manner that the sculptor Callimachus
was attracted by its grace and beauty, and conceived the idea of using
it as a model for a new capital in architecture. I have always been
sorry that it was not named for the beautiful maiden rather than for
the city in which she was buried.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--CARYATID.]

Another feature of Greek architecture is the use of the Caryatid, or
a human figure standing upon a base and supporting the capital of
a column upon the head, or, to put it more plainly, a human figure
serving as the shaft to a column. These figures are usually females,
and this picture of one from the Erechtheium at Athens shows how
they are placed (Fig. 49). Sometimes the figures of giants, called
_Telamones_, were used in the same way.

[Illustration: FIG. 50.--STOOL, OR CHAIR, KHORSABAD.]

In Oriental art such figures are numerous; they are used to support
platforms and the thrones of kings; their position is sometimes varied
by making the uplifted hands bear the weight instead of the head (Fig.
50). In any case this feature in architecture is tiresome, and its use
is certainly questionable as a matter of good taste.

Having given a general outline of the characteristics of Greek
architecture, I will speak of some remarkable edifices which are
beautiful in themselves and have an interest for us on account of their
associations with the history of the world, as well as with that of
art.

The Temple of Diana at Ephesus, of which nothing now remains, was the
largest and most splendid of all the Greek temples. It was four hundred
and twenty-five feet long by two hundred and twenty wide.

The ancients counted this temple as one of the Seven Wonders of the
World, and when we know that its pillars were sixty feet high, and
that the beams of the architrave which had to be lifted up above the
pillars to be put in place were each thirty feet long, we can readily
understand that the building of it was a wonderful work. This was not
the first temple that had stood on the same spot, for we know that one
had been burned on the night in which Alexander the Great was born, 356
B.C. It was set on fire by Herostratus; he was tried for this crime
and was put to the torture to make him declare his motive for doing
such a dreadful deed; he gave as his only reason his desire to have his
name handed down through all ages, and he believed that by burning the
temple he should accomplish his object--as, indeed, he did, for every
historian repeats the story of his crime, and his name stands as a
synonym for wicked ambition.

After this destruction the temple was rebuilt on a most magnificent
scale, and was not finished until two hundred and twenty years had
passed. Diana was a great and powerful goddess, and all the nations of
Asia united in gifts for the adornment of her shrine; the women even
gave their personal ornaments to be sold to increase the fund to be
spent upon it.

This temple was four times as large as the Parthenon at Athens, and
had one hundred and twenty-seven splendid columns, thirty-six of which
were finely carved and were the gifts of various sovereigns. The grand
staircase was made from the wood of a single Cyprian vine. But great
as was the temple itself, its adornments of statues by the sculptor
Praxiteles, and the vast treasures of ornaments and rare objects by
which it was enriched made it even more famous. The Temple of Diana
was robbed by Nero and burned by the Goths, but its final destruction
probably occurred after A.D. 381, when the Emperor Theodosius I. issued
an edict forbidding all the ceremonies of the pagan worship.

Many beautiful objects were taken away to adorn the mediæval churches
of other religions than that of the Ephesians. Some of its green jasper
columns were used to support the dome of St. Sophia at Constantinople,
and other parts of it are seen in the cathedrals of Italy.

There is scarcely a more desolate spot in the world than is the Ephesus
of to-day. No remaining ruins are so preserved as to afford the visitor
any satisfaction. The marbles and stone have been used to build other
towns, which in their turn have been destroyed. The inhabitants are a
handful of poor Greek peasants; wolves and jackals from the neighboring
mountains roam about; and though an abundance of myrtle and some lovely
groves relieve the gloominess of the scene, it is impossible when
there to re-create in imagination the splendid Ephesian city, with
its wharves and docks, its temples, theatres, and palaces, which were
so famous as to cause it to be spoken of with wonder throughout the
ancient world.

We often hear of the glory of the Periclean age at Athens, and it is
true that under the leadership of Pericles Athens reached its greatest
prosperity. This picture shows the Acropolis as it appeared at that
time (Fig. 51).

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--THE ACROPOLIS. _Athens._ (RESTORED.)]

In these best days of Athens the whole Acropolis was consecrated to
religious worship and ceremonials, and its entire extent was occupied
by temples and statues of the gods. The fact that I have before
mentioned, that the religion of a country moulds its art, is especially
true of the art of Greece; figures of the gods and bas-reliefs of the
ceremonies of the Grecian worship form a large and most important part
of the work of the Greek artists, and the splendid temples were raised
to be the sacred homes of the statues of the great gods, to which the
people could come with offerings and prayers.

The Acropolis was also a sort of fortress, because it was an eminence,
and its sides of craggy rock allowed of but one ascent; thus it could
be easily defended. Then, when all the wonders and riches of art
had been collected there, the pure white marble, the sculpture and
painting, and the ornaments of shining metals which glistened in the
sun, while brilliant colors added their rich effect, it might be called
a gorgeous museum, such as has never since been equalled in the history
of the world.

It is important to know that the Athenians worshipped three different
goddesses, all called by the one name of Athene or Athena. The most
ancient and most sacred of these was Athena Polias, whose statue, made
of olive-wood, was believed to have fallen from heaven. The Erechtheium
was dedicated to this goddess, and there this holy, heaven-sent figure
was kept, with other sacred objects of which I shall speak in their
place.

The Athena next in importance was the goddess of the Parthenon, or the
"House of the Virgin," as the word signifies, for this Athena Parthenos
is the same as the goddess Minerva, who is said never to have married
or known the sentiment of love; she was the goddess of war, prudence,
and wisdom. The third Athena was called Promachos, which means the
champion. Phidias made of her one of his splendid statues, standing
erect, with helmet, spear, and shield.

In describing the Acropolis we shall begin with the Propylæa, or the
entrances, which occupy the centre of our picture and to which the
steps lead, showing the passage between the pillars, three being left
on each side. This magnificent series of entrances--as the whole
ascent from the outer gate in the wall, up the steps, and through the
passage between the pillars may be called--was erected about 437 B.C.,
and cost two thousand talents of gold, which is equal to about two
millions of our dollars. The fame of the Propylæa was world-wide, and
together with the Parthenon it was considered the architectural glory
of the Periclean age. The style in which they are built is a splendid
example of the combination of the Doric and the Ionic orders, for while
the exterior is almost pure Doric, the interior is made more cheerful
by the use of the Ionic columns and ornamentation.

High up at the right of the picture stands the Parthenon. Its
architecture, which is Doric, has been described. We do not know when
this temple was begun, but it is probably on the site of an older one.
It was finished 438 B.C., and the general care of its erection was
given to Phidias, the most famous of all sculptors. The marble of which
the Parthenon was built was pure Pentelic, and as it rested on a rude
basement of limestone the contrast between the two made the marble of
the temple seem all the finer. Within and without this temple abounded
in magnificent sculptures executed by Phidias himself or under his
orders.

The Erechtheium, which is only partly visible at the back on the left
of the picture, was the most sacred temple of Athens. It was the
burial-place of Erechtheus, who was regarded not only as the founder
of this temple, but also of the religion of Athena in Athens. Beside
the heaven-descended statue of Athena Polias which was kept here, there
was the sacred olive-tree which Athena had called forth from the earth
when she was contending for the possession of Attica; here, too, was
the well of salt water which Poseidon (or Neptune) made by striking the
spot with his trident, and several other sacred objects (Fig. 52).

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--THE ERECHTHEIUM. _Athens._ (RESTORED.)]

This beautiful temple was built in the Ionic style, and is very
interesting because it is so different in form from every other Greek
temple of which we know. This is partly due to the fact that it was
built where the ground was not level, one portion of it being eight
feet higher than another. A second reason for its irregularity may
be that it required to be divided into more cells or apartments than
other Greek temples in order to arrange the different sacred objects
within its walls. A very considerable portion of this temple is still
standing. The frieze, of which but little remains, was of black marble,
upon which there were figures in white marble.

The Erechtheium is certainly a splendid example of the Attic-Ionic
style, and the eye rests upon it with admiration; but its half-pillars
and caryatides, its various porches and luxuriant detail of form and
ornament, are less effective as a whole than is the Parthenon in its
pure Doric architecture.

An interesting fact about Greek architecture is that the marbles used
were painted in high colors. There is a theory, which may or may not
be true, that the custom first arose in the same way as the shape of
the Doric entablature, from the imitation of wooden buildings. The wood
was painted to preserve it, and when stone began to be substituted,
the architects, accustomed to bright effects, colored the marbles
to look like wood. Whether this is the true origin of the custom or
not, it is certain that the custom prevailed. The lower parts of the
pillars of a Doric temple were usually stained a light golden-brown
tint; the triglyphs and the mutules, or brackets beneath the cornices,
were a rich blue; the trunnels, or wooden pins, were red or gilded;
the metopes had a dark red background, against which the bas-reliefs
with which they were ornamented stood out in strong contrast, while the
frieze and cornice were richly painted with garlands and leaves. So
highly colored a building would seem less out of place amid the varied
landscape of Greece than under our colder skies, and it is difficult
for us to form any just idea of the splendid appearance it must have
presented.

One of the most wonderful things about Greek architecture is the way
in which allowance was made for the deception of the eye by certain
forms and lines. It is not easy to explain this fully, but it is too
remarkable to be wholly passed over. If a column were cut so as to
diminish regularly from the bottom to the top it would seem to the eye
to hollow in, and to correct this the clever Greek architect made his
columns swell out a little at the middle. This is called _entasis_, and
is the best known of the means taken to make forms look as they should.
Another case is that of long horizontal lines. If they are really level
they appear to sag at the centre, therefore in Greek temples they
are delicately rounded up a little, and so have the effect of being
perfectly straight. These two examples may serve to show what I mean
by saying that architectural forms were made one way so as to look
another, and in nothing did the Greek architecture show more marvellous
skill and taste than in this.

In other Grecian cities the architecture differed but little from that
of Athens, and, indeed, the influence of Athenian art and artists was
felt all over the Eastern world; it is therefore not necessary for our
purpose to speak further of Greek temples.

Next in importance were the municipal buildings, of which we find but
few traces at Athens. The monument of Lysicrates is so beautiful that
it gives us a most exalted idea of what the taste in such edifices must
have been (Fig. 53).

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES. _Athens._]

This monument was erected in the year 334 B.C. when Lysicrates was
_choragus_; this officer provided the chorus for the plays represented
at Athens for the year. It was expensive to hold this position, and its
duties were arduous; the choragus had to find the men for the chorus,
bring them together, and have them instructed in the music, and also
provide proper food for them while they studied. It was customary to
present a tripod to the _choragus_ who provided the finest musical
entertainment, and also to build a monument upon which the tripod was
placed as a lasting honor to him who had received it. There was a
street at Athens called the "Street of the Tripods" because it passed a
line of choragic monuments. These monuments were dedicated to different
gods; this of Lysicrates was devoted to Bacchus, and was decorated
with sculptures representing scenes in the story of that god, who was
regarded as the patron of plays and theatres; indeed, the Greek drama
originated in the choruses which were sung at his festivals.

The Greek theatres were very large and fine; the seats were ranged in a
half circle, but as none remain in a sufficient state of preservation
to afford a satisfactory picture, it would be impossible to give a
clear description of them here.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS (RESTORED).]

The ancient Greeks were not tomb-builders, and we know little of
their burial-places. However, the Mausoleum built at Halicarnassus by
Artemisia, in memory of her husband, Mausolus, was so important as to
be numbered among the seven wonders of the world (Fig. 54). Mausolus
was the King of Caria, of which country Halicarnassus was the chief
city. He died about 353 B.C., and his wife, Artemisia, gradually faded
away with sorrow at his death, and survived him but two years. But
during this time she had commenced the erection of the Mausoleum,
and the artists to whom she intrusted the work were as faithful in
completing it as though she had lived, for the sake of their own fame
as artists. This magnificent tomb may be described as an example of
architecture as a fine art exclusively, for it cannot be said to have
been useful, since the body of Mausolus was burned according to custom,
and certainly a much smaller tomb would have been sufficient for the
remaining ashes.

The whole height of the Mausoleum was one hundred and forty feet; the
north and south aisles were sixty-three feet long, and the others a
little less. The burial vault was at the base, and the whole mass
above it was ornamented with magnificent designs splendidly executed.
Above the whole was a quadriga, or four-horse chariot, in which it is
said that a figure of Mausolus was placed so that from land or sea it
could be seen at a great distance. It is not strange that this tomb
was called a wonder in its day, and from it we still take our word
"mausoleum" for all burial-places which merit so distinguished a name.

Writers of the twelfth century speak of the beauty of this tomb,
but in A.D. 1402, when the Knights of St. John took possession of
Halicarnassus, it no longer remained, and a castle was built upon its
site. The tomb had been buried, probably by an earthquake, and the name
of the place was then changed to Boodroom.

In the year 1522 some sculptures were found there, but it was not until
1856 that Mr. Newton, an Englishman, discovered that these remains had
belonged to the Mausoleum. A large collection of reliefs, statues, and
other objects, more or less imperfect, was taken to London and placed
in the British Museum, where they are known as the "Halicarnassus
Sculptures."

As other temples were influenced by the example of the Athenian
builders, so many other tombs resembled that of Mausolus in greater or
less degree, although none approached it in grandeur and magnificence.

Of the domestic architecture of the Greeks we know very little. Almost
all that is said of it is chiefly speculation, as even the descriptions
of Grecian palaces and houses which are given by the classic writers
are imperfect. The life of the Greek was passed largely in public, at
the temple, the theatre, or the baths, or at least in the open air, and
comparatively little attention was given to the building of the private
houses; but in the ruins of the temples and other monuments which
still exist we have sufficient proof that no art has surpassed that of
ancient Greece in purity, elegance, and grandeur of style.


ETRURIA.

Since the Etruscans were an earlier Italian nation than the Romans,
and Rome, in her primal days, was ruled by Etruscan kings, it is here
fitting to speak of this remarkable old people.

As Rome increased the Etruscans disappeared, and the younger power
came to have so mighty an influence in the world that it absorbed the
consideration of all nations as much as if no other had ever ruled in
Italy.

No Etruscan temple now remains, but we know that they were not splendid
like those of Greece. They were of two forms, one being circular and
dedicated to a single deity, while others were devoted to three gods
and had three cells; their walls were built at right angles, thus
making their shape regular.

The theatres and amphitheatres of the Etruscans were nearly circular
and much like those of the later Italians, but not one remains except
that at Sutri, which, being cut in the rock, does not afford a good
example of the usual arrangement of these edifices.

[Illustration: FIG. 55.--TOMBS AT CASTEL D'ASSO.]

In fact, the only important remains of Etruscan architecture are the
tombs, of which there are many. These are of two kinds; the first
are cut in the rocks and resemble the Egyptian tombs at Beni-Hassan,
reminding one of little houses (Fig. 55).

[Illustration: FIG. 56.--PRINCIPAL CHAMBER IN REGULINI-GALEASSI TOMB.]

The second and most numerous class are mounds of earth raised above
a wall at the base. These were called "Tumuli," and some of them had
fine, well-furnished apartments in their midst. The next cut shows such
a room as it appeared when first opened; in it were found bedsteads,
biers, shields, arrows, a variety of vessels, and several kinds of
useful utensils (Fig. 56).

[Illustration: FIG. 57.--ARCH AT VOLTERRA.]

These tombs are in truth more connected with other arts than with
architecture, and many beautiful articles have been found in them.
The most interesting feature of Etruscan architecture is the arch,
which was first brought into general use by the Romans, but is
found in Etruscan remains (Fig. 57), both in the semi-circular and
pointed forms. The principle of the arch had been known to several
Oriental nations, but it had been applied only to short spaces and
comparatively unimportant uses, such as windows and doorways (Fig. 58).

[Illustration: FIG. 58.--GATEWAY. _Arpino._]

There is no doubt that many of the earliest works of the Romans were
executed under the direction of Etruscan architects. Among these was
the great Cloaca Maxima, or principal drain of ancient Rome. This was a
wonderful achievement; it is probable that the oldest arch in Europe is
that of this sewer, and the fact of its still remaining proves how well
it must have been built in order to last so long (Fig. 59).

[Illustration: FIG. 59.--ARCH OF CLOACA MAXIMA. _Rome._]


ROME.

The early works of Rome, which were largely executed by the Etruscans,
were principally those useful, semi-architectural objects necessary in
the making of a city, such as aqueducts and bridges. These belong quite
as much to civil engineering as to architecture, and we shall not speak
of them.

In studying Roman architecture one is surprised at the number of uses
to which it was applied, for not only do the temples, tombs, theatres,
and monuments such as we have found in other countries exist in Rome,
but there are also basilicas, baths, palaces, triumphal arches, pillars
of victory, fountains, and various other objects suited to the wants of
a great people.

[Illustration: FIG. 60.--COMPOSITE ORDER, FROM THE ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS
SEVERUS. _Rome._]

No truly pure, national order of architecture existed at Rome. The
union of the arch of the Etruscans with the columns of the Greeks
enabled the Romans to change the forms of their edifices and to produce
a great variety in them. They employed the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
orders, but they rarely used one of these alone; they united them in
endless combinations, and introduced a capital of the order which is
called the Composite (Fig. 60). It consists of the lower part of the
Corinthian and the upper part of the Ionic capital; this was very rich
in ornament, but the line where the two orders were joined was always a
defect, and it never came into general favor.

The Romans also introduced what is called the Tuscan order, which is
usually mentioned with the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite,
as being one of the five classic orders of architecture, although it
is really little more than a variety of the Doric, as the Composite is
of the Corinthian order. It differed from the Doric in having a base,
while its frieze was simple and unadorned, the cornice also being very
plain. The shaft of the Tuscan column was never fluted.

[Illustration: FIG. 61.--DORIC ARCADE.]

The Romans also used an arcade which was a combination of Greek and
Etruscan art, like this cut (Fig. 61); thus showing a power of adapting
forms which already existed in new combinations and for new purposes,
rather than an originative genius.

A very important advance made by the Romans was the improvement of
interior architecture. The halls and portions of edifices to be used
were more cared for than ever before; this was sometimes done at the
expense of the exteriors, to which the Greeks had devoted all their
thought. In fact, many ancient Roman temples were inferior to other
edifices which they built. The Pantheon is the only one existing in
such a state as to be spoken of with satisfaction.

[Illustration: FIG. 62.--GROUND-PLAN OF PANTHEON. _Rome._]

This ground-plan (Fig. 62) shows that the Pantheon is circular with
a porch. Taken separately, the rotunda and the porch are each fine
in their own way, but the joining of the circular and angular forms
has an effect of unfitness which one cannot forget even when looking
at that which we regard with reverent interest. The central portion
was at first a part of the Baths of Agrippa, but on account of its
great beauty it was changed by Agrippa himself into a temple, by the
addition of a row of Corinthian columns around the interior. (See Fig.
63.)

[Illustration: FIG. 63.--INTERIOR OF THE PANTHEON.]

Taken all in all, the effect of the Pantheon is that of grandeur and
simplicity. When we remember that sixteen hundred and eighty-eight
years have passed since it was repaired by Septimius Severus, we wonder
at its good preservation, though we know that it has been robbed of
its bronze covering and other fine ornaments. An inscription still
remaining on its portico states that Marcus Aurelius and Septimius
Severus repaired this temple; history says that Hadrian restored it
after a fire, probably about the year 117, and it is even said that
Agrippa, who died A.D. 13, added the portico to a rotunda which existed
before his time.

The objects now in the interior of the Pantheon are so largely modern
that they do not belong to this portion of our subject, but there is
much interest associated with this spot, and it is dear to all the
world as the burial-place of Raphael, Annibale Caracci, and other great
artists.

Next to the temples of Rome came the Basilicas, of which there were
many before the time of Constantine. The word basilica means the royal
house, and these edifices were first intended for a court-room in which
the king administered his laws; later they became markets, or places of
exchange, where men met for business transactions. The ruins of the
Basilicas of Trajan and Maxentius, two of the finest of these edifices,
are in such condition that their plans can be understood (Fig. 64).
They were large, and divided into aisles by rows of columns; at one
end there was a semi-circular recess or apse, in which was a raised
platform, approached by steps, also semi-circular in form. Upon this
platform the king or other exalted officer had his place, while those
of lesser rank were on the steps below, on either side. Fronting the
apse was an altar upon which sacrifices were offered before commencing
any important business.

[Illustration: FIG. 64.--LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF BASILICA OF MAXENTIUS.]

The principal reason for speaking of basilicas is that by the above cut
you may see the great change made in architecture about this time by
the use of columns, only half the height of the building, which were
united by arches. This was a very important step, and is, in truth, one
of the principal features that mark the progress of the change from
ancient to Gothic architecture--a change not fully developed until the
twelfth century.

I shall not say much of the theatres, amphitheatres, and baths of
ancient Rome, because it is not easy to treat them in the simple manner
suited to this book; they were magnificent and costly, and made an
important part of Roman architecture; they were probably copied from
the public buildings of the Etruscans.

Marcus Scaurus built a theatre in 58 B.C. which held eighty thousand
spectators; it had rich columns and statues, and was decorated with
gold, silver, and ivory. The first stone theatre in Rome was built in
55 B.C., and was only half the size of that of Marcus Scaurus. Parts
of the theatre of Marcellus still remain in the present Orsini Palace
in Rome, and serve to give an idea of the architecture of the period
immediately before the birth of Christ.

The Emperor Augustus boasted that he had found a city of brick and
had changed it to one of marble, but after his time architecture
suffered a decline, and its second flourishing period may be dated from
A.D. 69. To this time belongs the Colosseum, also called the Flavian
Amphitheatre; it covers about five acres of ground, and is sufficiently
well preserved for a good idea to be formed of what it must have been
when in its best estate. The enormous size of these ancient Roman
edifices is almost too much for us to imagine, and the most extensive
of them all were the _Thermæ_, or public baths.

The Baths of Diocletian, built A.D. 303, were the largest of all; they
had seats for twenty-four hundred bathers. These baths were in reality
a group of spacious halls of varied forms, but all magnificent in size.
The great hall of the Baths of Diocletian was three hundred and fifty
feet long by eighty feet in width and ninety-six feet high; it was
converted into a church by Michael Angelo and is called S. Maria Degli
Angeli, or Holy Mary of the Angels. Many splendid pictures which were
once in St. Peter's are now in this church, and copies of them made in
mosaic fill the places where they were originally hung.

The Baths of Caracalla were built in A.D. 217, and though they had
seats for but sixteen hundred bathers, they were much more splendid
than the Baths of Diocletian. They were surrounded by pleasure
gardens, porticoes, and a stadium or race-course, where all sorts of
games were held. Some beautiful mosaic pavements have been taken from
these baths, and are now in the Lateran and the Villa Borghese palaces;
there was a Pinacotica, or Fine Art Gallery here, in which were some of
the greatest art treasures of the world, such as the Farnese Hercules,
the Farnese Bull, the two Gladiators, and other famous statues, besides
cameos, bronzes, and sculptures, almost without end. The granite basins
in the Piazza Farnese, and some green basalt urns now in the Vatican
Museum, were taken from the Baths of Caracalla, and, indeed, all over
Rome there are objects of more or less beauty which were found here.

Formerly the site of these baths was like a beautiful Eden where
Nature made herself happy in luxuriant growths of all lovely things.
The poet Shelley was very fond of going there, and wrote of it, "Among
the flowery glades and thickets of odoriferous blossoming trees, which
are extended in ever-winding labyrinths upon its immense platforms
and dizzy arches suspended in the air," by which we know that the
ruins were covered with a soil which was fruitful in flowers, vines,
and trees; but all these have been torn away in order to make the
excavations which were necessary for the exploration of these wonderful
baths, and now the parts which remain stand fully exposed to the view
of the curious traveller.

The Roman Triumphal Arches were one of the characteristic outgrowths of
the Imperial period. These splendid works were designed to perpetuate
the fame of the emperors and to recall to the people the important
acts of their lives. The arch of Constantine given below is one of the
most famous arches in Rome (Fig. 65). It is believed that parts of it
were in an arch of Trajan's time, and some even go so far as to say
that it was originally dedicated to the earlier emperor and adopted
by Constantine as his own. It is remarkably well preserved, and this
is undoubtedly due to the fact of its being dedicated to the first
Christian sovereign of Rome. The other most famous arches in the city
are that of Titus, which dates from A.D. 81, and that of Septimius
Severus, which was erected in honor of him and of his wife, Julia, by
the silversmiths and merchants of the Forum Boarium, in which spot the
arch was raised.

[Illustration: FIG. 65.--ARCH OF CONSTANTINE. _Rome._]

These triumphal arches existed in all the countries where Rome held
sway, and, indeed, this is true of all kinds of Roman architectural
works.

This Arch of Beneventum was erected in the second century after Christ,
by Trajan, when he repaired the Appian Way. It is one of the most
graceful and best preserved of all the arches of Italy (Fig. 66).

[Illustration: FIG. 66.--ARCH OF TRAJAN. _Beneventum._]

All these arches had originally groups of statuary upon them, for which
they served merely as the pedestals. Their taking the form of an arch
was due to their being placed in the public way, where it was necessary
to leave a passage for the street. Sometimes they were placed where two
roads met, and a double arch was then made. Elaborate as the arches
often were, you must keep in mind that they are only a part of the
entire design, and that the least important part; the statuary, which
has been destroyed by time, being really the more striking feature of
the whole.

[Illustration: FIG. 67.--TOMB OF CECILIA METELLA.]

The tombs of Rome were very numerous, and were an important element
in Roman architecture. The tomb of Cecilia Metella is of importance
because it is the oldest remaining building of Imperial Rome and the
finest tomb which has been preserved (Fig. 67).

As you see, the tomb is a round tower. In the thirteenth century it
was turned into a fortress, and so much dust has been deposited on its
summit in the passing of time that bushes and ivy now grow there. Many
writers describe it, and Byron in his "Childe Harold" spoke of it in
some verses, of which the following is the beginning:

        "There is a stern round tower of other days,
        Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone,
        Such as an army's baffled strength delays,
        Standing with half its battlements alone,
        And with two thousand years of ivy grown,
        The garland of eternity, where wave
        The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown;--
        What was this tower of strength? within its cave
        What treasure lay so lock'd, so hid?--a woman's grave."

The tomb of Hadrian, now known as the Castle of St. Angelo, is very
interesting, and is one of the most prominent and familiar objects in
Rome at the present day. But the tombs called Columbaria were much
in use in ancient Rome, and differed essentially from those of which
we have spoken, inasmuch as they were usually below the ground, and
externally had no architecture. They consisted of oblong or square
apartments, the sides of which were filled with small apertures of the
proper size to hold an urn which contained the ashes that remained
after a body had been burned, according to the Roman custom. Some of
these apartments, especially when they belonged to private families,
were adorned with pilasters and decorated with colors. (See Fig. 68.)

[Illustration: FIG. 68.--COLUMBARIUM NEAR THE GATE OF ST. SEBASTIAN.
_Rome._]

The sepulchres of Rome were gradually enlarged, until, in the days of
Constantine, they were frequently built like small temples above the
ground, with crypts or vaults beneath them.

So little now remains of the ancient domestic architecture of Rome that
one is forced to study this subject from written descriptions collected
from the works of various historians, poets, and other writers. But
from what we know we may conclude that the villas and country-houses
were so constructed as to be full of comfort, and suited to the uses
for which they were built, without too much regard to the symmetry
of the exteriors. The interior convenience was the chief thing to
be considered, and when finished they must have often resembled a
collection of buildings all joined together, of various heights and
shapes; but within they were adapted to the different seasons, as
some rooms were made for being warm, while others were arranged for
coolness; the views from the windows were also an important feature,
and, in short, the pleasure of the people living in them was made the
first point to be gained, rather than the impression upon the eye of
those who saw them from without.

There was great luxury and elegance in the palaces of the noble classes
in ancient Rome. The home of Diocletian at Spalatro was one of the most
famous Roman palaces, and its ruins show that it was once magnificent.
This palace was divided by four streets which ran through it at right
angles with each other and met in its centre. Its entrances were
called the Golden, Iron, and Brazen Gates. Its exterior architecture
was simple and massive, as it was necessary that it should serve as a
fortress in case of an attack. Its principal gallery overlooked the
sea; it was five hundred and fifteen feet long and twenty-four feet
wide, and was famous for its architectural beauty and for the views
which it commanded.




[Illustration]

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE.

A.D. 328 TO ABOUT 1400.


I have written more in detail concerning Ancient architecture than I
shall do of that of later times, because it is best to be thorough in
studying the beginnings of things; then we can make an application of
our knowledge which helps us to understand the results of what has gone
before, just as we are prepared for the full-blown rose after we have
seen the bud. Or, to be more practical, just as we use the simplest
principles of arithmetic to help us to understand the more difficult
ones; sometimes we scarcely remember that in the last lessons of the
book we unconsciously apply the first tables and rules which were so
difficult to us in the beginning.

I shall not try, because I have not space, to give a connected account
of Christian architecture, but I shall endeavor to give such an outline
of its rise and progress in various countries as will make a good
foundation for the knowledge you will gain from books which you will
read in future.

The architecture of Italy in the period which followed the conversion
of the Emperor Constantine is called the Romanesque order. As the
Christians were encouraged under Constantine and became bold in their
worship, many basilicas were given up for their use. The bishops held
the principal place upon the platform formerly occupied by the king
and his highest officers, and the priests of the lower orders were
ranged around them. The same altars which had served for the heathen
sacrifices were used for the worship of the true God, and from this
cause the word basilica has come to signify a large, grand church, in
the speech of our time.

[Illustration: FIG. 69.--INTERIOR OF BASILICA OF ST. PAUL'S. _Rome._]

Among the early basilicas of Rome which still remain none are more
distinguished than that of _San Paolo fuori della Mura_, or St. Paul's
without the Walls. It was ancient, and splendid in design and ornament.
In 1823 it was burned, and has been rebuilt with great magnificence,
but the picture above shows it as it was before the fire (Fig. 69).
It was built about 386 A.D. under the Emperors Valentinian II. and
Theodosius.

This basilica had four rows of Corinthian columns, twenty in each
row; many of these pillars were taken from more ancient edifices, and
were composed of very beautiful marbles, forming by far the finest
collection of columns in the world. The bronze gates were cast at
Constantinople; the fine paintings and magnificent mosaics with which
it was decorated added much to its splendor. Tradition taught that the
body of St. Paul was buried beneath the high altar.

Before the Reformation the sovereigns of England were protectors of
this basilica just as those of France were of St. John Lateran; this
gives it a peculiar interest for British people, and the symbol of the
Order of the Garter is still seen among its decorations. On account of
its associations, San Paolo was the most interesting, if not the most
beautiful, of the oldest Christian edifices in Rome.

In the early days there were many circular churches throughout Italy;
some of these had been built at first for tombs. The Christians used
churches of this form for baptisms, for the sacrament for the dying,
burials, and sometimes for marriage.

The circular temple of Vesta is very beautiful. It had originally
twenty Corinthian columns; nineteen of which still remain. This temple
is not older than the time of Vespasian, and is not the famous one
mentioned by Horace and other ancient writers, in which the Palladium
was preserved--that temple no longer exists. It is probable that many
of the earliest churches built by Christians in Italy were circular in
form, and numbers of these still remain in various Italian cities; but
they differed from the ancient temples of this form in their want of
exterior decoration. The ancient Romans had used columns, peristyles,
and porticoes; the Christians used the latter only in a few instances,
but even these were soon abandoned.

The beautiful Baptistery at Florence was originally the cathedral
of the city. It is octagonal, or eight-sided, and this form is not
infrequent in buildings of the fourth and following centuries. It
is said that this Baptistery was built by Theodolinda, who married
Autharis, King of the Lombards in 589.

This king had proposed to Garibald, King of Bavaria, for the hand of
his daughter, and had been accepted. Autharis grew impatient at the
ceremonies of the wooing, and escaping from his palace joined the
embassy to the King of Bavaria.

When they reached the court of Garibald and were received by that
monarch, Autharis advanced to the throne and told the old king that the
ambassador before him was indeed the Minister of State at the Lombard
Court, but that he was the only real friend of Autharis, and to him had
been given a charge to report to the Italian king concerning the charms
of Theodolinda. Garibald summoned his daughter, and after an admiring
gaze the stranger hailed her Queen of Italy and respectfully asked that
she should, according to custom, give a glass of wine to the first of
her future subjects who had tendered her his duty. Her father commanded
her to give the cup, and as Autharis returned it to her he secretly
touched her hand and then put his finger on his own lips. At evening
Theodolinda told this incident to her nurse, who assured her that this
handsome and bold stranger could have been none other than her future
husband, since no subject would venture on such conduct.

[Illustration: FIG. 70.--THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES.]

The ambassadors were dismissed, and some Bavarians accompanied the
Lombards to the Italian frontier. Before they separated Autharis
raised himself in his stirrups and threw his battle-axe against a tree
with great skill, exclaiming, "Such are the strokes of the King of
the Lombards!" Then all knew the rank of this gallant stranger. The
approach of a French army compelled Garibald to leave his capital;
he took refuge in Italy, and Autharis celebrated his marriage in the
palace of Verona; he lived but one year, but in that time Theodolinda
had so endeared herself to the people that she was allowed to bestow
the Italian sceptre with her hand. She had converted her husband to
the Catholic faith. She also founded the cathedral of Monza and other
churches in Lombardy and Tuscany, all of which she dedicated to St.
John the Baptist, who was her patron saint.

The cathedral of Monza is very interesting from its historical
associations. Here is deposited the famous iron crown which was
presented to Theodolinda by Pope Gregory I. This crown is made of a
broad band of gold set with jewels, and the iron from which it is
named is a narrow circlet inside, said to have been made from one
of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ, and brought from
Jerusalem by the Empress Helena. This crown is kept in a casket which
forms the centre of the cross above the high altar in the cathedral
of Monza; it was carried away in 1859 by the Austrians; at the close
of the Italo-Prussian war, in 1866, the Emperor of Austria gave it to
Victor Emmanuel, then King of Italy. This crown has been used at the
coronation of thirty-four sovereigns; among them were Charlemagne,
Charles V., and Napoleon I. The latter wore it at his second coronation
as King of the Lombards in 1805. He placed it on his head himself,
saying, "God has given it to me, woe to him who touches it!"

There are few secular buildings of this period remaining in Italy, and
Romanesque architecture endured but a short time, for it was almost
abandoned at the time of the death of Gregory the Great, in 604. During
the next four and a half centuries the old styles were dying out and
the Gothic order was developing, but cannot be said to have reached any
high degree of perfection before the close of the eleventh century.


GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

It is difficult to speak concisely of Gothic architecture because there
is so much that can be said of its origin, and then it has so extended
itself to all parts of the world as to render it in a sense universal.
Perhaps Fergusson makes it as simple as it can be made when he divides
Europe by a line from Memel on the shores of the Baltic Sea to Spalatro
on the Adriatic, and then carries the line westward to Fermo and
divides Italy almost as the forty-third parallel of latitude divides
it. He then says that during the Middle Ages, or from about the seventh
to the fifteenth centuries, the architecture north and west of these
lines was Gothic; south and east it was Byzantine, with the exception
of Rome, which always remained individual, and a rule unto herself.

There was a very general belief in all Christian lands that the world
would end in the year 1000 A.D., and when this dreaded period had
passed without that event happening, men seem everywhere to have been
seized with a passion for erecting stone buildings. An old chronicler
named Rodulphe Glaber, who died in 1045 A.D., relates that as early
as the year 1003 A.D. so many churches and monasteries of marble were
being erected, especially in France and Italy, "that the world appeared
to be putting off its old dingy attire and putting on a new white robe.
Then nearly all the bishops' seats, the churches, the monasteries, and
even the oratories of the villages were changed for better ones."

Such a movement could not fail to have a great influence upon
architecture, and it was at this time that the Gothic style began to
be rapidly developed; and, indeed, so far as any particular time may
be fixed for the beginning of the Gothic order, it would fall in the
tenth and eleventh centuries. The classic forms, with their horizontal
cornices and severe regularity, were then laid aside, and a greater
freedom and variety than had ever obtained before began to make itself
felt in all architectural designs.

We must first try to understand what are the distinguishing features
of Gothic architecture. Perhaps the principal one may be called
constructiveness; which is to say, that in Gothic architecture there
is far greater variety of form, and the power to make larger and more
complicated buildings than had been possible with the orders which
preceded it. During the Middle Ages the aim was to produce large
edifices, and to build and ornament them in a way that would make them
appear to be even larger than they were. The early Gothic buildings are
so massive as to have a clumsy effect, because the architects had not
yet learned how to make these enormous masses strong and enduring, and
yet so arranged as to be light and graceful in their appearance.

A second striking difference between the ancient orders and the Gothic,
is that in the former enormous blocks of stone or marble were used and
great importance was attached to this. Many ancient works are called
Cyclopean for this reason. It does not make a building more beautiful
to have it massive, but it does make it grand. Even in a less colossal
mode of building a column is more effective when it is a monolith,
and an architrave more beautiful when its beams are not joined too
frequently. But in the Gothic order the use of massive blocks is
largely given up, and the endeavor is to so arrange smaller materials
as to display remarkable constructive skill.

[Illustration: FIG. 71.--CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS. _Caen._]

A third and a very important feature of the Gothic order is the use of
the arch. The much-increased constructive power of which we have spoken
depended very largely upon this. The ancients knew the use of the arch,
but did not like it because they thought that it took away from the
repose of a building. Even now the Hindoos will not use it; they say,
"An arch never sleeps," and though the Mohammedan builders have used it
in their country, the Hindoos cannot overcome their dislike of it. In
the Gothic order, however, the use of arches, both round and pointed,
is unending. The results are very much varied, and range all the way
from a grand and impressive effect to a sort of toy-like lightness
which seems more suited to the block-houses made by children than to
the works of architects. The earlier Gothic arches were round, although
pointed arches are occasionally found in very ancient buildings. The
picture (Fig. 71), however, gives a just idea of the form of arch most
used until the introduction of the pointed arch, which occurred in
France during the twelfth century. Of this form the doorways of the
next cut present a fine example (Fig. 72).

[Illustration: FIG. 72.--FAÇADE OF CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME. _Paris._]

[Illustration: FIG. 73.--CLUSTERED PILLAR.]

[Illustration: FIG. 74.--BUTTRESS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 75.--HINGE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 77.--IRON-WORK.]

[Illustration: FIG. 78.--GARGOYLE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 76.--NAIL-HEAD.]

[Illustration: FIG. 79.--SCROLL.]

An important characteristic of Gothic architecture was the fact that
every part of the building was so made as to show its use. Instead of
hiding the supports they were made prominent. If a pier or buttress
was to stand a perpendicular strain, even the lines of decoration were
generally made to run in that direction; if extra supports were needed,
they were not concealed, but built in so as to show, and even to be
prominent. In the details the same feeling was often shown in a very
marked degree; the hinges and nails and locks of Gothic buildings were
made to be seen, and whatever was needed for use was treated as if it
were of value as an ornament. The spouts by which the water was carried
over the eaves were made bold and comparatively large, and carved into
those curious shapes of animals and monsters called gargoyles, which
are seen on so many mediæval edifices. Many of these details of Gothic
buildings are very elegant, and serve to-day as models for modern
workmen. (See Figs. 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79.)

Among the inventions of Gothic architects the division of the interior
into three aisles, with the centre one much the highest, was very
important. By this arrangement the space was made to appear longer and
higher than it really was, and what was lost in the effect of width was
more than made up in a certain elegance of form which is very pleasing.
The three central aisles of the next cut illustrate this arrangement
(Fig. 80).

[Illustration: FIG. 80.--SECTION OF CHURCH. _Carcassone._ WITH OUTER
AISLES ADDED IN FOURTEENTH CENTURY.]

The Gothic builders gave loftiness to their edifices by the use of
spires and towers. They became very skilful in constructing them with
buttresses below and pinnacles above, so that the spires should not
detract from the apparent size of the buildings to which they were
attached (Fig. 81).

[Illustration: FIG. 81.--SPIRES OF LAON CATHEDRAL.]

In the matter of design in ornament the Gothic order had no fixed
method, except so far as its forms were symbolic. Every form of
vegetable design was employed; vines and leaves were abundant. As
a rule the use of human forms or animals as supports to columns or
other weights was avoided. If they were introduced the animals were
not reproductions of such as exist, but the imaginary griffin or
other monster, and at times dwarfs or grotesque human beings, were
represented as if for caricatures.

Sculptured figures were usually placed upon a pedestal either with or
without niches for them, and were not made to appear to be a part of
the building itself. The deep recesses of Gothic portals, the pinnacles
and niches gave opportunities to display exterior sculpture to great
advantage (Fig. 82). The interiors were also appropriate for any amount
of artistic ornament in bas-reliefs or figures that could be lavished
upon them.

[Illustration: FIG. 82.--PORTAL OF THE MINORITES' CHURCH. _Vienna._]

The most original and effective feature of ornament, however, which was
introduced by Gothic architects is that of painted glass. To this they
devoted their best talent. It is not necessary to say how beautiful and
decorative it is; we all know this, and our only wonder is that it was
left for the Gothic architects to apply it to architectural uses. We do
not know precisely when stained or painted glass was invented, but we
know that it existed as early as 800, and came into very general use in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

[Illustration: FIG. 83--EXTERNAL ELEVATION, CATHEDRAL OF PARIS.]

Before painted glass was used windows were made very small, and it was
some time before the large, rich style was adopted. The following cut
from Notre Dame, at Paris, gives the three stages of the change, and it
is interesting to see them thus in one church (Fig. 83).

On the left are the undivided windows without mullions or dividing
supports; next, at the right, the upper window shows the form with one
perpendicular mullion and a circular or rose window above the centre;
lastly, on the right of the lower story we see a full traceried window.

The window became one of the most important and characteristic features
of Gothic buildings. These large open spaces gave opportunity for
elegant shapes and splendid colors, both the form of the opening and
the dividing ribs, or tracery, as it was called, being made with the
utmost beauty and grace. The round windows, called rose windows and
wheel windows, were often exquisitely designed, as the following
example shows (Fig. 84).

[Illustration: FIG. 84.--WHEEL WINDOW, FROM CATHEDRAL. _Toscanella._]

The window is illustrative of the influence which climate may have on
the development of architectural style. In warm countries where spaces
were left open, window forms and painted glass were, of course, never
employed; but in more northern lands they became one of the most marked
features in important edifices.

A whole book might be written about these windows and be very
interesting also, but we can give no more space to them here.

Gothic architecture gradually extended from the centre of Italy to
the most northern bounds of civilization, and though practised by so
many nations, was as much the architectural expression of a religion
as the architecture of a single ancient nation had been the outgrowth
of its peculiar religious belief. During the Middle Ages the priests
and monks preserved learning in the midst of general darkness and
ignorance, and were the chief patrons of all art which survived the
decline of the time. They built up the Christian faith by every means
in their power. The monks were missionaries. They went to various
countries, and selecting favorable spots they founded abbeys; around
these abbeys a poor population settled; gradually churches were built,
and it frequently happened that the monks not only planned the work to
be done, but also executed it with their own hands. Many of them were
masons and builders, and several bishops were architects. St. Germain,
Bishop of Paris, designed the church in that city now called by his
name, and was also sent to Angers to build another church, and to Mans
to erect a monastery.

The finest buildings being thus made for religious purposes and under
the direction of the clergy, they must have been as full an expression
of Christianity as were the temple-palaces of Egypt an expression of
the religion of Osiris and Isis, when the kings were both priests and
sovereigns, and dwelt in these palaces. And this was true as long as
Gothic art was in the hands of the clergy and used almost entirely for
religious purposes.

Later on, when it was employed for civic edifices erected under the
direction of laymen, it became an expression of political independence
also. The freedom of thought which came with the decline of the feudal
system inspired new aspirations and imaginations in the hearts and
minds of men, and these found expression in all the arts, and very
especially in architecture. If we cannot always admire the manner in
which Gothic art was made to express these lofty desires, we can fully
sympathize with the sentiment which was behind it.

The Gothic order held undisputed sway west and north of the
geographical line of which we have spoken until the fifteenth century.
Then a revival of classical literature took place, and with this there
arose also a revival of classic art and architecture; this revival is
known as the Renaissance, or the new birth, and the period of time
is spoken of as that of the Renaissance. The effect of this classic
reaction was very great upon all the educated classes of Europe, and
its influence may be said to have endured through about three centuries.

Again, during the eighteenth century, Gothic art was revived. A
reverence has grown up for the good that wrestled with the darkness of
the Middle Ages and survived all their evils. The rough, strong manhood
of that time is now justly appreciated. Perhaps the feeling in this
direction is too much exaggerated. While our regard for a rude and
weather-stained monument of the spirit and architecture of the past may
be natural and proper, the imitation of it which is made in our day may
easily become absurd, and is very rarely suited to our purposes.

Spain is one of the countries which are on the Gothic side of the
geographical line we have drawn, and among the many splendid edifices
in that country some of the finest are of the Gothic order. There is no
national architecture there, for though the Spaniards love art and its
expression passionately, they have themselves invented almost nothing
which is artistic.

[Illustration: FIG. 85.--COLLEGIATE CHURCH, TORO. _From Villa Amil._]

But while it is true that the Spaniards invented no styles, they
did modify those which they adopted, and there are peculiarities
in the Spanish use and arrangement of the Gothic order which give
it new elements in the eyes of those who understand architecture
scientifically. To the uneducated also it appears to have a personality
of its own, something that is suited to Spain and the Spaniards; so
that, while we know that Spanish Gothic architecture was borrowed
from France and Germany, we yet feel that if the cathedrals of Paris
and Cologne were to be put down in Valencia or Madrid they would look
like strangers, and not at all well-contented ones at that; and if
the churches of Toledo or Burgos were copied precisely in any other
country, they would have an air of being quite out of keeping with
everything around them (Fig. 85).

We call the architecture of Spain before 1066 the "Early Spanish," and
from that time the Gothic order prevailed during nearly three centuries.

[Illustration: FIG. 86.--ST. PAUL. _Saragossa._]

Meantime in the south of Spain the Moresco or Moorish order had sprung
up, of which Fig. 86 gives an example. It was gradually adopted to a
limited extent, until finally some specimens of it existed in almost
every province of the country. The Gothic order was affected by it,
inasmuch as the richness of ornament of the Moorish order so pleased
the taste of the Spaniards that their architects allowed themselves to
indulge in a certain Moorish manner of treating the Gothic style. We
cannot describe these differences in words, but Figs. 86 and 87 will
make it plain.

[Illustration: FIG. 87.--CLOISTER. _Tarazona._]

As has been said, the interior decoration of all Gothic churches was
very rich and abundant. It is also true that all church furniture was
made with great care; the matter of symbolism was carefully considered,
and each design made to indicate the use of the article for which it
was intended. No altar, preaching-desk, stall, chair, or screen was
made without due attention to every detail, and the endeavor to have it
in harmony with its use and its position in the church. The following
cut shows a rood-screen, which was the kind of screen that was placed
before the crucifixion over the high altar (Fig. 88).

[Illustration: FIG. 88.--ROOD-SCREEN, FROM THE MADELEINE. _Troyes._]

The fantastic sculptures and wealth of ornament in Gothic decorations
produce a confusing effect on the brain and the eye if we look at
the whole carelessly; but when we remember that each separate design
has its especial meaning we are interested to examine them, and we
find that the variety of forms is almost innumerable. Where there are
trailing vines and lions, faith is indicated; roses and pelicans are
the symbols of mercy and divine love; dogs and ivy, of truth; lambs, of
gentleness, innocence, and submission; fishes are an emblem of water
and the rite of baptism; the dragon, of sin and paganism; a serpent,
too, typifies sin, and when wound around a globe it indicates the power
of evil over the whole world; a hind or hart signifies solitude; the
dove, purity; the olive, peace; the palm, martyrdom; the lily, purity
and chastity; the lamp, lantern, or taper, piety; fire and flames, zeal
and the sufferings of martyrdom; a flaming heart, fervent piety and
spiritual love; a shell, pilgrimage; a standard or banner, victory;
and so on, and on, we find that meaning and thought were worked out in
every bit of Gothic ornament, and that what at first appears so wild
and hap-hazard is full of a method which well repays one for the study
of it.

The Gothic order was also used in building municipal edifices,
palaces, and even for the purposes of domestic architecture. The finest
remains of this kind are in Germany, the most interesting of them all
being the castle on the Wartburg. This castle is large, grand, and
imposing. It is also well preserved. A few years ago it was discovered
that many windows and arched galleries, of very beautiful style, had
been filled up, and that frescoes and other decorations had been
covered. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar caused its restoration, and the
ancient halls are now quite in their original state. (See Fig. 89.)

[Illustration: FIG. 89.--PALACE OF WARTBURG.]

There are very interesting legends and historical facts connected with
this castle of Wartburg. As early as 1204 to 1208, when Hermann, Count
of Thuringia, dwelt there with his wife, the Countess Sophia, it is
related that the "War of the Minstrels" occurred. This was a contest
between several of the wandering minstrels or Minnesingers of that
time as to who should excel, and he who failed was to suffer death.
The penalty fell on Henry of Ofterdingen; in his despair he begged the
Countess to gain him a respite so that he could go for his master,
Klingsor. Her prayer was granted, and in the end Henry of Ofterdingen
saved his head, though the legend says that Satan aided him. This story
is without doubt founded on truth, but has much of fancy mingled with
it.

The next remarkable story connected with Wartburg is the residence here
of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, as she is called. This wonderful woman
was the daughter of the King of Hungary, and when four years old she
was betrothed to Prince Louis, son of Count Hermann, mentioned above.
At this tender age she was given to his family. Her life at Wartburg
was very remarkable, and I advise you to read about it, for it is too
long to be given here. At last, her husband having died in Jerusalem,
where he had gone with the Crusaders, his brother Henry drove her out
with her children to seek a home where she could. She suffered much,
and supported herself by spinning wool. But when the knights who had
gone with her husband returned, they obliged Henry to give the son of
Elizabeth his rights. She received the city of Marburg as her dower,
but she did not live long. Miraculous things are told of her, and she
is often represented by painters and sculptors.

Again, Wartburg was the residence of a remarkable person; for Luther
dwelt there after escaping from the Diet at Worms. He was called Ritter
George, and the room where he wrote and spent much of his time is shown
to travellers who visit the castle.

We come back now to Italy, the country we left when we passed from the
Romanesque to Gothic architecture. In the north of Italy where the
Gothic order had prevailed after the eleventh century, it had been
modified by the Romanesque influences and Roman traditions, in some
such degree as the Moors had influenced the Gothic order in Spain. But,
on the whole, the mediæval buildings of Northern Italy were Gothic in
style.

Rome, as we said, was individual, and her art remained Roman or
Romanesque up to the date of the Renaissance. In Southern Italy, as we
shall see, the architecture was of the Byzantine order.

Among the most interesting edifices of the Middle Ages are the Italian
towers. They were frequently quite separate from the churches and were
built for various purposes. Some of them were bell towers, and such a
tower was called a _campanile_. Others were in some way associated with
the civic power of the cities which built them; but the largest number
were for religious uses.

The _campanile_ is always square at the bottom and for some distance
up, and then is frequently changed to an octagonal or circular form and
finished with a slender spire or ornamental design.

[Illustration: FIG. 90.--TOWER OF CREMONA.]

Fig. 90 shows one of the finest square towers in all Italy. It was
built in 1296 to commemorate a peace after a long war. It is three
hundred and ninety-six feet high. It has little beauty in the lower two
thirds; above that it is more pleasing, but the two parts do not look
as if they belonged together. The tower of Italy, however, which is
most beloved and most famous is that of Giotto, beside the cathedral of
Florence. (See Fig. 102.)

Another striking feature of Gothic art in Northern Italy is seen in the
porches attached to the churches. They are commonly on the side, and
as they were usually added after the rest of the church was finished,
and frequently do not correspond to the rest in style, they look as if
they were parts of some other churches and had come on a visit to those
beside which they stand. In Italy the main portion of these porches
always rested on lions.

A porch at Bergamo is one of the finest, and certainly its details are
exquisite, and the whole structure is beautiful when it is considered
separately; but as a part of the church it loses its effect, and seems
to be pushed against it as a chair is placed beside the wall of a room.

Some of the mediæval town-halls are still well preserved, and a few of
them are truly beautiful. Perhaps the Broletto at Como is as fine a
remnant of civic architecture as exists in Northern Italy. It is not
very large and is faced with party-colored marbles.

The architecture of Venice and the Venetian Province must be treated
almost as if it were outside of Italy, because it differs so much from
that of other portions of that country. During the Middle Ages it was
the most prosperous portion of Italy. Its architecture was influenced
by the Byzantine and Saracenic orders, but is not like them; neither
is it like that of Northern Italy; in fact, it is Venetian, being
Gothic in principle, but treated with Eastern feeling and decorated
in Oriental taste; and this was quite natural since the Venetians had
extensive traffic and intercourse with the nations of the East.

[Illustration: FIG. 91.--ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL. _Venice._]

There are few places in the world, of no greater extent, about which so
many interesting associations cluster as about the Piazza of St. Mark's
in Venice. On one side stands the great basilica, and not far away are
the _campanile_ and the clock-tower; the ancient Doge's Palace, and the
beautiful Library of St. Mark, of later date, are near by, with their
treasures of art and literature to increase the value of the whole. It
is a spot dear to all, and especially so to English-speaking people,
since the poetry of Shakespeare has given them a reason for personal
interest in it under all its varying aspects. At some hours of the day
St. Mark's seems as if it were the very centre of the earth, to which
men of all nations are hastening; again this bustle dies away, and one
could fancy it to be forgotten and deserted of all mankind, though its
silence is eloquent in its power to recall the great events of the
Venice of the past. (See Figs. 91, 105, and 106.)

St. Mark's Basilica is called Byzantine in its order, and in a general
way the term is applicable to it; but on careful examination there
are so many differences between it and a purely Byzantine church that
it would be more properly described by the name Italian or Venetian
Byzantine. Its five domes were added to its original form late in the
Middle Ages, and though there are many Eastern mosques with this
number, they are not arranged like those of St. Mark's, and so have
quite a different appearance. The portico with its five entrances is
not European in form, but the details of these deep recesses are more
like the Norman architecture than like anything Byzantine.

It is scarcely profitable to carry this examination farther, for, in
a word, the whole effect of St. Mark's is very impressive from the
exterior, and the interior is so beautiful in its subdued light and
shadow that one is satisfied to enjoy it without criticising it, and
many critics consider it one of the finest interiors of Western Europe.

The same difficulty which one finds in defining or classing the
architecture of Venice is met in that of Southern Italy, which is
Byzantine and not Byzantine, but, in fact, is that order so changed
that the name of Byzantine-Romanesque seems better suited to it than
any other term could be. We shall mention but a single example of this
order, and pass to the true Byzantine style.

[Illustration: FIG. 92.--SECTION OF SAN MINIATO. _Near Florence._]

The church of San Miniato, which overlooks the city of Florence, was
built in 1013, and is one of the most perfect as well as one of the
earliest of the churches of the Byzantine-Romanesque order in Italy.
It is not large, but the proportions are so good as to make it very
pleasing; the pillars are so nearly classic in design that they were
probably taken from some earlier building, and the effect of colored
panelling both within and without is very satisfactory to the eye. (See
Fig. 92.)

[Illustration: FIG. 93.--SAN GIOVANNI DEGLI EREMITI. _Palermo._]

There arose in Sicily in the eleventh century, and after the Norman
Conquest, a remarkable style of architecture. It belongs to Christian
art because it was used by Christians to construct places of Christian
worship; but, in truth, it was a combination of Greek spirit with Roman
form and Saracenic ornament. It makes an interesting episode in the
study of architecture. I shall give one picture of a church built by
King Roger for Christian use as late as 1132, which, except for the
tower, might well be mistaken for a purely Oriental edifice (Fig. 93).


BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE.

This term strictly belongs to the order which arose in the East after
Constantinople was made the Roman capital. It is especially the order
of the Greek Church as contrasted with the Latin or Roman Church. It
would make all architectural writing and talking much clearer if this
fact were kept in mind; but, unfortunately, wherever some special
bit of carving in an Oriental design or a little colored decoration
is used--as is frequently done in the modern composite styles of
building--the term Byzantine is carelessly applied, until it is
difficult for one not learned in architecture to discover what the
Byzantine order is, or where it belongs.

We have spoken of its influence and partial use in Italy. Now we
will consider it in its home and its purity. Before the time of
Constantine the architecture used at Rome was employed at Jerusalem,
Constantinople, and other Eastern cities which were under Roman rule
and influence. Between the time of Constantine and the death of
Justinian, in A.D. 565, the true ancient Byzantine order was developed.
The church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, was the greatest and the
last product of the pure old Byzantine style.

From that time the order employed may be called the Neo-Byzantine. This
was a decline of art as much as the history of Greece and the Eastern
Empire during the same period (about 600 to 1453) was the history of
the decline and extinction of a power that had once been as great among
governments as St. Sophia (Fig. 94) was among churches.

[Illustration: FIG. 94.--CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA. _Constantinople.
Exterior View._]

The chief characteristic of Byzantine architecture is the use of the
dome, which is the most important part of its design. A grand central
dome rises over the principal portion of the edifice, and just as in
other orders courts and colonnades were added to the simpler basilica
form in the ground plan of the churches, so in the Byzantine order
lesser domes and cupolas were added above until almost any number of
them was admissible, and they were placed with little attention to
regularity or symmetry of arrangement.

[Illustration: FIG. 95.--LOWER ORDER OF ST. SOPHIA.]

As domes were the chief exterior feature, so the profuse ornamentation
was most noticeable in the interior. The walls were richly decorated
with variegated marbles; the vaulted ceilings of the domes and niches
were lined with brilliant mosaics; the columns, friezes, cornices, door
and window-frames, and the railings to galleries were of marbles, and
entirely covered with ornamental designs (Figs. 95 and 96).

[Illustration: FIG. 96.--UPPER ORDER OF ST. SOPHIA.]

The historian Gibbon describes the building of St. Sophia and its
decorations. He tells us that the emperor went daily, clad in a linen
tunic, to oversee the work. The architect was named Anthemius; he
employed ten thousand workmen, and they were all paid each evening.
When it was completed and Justinian was present at its consecration, he
exclaimed, "Glory be to God, who hath thought me worthy to accomplish
so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon!"

Paul Silentiarius was a poet; he saw St. Sophia in all its glory and
describes it with enthusiasm. It was very rich in variegated marbles.
He mentions the following: 1. _The Carystian_, pale with iron veins.
2. _The Phrygian_, two sorts, both of a rosy hue; one with a white
shade, the other purple with silver flowers. 3. _The Porphyry of
Egypt_, with small stars. 4. _The green marble of Laconia._ 5. _The
Carian_, from Mount Iassis, with oblique veins, white and red. 6. _The
Lydian_, pale, with a red flower. 7. _The African or Mauritanian_,
of a gold or saffron hue. 8. _The Celtic_, black, with white veins.
9. _The Bosphoric_, white, with black edges. There were also the
_Proconnesian_, which made the pavement; and the _Thessalian_ and
_Molossian_ in different parts.

This array of marbles was made even more effective by the beautiful
columns brought from older temples. The mosaics were rich in color, and
numerous, and many parts of the church were covered with gold, so that
the effect was dazzling.

Those objects that were most sacred were of solid gold and silver,
while such as were less important were only covered with gold-leaf. In
the sanctuary there was altogether forty thousand pounds of silver; the
vases and vessels used about the altar were of pure gold and studded
with gems. Its whole cost was almost beyond belief. At the close of
his description Gibbon says: "A magnificent temple is a laudable
monument of taste and religion, and the enthusiast who entered the dome
of St. Sophia might be tempted to suppose that it was the residence or
even the workmanship of the Deity. Yet how dull is the artifice, how
insignificant is the labor, if it be compared with the formation of the
vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of the temple!"

Of course, individual taste must largely influence the opinion
regarding the beauty of any work of art, but to me St. Sophia, which
is the chief example of Byzantine architecture, is far less beautiful
and less grand than the finest Gothic cathedrals. Comparatively little
attention was paid to the elegance and decoration of the exterior
in the Eastern edifices, while the interiors, in spite of all their
riches, have a flat and unrelieved effect. Probably the chief reason
for this is that color is substituted for relief--that is to say, in
Gothic architecture heavy mouldings and panellings, though of the same
color as the walls themselves, yet produce a marvellous effect of light
and shadow, and even lend an element of perspective to various parts
of the building. In the place of these mouldings flat bands of color
are often used in the Byzantine order, and the whole result is much
weakened, though a certain gorgeousness comes from the color. Another
cause of disappointment in St. Sophia is the absence of painted glass.
At the same time, and in spite of these defects, St. Sophia is grand
and beautiful--but not solemn and impressive in comparison with the dim
cathedral aisles of many Gothic churches in other parts of the world.
(See Fig. 97.)

[Illustration: FIG. 97.--INTERIOR VIEW OF CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA.]

The Romanesque and Byzantine styles came at last to be so mingled that
it would be folly to attempt to separate their influence, but the
Byzantine had much more originality, and left a far wider mark.

Among the most noted examples of the latter style, beside St. Sophia
and St. Mark's, are the church of St. Vitale at Ravenna, the cathedral
at Aix-la-Chapelle, supposed to have been built by Charlemagne about
800 A.D., and the church of the Mother of God at Constantinople.


SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE.

In speaking of Saracenic architecture I will first explain that it is
one with the Moresco or Moorish order of which I spoke in connection
with Spain. The only difference is that the earliest Mohammedan
conquerors of Spain are said to have come from ancient Mauri or
Mauritania and were called Moors, while the name of _Saraceni_, which
means "the Easterns," was also given to them. Thus the Mohammedan
architecture in Spain is called both Moresco, or Moorish, and
Saracenic. Again, it is also called Arabian, but I think this is
the least correct, since the Easterns who went to Spain were not so
universally Arabian as to warrant this name. When we speak of Moresco
or Moorish architecture we speak of Spain; but the term Saracenic is
used for Mohammedan architecture in all countries where it is found,
and is a just term, for they are Eastern or Oriental lands.

In absolute fact, Saracenic architecture is that of the followers of
"the Prophet," as Mohammed is called, and would be more suitably named
if it were called Mohammedan architecture, or the architecture of Islam.

Mohammed was born at Mecca A.D. 570, but it was not until 611 that he
was commissioned, as he believed, to build up a new faith and a new
church. At first his followers were so few and so mingled with other
sects and tribes in their outward life that they had no distinctive
art. It was not until A.D. 876, when the ruler Ibn-Touloun commenced
his splendid mosque at Cairo, that the Mohammedans could claim any
architecture as their own. It is very interesting to know that there
were pointed arches in this mosque, probably two centuries, at least,
earlier than they were used in England, for it is generally believed
that they were first used there in the rebuilding of Canterbury
Cathedral after it was burned in 1174. When, however, the Saracenic
order was fully established it was so individual and so different from
all other architecture that there is no mistaking it for that of any
other religion or nation than that of Mohammed and his followers.

The picture of the mosque of Kaitbey shows one of the finest and most
elegant mosques of the East. It is just outside the walls of Cairo, and
is quite modern, having been built in 1463. This view of it gives an
excellent idea of the appearance of a fine mosque and shows the minaret
or tower, which is so important in a mosque, to good advantage (Fig.
98).

[Illustration: FIG. 98.--MOSQUE OF KAITBEY.]

These minarets are constantly used for the many calls to prayer which
are made throughout the day and night. The person who makes these calls
is styled "the Muezzin," and is usually blind. Several times during
the day he ascends the minaret and calls out in a loud and melodious
tone, "God is most great; there is no God but Allah, and I testify that
Mohammed is Allah's prophet! Come to prayer! Come to security! Prayer
is better than sleep!" This is several times repeated and is called the
_Adan_.

The form of words used for the night varies a little, ending, "There
is no God but Allah. He has no companion! To Him belongs dominion,
etc.;" this is called the _Ula_. The call made an hour before day is
the _Ebed_, and praises the perfection of God. When one is sleeping
near enough to a minaret to hear the muezzin's voice it is a pleasant
sound and helps one to realize that the care of God is ever about him;
the clear, Christian bell can be heard by more people, and this was
originally intended as a call to prayer. (See Fig. 99.)

[Illustration: FIG. 99.--THE CALL TO PRAYER.]

The principal homes of Saracenic architecture are Syria, Egypt, Mecca,
Barbary, Spain, Sicily, Turkey, Persia, and India. There are many very
interesting mosques and minarets that might be mentioned had we space,
but I can speak only of the mosque of Cordova, which is universally
admitted to be the finest Saracenic edifice in the world (Fig. 100),
and shall quote a part of the interesting description of it given by De
Amicis in his delightful book called "Spain and the Spaniards."

[Illustration: FIG. 100.--EXTERIOR OF THE SANCTUARY IN THE MOSQUE OF
CORDOVA.]

This mosque was commenced by the Caliph Abd-er-Rahman in 786, and was
completed by his son Heshâm, who died 796. The great Caliph declared
that he would build a mosque which should exceed all others in the
world and be the Mecca of the West. De Amicis, after describing the
garden which surrounds the mosque, enters, and then goes on as follows:
"Imagine a forest, fancy yourself in the thickest portion of it, and
that you can see nothing but the trunks of trees. So, in this mosque,
on whatever side you look, the eye loses itself among the columns.
It is a forest of marble whose confines one cannot discover. You
follow with your eye, one by one, the very long rows of columns that
interlace at every step with numberless other rows, and you reach
a semi-obscure background, in which other columns still seem to be
gleaming. There are nineteen naves, which extend in every direction,
traversed by thirty-three others, supported (among them all) by more
than nine hundred columns of porphyry, jasper, breccia, and marbles of
every color. Each column upholds a small pilaster, and between them
runs an arch (see plate above), and a second one extends from pilaster
to pilaster, the latter placed above the former, and both of them in
the shape of a horseshoe; so that, in imagining the columns to be the
trunks of so many trees, the arches represent the branches, and the
similitude of the mosque to a forest is complete.... How much variety
there is in that edifice which at first sight seems so uniform! The
proportions of the columns, the designs of the capitals, the forms
of the arches change, one might say, at every step. The majority of
the columns are old, and were taken from the Arabs of Northern Spain,
Gaul, and Roman Africa, and some are said to have belonged to a temple
of Janus, on the ruins of which was built the church that the Arabs
destroyed in order to erect the mosque. Above several of the capitals
one can still see traces of the crosses that were cut on them, which
the Arabs broke with their chisels.... I stopped for a long time to
look at the ceiling and walls of the principal chapel, the only part of
the mosque that is quite intact. It is a dazzling gleam of crystals of
a thousand colors, a network of arabesques, which puzzles the mind, and
a complication of bas-reliefs, gildings, ornaments, minutiæ of design
and coloring, of a delicacy, grace, and perfection sufficient to drive
the most patient painter distracted.... You might turn a hundred times
to look at it, and it would only seem to you, in thinking it over, a
mingling of blue, red, green, gilded and luminous points, or a very
intricate embroidery changing continually, with the greatest rapidity,
both design and coloring. Only from the fiery and indefatigable
imagination of the Arabs could such a perfect miracle of art
emanate.... Such is the mosque of to-day. But what must it have been in
the time of the Arabs? It was not surrounded by a wall, but open, so
that one could catch a glimpse of the garden from every part of it; and
from the garden one could see to the end of the long naves, and the air
was full of the fragrance of oranges and flowers. The columns which now
number less than a thousand were then fourteen hundred; the ceiling was
of cedar-wood and larch, sculptured and enamelled in the finest manner;
the walls were trimmed with marble; the light of eight hundred lamps,
filled with perfumed oil, made all the crystals in the mosaics gleam,
and produced on the pavements, arches, and walls a marvellous play
of color and reflection. 'A sea of splendors,' sang a poet, 'filled
this mysterious recess; the ambient air was impregnated with aromas
and harmonies, and the thoughts of the faithful wandered and lost
themselves in the labyrinth of columns which gleamed like lances in the
sun.'"

The famous palace of the Alhambra is so well known that I cannot leave
this part of our subject without one picture and one bit of description
of it from the same author, De Amicis.

The Alhambra was built about four centuries ago, and the wall which
inclosed it was four thousand feet long by twenty-two hundred feet
wide. Within this there were gardens, fountains, kiosks, and many
beautiful, fanciful structures, all of which doubtless cost as
much as the more necessary parts of the edifice. The roofs of the
different parts of the palace were supported by forty-three hundred
columns of precious marbles; eleven hundred and seventy-two of these
were presented to Abd-er-Rahman (for he was also the founder of the
Alhambra) by sovereigns of other countries, or else brought by him
from distant shores for the decoration of this splendid, fairy-like
place. All the pavements were of beautiful marbles; the walls, too,
were of the same material, with friezes arranged in splendid colors;
the ceilings were of deep blue color, with figures in gilding and
interlacing designs running over all. In truth, nothing that could be
imagined or wealth buy to make this palace beautiful was left out; and
yet we are told that the palace of Zahra which was destroyed was still
finer. All this leads one to almost believe that the "Arabian Nights"
are no fanciful tales, but quite as true as many more serious sounding
stories.

The Court of the Lions is called "the gem of Arabian art in Spain,"
and of this our author says: "It is a forest of columns, a mingling of
arches and embroideries, an indefinable elegance, an indescribable
delicacy, a prodigious richness, a something light, transparent, and
undulating like a great pavilion of lace; with almost the appearance of
a building which must dissolve at a breath; a variety of lights, views,
mysterious darkness, a confusion, a capricious disorder of little
things, the majesty of a palace, the gayety of a kiosk, an amorous
grace, an extravagance, a delirium, the fancy of an imaginative child,
the dream of an angel, a madness, a nameless something--such is the
first effect produced by the Court of the Lions!" (Fig. 101.)

[Illustration: FIG. 101.--COURT OF THE LIONS. ALHAMBRA.]

This court is not large; the ceiling is high, and a light portico
runs round it upheld by white marble columns in clusters of two,
three, or more, so arranged as to resemble trees coming up from the
ground. Above the columns the designs almost resemble curtains, and
there are little graceful suggestions like ribbons and waving flowers.
"From the middle of the shortest sides advance two groups of columns,
which form two species of square temples of nine arches each (see
cut) surmounted by as many colored cupolas. The walls of these little
temples and the exterior of the portico are a real lace-work of stucco,
embroideries, and hems, cut and pierced from one side to the other, and
as transparent as net-work, changing in design at every step. Sometimes
they end in points, in crimps, in festoons, sometimes in ribbons waving
round the arches, in kinds of stalactites, fringes, trinkets, and bows
which seem to move and mingle with each other at the slightest breath
of air. Large Arabic inscriptions run along the four walls, over the
arches, around the capitals, and on the walls of the little temples. In
the centre of the court rises a great marble basin, upheld by twelve
lions (see cut), and surrounded by a little paved canal.... At every
step one takes in the court that forest of columns seems to move and
change place, to form again in another way; behind one column, which
seems alone, two, three, or a row will spring out; others separate,
unite, and separate again.... We remained for more than an hour in the
court, and it passed like a flash; I, too, did what almost all people
do, be they Spanish or strangers, men or women, poets or not. I ran my
hand along the walls, touched all the little columns, and passed my two
hands around them, one by one, as around the waist of a child; I hid
among them, counted them, looked at them on a hundred sides, crossed
the court in a hundred ways, tried if it were true that in saying a
word, _sotto voce_, into the mouth of one lion, one could hear it
distinctly from the mouths of all the others; I looked on the marbles
for the spots of blood of poetic legends, and wearied both brain and
eye over the arabesques.... In all my life I have never thought, nor
said, nor shall I say, so many foolish, stupid, pretty, senseless
things as I said and thought in that hour."

The study of Saracenic architecture in Turkey, Persia, and India is
very interesting, but our space warns us that we must hasten to leave
this dreamy, fairy-like part of our subject and come down to later
times and more realistic matters.




[Illustration]

CHAPTER III.

MODERN ARCHITECTURE.

1400 A.D. TO THE PRESENT TIME.


All Architecture since the time of the Renaissance is called Modern
Architecture; this term, therefore, embraces all edifices erected
during nearly four centuries.

When I first spoke of Architecture I said that it was a constructive
art, and not imitative like Painting and Sculpture. In its earlier
history this was true, but the time came when it also became an
imitative art and had no true or original style. The Gothic order was
the last distinct order which arose, and since its decline, at the
beginning of the Renaissance, all architecture has been an imitation
because it is a reproduction of what existed before; at times some one
of the older orders has been in favor and closely imitated, and again,
parts of several orders are combined in one edifice. Since the time of
the Reformation it has been true, almost without exception, that every
building of any importance has been copied from something belonging to
a country and a people foreign to the land in which it was erected.

When the revival of Classic Literature began, Rome was the first to
feel its influence. It was welcomed there with open arms, just as we
might receive the early history and literature of our country if it had
all been lost and was found again; for this was precisely what it meant
to the Romans, when, after the Dark Ages, the works of Livy, Tacitus,
and Cæsar were in their hands, and they read of the history, art, and
literature of their past. They were enthusiastic, and their feeling
soon spread over all Italy.

France was the next to adopt the newly-revived ideas, for that country
looked to Rome as the source of true religion, and a model in all
things. Spain was then in an unsettled state, and welcomed the revival
of classic art as heartily as it had already embraced the Church of
Rome.

In Germany the love of the classics was enthusiastic, but that nation
was more taken up with literature and slower in adopting the revival
of the arts than were the more southern peoples, and the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries are a barren period in the history of German
architecture.

In England, too, the Renaissance made slow progress. It was not until
the time of Charles I. that any influence was felt in Great Britain
from the revival of classic taste which was so well established on the
Continent.

As it is true that no new order of Architecture has arisen since the
time of those of which I have already told you, I shall try to make
you understand something of Modern Architecture by speaking of certain
important edifices in one country and another, with no attempt at any
more detailed explanation of it.


ITALY.

We cannot say that the art of the Renaissance originated in one
city or another, because the movement in the revival of art was so
general throughout Italy; but Florence has a strong claim to our first
consideration from the fact that Filippo Brunelleschi was a Florentine
and did his greatest work in his native city, and on account of it has
been called "the father of the Art of the Renaissance." He was born in
1377, and from his early boyhood was inclined to be an architect. The
cathedral of Florence (Fig. 102), which is also called the church of
Sta. Maria del Fiore, had been built long before, but had never been
finished by a roof or dome.

[Illustration: FIG. 102.--THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE AND GIOTTO'S
CAMPANILE.]

Brunelleschi was possessed with but one desire, which was to complete
this cathedral. He went to Rome and diligently studied the remains
of classic art which he found there, and especially the dome of the
Pantheon. Returning to Florence he took measures to bring his plans
before the superintendents of the cathedral works; he was ridiculed and
discouraged on every hand, but he never gave up his hopes nor lessened
his study of the ways and means by which the dome could be built. Thus
many weary years passed by; Brunelleschi made drawings in secret, and
from these he constructed models in order to convince himself of what
he could do.

At last those who had authority in the matter were ready to act, and a
convention was called, before which the architects of different nations
appeared and were requested to explain their theories of what could be
done to cover the cathedral. Many artists were assembled and various
plans were shown, but after all had been examined the work was given to
Brunelleschi, and he was happy in finding that the years he had devoted
to the study of the dome had not been spent in vain.

It was on this occasion that Brunelleschi refused to show his models,
and when the other architects blamed him for this he asked that some
eggs should be brought, and proposed that he who could make an egg
stand upright on a smooth piece of marble should be the builder of the
dome. The others tried to do this and failed; at last Brunelleschi
brought his egg down on the marble with a sharp tap and left it
standing erect. Then all exclaimed, "Oh, we could have done that if we
had known that was the way," to which Brunelleschi replied, "So you
could have built a dome if I had shown you my models."

This story is often told of Columbus, but as Brunelleschi was much
older than Columbus, and the fact is related by Florentine writers
of his time, it is probable that Columbus had heard of it from the
geographer Toscanelli, who was a great admirer of Brunelleschi and a
friend of Columbus also. In building the dome, Brunelleschi encountered
great difficulties, but he lived to be assured of his success, for at
his death, in 1444, it lacked but little of completion, and all the
parts essential to its perfection and durability were finished.

This is the largest dome in the world, for though the cross on the top
of St. Peter's is farther from the ground than that of Florence, the
dome itself above the church is not as large as the dome of Sta. Maria
del Fiore.

This work made Brunelleschi's greatest fame, but he was the architect
of many other fine churches and of secular buildings also; among the
last the Pitti Palace, in which is the famous Pitti Gallery, is one of
the most important. When you go to Florence you will see a statue of
Filippo Brunelleschi, which is very interesting, on account of the way
in which it is represented and the position in which it is placed. It
is on one side of the Piazza of the cathedral; he is calmly sitting
there with a plan of the church spread before him on his lap, while he
lifts his head to look at the great dome as it stands out against the
sky, the realization of all his thought and labor during so many years.

[Illustration: FIG. 103.--VIEW OF ST. PETER'S. _Rome._]

The church of St. Peter's at Rome, which is the largest and most
magnificent of all Christian temples, was begun about 1450, and was
not brought into its present form until about 1661, or more than two
centuries later (Fig. 103).

The history of its building is largely a story of contentions and
troubles between popes, architects, and artists of different kinds.
As it now stands it is as much the work of Michael Angelo as of any
one man, but several other architects left their imprint upon it, both
before and after his time; and all who aided in its construction were
eminent men, in their way. Michael Angelo was in his seventy-second
year when he took up the task of completing St. Peter's. Bramante,
Raphael, and Peruzzi had preceded him as architects of the church;
Michael Angelo designed the dome, and when he was ninety it was nearly
finished; the models for its completion which he made were not followed
after his death; his plan would have made the church more harmonious
with the dome, in size, than it now is. Money was sent in large sums,
from all Europe, to carry on this work; the finest materials were
used in building it, and the most gifted artists were employed in its
decoration; it is now the vast home of multitudes of treasures. "I
have hung the Pantheon in the air!" Michael Angelo is said to have
exclaimed, while looking at the splendid dome of St. Peter's; and no
dome in the world has a more imposing effect, although its harmony with
the rest of the building is injured by the change of the plan from that
of a Greek cross which was made after his death.[A]

    [A] The interior diameter of the dome of St. Peter's is one
        hundred and thirty-nine feet; that of St. Sophia, one
        hundred and fifteen feet, and that of Sta. Maria del Fiore,
        at Florence, one hundred and thirty-eight feet, six inches.

In spite of all this the critics of architecture are never weary of
pointing out the defects of St. Peter's; but to those who cannot apply
to it the test of strictly scientific rules, its interior is sublime in
its effect, and has few rivals--perhaps but one--in the world, and that
is the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, of which we spoke when writing
of Egyptian architecture. But even here the difference is almost too
great to admit of comparison; the spirit of the two is so unlike--St.
Peter's is complete and Karnak is a ruin--so, after all, it must be
admitted that the interior of St. Peter's is superior to all other
edifices of which we know (Fig. 104).

[Illustration: FIG. 104.--SECTION OF ST. PETER'S.]

From the time of the beginning of the Renaissance, about 1420, to
about 1630, the architecture of Venice was going through a change, and
finally reached such perfection that during the next half century the
most magnificent style of architecture prevailed which has ever been
known there. We mean to say that the whole effect was the grandest,
for, while it is true that the edifices of that time are stately and
striking in their appearance, it is equally true that their form and
ornamentation are not as much in keeping with their use as they had
been in older edifices.

Sansovino, who lived from 1479 to 1570, was an important architect and
had great influence upon modern Venetian architecture. His masterpiece
was the Library of St. Mark, of which the preceding cut gives one
end (Fig. 105). It is a very beautiful structure, and is made more
interesting from the fact that it stands directly opposite to the
Doge's Palace, and in the midst of all the interest which centres about
the Piazza of St. Mark.

[Illustration: FIG. 105.--EAST ELEVATION OF LIBRARY OF ST. MARK.
_Venice._]

The Ducal Palace at Venice is called by John Ruskin, the great English
critic, "the central edifice of the world." It is divided into three
stories, of which the uppermost occupies rather more than half the
height of the building. The two lower stories are arcades of low,
pointed arches, supported on pillars, the one beneath being bolder and
heavier in character than the second. The capitals of the columns are
greatly varied, no two in the upper arcade being exactly alike. Above
the arches of the middle story was a row of open-work spaces, of the
form called quatrefoil; while the third story is faced with alternating
blocks of rose-colored and white marble, and is pierced with a few
large pointed windows. The whole front, or façade, is crowned by an
open parapet made up of blocks of stone carved into lily-like forms
alternating with lance-shaped leaves. The whole effect is one of great
richness and beauty, especially since time has mellowed its color, and
softened without destroying the whiteness of its marbles (Fig. 106).

[Illustration: FIG. 106.--THE DOGE'S PALACE. _Venice._]

During the time of the Renaissance there were churches, palaces,
museums, hospitals, and other large buildings erected in all the
important cities of Italy. There are but few of these which have such
special features as entitle them to be selected for description here.
The reason for this has been given already--viz.: there was nothing new
in them; they were all repetitions of what has been described in one
form or another. Perhaps the next cut gives as good an example of
secular architecture in this age as any that could be selected (Fig.
107).

[Illustration: FIG. 107.--GREAT COURT OF THE HOSPITAL OF MILAN.]

Indeed, it is one of the most remarkable buildings of its class in any
age. It was commenced by Francesco Sforza and his wife, Bianca, in
1456. They died long before its completion, and one part and another
have been changed from time to time, but its great court, which was
designed by Bramante, still remains, the finest thing of its kind in
all Italy.

I shall now leave Italy with saying that the early days of the
Renaissance were the best days of Italian Architecture, and, indeed, of
Italian Art. The period made sacred by the genius and works of Michael
Angelo, Bramante, Sangallo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael was a
golden era, and still sheds its lustre over the land of their nativity.
These artists followed the highest ideal of Art, and their errors were
superior to the so-called successes of less gifted men.

The Italian Art of the fifteenth century was individual and grand; in
the sixteenth century it became formal and elegant; in the seventeenth
century it was bizarre, over-ornamented, and uncertain in its aim and
execution; since then it has been comparatively unimportant, and its
architecture scarcely merits censure, and certainly cannot be praised.


SPAIN.

From the time of the fall of Granada, in 1492 to 1558, Spain was the
leading nation of Europe. The whole country had been united under
Ferdinand and Isabella, and their reign was a glorious period for their
country. The importance of the nation was increased by the discovery
of the New World, and so many great men were in her councils that her
eminence was sure, and almost undisputed. Thus it followed that during
the first half of the sixteenth century the Architecture of Spain gave
expression to the spirit by which the nation was then animated.

This did not long continue, however, for the iron, practical rule
of Philip II. crushed out enthusiasm and was fatal to artistic
inspiration. This sovereign desired only to extend his kingdom; the
priests, who acquired almost limitless power under his reign, aimed
only to strengthen their authority, while the people were wildly
pursuing riches in the New World which opened up to them a vast and
attractive field. Thus no place or time was left to the cultivation
of Art, and the only noteworthy period of Spanish Architecture since
the beginning of the Renaissance was the sixty years which we have
mentioned.

The Modern Architecture of Spain has been divided into three eras, each
of which was distinguished by its own style. The first extends from
the beginning of the Renaissance down to that of the abdication of the
great Emperor Charles V. in 1555; the manner of this period is called
Platerisco, or the silversmith's style, on account of the vast amount
of fine, filigree ornament which was used. The second period is from
the above date to about 1650, and its art is called the Græco-Roman
style because it is an attempt to revive the Classic Art of the
ancient Greeks and Romans. The third period comes from 1650 to about a
century later, and the Spaniards call its manner the Churrigueresque,
which difficult name they take from that of Josef de Churriguera, the
architect who invented this style. Since 1750 we may almost say that no
such thing as Spanish Architecture has existed.

The cathedrals of Granada, Jaen, and Valladolid, and the churches
of Malaga and Segovia, with many other ecclesiastical edifices, are
among the chief monuments of Spanish Renaissance Architecture, but
we shall pass on to a little later period and speak of but one great
achievement, the famous Escurial, which is of much historic interest.

This combination of basilica, palace, monastery, and college was begun
in 1563 by Philip II., in accordance with a vow which he made to St.
Lawrence at the battle of St. Quentin. This battle was fought in 1557
under the walls of the French town of St. Quentin, by the French and
the Spaniards, and the latter were completely victorious.

This cut gives an idea of how grand and impressive this collection
of walls, towers, courts, and edifices must be, all crowned with the
dome of the basilica. It is almost like a city by itself, and all who
visit it agree that it is a gloomy and depressing place in spite of its
grandeur (Fig. 108).

[Illustration: FIG. 108.--THE ESCURIAL. _Near Madrid._]

The front has three imposing entrances, with towers at the corner
angles. Within the inclosure are a college, monastery, palace with
state apartments, the church, numerous courts, gardens, and fountains.
The front is injured by the great number of small windows, which divide
it into such numberless sections as to become very tiresome to the
eye, while they take away the noble elegance of larger spaces and the
air of repose which such spaces give. The angle towers are not as rich
in effect as they should be, and the side walls have been compared
to those of a Manchester cotton-mill; thus the exterior, which is
effective from its size and general air, has not the beauty of detail
which satisfies a close observer.

The effect of the interior, as one goes in by the central entrance,
is all that can be desired. The court leads directly to the square
before the church; as one passes to it he has the college on one side,
the monastery on the other, farther on the palace, with the whole
culminating in the grand state apartments and the basilica. The various
courts are striking in their arrangement, and the church with its dome
and towers gives a supreme glory to the whole. Gardens, fountains, and
many other fine objects add their effect to the richness and beauty
of the whole; but all are insignificant beside the basilica, which
merits a place in the foremost rank of the churches of the Renaissance.
Indeed, the Escurial is a marvellous place, and is often called "the
eighth wonder of the world." The richest marbles, splendid pictures,
and many magnificent objects help to make it one of the grandest works
of modern architecture.

It is also true that it is one of the gloomiest places visited by
travellers, and I shall quote a few lines from De Amicis to show the
depressing effect which it has upon those who go there.

"The first feeling is that of sadness; the whole building is of
dirt-colored stone, and striped with white between the stones; the
roofs are covered with strips of lead. It looks like an edifice built
of earth. The walls are very high and bare, and contain a great number
of loopholes. One would call it a prison rather than a convent....
The locality, the forms, the colors, everything, in fact, seems to
have been chosen by him who founded the edifice with the intention of
offering to the eyes of men a sad and solemn spectacle. Before entering
you have lost all your gayety; you no longer smile, but think. You
stop at the doors of the Escurial with a sort of trepidation, as at
the gates of a deserted city; it seems to you that, if the terrors of
the Inquisition reigned in some corner of the world, they ought to
reign among those walls. You would say that therein one might still
see the last traces of it and hear its last echo.... The royal palace
is superb, and it is better to see it before entering the convent and
church, in order not to confuse the separate impressions produced by
each. This palace occupies the northeast corner of the edifice. Several
rooms are full of pictures, others are covered from floor to ceiling
with tapestries, representing bull-fights, public balls, games, fêtes,
and Spanish costumes, designed by Goya; others are regally furnished
and adorned; the floor, the doors, and the windows are covered with
marvellous inlaid work and stupendous gilding. But among all the rooms
the most noteworthy is that of Philip II.; it is rather a cell than a
room, is bare and squalid, with an alcove which answers to the royal
oratory of the church, so that, from the bed, by keeping the doors
open, one can see the priest who is saying mass. Philip II. slept in
that cell, had his last illness there, and there he died. One still
sees some chairs used by him, two little stools upon which he rested
the leg tormented with gout, and a writing-desk. The walls are white,
the ceiling flat and without any ornament, and the floor of brick....
In the court-yard of the kings you can form a first idea of the immense
frame-work of the edifice. The court is inclosed by walls; on the side
opposite the doors is the façade of the church. On a spacious flight
of steps there are six enormous Doric columns, each of which upholds
a large pedestal, and every pedestal a statue. There are six colossal
statues, by Battiste Monegro, representing Jehoshaphat, Ezekiel, David,
Solomon, Joshua, and Manasseh. The court-yard is paved, scattered
with bunches of damp turf. The walls look like rocks cut in points;
everything is rigid, massive, and heavy, and presents the fantastic
appearance of a Titanic edifice, hewn out of solid stone, and ready to
defy the shocks of earth and the lightnings of heaven. There one begins
to understand what the Escurial really is.

"One ascends the steps and enters the church. The interior is sad and
bare.... Beside the high altar, sculptured and gilded in the Spanish
style, in the inter-columns of the two royal oratories, one sees two
groups of bronze statues kneeling, with their hands clasped toward the
altar. On the right Charles V. and the Empress Isabella, and several
princesses; on the left, Philip II. with his wives.... In a corner,
near a secret door, is the chair which Philip II. occupied. He received
through that door letters and important messages, without being seen
by the priests who were chanting in the choir. This church, which, in
comparison with the entire building, seems very small, is nevertheless
one of the largest in Spain, and although it appears so free from
ornamentation, contains immense treasures of marble, gold, relics,
and pictures, which the darkness in part conceals, and from which the
sad appearance of the edifice distracts one's attention.... But every
feeling sinks into that of sadness. The color of the stone, the gloomy
light, and the profound silence which surrounds you, recall your mind
incessantly to the vastitude, unknown recesses, and solitude of the
building, and leave no room for the pleasure of admiration. The aspect
of the church awakens in you an inexplicable feeling of inquietude. You
would divine, were you not otherwise aware of it, that those walls are
surrounded, for a great distance, by nothing but granite, darkness,
and silence; without seeing the enormous edifice, you feel it; you
feel that you are in the midst of an uninhabited city; you would fain
quicken your pace in order to see it rapidly, to free yourself from the
weight of that mystery, and to seek, if they exist anywhere, bright
light, noise, and life.... One goes to the convent, and here human
imagination loses itself; ... you pass through a long subterranean
corridor, so narrow that you can touch the walls with your elbows,
low enough almost to hit the ceiling with your head, and as damp as
a submarine grotto; you reach the end, turn, and you are in another
corridor. You go on, come to doors, look, and other corridors stretch
away before you as far as the eye can reach. At the end of some you see
a ray of light, at the end of others an open door, through which you
catch a glimpse of a suite of rooms.... You look through a door and
start back alarmed; at the end of that long corridor, into which you
have glanced, you have seen a man as motionless as a spectre, who was
looking at you. You proceed, and emerge on a narrow court, inclosed
by high walls, which is gloomy, overgrown with weeds, and illumined
by a faint light which seems to fall from an unknown sun, like the
court of the witches described to us when we were children.... You
pass through other corridors, staircases, suites of empty rooms, and
narrow courts, and everywhere there is granite, a pale light, and the
silence of a tomb. For a short time you think you would be able to
retrace your steps; then your memory becomes confused, and you remember
nothing more; you seem to have walked ten miles, to have been in that
labyrinth for a month, and not to be able to get out of it. You come to
a court and say, 'I have seen it already!' but you are mistaken; it is
another.... You seem to be dreaming; catch glimpses of long frescoed
walls ornamented with pictures, crucifixes, and inscriptions; you see
and forget; and ask yourself, 'Where am I?'... On you go from corridor
to corridor, court to court; you look ahead with suspicion; almost
expect to see suddenly, at the turning of a corner, a row of skeleton
monks, with their hoods drawn over their eyes and their arms folded;
you think of Philip II., and seem to hear his retreating step through
dark hallways; you remember all that you have read of him, of his
treasures, the Inquisition, and all becomes clear to your mind's eye;
you understand everything for the first time; the Escurial _is_ Philip
II., he is still there, alive and frightful, and with him the image
of his terrible God.... The Escurial surrounds, holds, and overwhelms
you; the cold of its stones penetrates to your marrow; the sadness of
its sepulchral labyrinths invades your soul; if you are with a friend
you say, 'Let us leave;' if you were alone you would take to flight. At
last you mount a staircase, enter a room, go to the window, and salute
with a burst of gratitude the mountains, sun, freedom, and the great
and beneficent God who loves and pardons. What a long breath one draws
at that window!

"An illustrious traveller said that after having passed a day in the
convent of the Escurial, one ought to feel happy throughout one's life,
in simply thinking that one might still be among those walls, but is
no longer there. This is almost true. Even at the present day, after
so great a lapse of time, on rainy days, when I am sad, I think of the
Escurial, then look at the walls of my room, and rejoice!"

During the sixteenth century there were many palaces erected in Spain,
but nothing can be added to the impressions you will get from the
descriptions we have quoted of the cheerful, gay Alhambra, and the
gloomy, sad Escurial.

The domestic architecture of Spain is unattractive. There are no
fine _châteaux_, as in France, or elegant parks, as in England. Ford
compares the front of the residence of the Duke of Medina to "ten
Baker-street houses put together," and this is true of many so-called
palaces. This state of modern Spanish architecture is fully accounted
for by the following quotation from Fergusson, the learned writer on
architecture:

"On the whole, perhaps, we should not be far wrong in assuming that the
Spaniards are among the least artistic people in Europe. Great things
have been done in their country by foreigners, and they themselves have
done creditable things in periods of great excitement, and under the
pressure of foreign example; but in themselves they seem to have no
innate love of Art, no real appreciation for its beauties, and, when
left to themselves, they care little for the expression of beauty in
any of the forms in which Art has learned to embody itself. In Painting
they have done some things that are worthy of praise; in Sculpture they
have done very little; and in Architectural Art they certainly have not
achieved success. Notwithstanding that they have a climate inviting
to architectural display in every form; though they have the best of
materials in infinite abundance; though they had wealth and learning,
and were stimulated by the example of what had been done in their own
country, and was doing by other nations--in spite of all this, they
have fallen far short of what was effected either in Italy or France,
and now seem to be utterly incapable of appreciating the excellencies
of Architectural Art, or of caring to enjoy them."


FRANCE.

After the reigns of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. the French people
became somewhat familiar with Italian Art, and at length, during the
reign of Francis I., from 1515 to 1546, everything Italian was the
fashion in France. Francis invited such artists as Leonardo da Vinci,
Benvenuto Cellini, Primaticcio, and Andrea del Sarto to come to France
and aid him in his works at Fontainebleau and elsewhere.

It was not long before the Gothic architecture which had been so much
used and improved in France was thought to be inferior in beauty to
the Italian architecture as it existed in the sixteenth century, and
very soon the latter style was adopted and considered as the only one
worthy of admiration. But the French architects had been so trained
to the Gothic order that it was not easy for them to change their
habits of design, and the result was that new edifices were largely
of the Gothic form, but were finished and ornamented like the Italian
buildings; by this means the effect of the whole, when completed, was
such as is seen in this picture of the church of St. Michael at Dijon
(Fig. 109). In these days no one approves of this union of Gothic
design and Italian decoration, but when it was the fashion it was
thought to be very beautiful by French architects.

[Illustration: FIG. 109.--FAÇADE OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL. _Dijon._]

Francis I., who was so anxious to introduce Italian art into France,
erected edifices of a very different sort from those which he attempted
to imitate. In Italy, the principal buildings of the Renaissance were
churches or convents, or such as were in some way for religious uses.
Francis I. built palaces like that of Fontainebleau, and splendid
châteaux like those of Chambord, or Chenonceaux, and the Italian style
of architecture could not be readily adapted to the lighter uses of the
French kings. The splendid massive Pitti Palace, built after the design
of the great Brunelleschi, would scarcely have harmonized with the
river banks and the lovely undulating meadows around a country villa
or château. So it gradually happened that French Architecture was more
graceful, light, and elegant than the architecture of the churches,
monasteries, and other religious edifices of Italy, and at the same
time the Italian feeling and influence can easily be traced in the
French buildings of the time of which we speak.

In Italy the Pope and the Church governed in Art, and considered it
only as a religious means of glorifying the Church and impressing its
doctrines upon the whole people. In France the sovereigns held the
leading place, and in the midst of their ambitions and their gayeties
they found little time to consider the matter of church architecture.
Though the church of St. Eustache was erected at Paris, and other
churches were restored, it was not until 1629, when Cardinal Richelieu
ordered the building of the church of the Sarbonne, that an example
was given of the full effects upon French church architecture of the
change from the Gothic, or Mediæval style, to that of the Renaissance,
or the Classic style.

Perhaps the church of the Invalides is the most remarkable building of
the seventeenth century in France. It was designed and superintended
by Jules Hardouin Mansard, a skilful architect, who was born in 1647,
and died in 1708. The erection of the dome of the Invalides occupied
him from 1680 to 1706. It is a fashion to criticise this as well as all
famous buildings, but if it is remembered that the dome was intended to
be _the feature_ of the edifice, and that it was therefore necessary to
sacrifice something to it, in the construction of the whole, we must
admit that what its admirers claim for it is true--namely, that it is
one of the finest domical edifices in Europe, and a most satisfactory
example of the architecture of its class (Fig. 110).

[Illustration: FIG. 110.--FAÇADE OF THE DOME OF THE INVALIDES. _Paris._]

Directly underneath this dome is the crypt in which is the sarcophagus
which contains the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte. On the door which
leads to the crypt are inscribed the following words, taken from the
will of the exile at St. Helena: "I desire that my ashes may rest on
the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have
loved so well."

This tomb is said to have cost nearly two millions of dollars, and
though it is beautiful, and in good taste in its details, yet one can
but regret that all this expense should not have erected a splendid
mausoleum, such as would have dignified the monumental art of France.

The church of St. Genevieve, or the Pantheon, as it is usually called,
is a very important architectural work. It was twenty-six years in
building, and was not completed until after the death of its architect,
Soufflot, which occurred in 1781 (Fig. 111).

[Illustration: FIG. 111.--THE PANTHEON. _Paris._]

It is said that this church was begun as the fulfilment of a vow made
by King Louis XV. when he was ill, but as the French Revolution was
in progress when it was completed, it was dedicated to the "_Grands
Hommes_," or the great men of France, and not to God or the sweet St.
Genevieve, who was one of the patron saints of Paris.

The dome of the Pantheon is elegant and chaste, but not great in design
or effect, and the whole appearance of the church is weakened by the
extreme width of the spaces between the front columns; this makes the
entablature appear weak, and is altogether a serious defect. Another
striking fault is the way in which a second column is placed outside
at each end of the portico; one cannot imagine a reason for this, and
it is confusing and unmeaning in the extreme. The interior of the
Pantheon is superior to the exterior, and many authorities name it as
the most satisfactory of all modern, classical church interiors; when
it was built it was believed to be as perfect an imitation of antique
classical architecture as could be made, and all the world may be
grateful that it escaped the fate prepared for it by the Communists.
This was averted by the discovery and cutting of the fuse which they
had prepared for its destruction on May 24th, 1871; the fuse led to the
crypts beneath the church, where these reckless men had placed large
quantities of powder.

In the beginning of the present century French architects believed it
best to reproduce exactly ancient temples which had been destroyed.
According to this view the church of the Madeleine was begun in 1804,
after the designs of Vignon. Outwardly it is a temple of the Corinthian
order, and is very beautiful, though its position greatly lessens
its effect. If it were on a height, or standing in a large square by
itself, it would be far more imposing (Fig. 112).

[Illustration: FIG. 112.--THE MADELEINE. _Paris._]

The church of the Trinity and that of the Augustines, at Paris, are
important church edifices of the present day, but though much thought
and time have been lavished on them, they are not as attractive as
we could wish the works of our own time to be; and they seem almost
unworthy of attention when we remember that in the same city there are
so many examples of architecture that have far more artistic beauty,
as well as the additional charms of age and the interest of historical
associations.

We have already spoken of the sort of building in which Francis I.
delighted. Of all his undertakings the rebuilding of the Louvre was the
most successful. Its whole design was fine and the ornaments beautiful;
many of these decorations were made after the drawings of Jean Goujon,
who was an eminent master in such sculptures. The court of the Louvre
has never been excelled in any country of Europe; it is a wonderful
work for the time in which it was built, and satisfies the taste of
the most critical observers (Fig. 113).

[Illustration: FIG. 113.--PAVILION DE L'HORLOGE AND PART OF THE COURT
OF THE LOUVRE.]

We cannot give space to descriptions of the châteaux built by Francis
I., but this picture of that of Chambord affords a good example of what
these buildings were (Fig. 114).

[Illustration: FIG. 114.--CHÂTEAU OF CHAMBORD.]

From the time of the reign of Charles IX. (1560) to the close of the
reign of Louis XIII., the style of architecture which was used in
France was called the "style of Henry IV.;" this last-named king ruled
before Louis XIII., and during his time architecture sank to a very low
plane--there was nothing in it to admire or imitate. Under Louis XIII.
it began to improve, and in the days of Louis XIV., who is called the
"_Grand Monarque_," all the arts made great progress and received much
patronage from the king, and all the people of the court, for whom
the king was a model. Louis XIV. began a revival of Roman classical
architecture, and there is no doubt that he believed that he equalled,
or perhaps excelled, Julius Cæsar and all other Roman emperors as a
patron of the Fine Arts.

But we know that this great monarch was deceived by his self-love and
by the flatteries of those who surrounded him and wished to obtain
favors from him. His architectural works had so many faults that it is
very tiresome to read what is written about them, and in any case it
is pleasanter to speak of virtues than of faults. The works of Louis
XIV. were certainly herculean, and when we think of the building of the
palace of Versailles, the completion of the Louvre, and the numberless
hôtels, châteaux, and palaces which belong to his reign, we feel sure
that if only the vastness of the architectural works of his time is
considered, he well merits the title of the Great Monarch. But these
important edifices require more time and space if spoken of in detail
than we can give, and I pass to some consideration of the works of our
own time.

The architecture of the reign of Napoleon III. requires the space
of a volume, at least, were it to be clearly described, for during
that reign there was scarcely a city of France that did not add some
important building to its public edifices. First, the city of Paris was
remodelled and rebuilt to a marvellous extent, and as in other matters
Paris is the leader, so its example was followed in architecture. The
new Bourse in Lyons, the Custom House at Rouen, and the Exchange at
Marseilles are good specimens of what was done in this way outside the
great metropolis.

During the reign of Louis Philippe, and a little later, French domestic
architecture was vastly improved, and since then much more attention
has been given by Frenchmen to the houses in which they live. The
appearance of the new Boulevards and streets of Paris is picturesque,
while the houses are rich and elegant. Many portions of this city are
more beautiful than any other city of Europe; and yet it is true that
the architecture of forty years or so ago was more satisfactory than
that of the present time.

[Illustration: FIG. 115.--PORTE ST. DENIS. _Paris._]

The French are an enthusiastic people, and have been very fond of
erecting monuments in public places which would remind them continually
of the glories of their nation, the conquests of their armies, and
the achievements of their great men. Triumphal Arches and Columns of
Victory are almost numberless in France; many of them are impressive,
and some are really very fine in their architecture. Since the Porte
St. Denis was (Fig. 115) erected, in 1672, almost every possible
design has been used for these monuments, in one portion of France or
another, until, finally, the Arc de l'Étoile (Fig. 116) was built at
the upper end of the Champs Elysées, at Paris. This is the noblest
of all modern triumphal arches, as well as one of the most splendid
ornaments in a city which is richly decorated with architectural works
of various styles and periods--from that of the fine Renaissance
example seen in the west front of the Louvre, built in 1541, down
to the Arc de l'Étoile, the Fontaine St. Michel, and the Palais du
Trocadéro of our own time.

[Illustration: FIG. 116.--ARC DE L'ÉTOILE. _Paris._]

The French architecture of the present century is in truth a classic
revival; its style has been called the _néo-Grec_, or revived Greek,
and the principal buildings of the reign of Napoleon III. all show that
a study of Greek art had influenced those who designed these edifices.


ENGLAND.

We may say that England has never had an architecture of its own, since
it has always imitated and reproduced the orders which have originated
in other countries. The Gothic order is more than any other the order
of England, and, in truth, of Great Britain. All English cathedrals,
save one, and a very large proportion of the churches, in city and
country, are built in this style of architecture.

It is also true that during the Middle Ages, when the Roman Catholics
were in power in England and made use of Gothic architecture, they
built so many churches, that, during several later centuries, it might
be truly said that England had no church architecture, because so few
new churches were required or built.

It is so difficult to trace the origin and progress of the Classical
or Renaissance feeling in English architecture that I shall leave it
altogether, and passing the transition style and period, speak directly
of the first great architect of the Renaissance in England, Inigo
Jones, who was born in 1572 and died in 1653. He studied in Italy
and brought back to his native country a fondness for the Italian
architecture of that day. He became the favorite court architect,
and there are many important edifices in England which were built
from his designs. His most notable work was the palace of Whitehall,
though his design was never fully carried out in it; had it been, this
palace would have excelled all others in Europe, either of earlier or
later date. Among the churches designed by Inigo Jones that of St.
Paul's, Covent Garden, is interesting because it is probably the first
important Protestant church erected in England which still exists. It
is small and simple, being almost an exact reproduction of the early
Greek temples called _distyle in antis_, such as I described when
speaking of Greek architecture (Fig. 117).

[Illustration: FIG. 117.--EAST ELEVATION OF ST. PAUL'S. _Covent
Garden._]

Inigo Jones made many designs for villas and private residences, and
perhaps he is more famous for these works than for any others. Among
them are Chiswick and Wilton House, and many others of less importance.

After Jones came Sir Christopher Wren, who was the architect of some of
the finest buildings in London. He was born in 1632 and died in 1723.
The great fire, in 1666, when he was thirty-four years old, gave him a
splendid opportunity to show his talents. Only three days after this
fire he presented to the king a plan for rebuilding the city, which
would have made it one of the most convenient as well as one of the
most beautiful cities of the world.

Sir Christopher Wren is most frequently mentioned as the architect
of St. Paul's Cathedral. This was commenced nine years after the
great fire, and was thirty-five years in building. St. Paul's is the
largest and finest Protestant cathedral in the world, and among all
the churches of Europe that have been erected since the revival of
Classical architecture, St. Peter's, at Rome, alone excels it (Fig.
118).

[Illustration: FIG. 118.--ST. PAUL'S, LONDON. _From the West._]

Although so many years were consumed in the building of St. Paul's,
Sir Christopher Wren lived to superintend it all, and had the
gratification of placing the topmost stone in the lantern of this
splendid monument to his genius.

The western towers of Westminster Abbey are said to have been built
after a design by Wren, but of this there is a doubt. Among his other
works in church architecture are the steeple of Bow Church, London; the
church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook; St. Bride's, Fleet Street, and St.
James's, Piccadilly.

The royal palaces of Winchester and Hampton were designed by Wren, and
many other well-known edifices, among which is Greenwich Hospital.
He made some signal failures, but it is great praise to say, what is
undoubtedly true, that, though he was a pioneer in the Renaissance
architecture of England, and died a century and a half ago, no one of
his countrymen has surpassed him, and we may well question whether any
other English architect has equalled him.

[Illustration: FIG. 119.--ST. GEORGE'S HALL. _Liverpool._]

Churches, palaces, university buildings, and fine examples of municipal
and domestic architecture are so numerous in England and other
portions of Great Britain that we cannot speak of them in detail. The
culmination of the taste for the imitation of Classical architecture
was reached about the beginning of the present century, and among
the most notable edifices in that manner are the British Museum,
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and St. George's Hall, Liverpool (Fig.
119).

A revival of Gothic Architecture has taken place in England in our
own time. The three most prominent secular buildings in this style
are Windsor Castle, the Houses of Parliament, and the New Museum,
at Oxford. Of course, in the case of Windsor Castle, the work was a
remodelling, but the reparations were so extensive as to almost equal
a rebuilding. Sir Jeffry Wyatville had the superintendence of it,
and succeeded in making it appear like an ancient building refitted
in the nineteenth century--that is to say, it combines modern luxury
and convenience in its interior with the exterior appearance of the
castellated fortresses of a more barbarous age (Fig. 120).

[Illustration: FIG. 120.--WINDSOR CASTLE.]

In the Houses of Parliament there was an attempt to carry out, even to
the minutest detail, the Gothic style as it existed in the Tudor age,
when there was an excess of ornament, most elaborate doorways, and the
fan-tracery vaultings were decorated with pendent ornaments which look
like clusters of stalactites. Sir Charles Barry was its architect. The
present school of artists in England are never weary of abusing it;
they call it a horror and declare its style to be obsolete. In fact,
it is not the success at which Barry aimed; but it excels the other
efforts to revive the Gothic in this day, not only in England, but
in all Europe, and has many points to be admired in its plan and its
detail, while the beauty of its sky-line must be admitted by all (Fig.
121).

[Illustration: FIG. 121.--THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. _London._]

In the New Museum of Oxford, the Gothic is that of Lombardy, rather
than the Early English. It is an example of the result of the
teaching of Mr. Ruskin. It does not realize the expectations of
those who advocated this manner of building, and has proved a great
disappointment to the advanced theorists of a quarter of a century ago.

English architecture of the present day may be concisely described by
saying that it is Gothic for churches, parsonage-houses, school-houses,
and all edifices in which the clergy are interested or of which they
have the oversight. On the other hand, palaces, town-halls, municipal
buildings, club-houses, and such structures as come within the care of
the laity, are almost without exception in the Classic style.

Neither of these orders seems to be exactly suited to the climate of
England or to the wants of its people; therefore, neither would satisfy
the demands of the ancients, who taught that the architecture of a
nation should be precisely adapted to its climate and to the purposes
for which the edifices are intended. In fact, the ancients carried
their ideas of fitness so far that one could tell at a glance the
object for which a structure had been designed; we know that it is not
possible to comply with this law in this day, although it is doubtless
in accord with the true ideal of what perfect architecture should be.
At the present day there is little doubt that the edifices of the
Church and clergy are far more praiseworthy and true architecturally
than are those for secular and domestic uses.


GERMANY.

I shall not speak of the period of the Renaissance in Germany, but
shall go forward to the time of the Revival of Classic Architecture,
which dated about 1825. During the eighteenth century the discoveries
which were made in Greece were of great interest to all the world, and
the drawings which were made of the temples and monuments, as well
as of the lesser objects of art which existed there, were sent all
over Europe, and had such an effect upon the different nations, that
with one accord they began to adopt the Greek style of architecture,
whenever any important work was to be done. This effect was very
marked in Germany, and the German architects tried to copy every detail
of Greek architecture with great exactness.

When we begin to speak of modern German architecture at this point, we
do not omit anything important, for the struggles of the Reformation,
and the results of the Thirty Years' War were such, that no great
architectural advances were attempted for a long time. Again,
the division of Germany into many small principalities, and the
establishment of many little courts so divided the wealth of the German
people into small portions, that no one was rich enough to undertake
large buildings. There was no one great central city as in France and
England, and no one sovereign was rich enough to adorn his capital with
splendid edifices or to be a magnificent patron of art and artists
after the fashion of the "_Grand Monarque_" in France.

Before taking up the Revival, however, I wish, for two reasons, to give
a picture of the Brandenburg Gate, at Berlin. This gate was erected
between 1784 and 1792. It is important because such monuments are
more rare in Germany than in other European countries, especially of
the time in which this was built, and because it is one of the best
imitations of Greek art that exists in any nation (Fig. 122).

[Illustration: FIG. 122.--THE BRANDENBURG GATE. _Berlin._]

It is interesting to remember that when Napoleon entered Berlin as a
conqueror, after the Battle of Jena, he sent the Car of Victory, which
surmounts this gate, to Paris, as a trophy of his prowess. After his
abdication it was returned to its original position.

The effect of the German revival of Greek art is more plainly seen in
Munich than in any other city. It is the capital of Bavaria, and one of
its kings, Louis I., while he was young and had not yet become king,
resided at Rome; he was a passionate lover of art, and he resolved
that when he came to the throne he would make his capital famous for
beautiful things. Above all, he desired to imitate all that he had
most admired in the countries he had visited, and also the art of the
ancients as he knew it from models and pictures. For this reason it
happens that Munich is a collection of copies of buildings which have
existed in other countries and in past ages, and as these buildings,
which were first made in marble and stone, are mostly copied in plaster
in Munich, much of their beauty is lost; and since these copied
buildings are not used for the same purposes for which the ancient ones
were intended, the whole effect of them is very far from pleasing or
satisfactory. In fact, the result is just such as must always follow
the imitation of a beautiful object, when no proper regard is paid to
the use to be made of it. If, for example, a fine copy of a light and
airy Swiss châlet should be made in the United States of America,
and placed on some business street in one of our cities, and used for
a bank building, we could not deny that it was an exact copy of a
building which is good in its way; but it would be so unsuited to its
position and its uses, that the man who built it there would be counted
as insane or foolish. And this is the effect of the modern architecture
of Munich; it seems as if King Louis must have been a madman to expend
so much time and money in this absurd kind of imitative architecture,
and yet it is very interesting to visit this city and see these
edifices.

Of the Munich churches erected under Louis I. that of St. Ludwig is in
the Byzantine order; the Aue-Kirche is in the pointed German Gothic,
and the Basilica is like a Roman basilica of the fifth century. It
resembles that of St. Paul's-without-the-Walls; it was begun in 1835
and completed in 1850. In a vault beneath this basilica Louis and his
Queen, Theresa, are buried. The picture given here shows its extreme
simplicity; its whole effect is solemn and satisfactory; still one must
regret that since it is so fine up to a certain point, it should not
have been made still finer (Fig. 123).

[Illustration: FIG. 123.--THE BASILICA AT MUNICH.]

The Ruhmeshalle, or Hall of Fame, at Munich, is an interesting and
somewhat unique edifice. It is a portico of marble with forty-eight
Doric columns, each twenty-six feet high. Against the walls are
brackets holding busts of celebrated Germans who have lived since
1400. In front of the portico stands the colossal bronze statue of
Bavaria. She is represented as a protectress with a lion by her side;
in the right hand she holds a sword, and a chaplet in the left; it is
sixty-one and a half feet high, and the pedestal raises it twenty-eight
and a half feet more; inside, a staircase leads up into the head, where
there are seats for eight persons. The view from the top of this statue
is fine, and so extensive that in a favorable atmosphere the heights
of the Alps can be discerned. The hill upon which the Ruhmeshalle is
built is to the south of Munich, and is called the Theresienhöhe.
The grand statue is intended to be the principal object of interest
here, and the portico is made so low as to throw the figure out and
show it off to advantage; altogether it is one of the most successful
architectural works in Munich (Fig. 124).

[Illustration: FIG. 124.--THE RUHMESHALLE. _Near Munich._]

The Glyptothek, or Sculpture Gallery, the Pinakothek, or Picture
Gallery, the Royal Palace, the Public Library, the War Office, the
University, Blind School, other palaces and secular buildings, all
belong to the time of the Revival in Germany. The Ludwig Strasse, which
King Louis fondly hoped to make one of the most beautiful avenues in
the world, is--with its Roman arch at one end, and a weak copy of the
Loggia dei Lanzi at the other--a tiresome, meaningless, architectural
failure.

[Illustration: FIG. 125.--THE MUSEUM. _Berlin._]

The Museum of Berlin is a striking result of the same Revival of
Classic architecture, and is far more splendid than anything in Munich
(Fig. 125).

In Dresden the most important works in this style are the New Theatre
and Picture Gallery. The last is almost an exact reproduction of the
Pinakothek of Munich. All over Germany the effects of this Revival are
more or less prominent, but I shall speak of but one other edifice, the
Walhalla (Fig. 126).

[Illustration: FIG. 126.--THE WALHALLA.]

This is also a Temple of Fame, and is situated about six miles from
Ratisbon. It overlooks the River Danube from a height of more than
three hundred feet. It was begun in 1830, and was twelve years in
building, costing eight millions of florins. It is of white marble,
and on the exterior is an exact reproduction of the Parthenon at
Athens. The interior is divided into two parts by an entablature,
which supports fourteen caryatides, made from colored marbles. These
figures in turn support a second entablature, on which is a frieze in
eight compartments, on which is sculptured scenes representing the
history of Germany from its early days to the time of the introduction
of Christianity. Along the lower wall there are one hundred busts of
illustrious Germans who had lived from the earliest days of Germany
down to those of the poet Goethe.

The grounds about the Walhalla are laid out in walks, and from them
there are fine, extensive views. Taken by itself there is much to
admire in the Walhalla. The sculptures arouse an enthusiasm about
Germany, her history, and the men who have helped to make it, in spite
of the strange unfitness with which the artists have mingled Grecian
myths and German sagas. But aside from this sort of interest the
whole thing seems incongruous and strangely unsuited to its position;
one writer goes so far as to say of it that "Minerva, descending in
Cheapside to separate two quarrelling cabmen, could hardly be more out
of place." And yet it is true that the Walhalla is the only worthy
rival to St. George's Hall, Liverpool, as an example of the possible
adaptability of Greek or Roman Architecture to the needs and uses of
our own days.


THEATRES AND MUSIC HALLS.

In speaking of theatres I will first give a list of the most important
ones in Europe, as they are given by Fergusson in his "History of
Modern Architecture."

    ----------------------------+----------------------+----------
                                |  Depth from Curtain  |  Depth of
                                |   to back of Boxes.  |   Stage.
    ----------------------------+----------------------+----------
                                |        feet.         |    feet.
    La Scala, Milan             |         105          |      77
    San Carlo, Naples           |         100          |      74
    Carlo Felice, Genoa         |          95          |      80
    New Opera House, Paris      |          95          |      98
    Opera House, London (old)   |          95          |      45
    Turin Opera House           |          90          |     110
    Covent Garden, London       |          89          |      89
    St. Petersburg, Opera       |          87          |     100
    Académie de Musique, Paris  |          85          |      82
    Parma, Opera                |          82          |      76
    Fenice, Venice              |          82          |      48
    Munich Theatre              |          80          |      87
    Madrid Theatre              |          79          |      55
    ----------------------------+----------------------+----------

The Opera House of La Scala, at Milan, is generally said to be the
finest of all for seeing and hearing what goes on upon the stage: it
was begun in 1776 and finished two years later. San Carlo, Naples,
holds the second place, and was first erected in 1737, but was almost
destroyed by fire in 1816, and was afterward thoroughly rebuilt.

The new Opera House of Paris is interesting to us because it has been
built so recently and so much written and said of it that we are
familiar with it. Any description that would do it justice would occupy
more space than we can afford for it, but this cut (Fig. 127) gives an
excellent idea of its size and exterior appearance. It is distinguished
by great richness of material and profusion of ornament, its interior
decorations being especially splendid. It has been criticised as
lacking repose and dignity, but its elegance and magnificence compel
admiration.

[Illustration: FIG. 127.--THE NEW OPERA HOUSE. _Paris._]

Music halls are only another sort of theatre, and have come into great
favor in recent days, especially in England. The Albert Hall, South
Kensington, is the finest music hall that has been erected. It seats
eight thousand people, besides accommodating an orchestra of two
hundred and a chorus of one thousand singers; it is one hundred and
thirty-six feet from the floor to the highest part of the ceiling. This
hall has some defects, but is so far successful as to prove that a
theatre or music hall could be so constructed as to seat ten thousand
persons and permit them to hear the music as distinctly as it is heard
in many halls where only two or three thousand can be comfortable.


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

When we remember that we have been able to give some account of
architecture as it existed thousands of years before Christ, and to
speak of the temples and tombs of the grand old nations who laid the
foundation of the arts and civilization of the world--and then, when
we remember the little time that has passed since the first roof was
raised in our own land, we may well be proud of our country as it
is--and at the same time we know that its architecture may in truth be
said to be a thing of the future.

It is but a few years, not more than seventy, since any building
existed here that could be termed architectural in any degree. To be
sure, there were many comfortable, generous-sized homes scattered up
and down the land, but they made no claim to architectural design, and
were not such edifices as one considers when speaking or writing of
architecture.

The first buildings to which much attention was given in the United
States were the Capitols, both State and National, and until recently
they were in what may be called a Classic style, because they had
porticoes with columns and certain other features of ancient orders;
but when the cella, as is the case in America, is divided into
two or more stories, with rows of prosaic windows all around, and
chimneys, and perhaps attics also added, the term Classic Architecture
immediately becomes questionable, and it is difficult to find a name
exactly suited to the needs of the case; for it is still true that from
a distance, and in answer to a general glance, they are nearer to the
Classic orders than to anything else.

[Illustration: FIG. 128.--THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL. _Washington._]

The National Capitol at Washington, which is the principal edifice in
the United States, was begun in 1793, when General Washington laid the
foundation-stone; the main portion was completed in 1830; two wings and
the dome have since been added, and its present size is greater than
that of any other legislative building in the world, except the British
Houses of Parliament (Fig. 128).

The dome, and the splendid porticoes, with the magnificent flights of
steps leading up to them, are the fine features of the Capitol. The
dome compares well with those that are famous in the world, and taken
all in all the Washington Capitol is more stately than the Houses of
Parliament, and is open to as little criticism as buildings of its
class in other lands.

Several of the State Capitols illustrate the manner of building which
I described above. This cut of the Capitol of Ohio is an excellent
example of it (Fig. 129).

[Illustration: FIG. 129--STATE CAPITOL. _Columbus, Ohio._]

In domestic architecture, while there has been no style so original and
absolutely defined as to be definitely called American, we may roughly
classify three periods--the Colonial, the Middle, and the Modern.
These terms have no close application, and you must understand that I
use them rather for convenience than because they accurately, or even
approximately, indicate particular styles. The mansions of the Colonial
period are, perhaps, most easily recognized, and in some respects were
the frankest and most independent class of houses ever built in this
country. The early settlers took whatever suited them from all styles,
and instead of imitating the English, the Dutch, or the French manner
of building, mingled parts of all, with especial reference to the needs
of their climate and surroundings.

[Illustration: FIG. 130.--SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL'S HOUSE. _Kittery
Point, Maine._]

This fine old house (Fig. 130) shows the plain, homely, yet quaint
style of many of the mansions of the Colonial period. It was built
near the beginning of the last century, and occupied by Sir William
Pepperell until his death. Its interior, with heavy wainscoting of
solid mahogany, was more imposing by far than the exterior. The Van
Rensselaer homestead at Albany is an excellent example of a more
stately house, possessing much dignity and impressiveness.

The Middle period was a time when domestic architecture, still without
any originality and losing much of the independence of the Colonial,
copied more closely from foreign models. Some fine old mansions belong
to this period, which covered the last years of the last century and
the first half of this. The celebrated Cragie House at Cambridge,
occupied by the poet Longfellow; "Elmwood," the home of James Russell
Lowell; "Bedford House," in Westchester County, New York, the home of
the Hon. John Jay, are to be referred to this period; and so is the
imposing "Old Morrisania," at Morrisania, New York, the old Morris
mansion (Fig. 131).

[Illustration: FIG. 131.--"OLD MORRISANIA." _Morrisania, New York._]

It is modelled after a French château, and was erected by General
Morris after his return from France in 1800. It is one of the most
striking among the mansions of its time, and both its interior and
exterior are highly interesting.

These views serve to illustrate the want of anything like a regular
style, of which I spoke above; but they show how many different forces
were at work to influence building in the Modern period. This division
is meant to extend to and include the present time, and so great is the
diversity of styles now employed that in a work like this it would be
idle to attempt anything like an enumeration of them, and still less
to try and determine their origin and importance. I can only give you
one example of the handsome and costly homes which are being built
to-day, and leave you to observe others as you now see them everywhere
about the country (Fig. 132). A modern writer on American architecture
claims that in private dwellings an American order is gradually being
developed by the changes made to adapt foreign forms to our climate,
and especially to the brilliancy of the sunlight here. All this is so
difficult to define, however, that it would be impossible to show it
clearly in the limits of a book like this, even if it exists.

[Illustration: FIG. 132.--RESIDENCE AT IRVINGTON, NEW YORK.]

What is called the "Queen Anne" style, modelled upon the English
fashion of the time of that monarch, is very widely used in country
houses at the present time, sometimes in conjunction with the Colonial,
which also exists as an independent style. The tendency of domestic
architecture is to make everything quaint and picturesque, though this
is not so far carried to extremes as was the case a few years since.

In public buildings many splendid edifices have been erected of late
years. The imitation of classic forms which was formerly the fashion,
and which is so strikingly exhibited by Girard College, Philadelphia,
is now almost entirely laid aside. A lighter, less constrained style,
which may be called eclectic--which means selecting--because it
takes freely from any and all styles whatever suits its purpose,
is arising; and as this selecting is being every year more and more
intelligently done, and as original ideas are constantly being
incorporated with those chosen, the prospects for architecture are more
promising than ever before in this country. The Casino, at Newport,
is a fine example of a modern building; and the still more recent
Casino in New York shows a fine example of the adapting of ideas from
Saracenic architecture to American uses. The Capitol at Albany has many
fine features, but it is the work of several designers who did not
harmonize. Memorial Hall, at Cambridge, is one of the more striking of
modern American buildings, but its sky-line--that is, its outline as
seen against the sky--lacks simplicity and repose.

The churches in this country exhibit the widest variety of style.
Trinity Church in New York was the first Gothic church erected in
America, and Trinity Church in Boston, one of the latest churches of
importance, is also Gothic, though of the variety called Norman Gothic,
and considerably varied. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of New York, and
many others of less magnitude, might be cited as a proof that American
architecture is advancing, and that we may speak hopefully of its
future.

Railroad depots and school-houses of certain types are among the
most distinctive and characteristic American edifices. The first,
especially, are being constructed more nearly in accordance with the
ancient principle of suiting the structure to its uses than are any
other buildings that are worthy to be considered architecturally.
Art museums and public libraries, too, now form an important feature
in both town and country, and, in short, the beginning of American
architecture, for that is all that can be claimed for what as yet
exists, is such as would be the natural outcome of a nation such as
ours--varied, restless, bold, ugly, original, and progressive. All
these terms can be applied to American art, but in and through it all
there is a promise of something more. As greater age will bring
repose and dignity of bearing to our people, so our Fine Arts will
take on the best of our characteristics; as we outgrow our national
crudities the change will be shown in our architecture, and we may well
anticipate that in the future we shall command the consideration and
assume the same importance in these regards that our excellence in the
Useful Arts has already won for us in all the world.




[Illustration]

GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS.


_Abacus._--The uppermost portion of the capital of a column, upon which
rested the weight above.

_Aisle._--The lateral divisions of a church; more properly, the side
subdivisions.

_Amphitheatre._--A round or oval theatre.

_Apse._--The semi-circular or polygonal termination to the choir or
aisles of a church.

_Arcade._--A series of arches supported on piers or columns.

_Arch._--A construction of wedge-shaped blocks of stone or of bricks,
of curved outline, spanning an open space.

_Architrave._--(1) The lowest division of the entablature, in Classic
architecture resting on the abacus. (2) The moulding used to ornament
the margin of an opening.


_Base._--The foot of a column or wall.

_Basilica._--Originally a Roman hall of justice; afterward an early
Christian church.

_Buttress._--A projection built from a wall for strength.

_Byzantine._--The Christian architecture of the Eastern church,
sometimes called the round arched; named from Byzantium
(Constantinople).


_Capital._--The head of a column or pilaster.

_Caryatid._--A statue of a woman used as a column.

_Cathedral._--A church containing the seat of a bishop.

_Cella._--That part of the temple within the walls.

_Chamfer._--A slope or bevel formed by cutting off the edge of an angle.

_Column._--A pillar or post, round or polygonal; the term includes the
base, shaft, and capital.

_Composite Order._--See _Order_.

_Corinthian Order._--See _Order_.

_Cornice._--The horizontal projection crowning a building or some
portion of a building. Each classic order had its peculiar cornice.

_Crypt._--A vault beneath a building.


_Dome._--A cupola or spherical convex roof.

_Doric Order._--See _Order_.


_Entablature._--In classic styles all the structure above the columns
except the gable. The entablature had three members, the architrave or
epistyle, the frieze, and the cornice.

_Entasis._--The swelling of a column near the middle to counteract the
appearance of concavity caused by an optical delusion.

_Epistyle._--See _Architrave_.


_Façade._--The exterior face of a building.

_Frieze._--The middle member of an entablature.


_Gable._--The triangular-shaped wall supporting the end of a roof.

_Gargoyle._--A projecting water-spout carved in stone or metal.


_Hexastyle._--A portico having six columns in front.


_Intercolumniation._--The clear space between two columns.

_Ionic Order._--See _Order_.


_Metope._--The space between the triglyphs in the frieze of the Doric
Order.

_Minaret._--A slender tower with balconies from which Mohammedan hours
of prayer are called.

_Mosaic._--Ornamental work made by cementing together small pieces of
glass, stone, or metal in given designs.


_Nave._--The central aisle of a church; the western part of the church
occupied by the congregation.


_Obelisk._--A quadrangular monolith terminating in a pyramid.

_Order._--An entire column with its appropriate entablature. There are
usually said to be five orders: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and
Composite; the first and last are, however, only varieties of the Doric
and Corinthian developed by the Romans. The peculiarities of the orders
have been described in the body of the book. When more than one order
was used in a building, the heavier and plainer, the Doric and Tuscan,
are placed beneath the others.


_Pediment._--In classic architecture what the gable (which see) was in
later styles.

_Peristyle._--A court surrounded by a row of columns; also the
colonnade itself surrounding such a space.

_Pier._--A solid wall built to support a weight.

_Pilaster._--A square column, generally attached to the wall.

_Pillar._--See _Column_.

_Plinth._--A square member forming the lower division of the base of a
column.

_Polychrome._--Many-colored; applied to the staining of walls or
architectural ornaments.


_Quatrefoil._--A four-leaved ornament or opening.


_Shaft._--The middle portion of a column, between base and capital.

_Story._--The portion of a building between one floor and the next.


_Triglyph._--An ornament upon the Doric frieze consisting of three
vertical, angular channels separated by narrow, flat spaces.




[Illustration]

INDEX.


  Abacus, 52

  Abd-er-Rahman, Caliph, 126

  Acropolis, 61, 62

  Adan, the, 126

  Age of Legend (Greece), 46

  Agrippa, 76

  Albert Hall, South Kensington, 181

  Alexander the Great; 17;
    and Thais, 34

  Alexandria, obelisks at, 15

  Alhambra; 129;
    described by De Amicis, 129, 130

  American architecture;
    youth of, 181;
    domestic, 183, 184;
    periods of, 184;
    modern writer on, 186;
    promise of, 188, 190 (and _see_ United States)

  Amytis, 30

  Ancient or heathen art, 2

  Ancient architecture; 87;
    change from, to Gothic, 79;
    adapted to climate and use, 172

  Andrea del Sarto, 153

  Angers, church at, 103

  Antæ. _See_ pilasters

  Arabs, 128

  Arcades;
    combined from Greek and Etruscan art, 76;
    of Ducal Palace, Venice, 142

  Arc de l'Étoile (Paris), 165

  Arch;
    knowledge of principle of, 73;
    found in Etruscan ruins, 73;
    oldest in Europe (of Cloaca Maxima), 74;
    the Roman triumphal, 81;
    of Titus, 82;
    of Septimius Severus, 82;
    of Beneventum, 82, 83;
    Roman, 83;
    (Gothic) unending use of, 95;
    French use of pointed, 96;
    early use of pointed, 123;
    examples of, in Court of the Lions, 130;
    examples of, in Ducal Palace, 142;
    triumphal, in France, 164

  Architecture _in general_, 1

  Architrave, 52, 56

  Art;
    as effected by Athenian influence, 67;
    (Gothic) religious use of, 103;
    (Gothic) revival of, 104;
    (Gothic) applied to civic edifices, 104;
    of Renaissance, and Filippo Brunelleschi, 134-138;
    (Italian) 145;
    (Italian) as a means of religion, 154

  Artaxerxes Ochus, palace of, 38

  Artemisia, 68, 69

  Assouan. _See_ Syene

  Assyria;
    ruins of, 21;
    cuneiform inscriptions found in, 21;
    religious influence in, 22;
    bas-reliefs of, 22;
    palaces of, described, 23-26;
    Hercules of, 24;
    excelling in
    architects and designers, 28;
    obelisk of, 28, 29

  Assyrian pillars, shaft of, 12

  Assyrians, Persians taught by, 34

  Astronomy, and Birs-i-Nimrud, 32

  Athena;
    Parthenos, 62;
    Polias;
      statue of, 62, 64;
    Promachos, 62 (and _see_ Minerva)

  Athens;
    Choragic Monument of Lysicrates at, 57;
    Erechtheium at, 59;
    Acropolis of, 61;
    municipal buildings of, 67

  Attic base, 55

  Attic-Ionic style, the Erechtheium an example of, 65

  Aue-Kirche (Munich), 175

  Augustines, church of the (Paris), 160

  Augustus (Emperor), boast of, 80

  Autharis, 90

  Avenue of Sphinxes, 13


  Babylon;
    inscriptions of, 21;
    hanging gardens of, 29;
    temples of, 30;
    temple of Belus at, 31;
    prophecies concerning, 33

  Babylonians;
    knowledge of, as builders, 30;
    Persians taught by, 34

  Bacchus, monument of Lysicrates dedicated to, 68

  Baptistery at Florence, 90

  Barry, Sir Charles, 171

  Base;
    Grecian Doric, 11;
    decorations on, at Persepolis, 41;
    Attic, 55;
    Ionic, 55;
    Tuscan order of, 76;
    Composite, 76

  Basilica;
    of St. Paul's (Rome), 88;
    of the Escurial, 146, 148;
    near St. Mark's, 114;
    at Munich, 175

  Basilicas;
    of Rome, 78;
    of Trajan and Maxentius, 79;
    columns of, 79;
    given up to Christians, 87

  Bas-reliefs, of Assyria, 22

  Baths;
    of Agrippa, 76;
    of Diocletian, 80;
    of Caracalla, 80

  Battiste Monegro, statues of Escurial by, 149

  Bavaria, bronze statue of, 176

  Bedford House, 184

  Belus, temple of (Babylon), 31

  Belzoni, and tomb of Seti I., 7

  Beneventum, arch of, 82, 83

  Beni-Hassan, tombs at, 5

  Benvenuto Cellini, 153

  Bergamo, porch at, 112

  Berlin;
    Brandenburg Gate at, 173;
    New Museum at, 177

  Bianca, wife of Francesco Sforza, 144

  Birs-i-Nimrud, 32

  Bishop of Paris, St. Germain, 173

  Boodroom, name of Halicarnassus changed to, 70

  Boulevards (Paris), 164

  Bourse (Lyons), 162

  Bow Church (London), steeple of, 168

  Bramante; 140;
    great court (Milan), designed by, 144

  Brandenburg Gate (Berlin), 173

  British Museum, 169

  Broletto at Como, 112

  Brunelleschi, Filippo; 134;
    and story of Columbus and the egg, 138;
    statue of (Florence), 138;
    architect of Pitti Palace, 138, 154

  Byzantine order, the;
    geographical boundaries of, 93;
    in Southern Italy, 111, 115;
    and Constantinople, 117;
    the dome the chief characteristic of, 117;
    and the Greek Church, 117;
    decline of, 117;
    exterior and interior of, 119

  Byzantine-Romanesque, 115, 122


  Cæsar, works of, 134

  Cairo;
    mosque at, 123;
    mosque near, 125

  Caliph Abd-er-Rahman, 126

  Callimachus (sculptor), and Corinthian capital, 58, 59

  Cambridge, Fitzwilliam College at, 169

  Campaniles, 112, 114 (and _see_ Clock-tower).

  Canterbury Cathedral, and pointed arches, 124

  Capital;
    definition of, 11;
    varieties of in Great Hall of Karnak, 40;
    Grecian, 52;
    Ionic, 55;
    of Corinthian order, 57, 58;
    of Roman Composite order, 75;
    variety of in mosque of Cordova, 128;
    in Ducal Palace, 142

  Capitol;
    State and National, 181;
    at Washington, 182, 183;
    of Ohio, 183;
    at Albany, 188

  Car of Victory, and Napoleon, 173

  Cardinal Richelieu, 154

  Caria, King of, 69

  Caryatides; 59;
    of the Walhalla, 178

  Casino;
    at Newport, 188;
    at New York, 188

  Castle of Wartburg, 109, 110

  Cathedral;
    at Aix-la-Chapelle, 123;
    at Florence, 136, 138;
    at Jaen, 146;
    at Valladolid, 146;
    of St. Paul's London, 167;
    at New York, 188

  Cecilia Metella, tomb of, 84

  Cella, 51

  Central Park, New York, obelisk in, 16

  Chambord, château of, 154, 161

  Champs Elysées, Arc de l'Étoile in (Paris), 165

  Charlemagne, 123

  Charles I. of England and classic art, 134

  Charles V. of Spain, abdication of, 146

  Charles IX. of France, 161

  Chehl Minar, 38 (and _see_ Great Hall of Audience)

  Chenonceaux, châteaux of, 154

  Cheops. _See_ Pyramids

  Chiswick House, Inigo Jones designer of, 167

  Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (Athens), 57

  Choragus, 67

  Christians;
    art of, in Sicily, 116;
    under Constantine, 87;
    rise and progress of architecture of, 87;
    influence of belief of, 93

  Church;
    of San Miniato, 115;
    of Mother of God (Constantinople), 123;
    of St. Vitale (Ravenna), 123;
    of the Escurial, 155;
    of the Sarbonne, 156;
    of St. Genevieve, 158 (and _see_ Pantheon);
    of the Invalides (Paris), 156-158;
    of the Trinity (Paris), 160;
    of the Madeleine (Paris), 160;
    of the Augustines (Paris), 160;
    of St. Paul's (Covent Garden), 166;
    of St. Stephen's (Walbrook), 168;
    of St. Ludwig (Munich), 175

  Churches;
    early forms of, in Italy, 89;
    (Gothic) interiors of, 98,
    rood-screens of, 107;
    of Burgos, 105;
    of Toledo, 105;
    of Malaga and Segovia, 146

  Churriguera, Josef de, 146

  Churrigueresque style, 146

  Civic order, Broletto at Como, 112

  Classic style, revival of, in Germany, 172

  Classic literature of Rome, influence of, 153

  Cleopatra's Needles, 15

  Cloaca Maxima (Rome), 74

  Clock-tower; near St. Mark's (Venice), 114 (and _see_ Campanile)

  Cologne, great cathedral of, 10

  Colonial period (America), 184

  Colosseum, 80

  Colossi, 13 (and _see_ Rameses the Great)

  Columbaria, 84, 85

  Columns; 11;
    of Hypostyle Hall (Karnak), 11;
    Assyrian knowledge of, 28;
    of Great Hall of Audience, 39, 40;
    Persian development of, 42;
    Grecian, 52;
    Ionic, 56;
    of temple of Diana (Ephesus), 60;
    of green jasper at St. Sophia, 61;
    Tuscan order of, 76;
    of basilicas, 79; of St. Paul's (Rome), 89;
    of St. Sophia, 120;
    of mosque of Cordova, 127, 128;
    of the Alhambra, 129, 130;
    in court-yard of the Escurial, 149;
    of the Pantheon, 158;
    of Victory, in France, 164;
    of portico of Ruhmeshalle, 176 (and _see_ "Groves of Pillars" and
            Pillars)

  Composite order, 75

  Constantine, Emperor; 2;
    Egypt in time of, 19;
    arch of, 81;
    Christians under, 87, 117

  Constantinople;
    St. Sophia at, 61;
    and Byzantine order, 117

  Convent of Escurial, 150, 151

  Cordova, mosque at, 126

  Corinthian capital, 58, 59

  Corinthian order; 52; 57;
    capital of, 57, 58;
    shown in the Madeleine (Paris), 160

  Cornice, 53, 76

  Count of Thuringia, 110

  Court of the Lions, 129, 130

  Cragie House (Cambridge), 184

  Crown, iron, of Theodolinda, 92

  Crypt of the Invalides, 158

  Custom House at Rouen, 162

  Cyrus, tomb of, 42, 43


  Darius;
    palace of, 38;
    tomb of, 43

  Dark Ages, 134

  De Amicis;
    quoted concerning the mosque of Cordova, 126;
    quoted concerning the Escurial, 148-152

  Diana, 60

  Diocletian, palace of (Spalatro), 86

  Distyle in Antis, 51

  Doge's Palace (Venice), 114 (and _see_ Ducal Palace)

  Dome;
    chief characteristic of Byzantine architecture, 117; 119;
    of the cathedral of Florence, 138;
    of St. Peter's (Rome), 138;
    of the Invalides, 157;
    of the Pantheon (Paris), 158;
    of the Capitol (Washington), 183

  Domes of St. Mark's (Venice), 114

  Domestic architecture;
    Egyptian study of, 16;
    of Greece, 70;
    of Rome, 85;
    Gothic, 109;
    of Spain, 152;
    of France, 162;
    examples of, in Great Britain, 169;
    of America, 183, 184

  Doric order;
    imitated old Egyptian tombs, 7;
    characteristics of, 52-54;
    traced back, 54;
    and Ionic order, compared, 57;
    Propylæa and Parthenon as examples of, 64

  Dresden, new theatre and picture gallery of, 177

  Ducal Palace (Venice), and John Ruskin, 142 (and _see_ Doge's Palace)


  "Easterns," the, 123 (and _see_ Saracens)

  Ebed, the, 126

  Ecbatana, palace of, 34

  Echinus, 52

  Eclectic style, 188

  Edfou, temple of, 17

  'Early Spanish' architecture, 106

  Egypt, tombs and ruins of, 2-20;
    religion of, influencing art, 8;
    pillars of, 11;
    hieroglyphics on pillars of, 12;
    irregular plans of palaces and temples of, 13;
    obelisks of, removed, 15;
    ancient houses of, 16;
    domestic architecture of, 16;
    under the Ptolemies, 17;
    decline of arts of, in later days, 19;
    in time of Constantine (Emperor), 19;
    present knowledge of history of, 20

  Elmwood, 184

  England;
    imitation of other styles of architecture in, 166;
    Gothic order in, 166;
    examples of various architectural styles in, 169;
    art of, at the present time, 172;
    revival of Gothic art in, 170

  Entablature;
    definition of, 54;
    of Walhalla, 178

  Entasis, 67

  Ephesus;
    temple of Diana at, 60;
    desolation at, 61

  Epistyle, 7

  Erechtheium (Athens); 59;
    and Athena Polias, 62;
    burial-place of Erechtheus, 64;
    founded by Erechtheus, 64;
    example of Attic-Ionic style, 65

  Erechtheus, founder of the Erechtheium, 65

  Escurial (near Madrid), 146-152;
    combination forming, 146;
    dome of basilica of, 146;
    palace of, 147;
    De Amicis's description of, 148-152;
    statues of, by Battiste Monegro, 149;
    room of Philip II. in, 149;
    basilica of, 149;
    church of, 149;
    courtyard of the kings of, 149;
    convent of, 150, 151

  Etruscans; 71;
    theatres and amphitheatres of, 72

  Euphrates, 29

  Exchange at Marseilles, 162


  Façade of Ducal Palace, 142

  "Farnese Bull," 81

  "Farnese Hercules," 81

  Ferdinand and Isabella, reign of, 145

  Fergusson and Gothic architecture, 93

  Filippo Brunelleschi and art of Renaissance, 134-138

  Fine Art Gallery, near baths of Caracalla, 81

  Fitzwilliam College (Cambridge), 169

  Flavian Amphitheatre, 80

  Florence, cathedral of, 134

  Fontaine St. Michel, 165

  Fontainebleau, palace of, 154

  Fortress, the Acropolis as a, 62

  Fortresses of ancient Greece, 48

  Forum Boarium, 82

  France;
    and revival of classic art, 134;
    and Gothic architecture, 153;
    sovereigns of, as influencing architecture, 154;
    change in style in, from Gothic to Renaissance, 156;
    style of Henry IV. in, 161;
    time of classic revival, 162;
    domestic architecture of, 162;
    _Neo-Grec_ style in, 165, 166;
    modern, 165, 166

  Francesco Sforza, 144

  Francis I., of France;
    and introduction of Italian art, 154;
    Louvre rebuilt by, 160

  Frieze;
    definition of, 53;
    of Ionic order, 56;
    of Tuscan order, 76;
    of Walhalla, 178


  Gargoyle, 98

  Garibald, King of Bavaria, 90

  Gateway Huldah of temple at Jerusalem, 44

  Gateways;
    in walls of Nineveh, 21;
    in walls of Babylon, 29;
    golden, iron, and brazen, of palace of Diocletian, 86

  Germany;
    and revival of classic art, 134;
    imitation of details of Greek architecture in, 173;
    modern architecture of, 173

  Ghizeh, pyramids of, 3

  Gibbon (historian) and St. Sophia, 122

  Giotto's campanile, 112

  Girard College (Philadelphia), 186

  Glaber, Rodulphe, 93

  Glyptothek at Munich, 177

  Gothic order;
    Fergusson's location of, 93;
    extension and origin of, 93;
    invention of interior aisles in, 98;
    design of, in ornament, 99;
    painted glass applied to, 100;
    Spanish variation of, 105;
    modification of in Northern Italy, 111;
    combined with Eastern decoration in Venetian architecture, 114;
    last distinct order, 133;
    in France, 153;
    union of, with Italian design in France, 154;
    in England, 166;
    in the Tudor age, 170;
    and Houses of Parliament, 171

  Goths, temple of Diana burned by, 61

  Goujon, Jean, and the Louvre, 160

  Goya, 149

  Græco-Roman style, 146

  Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 110

  "_Grand Monarque._" _See_ Louis XIV.

  "_Grands Hommes_," Pantheon dedicated to, 158

  Great Hall of Audience;
    plan of, 41;
    theories concerning, 42

  Great Hall of Baths of Diocletian, 80

  Great Palace near Persepolis, 36-38

  Grecian Doric order;
    shaft of, 12;
    domestic architecture of, 70

  Greece;
    art of, as compared with that of Egypt, 20;
    prehistoric days of, 47;
    origin of architecture of, 48;
    coloring of marbles in, 65;
    skill in deceiving the eye, in architecture of, 67;
    theatres of, 68;
    origin of drama in, 68;
    effect in Germany of discoveries in, 173

  Greenwich Hospital, 169

  Gregory I. (Pope), 92

  "Groves of Pillars," 44


  Hadrian; 77;
    tomb of (castle of St. Angelo), 84

  Halicarnassus;
    mausoleum at, 68;
    in possession of Knights of St. John, 70;
    name of, changed to Boodroom, 70;
    sculptures of, in British Museum, 70

  Hall of Fame, 176 (and _see_ Ruhmeshalle)

  Hall of One Hundred Columns, 38

  Hall of Xerxes, 38-41 (and _see_ Great Hall of Audience)

  Hampton, palace of (designed by Wren), 169

  Hanging Gardens of Babylon; 29;
    interior structure of, 29, 30;
    and Semiramis, 30;
    and Nebuchadnezzar, 30

  Henry of Ofterdingen, 110

  "Hercules of Assyria," 24

  Hermann, Count of Thuringia, 110

  Herodotus, "Father of History," 47

  Herostratus, 60

  Heshâm, 126

  Hexastyle, 52

  Homer, "Iliad" and "Odyssey" of, 47

  "House of the Virgin," 62 (and _see_ Parthenon)

  Houses of Parliament (London); 170;
    and Gothic revision, 171

  Hypostyle Hall (Karnak); 11;
    compared with St. Peter's (Rome), 140


  Ibn-touloun, mosque built by, 123

  "Iliad," knowledge of Grecian history from, 47

  Inigo Jones. _See_ Jones, Inigo

  Inscriptions, Arabic, 130

  Invalides, church of the, 156-158

  Ionic capital, 55, 56

  Ionic order; 52-54;
    traced back, 55;
    capital of, 55, 56;
    architrave of, 56;
    columns of, 56;
    compared with Doric order, 57;
    combined with Doric in interior of the Parthenon, 64

  Isabella and Ferdinand, reign of, 145

  Isis, temple of, 18

  Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, 16

  Italy;
    architecture of; 87;
    Byzantine order in southern part of, 111;
    best days of architecture in, 144


  Jaen (Granada);
    cathedral of, 146

  Jay, Hon. John, home of, 184

  Jerusalem, temple of;
    Gateway Huldah of, 44;
    design of, proving Roman influence, 45

  Jones, Inigo (architect); 166;
    designer of Chiswick House, 167;
    designer of Wilton House, 167

  Jordan, ruins beyond, 44

  Josef de Churriguera, 146

  Josephus, proving time of building temple of Jerusalem, 45

  Judea;
    art-history of, 44;
    ruins of, at Jerusalem, Baalbec, Palmyra, and Petra, 44

  Justinian (Emperor), and St. Sophia, 119


  Kaitbey, mosque at, 125

  Karnak, palace-temple of; 8-12;
    Hypostyle Hall in, 10

  Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, 16

  Khorsabad, palace of, 26


  La Scala, Milan, 180

  Lateran, palace of, 81

  Leonardo da Vinci, 153

  Library of St. Mark's (Venice), 142

  Liverpool, St. George's Hall at, 169

  Livy, works of, 134

  Longfellow, home of, 184

  Louis I. (Bavaria), and revival of Greek art, 173, 175

  Louis XIII. (France), and classic architecture, 161

  Louis XIV. (France), and revival of classic architecture, 162

  Louis XV. (France), 158

  Louis Philippe, 162

  Louvre (Paris), 160

  Lowell, James Russell, home of, 184

  Ludwig Strasse (Munich), architectural failure, 177

  Luther and castle of Wartburg, 111

  Lyons, new Bourse in, 162

  Lysicrates, monument of, 67


  Madeleine, church of the, 160

  Malaga, churches of, 146

  Mans, monastery at, 103

  Mansard, Jules Hardouin, 156

  Marburg, 110

  Marcus Scaurus, 80

  Marseilles, exchange at, 162

  Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, 68

  Mausolus, 69, 70

  Maxentius, basilica of, 79

  Mecca, 123

  Medinet Habou, house at, 16

  Mehemet Ali, 15

  Memorial Hall (Cambridge), 188

  Memphis, ruins of, used in new buildings, 7

  Metope, 53

  Michael Angelo, and church of S. Maria Degli Angeli, 80;
    and St. Peter's (Rome), 138-140

  Middle Ages;
    Italian towers of, 111;
    prosperity of architecture of (Venice), 114

  Middle period in America, 184

  Milan, La Scala of, 180

  Minarets of mosques, 125

  Minerva. _See_ Athena

  Modern architecture;
    imitative, 133;
    since Renaissance, 133;
    in Italy, 134;
    three eras of, in Spain, 146;
    in Germany, 173;
    diversity of style of, in United States, 186

  Mohammed, 123

  Mokattam Mountains, 4

  Monks of Middle Ages, 102

  Monolith of the Gateway Holdah, 44

  Monuments in France, 164

  Monza, cathedral of, 92

  Moresco or Moorish order, 106, 123

  Morris, General, and "Old Morrisania," 184

  Morrisania, 184

  Mosaics of St. Sophia, 120

  Mosque;
    at Cairo, 123;
    minarets of same, 125;
    near Cairo, 125

  Mosque of Cordova, 126;
    De Amicis, concerning, 126;
    naves of, 127;
    marbles of, 127;
    columns of, 127, 128

  Mosque of Kaitboy, 125

  Mother of God, church of (Constantinople), 123

  Muezzin, the call of, 125, 126

  Munich;
    modern architecture of, 173, 174;
    church of St. Ludwig at, 175;
    Ruhmeshalle at, 176;
    glyptothek of, 177

  Museum;
    of Berlin, 177;
    at Oxford, 170, 171

  Music halls, 180

  Mutules, 65

  Mycenæ, 48

  Mythology, 47


  Napoleon I.;
    and pyramids, 3;
    tomb of, 158;
    inscription from will of, 158;
    Car of Victory, trophy of, 173

  Napoleon III., 162, 166

  Nebuchadnezzar;
    and "Hanging Gardens," 30;
    and Birs-i-Nimrud, 32

  Neo-Byzantine order, 117

  Neo-Grec order, 166

  Nero (Emperor), temple of Diana robbed by, 61

  New museum at Oxford, 170, 171

  New theatre, Dresden, 177

  Newton, discoverer of sculptures at Halicarnassus, 70

  New World, discovery of, 145

  New York, Trinity Church in, 188

  Nile, near Thebes, 14

  Nineveh;
    walls of, 21;
    gateways of, 21;
    ornamentation of gateways of, 23;
    palaces of, 27

  Norman Conquest, 116

  Northern Spain, Arabs of, 128


  Obelisk;
    now in Paris, 13;
    at Alexandria, 15;
    Cleopatra's Needles, 15;
    expressing worship, 16;
    in Central Park, New York, 16;
    the Assyrian, 28, 29

  "Odyssey," knowledge of Grecian history from, 47

  "Old Morrisania," 184

  Opera House (Paris), 180

  Order. _See_ Gothic, Moresco or Moorish, Civil, Neo-Byzantine,
          _Neo-Grec_, Romanesque, Byzantine, Saracenic

  Order of the Garter, symbol of, 89

  Oriental art;
    characteristics of, 59;
    and the caryatid, 59

  Oxford, new museum at, 170


  Painted glass and Gothic architecture, 100

  Palace;
    of Khorsabad, 27;
    of Ecbatana, 34;
    of Susa, 34;
    of Artaxerxes Ochus, 38;
    of Darius, 38;
    of Xerxes, 38;
    of Diocletian at Spalatro, 86;
    of the Escurial, 147, 149;
    of Versailles, 162;
    of Whitehall, 166;
    of Hampton, 169;
    of Winchester, 169

  Palaces;
    of Assyria, 23-26;
    of Nineveh, 27

  Palace-temples, Egyptian, 8

  Palais du Trocadéro, 165

  Pantheon (Rome); 76-78;
    rotunda and porch of, 76;
    preservation of, 77;
    inscription on portico of, 77;
    burial-place of Raphael and Annibale Caracci, 78

  Pantheon (Paris), 158;
    and _see_ church of St. Genevieve

  Parapet of Ducal Palace, Venice, 142

  Paris;
    rebuilt, 162;
    the boulevards of, 164;
    new opera house of, 180

  Parthenon (Athens); 53, 54;
    built of Pentelic marble, 64;
    of Doric order of architecture, 64;
    erected under care of Phidias, 64;
    sculptures of, 64

  Paul Silentiarius and description of St. Sophia, 120

  Pediment, 54

  Pepperell, Sir William, 184

  Pericles at Athens, 61

  Peristyle, 52

  Persepolis;
    great palace near, 36-38;
    spring residence of Persian kings, 42

  Persia;
    inscriptions found in, 21;
    palaces of, 34;
    taught by Assyria and Babylonia, 34;
    platforms of, 36;
    regularity of architecture of, 43;
    faults of architecture of, 44

  Peruzzi, 140

  Pharaoh, and tombs at Beni-Hassan, 6

  Phidias;
    and Athena Promachos, 62;
    Parthenon erected under care of, 64;
    sculptures executed by, 64

  Philæ;
    temple on island of, 18;
    buildings at, 19

  Philip II. of Spain;
    and decline of Spanish art, 145;
    and the Escurial, 146;
    cell of, in the Escurial, 149;
    chair of, 150

  Piazza of St. Mark (Venice), 142

  Picture Gallery, Dresden, 177

  Piers, Egyptian, 11

  Pilasters, 52; 127; (and _see_ Antæ)

  Pillar of the Gateway Huldah, 44

  Pillars;
    of Great Hall of Audience, 38-41;
    of Doric order, 52;
    of San Miniato, 116;
    of Ducal Palace, 142;
    (and _see_ Columns)

  Pinacotica, near Baths of Caracalla, 81

  Pinakothek (Dresden), 177

  Pitti Palace, gallery of, 138, 154

  Platerisco, 146

  Platforms, Persian, 36

  Pope, the, and Italian art, 154

  Porches of Northern Italy, 112

  Porte St. Denis (Paris), 164

  Portico;
    of basilica of St. Mark's, 115;
    of the Court of Lions, 130;
    the Ruhmeshalle, 176;
    of Capitol at Washington, 183

  Praxiteles and temple of Diana, 60, 61

  Priene, temple of Athena at, 55

  Priests, patrons of art during Middle Ages, 102

  Primaticcio, 153

  Prince Louis of Thuringia, 110

  Promachos (_see_ Athena), 62

  Propylæa;
    Assyrian, 24;
    of Acropolis, 62, 64

  Proto-Doric order, 7

  Ptolemies, 17

  Public Library of Munich, 177

  Pyramids of Cheops; 2;
    size of, 3;
    interior of, 4

  Pyramids of Ghizeh; 3;
    tombs near, 5


  Quatrefoil, 142

  "Queen Anne style" in America, 186


  Rameses the Great. _See_ Colossi.

  Raphael, 140

  Ratisbon, the Walhalla near, 178

  Reformation, the, 133

  Religion;
    influencing Egyptian art, 8;
    a factor in national architecture, 9

  Renaissance; 104; 134;
    buildings erected in Italy during, 142;
    and Leonardo da Vinci, 145;
    and Michael Angelo, 145;
    and Raphael, 145;
    in England, 166

  Richelieu (cardinal), 154

  "Ritter George," 111

  Roman theatre, first, 80

  Romanesque order, 87

  Romanesque and Byzantine orders mingled, 122

  Rome;
    ruled by Etruscans, 71;
    acqueducts and bridges of, 74;
    earliest works of, directed by Etruscans, 74;
    growth of Composite order in, 75;
    temples of, 76;
    interior architecture of, 76;
    Pantheon of, 76-78;
    basilicas of, 78;
    decline of art in, 80;
    theatres of, 80;
    triumphal arches of, 81;
    tombs of, 83-86;
    domestic architecture of, 85;
    influence of classic literature in, 133;
    St. Peter's at, 138-140

  Rood-screens, 107

  Rose windows, 102

  Rouen, custom house at, 162

  Royal Palace at Munich, 177

  Ruhmeshalle (Munich);
    columns of, 176;
    statue in front of, 176

  Ruins;
    Assyrian, 21;
    Judean, 44;
    of temple of Diana, at Ephesus, 60

  Ruskin, John;
    and Ducal Palace (Venice), 142;
    teaching of, 171


  St. Bride's (Fleet Street), 168

  St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 110

  St. Eustache, church of (Paris), 154

  St. Genevieve, church of (Paris), 158

  St. George's Hall, Liverpool, 169

  St. Germain; 103, 173

  St. James's (Piccadilly), church of, 168

  St. John Lateran, 89

  St. Ludwig, church of (Munich), 175

  St. Mark's (Venice), 114;
    piazza of, 114;
    portico of, 115

  St. Mark's, Library of (Venice), 114

  St. Paul's, cathedral of (London), 167

  St. Paul's, Covent Garden, 166, 167

  St. Paul's without the Walls; 88;
    bronze gates of, 89;
    columns of, 89

  St. Peter's (Rome);
    as compared with palace-temple, 8;
    dome and cross of, 138;
    and Michael Angelo, 138-140;
    begun and finished, 138-140;
    criticised, 140

  St. Quentin, battle of, 146

  St. Sophia, church of (Constantinople);
    green jasper columns of, 61; 117;
    and Justinian, 119;
    Gibbon's description of, 119;
    Paul Silentiarius's description of, 120

  St. Vitale, church of (Ravenna), 123

  San Carlo, opera house of (Naples), 180

  San Miniato, church of (Florence), 115, 116

  San Paolo fuori della Mura. _See_ St. Paul's without the Walls

  Sansovino, 142

  Sta. Maria del Fiore. _See_ cathedral of Florence

  Sta. Maria Degli Angeli, church of, and Michael Angelo, 80

  Saraceni. _See_ "the Easterns"

  Saracenic architecture, 123, 124;
    principal homes of, 126;
    study of, 132

  Sargon, 26

  Scaurus, Marcus, 80

  Schliemann, 48

  Sculpture Gallery of Munich, 177

  Sculptures;
    executed by Phidias, 64;
    Gothic use of, in decoration, 107

  Segovia, churches of, 146

  Semiramis (Queen), and "Hanging Gardens," 30

  Sennacherib, 26

  Septimius Severus;
    and Pantheon, 77;
    arch of, 82;
    wife of, 82

  Sepulchres, 85 (and _see_ Tombs)

  Seti I., tomb of, 7

  Sforza, Francesco, 144

  Shaft of Tuscan column, 76

  Shrines of Babylon, riches of, 31, 32

  Shushan, 42

  Sicilian architecture, remarkable style of, 116

  Sicily, Christian art of, 116

  Soufflot (architect), 158

  Spain;
    and Gothic art, 104, 105;
    and Moorish architecture, 123;
    and classic art, 134;
    from time of fall of Granada, 145;
    modern architecture of, 146;
    domestic architecture of, 152;
    people of, as artists, and Fergusson, 152, 153

  Sphinx, 13

  Spires, 98

  Staircase of temple of Diana (Ephesus), 60

  Staircases of Persepolis, 36

  Statue of Bavaria, 176

  Statues of the Escurial, 149, 150

  Street of the Tripods, 68

  Suphis. _See_ Cheops

  Susa, palace of, 34

  Sutri, 72

  Syene, granite of, in pyramids, 4

  Symbol of Order of the Garter, 89

  Symbolism of Gothic ornament, 107, 108


  Tacitus, 134

  Tapestries of Escurial, 149

  Temple;
    of Karnak, 13;
    of Luxor, 13;
    of Denderah, 17;
    of Philæ, 17;
    influenced by Egypt, in building, 17;
    of Birs-i-Nimrud, 32;
    of Jerusalem, 44, 45;
    earliest style of, in Greece, 48;
    of Athena at Priene, 55;
    of Diana at Ephesus, 60,
      and Praxiteles, 60, 61,
      and Theodosius I. (Emperor), 61,
      burned by Goths, 61,
      robbed by Nero, 61;
    the Erechtheium as a, 65;
    of Vesta, 89

  Temple Court of palace of Khorsabad, 27

  Temples;
    of Babylon, 30;
    of Rome, 76;
    in the Court of the Lions, 130

  Tenia, 52

  Thais, 34

  Theatres;
    of Rome, 80;
    list of most important, 179

  Thebes;
    "Tombs of the Kings" near, 7;
    grandeur of ruins of, 7,8

  Theodolinda; 90;
    iron crown of, 92

  Theodosius I., and temple of Diana,
    61;
    and St. Paul's without the Walls, 88

  Theresa, Queen of Louis I. of Bavaria, 176

  Theresienhöhe, 177

  Thermæ, 80

  Titus, arch of, 82

  Tomb;
    of Seti I., 7;
    of Cyrus, 42, 43;
    of Darius, 43;
    of Mausolus, 69, 70;
    of Hadrian, 84

  Tombs;
    at Beni-Hassan, 5; near Pyramids, 5;
    "of the kings," near Thebes, 7;
    Persian, 42;
    exploration of Persian, 43;
    Etruscan, 73;
    of Rome, 83-86

  Toscanelli, 138

  Tower;
    of Birs-i-Nimrud, 32;
    of Giotto, 112

  Towers;
    of Babylonish temples, 31;
    in Gothic architecture, 98;
    of Italy, in Middle Ages, 111;
    of Westminster Abbey, 168 (and _see_ Campanile)

  Trajan;
    basilica of, 79;
    and arch of Beneventum, 82

  Triglyphs, 53

  Trinity Church;
    Paris, 160;
    Boston, 188;
    New York, 188

  Tripod, 68

  Trojan war, 47

  Troy, Schliemann's discoveries at, 48

  Tudor age, Gothic style in, 170

  Tumuli, 73

  Tuscan order, 75, 76


  Ula, the, 126

  United States;
    capitols of, 181;
    first buildings of, 181;
    classic architecture and, 182;
    cella divided in, 182;
    characteristic types of edifices in, 188

  University of Munich, 177


  Valentinian II., 88

  Valladolid, cathedral of, 146

  Van Rensselaer homestead, 184

  Vatican compared with palace-temple, 8

  Venice, architecture of, 114

  Versailles, palace of, 162

  Vesta, temple of, 89

  Vignon, 160

  Villa Borghese, palace of, 81


  Walhalla, 178, 179

  Walls;
    of Nineveh, 21;
    of Babylon, 29

  War office (Munich), 177

  Wartburg, castle on, 109

  Washington (U. S.), national capitol at, 182

  Washington, George, and national capital, 182

  Wren, Sir Christopher, 167, 168, 169

  Wyatville, Sir Jeffrey, 170


  Xerxes, 37, 38


  Zahra, 129




Transcriber's Notes:


Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs and some
illustrations have been moved closer to the text that references them.

Uncaptioned illustrations are decorative Headpieces or the publisher's
logo on the Title page.

Most Index entries that did not match the referenced text have been
changed when the differences were hyphenation or accent marks. However,
the Index entries for "Neo-Grec" have not been changed to "Néo-Grec".

Index entries were not checked for accuracy.