How to Study Architecture by Charles H. Caffin (reading the story of the .TXT) 📖

On the other hand, in the interior of the Basilica Ulpia a range of columns, supporting an entablature, took the place of the piers on each side of the nave. On the entablature rested another range of columns, surmounted by another entablature, above which walls, pierced with windows, were carried up to carry the flat, coffered ceiling. Both tiers of nave columns opened into the aisle, which correspondingly had two stories, the upper crowned with a flat ceiling.

Arches, Columns of Victory.—The magnificence of Rome and other cities was further displayed in the Triumphal Arches and Columns of Victory erected in honour of emperors and conquerors. The arch was of two types: the single arch and the three-arched. A famous example of the former is the Arch of Titus, which commemorated the capture of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. Examples of the three-arched type are those of Septimus Severus, and of Constantine in Rome, and the Arch at Orange. The façades were adorned with columns of the Corinthian or Composite orders, partially or wholly detached, supporting a broken entablature—one, in which the uniformity of projection is interrupted by a projection over each capital. Above it is a top-story, known as the attic. The soffit of the arch was richly coffered and the wall spaces embellished with low-reliefs, representing incidents of triumph, while the attic bore upon its face an inscription and was surmounted by statues or a four-horse triumphal chariot (quadriga).

The most famous of all the pillars of victory is Trajan’s Column, erected in connection with his Basilica. It is a column of the Roman Doric order, mounted upon a lofty pedestal, the height over all being 147 feet. The shaft, 12 feet in diameter at the base, encloses a spiral staircase of marble, while its exterior is decorated with a spiral band, 800 feet long and 3½ feet wide, carved with reliefs, representing incidents in Trajan’s victorious campaigns against the Dacians. It stood originally in a court of the Basilica Ulpia, from the several galleries of which the sculpture could be viewed. The statue of Trajan which originally adorned the summit of the pillar has been replaced by a bronze statue of St. Peter.

A special pillar of imperial times was the Rostral Column, erected in commemoration of a naval victory and decorated with the bronze beaks or prows taken from the enemy’s ships.

Palaces.—Augustus set the example of building himself a palace, choosing the Palatine Hill, to which successive emperors, particularly Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and Septimus Severus, made additions of increasing splendour. Nothing remains but ruins, which, however, show that the principal apartments were as follows: the Tablinum or throne-room; Basilica, or hall of justice; Peristylium or rectangular garden-court, enclosed with colonnades; Triclinium, or Banquet Hall; Lararium or domestic temple for the household gods and the Nymphæum.

A remarkable example is the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato, Dalmatia, built A.D. 300. The plan, rectangular in shape and covering an area of 4½ acres, about the same, in fact, as that of the Escoriál in Spain, seems to have been laid out on the lines of a Roman camp. A square tower occupies each of the corners, while three of the sides were pierced with entrances, flanked by octagonal towers, which were distinguished as the “golden,” the “iron,” and the “bronze” gateways. From these extended colonnaded roads which met in the centre, thus dividing the area into two northern sections, probably used by the principal officers of the household and the guests, and a large southern portion reserved for the imperial palace, and two temples. One of these was dedicated to Æsculapius; the other, circular in plan, to Jupiter.

The architecture was of a somewhat debased character, but offers certain interesting features of transition to the later style of the Romanesque. Thus, in the northern gateway an entablature is not employed, and the arches rest directly on the capitals of the columns.

Domestic Buildings.—The domestic architecture comprised three forms: the domus, or city residence of the well-to-do; the insula, or city tenement house, and the rich man’s country house or villa.

The last term comprises the house and its accompaniments of beautifully laid-out grounds and gardens. On a colossal scale of magnificence was the Villa of Hadrian erected at Tivoli, where the whole area amounted to seven square miles. It included, besides the usual palace apartments, a gymnasium, thermæ and theatre, disposed amid terraced gardens, peristyles, ornamental water-basins, and fountains.

Some idea in miniature of the luxurious villa of the Romans is to be gained from the various villas excavated in the summer resort of Pompeii, such as the House of Pansa and the House of Vetius. It comprised a rectangle bounded on three sides by narrow streets and on the fourth by the garden. The lower story contained shops, opening on to the streets, as in the case of many modern hotels. The principal entrance to the house itself was a portico through which the visitor passed into an oecus or reception room. On the right of this were the quarters of the kitchen and on the left was the triclinium or dining-room for use in cold weather. The reception-room led into a peristyle court open to the sky, with covered colonnades that afforded protection from the sun, while the rain was caught in an impluvium or central cistern. On one side of the court extended a row of cubicula or sleeping apartments, another row of which lined one side of the atrium. This also was an open court, furnished with an impluvium, and protected from the weather on its sides by the extended eaves of the adjacent roofs. The atrium was the public reception place in which the owner of the house interviewed his clients and transacted business. Accordingly it had a separate entrance from the street.

The walls of the principal apartments were decorated with paintings, many of which involved architectural features; the floors were laid with mosaics and the timber ceilings were probably painted and gilded, their roofs being constructed of terra-cotta. The blocks of dwellings, called insulæ, seem to have anticipated our modern apartment and tenement houses, for they were carried up through many stories and housed numerous families. It is probable that they involved few conveniences, as we understand them to-day; the important necessity of water, for instance, being met by public fountains, which supplied drinking water, and by the public baths that made provision for cleanliness and health.

Bridges, Aqueducts.—Among the great public works achieved by the Romans were roads, aqueducts, and bridges; and, although these were, strictly speaking, engineering masterpieces, the use of the arch in the last two brings them within the scope of architectural grandeur. The visible signs, and indeed the symbol of Roman civilisation, were the roads which pushed their way forward to the limits of the Empire, as far as possible with a directness that swerved aside from no obstacle, and with a solidity of foundation that in many parts of the world survives to-day. And a corresponding solidity allied with the dignity of simplicity of design characterised the bridges. The best preserved in Italy is the five-arched Bridge of Rimini, while impressive examples are found in the favoured province of Spain; at Cordova, for instance, and Toledo.

The Romans were lavish users of water, for purposes of luxury as well as necessity. They understood the simple hydraulic law that water will rise in pipes to its own original level and applied the system in their buildings. But since pipes of lead and bronze were costly and none too durable, they dispensed as far as possible with their use, conveying the water in lofty aqueducts, with a fall, as Vitruvius recommended, of 6 inches in 100 feet, so that the water was delivered from a height at the spot it was needed. The channel, constructed of concrete, lined with cement, was conducted upon a series of concrete arches, faced with brick; the arches being of immense height and sometimes in several tiers. The Anio Novus, constructed A.D. 38, was sixty-two miles in length and entered Rome on arches carried over the Aqua Claudia, which was erected at the same time and is still one of the water supplies of Rome. The finest existing example, however, is the so-called Pont-du-Gard, near Nîmes, which forms part of an aqueduct twenty-five miles long. For a distance of about 900 feet it is composed of three tiers of arches, crossing the valley 180 feet above the River Gard.

In conclusion, the genius of the Roman architect consisted in his faculty of organisation, which enabled him to take the principles of Hellenic architecture and apply them to a great variety of requirements. What his architecture lost in refinement, it more than gained in flexibility and resourcefulness, while creating for itself a distinction of structural grandeur. It refertilised the Hellenic which had threatened to become a barren style and produced a style that not only was richly competent to serve the needs of its own time, but has proved capable of being further developed to new needs. It involved principles that had their influence on Romanesque and consequently on Gothic architecture, became the source from which Renaissance architecture was evolved, and, even in our own day, are still capable of new and active service.

As the power of Rome waned and the Empire became disintegrated, the force of Christianity increased and spread and the organisation of the Church became consolidated. The immediate followers of Christ looked for their Lord’s reappearance as a Jewish Messiah. Paul, however, taught that there was no distinction in the sight of Christ between Jew and Gentile and treated Christianity as a philosophic system of ethics, applicable to all races and conditions of rich and poor. His view prevailed and Christianity became a great proselytising force.

Its idea of a universal brotherhood appealed especially to the multitude, while men and women of the highest classes were attracted by its ideals of better and purer living. For the period was one of social unrest and of havoc of old faiths and standards of conduct. Profligacy was sapping the vitals of the state and of society, and the need of new moral ideals was insistent. “No one thing about Christianity commended it to all, and to no one thing did it owe its victory, but to the fact that it met a greater variety of needs and met them more satisfactorily than any other movement of the Age.”

Its growth was further facilitated by the proselytising zeal of its adherents. Christianity spread not only throughout the Roman Empire in Europe, but also fastened upon Asia Minor and North Africa, taking firm root especially in Egypt, the intellectual centre of the Empire, and extending even to the Germanic tribes which were to become the conquerors of Rome.

Its power, moreover, was strengthened by its organisation. In the beginning each congregation had been independent. It had its officers, deacons, who cared for its poor; elders or presbyters, who, as the council of the church, looked after its interests; and its overseer, episcopus, or bishop, the chief of the presbyters. In course of time, as the church of a given city sent out branches to neighbouring towns and rural districts, the bishop of the parent community came to have authority over a group of congregations. In time the bishops of a province learned to look for guidance to the highest religious officer of the provincial capital, who acquired the high importance of a “Metropolitan.” And above him in dignity were the “Patriarchs” of such cities as Antioch and Alexandria, while the Bishop of Rome was acquiring the greatest influence. “In brief, the government of the Church was becoming a monarchy.” (Botsford.)

Constantine, recognising the advantage of allying himself with such an organisation, issued in 313 the Edict