A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volume 1, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present DayFergusson, James
History
A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volume 1, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- History
There are, however, two buildings in Athens which, though small, give us
most exalted ideas of their taste in such matters. The first, already
alluded to, usually known as the Tower of the Winds, is a plain
octagonal building about 45 ft. in height by 24 in width, ornamented by
2 small porches of 2 pillars each, of the Corinthian order, the capitals
of which are represented in Woodcut No. 141. Its roof, like the rest of
the building, is of white marble, and of simple but very elegant design,
and below this is a frieze of 8 large figures, symbolical of the 8
winds, from which the tower takes its name, they in fact being the
principal objects and ornaments of the building, the most important use
of which appears to have been to contain a clepsydra or water-clock.
[Illustration: 160. Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. No scale.]
The other building, though smaller, is still more beautiful. It is known
as the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, and consists of a square base 12
ft. high by 9 ft. wide, on which stands a circular temple adorned by 6
Corinthian columns, which, with their entablature and the roof and
pedestal they support, make up 22 ft. more, so that the whole height of
the monument is only 34 ft. Notwithstanding these insignificant
dimensions, the beauty of its columns (Woodcut No. 143) and of their
entablature—above all, the beauty of the roof and of the finial
ornament, which crowns the whole and is unrivalled for elegance even in
Greek art—make up a composition so perfect that nothing in any other
style or age can be said to surpass it.[151] If this is a fair index of
the art that was lavished on the smaller objects, the temples hardly
give a just idea of all that have perished.
THEATRES.
In extreme contrast with the buildings last described, which were among
the smallest, came the theatres, which were the largest, of the
monuments the Greeks seem ever to have attempted.
[Illustration: 161. Plan of Theatre at Dramyssus. Scale 100 ft. to 1
in.]
The annexed plan of one at Dramyssus, the ancient Dodona, will give an
idea of their forms and arrangements. Its dimensions may be said to be
gigantic, being 443 ft. across; but even this, though perhaps the
largest in Greece, is far surpassed by many in Asia Minor. What remains
of it, however, is merely the auditorium, and consists only of ranges of
seats arranged in a semicircle, but without architectural ornament. In
all the examples in Europe, the proscenium,[152] which was the only part
architecturally ornamented, has perished, so that, till we can restore
this with something like certainty, the theatres hardly come within the
class of Architecture as a fine art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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