As will be explained in the sequel, we find that, by the application
of the formula of simple ratios, we are enabled to fix the dimensions
of almost every part of the Mausoleum with almost absolute certainty;
and at the same time it is found that the Mausoleum is one of the most
complete and interesting examples of a building designed wholly on a
scheme of simple definite ratios. Thus the very science which assists
materially in solving the problem, is at the same time illustrated and
confirmed by the discoveries it aids in making.
The first attempt to explain the peculiarities of buildings by a scheme
of definite ratios seems to be that expounded by Cæsar Cæsarini, in
his edition of Vitruvius, published in 1521. In this work he shows
by diagrams how a series of equilateral triangles explains all the
dimensions and peculiarities of design in Milan Cathedral; and in this
he probably was right, for, being a foreign work, it is very probable
that the Italian architects, not understanding the true principles of
the art, squeezed the design into this formal shape and so spoiled
it. The success of this attempt of Cæsarini, however, has induced
numberless other architects to apply the same principle to other Gothic
Cathedrals, but without success in a single instance. Those which
approach nearest to it are such buildings as Westminster Abbey,—a
French church built in England; Cologne Cathedral, which is a French
example in Germany; and in like manner all foreign examples approximate
to definite proportions; but it may safely be asserted that no truly
native example of Gothic art was so arranged.
It has, however, long been suspected that the Greeks proceeded on
a totally different principle; but materials did not exist for a
satisfactory elucidation of the question till Mr. Penrose published
his exquisite survey of the Parthenon and other buildings at Athens
made for the Society of Dilettanti, and Mr. Cockerell the result of his
explorations at Bassæ and Egina. In the first-named work, its author
pointed out with sufficient clearness some of the principal ratios of
that celebrated building, which his survey enabled him to verify, and
for others he supplied dimensions which for completeness and accuracy
left nothing to be desired. With these new materials, Mr. Watkiss
Lloyd undertook the investigation, and by a long and careful series
of comparisons he has proved that the time-honoured doctrine of the
Vitruvian school—that the lower diameter of a column was the modulus
of every other part of a building—had no place in Greek art; on the
contrary, that every part of a Greek building was proportioned to those
parts in juxtaposition or analogy to it, in some such ratio as 3 to 4,
4 to 5, 5 to 6, and so on,—not by accident, but by careful study; and
the whole design was evolved from a nexus of proportions as ingenious
in themselves as they were harmonious in their result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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