Page images
PDF
EPUB

ed above, namely, a tendency in man, to advance every thing to its perfection, and to its conclufion. If, for example, I fee a thing obfcurely in a dim light and by disjointed parts, that tendency prompts me to connect the disjointed parts into a whole : I fuppofed it to be, for example, a horfe; and my eye-fight being obedient to the conjecture, I immediately perceive a horfe, almost as diftinctly as in day-light. This principle is applicable to the cafe in hand. The moft fuperb front, at a great distance, appears a plain furface: approaching gradually, we begin firft to perceive inequalities, and then pillars; but whether round or fquare, we are uncertain: our curiofity anticipating our progrefs, cannot reft in fufpenfe: being prompted by the tendency mentioned, to fuppofe the most complete pillar, or that which is the most agreeable to the eye, we immediately perceive, or feem to perceive, a number of columns: if upon a near approach we find pilafters only, the difap. pointment makes thefe pilafters appear difagreeable; when abftracted from that circumítance, they would only have appeared fomewhat lefs agreeable. But as this deception cannot happen in the inner front inclofing a court, I fee no reafon for excluding pilafters from fuch a front, when there is any caufe for preferring them before columns.

With refpect now to the parts of a column, à bare uniform cylinder without a capital, appears naked; and without a bafe, appears too ticklifhly placed to ftand firm it ought therefore to have fome finishing at the top and at the bottom. Hence the three chief parts of a column, the fhaft, the bafe and the capital. Nature undoubtedly requires proportion

* Chap. 4.

among

+A column without a bafe is difagreeable, becaufe it feems in a tot tering condition; yet a tree without a bafe is agreeable; and the reason is, that we know it to be firmly rooted. This obfervation fhows how much talle is influenced by refleâion.

among these parts, but it admits variety of proportion. I fufpect that the proportions in ufe have been influenced in fome degree by the human figure; the capital being conceived as the head, the bafe as the feet. With refpect to the bafe, indeed, the principle of utility interpofes to vary it from the human figure: the base must be fo proportioned to the whole, as to give the column the appearance of stability.

We find three orders of columns among the Greeks, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian, distinguished from each other by their destination as well as by their ornaments. It has been warmly difputed, whether any new order can be added to these : fome hold the affirmative, and give for inftances the Tufcan and Compofite: others deny, and maintain that these properly are not diftinct orders, but only the original orders with fome flight variations. Among writers who do not agree upon any ftandard for distinguishing the different orders from each other, the dispute can never have an end. What occurs to me on this fubject is what follows.

The only circumstances that can ferve to distinguish one order from another, are the form of the column, and its deftination. To make the first a diftinguishing mark, without regard to the other, would multiply thefe orders without end for a colour is not more fufceptible of different fhades, than a column is of different forms. Deftination is more. limited, as it leads to diftinguifh columns into three kinds or orders; one plain and ftrong, for the purpofe of fupporting plain and maffy buildings; one delicate and graceful, for fupporting buildings of that character; and between thefe, one for fupporting buildings of a middle character. This diflination, which regards the different purposes of a columa, is pot naturally liable to any objection, confidering that

it tends alfo to regulate the form, and in fome meafure the ornaments of a column. To enlarge the divifion by taking in a greater variety of purposes, would be of little ufe, and, if admitted, would have no end; for from the very nature of the foregoing divifion, there can be no good reafon for adding a fourth order, more than a fifth, a fixth, &c. without any poffible circumfcription.

To illuftrate this doctrine, I make the following obfervation. If we regard deftination only, the Tufcan is of the fame order with the Doric, and the Composite with the Corinthian; but if we regard form merely, they are of different orders.

The ornaments of thefe three orders ought to be fo contrived as to make them look like what they are intended for. Plain and ruftic ornaments would be not a little difcordant with the elegance of the Corinthian order; and ornaments fweet and delicate no lefs fo, with the ftrength of the Doric. For that reafon, I am not altogether fatisfied with the ornaments of the laft mentioned order: if they be not too delicate, they are at leaft too numerous for a pillar in which the character of utility prevails over that of beauty. The crowding of ornaments would be more fufferable in a column of an oppofite character. But this is a flight objection, and I wish I could think the fame of what follows. The Corinthian order has been the favourite of two thoufand years, and yet cannot force myself to relish its capital. The invention of this florid capital is afcribed to the fculptor Callimachus, who took a hint from the plant Acanthus, growing round a basket placed accidentally upon it; and in fact the capital under confideration reprefents pretty accurately a basket fo ornamented. This object, or its imitation in ftone, placed upon a pillar, may look well; but to make it the capital of a pillar intended

I

intended to fupport a building, must give the pillar an appearance inconfiftent with its deftination: an Acanthus, or any tender plant, may require fupport, but is altogether infufficient to fupport any thing heavier than a bee or a butterfly. This capital must alfo bear the weight of another objection to reprefent a vine wreathing round a column with its root feemingly in the ground, is natural; but to represent an Acanthus, or any plant, as growing on the top of a column, is unnatural. The elegance of this capital did probably at first draw a vail over its impropriety; and now by long use it has gained an establishment, refpected by every artist. Such is the force of cuf tom, even in contradiction to nature!

It will not be gaining much ground to urge, that the basket, or vafe, is underftood to be the capital, and that the stems and leaves of the plant are to be confidered as ornaments merely; for, excepting a plant, nothing can be a more improper fupport for a great building than a basket or vafe even of the firmeft texture.

With refpect to buildings of every fort, one rule, dictated by utility, is, that they be firm and ftable. Another rule, dictated by beauty, is, that they alfo appear fo: for what appears tottering and in hazard of tumbling, produceth in the spectator the painful emotion of fear, instead of the pleasant emotion of beauty; and, accordingly, it is the great care of the artift, that every part of his edifice appear to be well fupported. Procopius, defcribing the church of St. Sophia in Conftantinople, one of the wonders of the world, mentions with applaufe a part of the fabric placed above the eaft front in form of a half-moon, fo contrived as to infpire both fear and admiration for though, fays he, it is perfectly well fupported, yet it is fufpended in fuch a manner as if it were to tumble down the next moment.. This conceit is a fort of falfe

falfe wit in architecture, which men were fond of in the infancy of the fine arts. A turret jutting out from an angle in the uppermoft ftory of a Gothic tower, is a witticifm of the fame kind.

To fucceed in allegorical or emblematic ornaments, is no flight effort of genius; for it is extremely difficult to difpofe them fo in a building as to produce any good effect. The mixing them with realities, makes a miserable jumble of truth and fiction.* In a baffo relievo on Antonine's pillar, rain obtained by the prayers of a Chriftian legion, is expreffed by joining to the group of foldiers a rainy Jupiter, with water in abundance falling from his head and beard. De Piles, fond of the conceit, carefully informs his reader, that he must not take this for a real Jupiter, but for a fymbol which among the Pagans fignified rain he never once confiders, that a fymbol or embiem ought not to make part of a group reprefenting real objects or real events; but be fo detached, as even at first view to appear an emblem. But this is not all, nor the chief point: every emblem ought to be rejected that is not clearly expreffive of its meaning; for if it be in any degree obfcure, it puzzles, and doth not pleafe. The temples of Ancient and Modern Virtue the gardens of Stow, appear not at firft view emblematical; and when we are informed that they are fo, it is not eafy to gather their mcaning the fpectator fees one temple entire, another in rains; but without an explanatory infcription, he may gucfs, but cannot be certain, that the former being dedicated to Ancient Virtue, the latter to Modern Virtue, are intended a fatire upon the present times. On the other hand, a trite emblem, like a trite fimile, is difguftful. Nor ought an emblem more than a fimile to be founded on low of

*See chap. so. felt. 5.

+ See chap. 8.

« PreviousContinue »