III.

ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE.

It would, perhaps, be reasonable to suppose that in India, where the Aryan race had its origin, the earliest traces of dawning art would be found. It has, however, been fairly well established that all remnants of very ancient art, which may have existed there in former times, have now virtually disappeared, and that at present there are no remains in Hindostan of a remoter antiquity than the second or third century before the Christian era.

The architecture of India loses much of its interest for us from the fact of its having had no influence upon the origin or development of the European styles of building, which, starting in Egypt and Assyria, formed a continuous chain, each linked with its predecessor and successor down to modern times.

The Indians were, in fact, never a migratory or colonizing race of people, and their architecture was a distinctly native production, executed in accordance with the rules laid down by the priests in their sacred books, having no affinity with the constructive principles of the Western world and showing no trace of the arts practised by Western nations, except in the slight resemblance of a few mouldings and fragments of sculpture.

The chief structures of the country are temples, pagodas, and dagobas, which are found in many different parts of the peninsular and adjacent islands, resembling each other in general style, but with some local peculiarities which have caused them to be usually classified in certain comprehensive divisions, of which the following are the most important:

The Buddhist style, including the stambhas or lats, a species of commemorative pillar, the stupas or topes, of which the best examples are found at Sarnath and Manikyala, and the viharas of Bengal.

The Dravidian style, exemplified in the temples of Chidambaram, Tanjore, Combaconum, and Madura, and the rock-cut temples of Mahavellipore, and those known as the Kylas at Ellora.

The Indo-Aryan, or Northern, comprising the temples of Kanaruc, Bhuwaneswur, Jajepur, and Cuttack, in the province of Orissa.

The stupas, or dagobas, were a form of structure specially erected for the purposes of Buddhist worship. They were sometimes built in the shape of a square tower upon rising ground, of which that at Sarnath, north of Benares, is the best known. The more important, however, are cylindrical and surmounted by a semicircular dome. These are usually erected on artificial mounds or tumuli, and are constructed either with jointed stones or with rough blocks bedded in cement. The interiors are of solid masonry, with the exception of a small square chamber, used as a repository for sacred emblems, the walls of which are continued up to the top of the dome. The stupa at Manikyala, is of great size, being upward of eighty feet in height, and measuring some three hundred feet in circumference. The base of the building is in the form of a cylinder, six or seven feet high, supporting an attic decorated with pilasters; above this the walls recede, and are capped by a hemispherical dome. There are a great number of dagobas in Ceylon, in the mountainous districts. They are usually placed in a walled enclosure, and surrounded by commemorative pillars. Smaller constructions of the same description are found in the interior of some of the temples, being placed where the baldachins, or altars, would be placed in Christian edifices.

The rock temples of India are of two classes, the one consisting of grottos hollowed in the mountain side, and the other of a series of monolithic buildings cut bodily out of the solid rock, and detached from the surrounding hill plateaus by wide excavated areas.

The former, resembling the speos of Egypt, consists of long galleries, divided into aisles by piers of the natural rock left at regular intervals to sustain the superincumbent mass. A recess or sanctuary is placed at one extremity, containing the statue of the divinity to whom the temple is dedicated. In some cases the interior is terminated by a semicircular apse with a hemispherical vault, and the entrance preceded by a vestibule containing votive figures, the whole forming a plan very similar to that of the Latin basilicas, which will be described in a subsequent chapter. The grottos are frequently excavated in several stories and connected by corridors and ramps.

The walls or sides are ornamented with rude sculptures, representing various forms of animal life and monstrous creations of native fancy. The piers or pillars are generally either square or octagonal, decorated with mouldings and flutings, and having well defined capitals and bases. The capitals usually support a stone beam or bracket, evidently in imitation of those used in wooden construction, in which a similar expedient would be employed to distribute the sustaining power over a wider surface than that directly above the column or post. This imitation of wooden forms, which we have already noticed in Egypt, is found universally in all ancient constructions showing that in nearly every country wooden architecture was employed before stone.

The group known as the Kylas of Ellora, is the finest example of the temples fashioned both inside and outside from the solid rock.

The whole edifice is monolithic and situated in an oblong court formed by a trench excavated “vivo saxo” on the four sides. The exterior surfaces are richly carved, and the piers shaped to represent elephants, lions, and fantastic creatures supporting the superstructure on their backs. The court is entered from a monumental porch, the upper story of which is connected with a small chapel by a bridge. This chapel is flanked by two colossal elephants, and by two columns or towers standing isolated on either side. A second bridge leads from this to the hall of Shiva, the chief room in the suite, which is divided by sixteen columns, with corresponding pilasters on the walls. At the farther extremity is the sanctuary containing the statue of the presiding divinity. Beyond this are open terraces, surrounded by chapels. The great hall is connected laterally with subterranean chambers in the surrounding cliffs, reached also from excavated corridors which follow the perimeter of the court, the mass above being sustained by square piers spaced at short distances apart.

The inside walls are decorated with bass-reliefs and the ceilings ornamented with stucco relievos, which were originally brilliantly painted. The height of the hall of Shiva is about fifty feet, the hillside opposite to it being about ninety feet high.

These temples may be said to be the most remarkable and unique architectural productions to be found anywhere. They are examples of long-continued perseverance and patience, and can only be the result of a preconceived design which must have been thoroughly studied in all its elaborate detail before the first stroke was given toward its realization. The unity of conception and execution exhibited in such works is truly wonderful, and it is not astonishing that the superstitious natives should attribute their creation to Visvakarma, the heavenly architect. On the other hand, there are but few practical lessons to be learned from their examination. Such methods are not possible in our day, nor if so, would they be desirable. Architecture of this kind is scarcely more than wholesale sculpture, and as such can in no sense compare favourably with the grace of form and scientific construction which we see in the works of Greek and Gothic artists.

The Pagodas are the most important of the buildings constructed with jointed materials. They consist of vast enclosures containing numerous religious and domestic edifices. There are often double or triple series of enclosing walls of great height and thickness. The sides are usually placed so as to face the points of the compass and each contains a monumental entrance, richly sculptured, and adorned with bands of embossed copper.

The chief buildings within are the temple proper, or vimana, and a number of hypostylic halls with small sanctuaries dedicated to different divinities.

The form of the vimana differs in the North and South of India. In both cases it is pyramidal, but while in the Southern temples the plan is rectangular and the elevations marked by a series of horizontal stories and mouldings, in the North the exterior surfaces are convex and the outlines curved, showing vertical instead of horizontal divisions. The lower story, containing the idol, is usually a hollow cube of granite, and serves as a base to the pyramid above, which is most frequently built of brick with stucco facing.

The halls are composed of a great number of columns of varied design, placed in parallel rows. The ceilings are formed by stone beams or slabs resting upon the columns. The central aisle is frequently wider than the others and is roofed over by a corbelled vault.

A tank of sacred water surrounded by an open colonnade is not uncommonly placed within the enclosure, the waters being used by the infirm for the healing properties which they are supposed to contain.

The pagodas of Tanjore, Combaconum, and Madura are among the finest and most celebrated. They were built between the fifth and eleventh centuries of the Christian era, and should hardly, therefore, be described among the ancient buildings of the world, were it not that they are linked in with the chain of the older Indian art too closely to be separated from it.

In the period corresponding to the Middle Ages of Europe, Mahometan architecture was introduced in India and many beautiful buildings were erected in a new style blending the foreign art with the native ideas and taste, but offering a marked contrast to that which preceded it. Although China was one of the oldest of civilized countries it contains but few monuments of great antiquity. The temples and palaces, being built of wood, were exposed to fire and decay, and were often pulled down and rebuilt. With the exception of the great wall and of the numerous bridges crossing rivers or arms of the sea, there are no important stone constructions to be found there.

The latter are formed of huge granite piers, spanned by massive stone lintels, requiring the united labour of thousands of men to convey them from the quarries to their destination and to set them in place. In the mountains the ravines are bridged by iron chains suspended from cliff to cliff.

The great wall was built as a frontier protection, and extended the entire length of the boundaries of the country. It has always been kept in repair, although obviously absurd as a fortification in modern times. It is of great thickness, and upward of twenty feet in height. The foundations are of stone, and the upper part of brick with stone facing, the joints of which are extremely accurate. At short intervals there are towers, placed so that the middle distance between any two is within arrow-shot.

Chinese wooden buildings are all much alike, whether temples or palaces. As a rule, they have but one or two stories; they are surrounded by porticos, consisting of wooden columns mounted on stone bases, without capitals, which are replaced by a species of bracket. The roofs project considerably, and their angles are turned up, this form being undoubtedly borrowed from the old tent habitations, which were composed of hides stretched tightly on bamboos. The tiles with which they are covered are semicylindrical in shape and are enamelled with bright colour.

The celebrated taas, or Buddhist towers, are of similar construction. They are generally octagonal, and from six to ten stories high. Each story is set back from the one below, and has a balcony and projecting roof, with bells hung in the angles. The walls are covered with tiles or paintings. A high staff is placed on the top and connected with angles of the roof by chains.

The tower of Nankin, known as the Porcelain Tower, was the most famous. It was erected in 1431, and but recently destroyed.

The Chinese have always excelled in artificial or landscape gardening. In this work they build airy bridges, with open-work balustrades, pavilions highly ornamented and enriched with painting and gilding, and boundary walls with circular openings, disclosing vistas of great beauty.

Their commemorative gateways are of interest, as they have a central opening and a smaller one on each side, like the Roman triumphal arches; the heads are square, however, with brackets in the corners. The upper parts are ornamented with figures in relief and inscriptions recording the virtues of persons to whose memory they are dedicated. Although communication existed between China and the countries bordering upon the Mediterranean from remote ages, Chinese architecture, like the Indian, was without influence upon that of Europe. It is only in Western Asia that the first forms of building are discernible, which were subsequently imitated or followed in European constructions. The most important of these are situated in Mesopotamia, the fertile region comprised between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

The political histories of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia are generally treated separately, but the architecture of each belongs to one style, which may be called the Assyrian, for its distinguishing characteristics remain the same in all the great cities which were in turn the capitals of reconstructed kingdoms and empires.

It may be considered in four chronological divisions: In ancient Babylon, from 2234 B.C. to 1520 B.C., at Wurka and Mugheyr; in Nineveh, from the fourteenth to the seventh century B.C., at Nimrod, Khorsabad, and Koyoundjik; in the second Babylon, during the seventh century and after the capture of the latter by Cyrus in the year 538 B.C., in Persia, at Persepolis, Passargadæ, and Susa. A renaissance of the art may be traced in Sassanian buildings erected eight centuries later.

The citadels, palaces, and other important structures of these cities were usually built upon artificial mounds or terraces, strengthened by massive walls. The materials used were bituminous bricks, cemented with bitumen, slabs of gypsum anchored with copper nails and bands, and timber for roofs and columns. Stone and gypsum or alabaster were employed in Nineveh and in the cities of Persia. In Babylon the only available material was bituminous clay, and consequently all the buildings there were built of brick. At the present day nothing remains of these but irregular mounds, from which but little can be gathered toward an understanding of what their appearance was when entire.

Wood was probably used to a great extent, and was naturally most easily destroyed by the fire of invading armies. The roofs, formed of thick layers of earth carried on beams, in falling in, buried the lower portions of buildings, and it is probably due to this fact that the bass-reliefs have been preserved.

The surfaces of the bricks were frequently enamelled in colours, and the wood-work was probably brilliantly painted, as traces of pigments have been found upon the more durable materials.

But little was known of Assyrian art prior to 1843, when the excavations of Botta, the French consul at Mosul, followed soon after by those conducted by Layard, brought to light many ruined buildings, in which bass-reliefs, inscribed stones and metals, and other important relics were found, enabling historians to form a consecutive account of the government, warfare, and arts practised by a people whose cities have lain buried and whose very name has almost been forgotten for over two thousand years.

The explorations were made in Nimrod, Koyoundjik, and Khorsabad. The palace of Asshur-bani-pal, erected at Nimrod, in the ninth century B.C., is situated upon a terrace, or platform, approached by a wide staircase, and preceded by two gates decorated with winged bulls.

These winged bulls, or lions, were placed as the guardian deities, at the portals of all the great Assyrian palaces, after the manner of the Egyptian sphinxes, not standing isolated like these, however, but built into the masonry, one side or the front and one side only, being carved. The head was human, with long beard and hair, and surmounted by a helmet, the wings large and proportioned to the body. As Sir Henry Layard remarks, it would have been difficult to find more fitting symbols to express at once the wisdom, power, and ubiquity of a supreme being.

The chief apartments of the palace are a large assembly hall, 152 feet in length by 30 feet in width, and a number of smaller chambers and banqueting-halls, ranged around an open court. The walls of the great hall were decorated with bass-reliefs, representing triumphal processions, carved upon slabs of gypsum eight feet in height.

The palace of Esarhaddon, erected in the seventh century, on the same terrace, contains a large hall, 165 by 62 feet, divided in its length by a wall, surmounted by a gallery of columns. One of the only well-preserved ramps which has been discovered was that leading to this palace.

At Koyoundjik, opposite Mosul, the palace of Sennacherib was found at the Southwest corner of a mound a mile and a half in circumference. It contained a vast number of courts and halls, decorated with bass-reliefs and winged bulls, and two colossal statues.

The palace of Sargon at Khorsabad, erected in the year 704 B.C., is among the best preserved. Like the others it is placed upon an artificial terrace, enclosed by a wall a mile long on each side. It was defended by a citadel of eight towers with doors flanked by winged bulls. The palace was reached by a long, narrow passage leading to a court and entered through three great gates. The bulls of the central portal were 19 feet high. On each side were two bulls, 13 feet high, with the figure of a giant strangling a lion between them.

The halls and chambers were grouped around two great courts measuring about 350 by 200 feet. The hareem formed a separate set of buildings, as did also the stables and outhouses. The walls were of great thickness, evidently for coolness. They were decorated with slabs of alabaster, enamelled tiles, and designs painted on stucco.

There has been much speculation on the method of roofing these rooms, some believing that circular vaults were employed and others that wooden beams, supported on wooden columns, similar to the stone ones found in Persian palaces, were used for this purpose. The latter theory seems the more probable, as the local manner of building is the same as this at the present day. No traces of columns remain, however, and the spans are in many cases too great to be roofed by single pieces of timber. One of the most interesting discoveries made at Khorsabad was the gate of the city, the jambs supporting a semicircular arch over a span of eighteen feet. The gate was a double one having two separate passages, one for vehicles and the other for pedestrians: the marks of chariot-wheels still remaining in the pavement of the former. The sides were ornamented with winged bulls, and the archivolts of the arches were decorated with blue and yellow designs in enamelled tiles.

It had been long supposed that the Etruscans were the first to make use of the true semicircular arch (_i.e._, formed of wedge-shaped stones or bricks, with joints radiating to a common centre), but this discovery, and the finding of pointed arches in the sewers of Babylon, by Layard, places the date when both these expedients were known, at a much remoter period, though even these are probably much later than the examples found in Egypt.

No complete example of a Chaldean temple has been found, but there are several the lower stories of which are sufficiently well preserved to give an accurate idea of their size and details, and in the tomb of Cyrus at Passagardæ, in Persia, we have probably a model on a small scale of one of these buildings when entire. This tomb consists of a platform of six steps, eighteen feet high, surmounted by a rectangular chamber. The latter has a doorway and a ridged roof abutting against pediments.

It has been surmised that all the temples were like this, consisting of a chamber or cella built on the summit of a several-storied structure, each story being either concentric and reached by a ramp winding around the four sides or placed farther to one side than that immediately below it and approached by straight flights of stairs.

The oldest is probably that at Wurka, dating as far back as 2000 B.C., known as the Bowariyeh. There are the remains of two stories, the lower occupying about 200 square feet. It is probable that a third story or a cella was placed above these, but nothing positive can be said on the subject, owing to the extremely ruinous condition of the building. The temple of Birs Nimroud, probably identical with the tower of Babel, is in a more satisfactory condition, the upper story having been preserved by a process of vitrification. The lowest story occupies a square measuring 272 feet on the side, each of the upper ones, of which it is supposed there were originally six, being 42 feet less.

For the materials used in its construction we have the scriptural authority: “Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar” (Gen. xi.); slime being probably bitumen.

M. Place discovered the remains of a tower at Khorsabad, with a winding ramp, which he thinks was originally seven stories in height. The walls were strengthened with buttresses and decorated with sunken panels, and from traces of colour found upon them it has been supposed that each floor was painted in a different hue. The area covered by the base is about one hundred and fifty square feet, and the total height was probably one hundred and thirty-five feet.

The ruins of Persepolis are the best preserved of the ancient Persian buildings, those at Susa and Passagardæ being in too bad a condition to offer much that is interesting.

They are situated in the plain of Mardacht, upon a terrace partly formed of masonry, and partly cut in the rock of the adjoining range of hills. The wall is composed of huge blocks of stone fitted together without mortar, but with the finest of joints. The terrace is reached by a splendid double flight of steps, upward of twenty feet in width, and on a grade easy enough to permit of the passage of long processions without interruption. At the head of the stairs is a propylæum, or outer gate, flanked by colossal human-headed bulls. Beyond this, a second staircase, ornamented with a triple row of bass-reliefs, gives access to the Chehil Minar, or great hall of Xerxes.

This building occupies a rectangle about three hundred and fifty feet long by three hundred in width. It consists chiefly of a central hall and three lateral porticos, the roofs of which were sustained by 72 columns, 36 in the hall and 12 in each of the porches.

Thirteen of these are still standing, and the position of all the others is well defined by broken bases or shafts. They are of two different kinds, the one having a capital composed of double-headed bulls, and the other a capital with volutes, not placed horizontally as we see them in classical columns, but vertically and resting on a complicated series of mouldings. These last may have been also surmounted by the double-headed bulls, as without such an addition the columns are shorter than the others, which measure 67 feet 4 inches. The beams which they sustained, rested upon the body of the bull between the two heads.

The shafts of the columns at Persepolis are fluted and taper upward from the bases, which are elaborately ornamented with mouldings.

It is probable that the Greek Ionic capital was derived directly from the Persian voluted model, as the order originated in the Greek colony in Asia Minor.

The Chehil Minar is the finest building on the platform, the other halls of Darius and Xerxes being smaller, and though a hall containing 100 columns has been found, it is inferior in height, the total altitude not exceeding twenty-five feet.

The hall of Darius contained sixteen columns, forming a square, preceded by a portico with eight more. The walls have long since disappeared, but the façade of the building is reproduced upon the face of the rock-cut tomb of Darius in the neighbouring hill called Naksh-i-Rustam, so that a restoration of the structure as it originally appeared is easily made.

This tomb shows the four front columns of the porch with double-headed capitals, sustaining an entablature, above this is placed an attic decorated with bass-reliefs and a figure is represented standing on the top in the act of sacrificing on an altar.

The stone buildings of Persia are generally supposed to be reproductions of the wooden constructions of Assyria, as the character of the art is similar in both, the bass-reliefs and winged bulls of Persepolis being practically identical with those of Nineveh.

We find no traces of Assyrian art for several centuries after the erection of the buildings just described, though it is probable that it had influence in all Eastern edifices erected during the interval, not only in Asia, but in Greece and later in Byzance. There was evidently a revival of Assyrian taste during the dynasty of Sassanian kings who reigned between the third and seventh centuries of our era. The remnants of their palaces are found at Firouzabad, Al Hadhr, Serbistan, Ctesiphon, and Mashita, where we find large halls vaulted and domed and ornamented in a manner directly traceable to the ancient buildings in Assyria. The chief peculiarity of these structures lies in the use of the horseshoe or elliptical arch, which is found nowhere else. The porch of the Tak-Kesra at Ctesiphon consists of a great elliptical tunnel-vault, 115 feet deep, 85 feet high, over a span of 72 feet.

There is more or less Roman influence in the details of the Sassanian palaces, but it is not altogether certain whether the knowledge of domical construction which they exhibit was derived from, or was not itself parent to, Byzantine art.

Comparatively little is known concerning this Assyrian style, but it contains interesting elements, and it may be that its constructive forms are susceptible of a greater development in our own time.

Asia Minor, Palestine, and Cyprus are fields covered with the evidences of the glory of past ages, but the ruin and desolation everywhere is complete. The case of the temple of Jerusalem, where not one stone remains upon another, applies in most instances in places which have formerly been great cities, filled with magnificent buildings which were their pride in the day of their prosperity.

The temple of Solomon was situated upon Mount Moriah, and was built to accommodate the Levites, to offer a place of assembly for the people, and as a temple for the worship of the priests. The two sanctuaries were richly decorated with polished cedar and gold, with columns and cornices of bronze, and divided by linen curtains embroidered with purple and scarlet.

The peculiar formation of the hill upon which it was built, required immense walls of the most substantial character to be raised from the valley below to enlarge its summit, so as to afford sufficient space for the erection of the various courts. “It was built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building” (2 Kings vi., 7).

The temple itself is supposed to have been 60 cubits long, the porch 20 cubits, the Holy place 20 cubits; the width was 20 cubits and the height 30 cubits. The porch, however, was 120 cubits high. (The cubit is estimated to equal from 10 to 20 inches.)

The temple underwent several profanations, and at last was utterly destroyed in the reign of Jedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar, 580 B.C. After laying in ruins 42 years, the foundation of the second temple was laid by Zerubbabel and in breadth and height was double that of Solomon’s. This second temple was plundered and profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, and afterward rebuilt by Herod. It was considerably larger than its predecessor and was made of marble and of the most costly workmanship. It became the admiration and envy of the world, but, as our Lord predicted (Mark xiii., 2), it was completely demolished by Titus, A.D. 70.

Many restorations of the temples of the Greek colonists in Ionia have been attempted, but they are based on historical descriptions, inscriptions on coins, and other uncertain records, and are too conjectural to be accepted as accurate. There are, in fact, but few architectural remains sufficiently well preserved to be of interest to the architect, excepting the temples at Baalbek and Palmyra which are of the Roman period.

There are several groups of tombs, the most important being in Lycia.

These are of interest, as they illustrate more completely the transition between wooden and stone building than any other examples. There are two kinds, the one consisting of sarcophagi standing isolated, and the other of excavations in the mountain-sides. The former are composed of a stylobate or pedestal, serving as a base to a coffer ornamented with uprights and cross-pieces and panelled doors imitating exactly a wooden original. The roofs are curved, having in section the form of a pointed arch, being probably the earliest instances of its employment as a decorative feature.

The tombs cut in the face of the rock are of a similar description, having the same carpentry framework. The upper parts are terminated by a low pediment or by a row of stone logs supporting a horizontal moulding.

Later on during the Greek occupation, these wooden forms were abandoned and replaced by porticos of the Ionic order.

In various parts of Asia Minor, there are remains of tombs similar to these erected by the Pelasgi and Etruscans, which will be described in another chapter.