V.

ETRURIA AND ROME.

Etruria was peopled, from remote ages, by the indigenous inhabitants, and by colonizing races from Asia and Greece.

To the latter may be attributed the chief architectural works of the country; the ancient Etruscan walled cities resembling, in their general construction, those of Tiryns and Mycenæ.

Judging from the remains found upon the soil at the present day, the Etruscans used their knowledge of the laws of building principally in the erection of tombs. Of temples there now remain no traces; but, according to Vitruvius, they were composed, as a rule, of the rectangular chamber, or cella, of the Greeks, which was divided into three parts, and preceded by a porch of Tuscan columns. The origin of the latter he describes as follows:

“The Greek colonists, having brought to Etruria, the Tuscany of to-day, their acquaintance with the proportions of the Doric order, which was the only one as yet used in Greece, they employed this order there during a long period, in the same manner as in the country where it originated; but finally they changed it in several respects; they lengthened the column, and added a base to it; they altered the capital, simplified the entablature, and, thus changed, it was adopted by the Romans, under the name of the Tuscan order.”

Etruscan tombs varied with the nature of the districts in which they were erected. In the flat portions of the country they consisted usually of an earthen cone raised upon a circular foundation of masonry, with one or more chambers within for the reception of the dead. The largest of these tumuli was that called the Cucumella, at Vulci.

In the mountains, where material was abundant, it was customary to bury the dead in a square stone chamber, surmounted by a pyramidal roof, and entered by a doorway ornamented with the Greek architrave. There are several examples of these at Castel d’Asso.

A third form of sepulchre was the hypogee, or underground tomb, the entrance to which was marked by a colonnade of the Tuscan order, carved in the face of the rock; the interior apartment being usually rectangular, and reached by a staircase. The walls were decorated with paintings, and the tomb filled with vases, tripods, arms, and other votive offerings. The body was generally either placed in a stone sarcophagus or laid upon a bronze bed. The ceilings in the older tombs were either flat, being cut in the natural rock, with piers left as supports, and ornamented with sunken panels, or constructed of inclined slabs, resting against and sustaining each other.

The corbelled vaults, similar to those of Mycenæ, were employed for a considerable number of these buildings, but were subsequently relinquished for vaults of voussoirs, or wedge-shaped stones. The invention of the semicircular vault, the joints of which converge to a common centre, was long attributed to the Etruscans, but we have seen that recent discoveries have shown that it was already in use in Egypt and Assyria many centuries before.

This principle, however, was the chief feature of Etruscan architecture, and its great legacy to succeeding styles.

Etruria as well as Greece sent artists to Rome, and the conjunction of the methods used in the two countries produced Roman art.

“The Romans took from the Etruscans the semicircular arch, formed of jointed stones; from the populations of the Campagna they obtained the general arrangement of sacred edifices, the Greek orders, the distribution and decoration of private dwellings. They drew thus from two different sources, and endeavoured to unite two principles diametrically opposed to one another—the principle of the Greek lintel and the Etruscan arch. In doing this they show clearly that their ideas upon the arts were but little better than those of pirates, whose acts are actuated by pride rather than by taste, and who adorn themselves in spoils of distinctly different origin, the mingling of which produces unseemly contrasts.”[3]

[3] Entretiens sur l’Architecture.

[Illustration:

COLUMN. ENTABLATURE.

PEDESTAL. BASE. SHAFT. CAPITAL ARCHITRAVE FRIEZE. CORNICE.

WASH. OVOLO. ASTRAGAL. CORONA. ASTRAGAL. CYMA REVERSA. TENIA. FACIA. ABACUS. OVOLO. NECK. ASTRAGAL. FILLET. TORUS. PLINTH. TUSCAN. DORIC.

THE ROMAN ORDERS.]

Illustration:

IONIC. CORINTHIAN.

THE ROMAN ORDERS.]

[Illustration: COMPOSITE.]

In fact, the Greek orders, modified to suit the taste of the Romans, and combined with the Etruscan arch and vault, formed the basis of all Roman architecture. The scale of their buildings, however, was vastly greater than that of those upon which they were modelled. The colonnades of their palaces and the arcades of their aqueducts were to be measured by the mile, the vaults of their baths were of prodigious span, and, in general size and number, the edifices erected by the Romans exceeded anything which had come before them.

The Roman orders were five in number, namely, the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.

The Tuscan we have already examined. The Doric was somewhat more elaborate, having additional mouldings in the capital and base, and the triglyph ornament in the frieze. The Ionic and Corinthian were but modifications of the corresponding Greek orders. The Composite was of the same proportion as the Corinthian, the capital being a combination of the Ionic and Corinthian.

The Corinthian order was the most generally used, its rich character suiting the ostentatious ideas of the Romans. The superposition of columns was a common method of indicating different stories, and different orders were often employed where different-sized columns occurred in the same building.

In plan the Roman buildings were rectangular, polygonal, and circular, or combinations of these geometrical forms. The materials used were local stone, imported marbles and alabaster, and bricks, which were flatter and longer than the form employed at the present day. The Romans excelled in their mortars and cements, which were of a strength sufficient to make their walls virtually of one mass.

In bonding their stone they employed various methods, including those of the Greeks. Of these, a favourite one was the building of exterior faces only, and filling up the intervening space with broken stone and mortar. In order to produce the greatest effect at the least cost, in the use of marble, they resorted to panelling the external surfaces only with thin slabs. Interiors were lined with stucco and frequently ornamented with paintings, and the floors inlaid with mosaic. Roman mouldings were sections of the sphere, differing from the Greek, which were hyperbolas or parabolas.

The chief constructions of the Romans were houses, temples, palaces, amphitheatres, theatres, aqueducts, sewers, baths, triumphal arches, tombs and commemorative structures, camps, bridges, and basilicas.

[Illustration: PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN AT SPALATRO.

(_From Durand._)]

In, and in close proximity to, the Forum Romanum, or Campo Vaccino, are admirable examples of nearly all these different buildings. The level of the ancient market-place is several feet below that of the streets of modern Rome, but in the excavated portions are to be seen the old pavements of irregular stone slabs, laid upon concrete foundations and worn with the wheels of chariots.

Many ruined temples, the arches of Septimius Severus, of Titus and Constantine, the palace of the Cæsars, the Colosseum, and the Baths of Constantine are collected here within a stone’s throw. By taking up each class of buildings separately, however, we will get a better idea of the nature of Roman architecture than by a description of isolated buildings.

Roman houses resembled in a measure the Greek, the different apartments being grouped around inner courts. The rooms consisted of halls, vestibules, banqueting-rooms, and sleeping-chambers, the women not being separated from the men, as was the case in Greece. The courts were surrounded by colonnades and in the centre a well was usually placed, to receive the water from the roofs. Many of the houses were several stories in height, but a limit to their altitude was fixed by decree.

The excavations in Pompeii have uncovered many interesting specimens of private dwellings, richly decorated with several paintings and having elaborate mosaic patterns on their floors.

In the city of Rome the palace of the Cæsars was the most notable example of domestic architecture, but at the present day it is difficult to discern among the débris and fallen walls what its original plan may have been. Some paintings in the so-called house of Livia, upon the plateau of the palace, however, show that the artists of the period had attained a high degree of merit.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE PANTHEON AT ROME]

Roman temples consisted generally of a cella or rectangular apartment, preceded by a porch, the whole being raised on a platform, reached by stairs and enclosed by a colonnade below. Occasionally there was a double cella, with separate entrances and porches, as in that of Venus and Rome; and there are two remaining examples of circular temples—that of Vesta, on the Tiber, in Rome, and of the Sybil, at Tivoli—while still another type, that of the Pantheon of Agrippa, had a circular cella and a rectangular porch.

The Corinthian order was the most frequently employed, that of the temple of Jupiter Stator being the richest, while those of the Pantheon, the Maison Carrée, at Nîmes, and of the temple of Antonine and Faustina are admirable specimens.

This last is one of the best preserved temples, being very nearly entire at the present time; its frieze is of the most refined workmanship, representing allegorical animals, plants, etc.

The temple of Fortuna Virilis is a good example of the Ionic order, but this order was never a favourite with the Romans.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATHS OF AGRIPPA CONNECTING WITH THE PANTHEON, ACCORDING TO PALLADIO.

(_From Durand_)]

A debased form of Ionic is that of the temple of Concord, or Vespasian, where the capital is altered to a considerable extent and a rope moulding added. A remarkable constructional feature of this temple is the relieving arch of brick, concealed behind the frieze, to diminish the weight on the lintel below.

The great drum of the Pantheon, enclosed by a circular vault, is one of the earliest examples of domical architecture. A notable feature in it is the absence of the keystone, which is replaced here by an open ring, leaving an aperture for the entrance of light. The walls are pierced with niches and relieved by immense arches. The pediment of the porch is one of the most perfect remaining; in height its proportion exceeds that of Greek temples.

The temple of Diana, at Nîmes, is a remarkable structure, having three aisles, the central one being decorated with niches and columns, which support an entablature and a ribbed vault.

The ruined temples of Baalbek and of Jupiter Olympius, at Athens, are among the most colossal of this class of building. The Corinthian columns of the latter measure upward of sixty feet, and their capitals are of singularly fine workmanship.

The Emperor Hadrian embellished Athens with numerous and splendid buildings, which to-day have assumed the colour and ruined appearance of the older constructions of the time of Pericles.

Of the temple of Jupiter Olympius there are scarcely more than a dozen columns standing of the original one hundred and twenty. The Turks ground up many of them to make lime for their mortar.

The Romans took their conception of the theatre from the Greeks. The building was composed of two parts, the one devoted to the stage and its accessories, and the other to the accommodation of the audience. The stage was usually in the form of a rectangle, the longer side of which formed the diameter of the semicircle, which was the plan of the second part. The latter was composed of concentric seats in successive steps, to which access was had by stairs radiating from the centre and leading to an upper surrounding gallery. At the foot of these steps a space was reserved called the orchestra (Greek, “dancing place”), usually occupied by the senators. The stage, which was decorated with columns and niches, was raised above the orchestra, and was connected with the actors’ rooms. The wall at the back of the stage was carried up to the level of the circular enclosing wall, and treated with superposed orders. The theatre of Marcellus, in Rome, and those of Herculaneum, Arles, and Orange are among the best examples.

The most celebrated amphitheatre (amphi theatron, Greek, “double theatre”) is that commonly known as the Colosseum, or Flavian Amphitheatre. It is composed of the arena or oval space, occupied by the combatants, and of the “visorium,” formed by concentric seats placed in tiers, one above the other.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN AT BAALBEK.]

It was capable of seating eighty thousand spectators, and upon its arena four thousand gladiators have fought at a time. It was here that before commencing their combats they came to the foot of the emperor’s throne, saluting him with the celebrated cry, “Morituri te salutamus.”

The substructure of the building consists of vaulted passages, communicating with the visorium by numerous staircases, and with the exterior by the doors called “vomitoria.” The arena was surrounded by a ditch of running water, and under it were chambers in which prisoners and animals were confined.

The visorium was divided according to the rank of its occupants. The upper classes occupied the “podium” or lower gallery, which extended on either side of the emperor’s throne, at the extremity of the longer axis of the building. For protection from the elements during performances an immense sail was stretched over the building from posts inserted in stone brackets at the top of the exterior wall.

The heights of the three lower stories of the Colosseum are marked externally by arcades and superposed orders with engaged columns, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, and the fourth and upper one by Corinthian pilasters. The entablatures of each order are carried around the entire circumference of the building.

Architects generally criticise this construction adversely, for “if, on the one hand, the engaged columns might be supposed to serve as buttresses and thus become a useful decoration, it must be admitted, on the other, that the projecting entablatures carried from column to column do more harm than good as regards the solidity of the building. [The architrave having no longer the force of the Greek lintel, being composed of several blocks supported by the arch below.] The Romans, however, did not always falsely apply the true principles of architecture. In the arena of Nîmes, for instance, the two superposed orders which serve as buttresses between the arcades of the two stories on the exterior of that building, are real buttresses. The lower order is composed of projecting piers, the upper order of engaged columns; the cornices follow the contour of each pilaster or column and do not form those projecting belts which are placed so clumsily and uselessly around such buildings as the theatre of Marcellus and the Colosseum of Rome.”[4]

[4] Viollet le Duc.

This amphitheatre was commenced by Vespasian and continued under Titus, who dedicated it in the year 80 A.D. In the ninth century it was half destroyed, and subsequently became a quarry, from which materials were extracted for the construction of the Farnese palace and other buildings.

A large part, however, is standing to-day, having been rescued from total destruction by order of Pope Benoit XIV.

There are celebrated remains of amphitheatres at Verona, Pola, Capua, Arles, and Nîmes. Circuses and Naumachias belong to the same class of buildings, the one serving for chariot and other races, and the other for naval combats. The arena in each was oval in plan and from it rose the successive tiers of broad steps upon which the seats were ranged. At the top a portico decorated with statues enclosed the whole building.

The Circus Maximus was the most important of these, containing numerous splendid statues and obelisks, and covering a vast area.

The aqueducts of ancient Rome stretched for miles across the Campagna. The channel in which the water flowed was supported by one or more arcades, superposed according to the height required. These arcades consisted of round brick arches carried on substantial piers, and were placed where possible upon the highest elevations of the country they traversed. At intervals wide basins were provided for the collection of sediment, and reservoirs received the water at their termination. From the latter pipes supplied the baths and private dwellings.

In France the famous Pont du Gard is a portion of an immense Roman aqueduct formed of three rows of arcades, which supplied the city of Nîmes.

Bridges were constructed on the same principle; the arches increasing their span according to the depth of the piers upon which they rested, being generally of two stories, the upper one having double the number of piers.

The Roman bridges and aqueducts in Spain are among the most justly celebrated, notably those of Segovia, Tarragona, and Alcantara. Bridging rivers by boats was a common method in use by the Roman armies under Julius Cæsar. We have also an account of a wooden bridge over the Danube, constructed by Trajan.

Under every street in Rome there ran vaulted sewers conducting all impurities into the main artery, called the Cloaca Maxima, which in turn discharged its contents into the Tiber. This sewer is one of the oldest examples of the use of voussoirs, dating from the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. It is covered by a triple vault, sustaining the street above.

Agrippa conducted the waters of several streams into the sewers and appointed inspectors to keep them in repair and good order.

In the building of the baths of Rome, Agrippa, Nero, Vespasian, Caracalla, Titus, Diocletian, and Constantine vied with each other in the production of the most magnificent structures. They are to-day in a hopelessly ruined condition, but from the numerous fragments of carved marble and panelled stucco lying on their sites, and from the rich paintings and mosaics of the baths of Titus and Caracalla, it is not difficult to form an idea of their original splendour.

It is not a little significant of what their rich decoration must have been to note that such marvels of statuary as the Laocoon, the Farnese Bull, and the Gladiators have been discovered within them. Besides the necessary administrative rooms, these buildings generally contained a frigidarium or cold bath, a tepidarium or warm bath, and a sudatorium, circular in form and covered in by a dome. The walls, built of brick, were pierced with niches and supported high cross and barrel vaults of immense span. It has been conjectured that the Pantheon was the entrance hall of the baths of Agrippa, the porch having been added at a later period when the building was converted into a temple.

The chief commemorative structures were triumphal arches and votive columns. The former were of two kinds, having either one main arched opening, or a large central arch for vehicles and two lower ones on either side for foot passengers. The arch of Titus in Rome is an example of the first, its main arch being flanked by composite columns, supporting a richly carved entablature, which is in turn surmounted by an attic, inscribed with the dedication to the conqueror by the Senate and Roman people. The bassi relievi employed in its decoration represent the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus; a specially notable feature among the spoils depicted being the golden candelabra with the seven sockets, mentioned in Scripture history.

The arches of Constantine and Septimius Severus are of the second category. They are covered with rich sculpture and are of very beautiful proportion. Famous arches are those of Orange in the south of France, Beneventum, Ancona, Rimini, Pola, and Athens. Everywhere, in fact, where a victory was to be commemorated, or the termination of a great military road to be marked, it was customary to erect an arch.

Another method of paying homage to great men was to erect columns surmounted by their statues. The columns of Trajan and Antoninus in Rome are especially remarkable. The former is the higher and of the best workmanship. The pedestal upon which it rests is ornamented with elaborate carvings representing the arms of conquered nations, and is enriched at the four upper corners of its cornice by imperial eagles with garlands suspended between them. A wreath replaces the torus or round mould at the base of the column, and around the shaft is wound a ribbon of sculpture, representing a triumphal procession, which terminates at the capital. Isolated columns were also often employed for the inscription of legal notices, as boundary-marks, or for marking military limits.

The gates at the entrances of the principal cities were similar to the triumphal arches. There are two especially fine examples in France, those of Autun and Treves. In these the attic story is replaced by a gallery connecting the two flanking wings, which are several stories in height, and contain chambers which it is commonly supposed were used as courts of justice.

Roman camps were regulated and arranged with military precision, and were of two descriptions. The one, erected for temporary use, was defended by a rude palisade of branches and a ditch, the other, the “castra hiberna,” or winter quarters, was generally a permanent structure, built of brick, containing within a square enclosure the barracks, workshops, hospitals, and other necessary buildings. This enclosure was divided by cross-roads, passing through gates in the outer wall. The gate facing the enemy was called the porta prætoria, hence prætorian camp.

Necrological monuments were built in various forms, from the simple tablet to the immense mausoleums of the emperors. Just without the walls of Rome are still to be seen the remains of the sepulchre of Caius Sestius, a large pyramid containing a chamber several feet above the ground level. Farther out, on the Appian Way, is the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, a cylindrical structure upon a square base, of considerable magnitude. The exterior is simple, the only decoration being a series of ox-skulls in the frieze. This building was probably originally surmounted by an earthen cone, after the manner of the Etruscan tombs.

The tomb of Augustus was constructed in a similar manner but on a larger scale. The entrance was preceded by a porch and the exterior walls contained niches. The conical mound above was planted with trees and shrubbery.

The Scipios were buried in stone sarcophagi in a subterranean chamber, which has been but recently discovered.

A curious monument was that of the Horatii, consisting of a rectangular block of masonry, containing the sepulchre, surmounted by four stone cones, grouped around a fifth and higher one. These probably had a symbolical meaning, as a similar structure, called the tomb of Porsenna, is said to have existed in Etruria.

By far the most magnificent building of the kind was the Mausoleum, or Mole of Hadrian, the ruins of which now go by the name of the Castel St. Angelo. The tomb rose conspicuously on the banks above the Tiber, on a square foundation; its two upper stories were circular in plan, and decorated with colonnades and statuary, and the whole was capped by an immense roof, terminated by a pineapple of bronze.

The tombs of St. Helena and St. Costanza were circular structures similar to that of Cæcilia Metella, the cone of earth, however, being replaced by a dome. The interior of the tomb of St. Costanza was divided by columns which sustained a vault connecting with the outer wall.

The practice of burning bodies and preserving their ashes gave rise also to the building of columbariums, rectangular structures containing in their walls receptacles for funereal urns.

In the valley of Jerusalem the hypogee was the form of sepulchre commonly adopted, its entrance being decorated with a colonnade of one of the Roman orders.

Basilicas were the law courts of the Roman people and places of assembly for the transaction of their daily affairs. On the exterior, these buildings were surrounded by numerous courts and porticos, where the merchants assembled daily to discuss their affairs or to await the result of the trials conducted within. In the interior they contained a large hall or nave flanked by side aisles, preceding a transept or further room which was terminated by a semicircular apse. This apse was occupied by the magistrate while presiding in the cases submitted to his decision.

The ruins of the basilicas of Titus and Maxentius remain, at the present day, in sufficient preservation to show that in the one a flat ceiling of timber was employed, and in the other a system of intersecting vaults similar in construction to those of the baths of Caracalla. There are traces of several ancient buildings of this kind, but it is supposed that many were pulled down by the Christians, who erected churches on their sites, using the old basilica as their model.

The plan was, in reality, but an improvement on that of the Roman temple, the side aisles and transepts being naturally developed additions to the older cella to which the apse had been added previously in many examples.

The great administrative power governing the erection of the buildings of Rome was one of the most remarkable features connected with them. Architecture with the Romans was a means to an end, this end being the construction of edifices suiting their requirements and their desire for display. No scope was allowed for individual talent or ingenuity, unless employed in the carrying out of a distinct programme, laid down by those in power; each building forming part of a great scheme, prevailing throughout the conquered world.

In Greece architectural works were produced in the different cities and states under the guidance of independent artists, with the co-operation of their fellow-citizens who were eager to attain the true principles of art; in Rome and the Roman world, art was entirely subservient to a system of politics which ran through all departments.

The vast wealth which flowed into the capital from tributary provinces was the great mainstay which permitted the execution of so many vast and expensive structures, forming a collection never surpassed. Roman art corresponded with the national character, for it was coarse and ostentatious, but at the same time vast and strong. The population of Athens delighted in intellectual pursuits, in philosophy, in art; it crowded the seats on the slope of the Acropolis to enjoy the wit and satire of Æschylus and Sophocles, and the palæstra to witness the development of bodily grace and dexterity, while the Romans flocked to the Colosseum for the enjoyment of scenes of blood and carnage, to gaze upon the slaughter of captives and the anguish of animals. The force of their government, nevertheless, was unquestionable; their patriotism, unlike that of the Greeks, was unaffected by civic jealousies or party feeling; they trod rough-shod upon the nations, but they planted everywhere the imprint of their heroic civilization and made their capital the centre of the world, and left to it, for all ages, the proud appellation of the Eternal City.