DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26532#0026
IV
INTRODUCTION,
to attainable perfection, that the records os thema
come down to the present time, have shewn them
any where to have arrived. Three of the universally
received Orders of Architecture bear the name of
Grecian, in acknowledgment of the country where
they originated, at least whence the Romans received
them.
The present Canons of Architecture seem to have
been sormed upon the remains of Roman magnifi-
cence, carried to its summit, in this kind, during the
reign of Augustus. What examples os that magni-
ficence the devastation of the seat of Empire, involv-
ing the ruin os its proudest monuments, had left
Handing at the revival of the Arts, it was the first
business os imitative ability to conlult. —-The mea-
surement and comparison of these imperial frag-
ments, in their whole and in their parts, gave rise to
the earliest labours; the variable proportion, com-
bination and ornament, of their parts engaged the
hi st studies; and the resulting judgment of the best
forms, producible from these varied combinations
and proportions, determined the subsequent practice
cl those Mailers, whose strudtures and writings are
now resorted to, as of decistve authority for their
Successors.
Their vicinity to the best remaining models gave
the natives of Italy the priority to those of other
countries, in the recovery of the arts os Painting,
Sculpture and Architecture : but it would be injust
tice to suppose, that to this advantage alone they
owe their allowed superiority in them. Like the
Greeks^
INTRODUCTION,
to attainable perfection, that the records os thema
come down to the present time, have shewn them
any where to have arrived. Three of the universally
received Orders of Architecture bear the name of
Grecian, in acknowledgment of the country where
they originated, at least whence the Romans received
them.
The present Canons of Architecture seem to have
been sormed upon the remains of Roman magnifi-
cence, carried to its summit, in this kind, during the
reign of Augustus. What examples os that magni-
ficence the devastation of the seat of Empire, involv-
ing the ruin os its proudest monuments, had left
Handing at the revival of the Arts, it was the first
business os imitative ability to conlult. —-The mea-
surement and comparison of these imperial frag-
ments, in their whole and in their parts, gave rise to
the earliest labours; the variable proportion, com-
bination and ornament, of their parts engaged the
hi st studies; and the resulting judgment of the best
forms, producible from these varied combinations
and proportions, determined the subsequent practice
cl those Mailers, whose strudtures and writings are
now resorted to, as of decistve authority for their
Successors.
Their vicinity to the best remaining models gave
the natives of Italy the priority to those of other
countries, in the recovery of the arts os Painting,
Sculpture and Architecture : but it would be injust
tice to suppose, that to this advantage alone they
owe their allowed superiority in them. Like the
Greeks^