DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26532#0134
OF THE ELEMENTS OF
§. 3. II. The description of a column is partly taken frorri
the form of a tree, and partly from the human figure: from
the one it derives its Swelling, from the other its diminution.
The flutes and grooves imitate the folding of drapery: the
plaits of the men’s clokes (for the Greek column is masculine)
were mostly made strait: those of the women’s robes were
sometimes twilled ; an imitation of which may be seen in a
temple near the river Trebia. That the shaft may be sculp-
tured seems defensible by its resemblance to the tree with its'
bark on.
4. III. Buildings should be uniform ; i. e. as they Should
be strong so they should shew their firmness. Those that are
elegant should be conspicuously so. On which account the
more delicate order of pillars (if there be more than one)
should be placed upon the larger Order : twilled columns*
which are called Cartouches,* and Shafts braced with rings, as
if they had been broken and repaired, should be avoided by all
means. It may be asked, if a sluted shaft is not inferior to a
plain pillar by this rule; it is certain that perpendicular channels
are preferable to those that are twilled.
Too much carved work is destrudlive of elegance; if it
projects tco much it seems to burden the building, and threaten
its ruin. The Sculpture lately to be seen in the Baths of Dio-
clesian in the Corinthian Style, though of exquisite workman-
ship, was a fault rather than a beauty. Artists in the classicai
age of Augustus were Sparing of Sculpture. The style which is
called the August, and is really so, consists of a few Small parts
distindt from one another, of accurate and bold Symmetry, with
little carving. At Rome in the Basilica f of Antoninus, or ra-
ther in the Temple of Mars,' the sreeze which is pulvinated,
is placed between two reglets or lists; by this means it is
* The word in the Original is from the Italian term Cartoccio, which signifies a
scroll os paper.
4 A term for any large building, church, palace, &c.
conspicuous
§. 3. II. The description of a column is partly taken frorri
the form of a tree, and partly from the human figure: from
the one it derives its Swelling, from the other its diminution.
The flutes and grooves imitate the folding of drapery: the
plaits of the men’s clokes (for the Greek column is masculine)
were mostly made strait: those of the women’s robes were
sometimes twilled ; an imitation of which may be seen in a
temple near the river Trebia. That the shaft may be sculp-
tured seems defensible by its resemblance to the tree with its'
bark on.
4. III. Buildings should be uniform ; i. e. as they Should
be strong so they should shew their firmness. Those that are
elegant should be conspicuously so. On which account the
more delicate order of pillars (if there be more than one)
should be placed upon the larger Order : twilled columns*
which are called Cartouches,* and Shafts braced with rings, as
if they had been broken and repaired, should be avoided by all
means. It may be asked, if a sluted shaft is not inferior to a
plain pillar by this rule; it is certain that perpendicular channels
are preferable to those that are twilled.
Too much carved work is destrudlive of elegance; if it
projects tco much it seems to burden the building, and threaten
its ruin. The Sculpture lately to be seen in the Baths of Dio-
clesian in the Corinthian Style, though of exquisite workman-
ship, was a fault rather than a beauty. Artists in the classicai
age of Augustus were Sparing of Sculpture. The style which is
called the August, and is really so, consists of a few Small parts
distindt from one another, of accurate and bold Symmetry, with
little carving. At Rome in the Basilica f of Antoninus, or ra-
ther in the Temple of Mars,' the sreeze which is pulvinated,
is placed between two reglets or lists; by this means it is
* The word in the Original is from the Italian term Cartoccio, which signifies a
scroll os paper.
4 A term for any large building, church, palace, &c.
conspicuous