DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42778#0078
42 THE ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT ROME.
slabs or tesserae, and their subsequent grouting and polishing. For
the decoration of the upper portion of walls internally, and of the
vault, glass mosaics were employed, worked sometimes into large
and elaborate pictures.1 We have already described the facing of
burnt brick given to walls built in concrete. This served to enclose
the semi-fluid mixture which was poured in, while the introduction
of bonding courses of tiles running through the wall facilitated
rapid construction. The illustration (Plate XVIII) taken from
a drawing by Choisy shows the brick facing of a concrete wall
(shown in section with its bonding courses at intervals), which was
covered with a cement bed for the marble. The clamps or nails
which hold the slabs of marble in position are always driven in
alongside of a small piece of marble set in the brick facing, no doubt
in order to give the nail a better grip. Slabs of marble, slate or
tile, were bedded in the concrete, against which the marble panels
of large size were fixed. This system was employed in facing the
interior walls of the temples, palaces and thermae. Below is the
hypocaust by which the room was heated, supported on pillars
formed of square tiles.
The Orders.
The description of the Greek orders must be given in chronological
sequence, as one has first to search for the earliest forms known, then
to trace their development till they reached their perfected types,
and lastly to follow their decadence during the Alexandrian period.
Even in this last stage they preserved their rational basis, and formed
still, not only the decorative, but the leading constructive features
of the monuments of which they were part. When, however, we
come to deal with the Roman orders, our position is changed. With
the exception of the Corinthian order, no further development
was possible, and the employment of the modified forms of the
Doric and Ionic orders by the Romans seems to have been dictated
by the extreme simplicity of the former, and by the variety of the
latter. There are few examples in Rome of the Doric order as a
detached column, but it was employed in Pompeii, in Asia Minor,
and in various cities in Syria and North Africa. There are not
many examples either of the Ionic order still existing, but to judge
by the great variety and number of Ionic capitals used up in the
early Christian basilicas of Rome it must at one time have been
1 See Plates L, LII, LIII, from M. Paulin’s Restoration of the Baths of
Diocletian.
H
slabs or tesserae, and their subsequent grouting and polishing. For
the decoration of the upper portion of walls internally, and of the
vault, glass mosaics were employed, worked sometimes into large
and elaborate pictures.1 We have already described the facing of
burnt brick given to walls built in concrete. This served to enclose
the semi-fluid mixture which was poured in, while the introduction
of bonding courses of tiles running through the wall facilitated
rapid construction. The illustration (Plate XVIII) taken from
a drawing by Choisy shows the brick facing of a concrete wall
(shown in section with its bonding courses at intervals), which was
covered with a cement bed for the marble. The clamps or nails
which hold the slabs of marble in position are always driven in
alongside of a small piece of marble set in the brick facing, no doubt
in order to give the nail a better grip. Slabs of marble, slate or
tile, were bedded in the concrete, against which the marble panels
of large size were fixed. This system was employed in facing the
interior walls of the temples, palaces and thermae. Below is the
hypocaust by which the room was heated, supported on pillars
formed of square tiles.
The Orders.
The description of the Greek orders must be given in chronological
sequence, as one has first to search for the earliest forms known, then
to trace their development till they reached their perfected types,
and lastly to follow their decadence during the Alexandrian period.
Even in this last stage they preserved their rational basis, and formed
still, not only the decorative, but the leading constructive features
of the monuments of which they were part. When, however, we
come to deal with the Roman orders, our position is changed. With
the exception of the Corinthian order, no further development
was possible, and the employment of the modified forms of the
Doric and Ionic orders by the Romans seems to have been dictated
by the extreme simplicity of the former, and by the variety of the
latter. There are few examples in Rome of the Doric order as a
detached column, but it was employed in Pompeii, in Asia Minor,
and in various cities in Syria and North Africa. There are not
many examples either of the Ionic order still existing, but to judge
by the great variety and number of Ionic capitals used up in the
early Christian basilicas of Rome it must at one time have been
1 See Plates L, LII, LIII, from M. Paulin’s Restoration of the Baths of
Diocletian.
H