DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0241
CHAP. I
The Arch
221
and squared masonry carry with them certain natural
suggestions ; the economical evasion of labour in leaving
rough the face of a building-stone is turned to the service
of architectural effect; the projecting buttress, bastion or
tower—used in stone structures as well as brick—has the
Fig. 13.—Battlements crowning an Assyrian wall of bricks.
important merit of enriching an elevation with light-and-
shade, and strongly marked vertical lines which secure the
divisions so necessary in composition; the battlement
breaks the edge of the summit and gives artistic finish to
the whole structure.
§136. The Arch, as derived from Construction in small
materials ; its sesthetic value.
Another important architectural form is arrived at in
the process of construction with small materials such as
bricks or stones, this is the arch.
It is easy to construct walls and solid mounds of clay
or bricks or stones, and so to enclose a space or reach an
elevation, but it is by no means so easy to cover in the
enclosures thus formed, or to contrive chambers in the
midst of the solid masses. Where no additional material
is available, this can only be accomplished by the use of
some form of the arch or vault, a constructive device known
from the remotest antiquity, and used as a rule among all
peoples whose natural building material is clay or brick,
but one which does not play an important part in archi-
The Arch
221
and squared masonry carry with them certain natural
suggestions ; the economical evasion of labour in leaving
rough the face of a building-stone is turned to the service
of architectural effect; the projecting buttress, bastion or
tower—used in stone structures as well as brick—has the
Fig. 13.—Battlements crowning an Assyrian wall of bricks.
important merit of enriching an elevation with light-and-
shade, and strongly marked vertical lines which secure the
divisions so necessary in composition; the battlement
breaks the edge of the summit and gives artistic finish to
the whole structure.
§136. The Arch, as derived from Construction in small
materials ; its sesthetic value.
Another important architectural form is arrived at in
the process of construction with small materials such as
bricks or stones, this is the arch.
It is easy to construct walls and solid mounds of clay
or bricks or stones, and so to enclose a space or reach an
elevation, but it is by no means so easy to cover in the
enclosures thus formed, or to contrive chambers in the
midst of the solid masses. Where no additional material
is available, this can only be accomplished by the use of
some form of the arch or vault, a constructive device known
from the remotest antiquity, and used as a rule among all
peoples whose natural building material is clay or brick,
but one which does not play an important part in archi-