DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4327#0058
APPENDIX No. I.
MEMOIR ON THE PROPORTIONS OF THE IONIC TEMPLES OF PRIENE,
TEOS, AND THE SMINTHEUM.
PRIENE.
The charm of Greek architecture has always been recog-
nized as appealing to a sense of refined proportion, and its
varied forms of expressive beauty, as graceful or majestic,
elegant or imposing, to be largely dependent on appro-
priate proportional variations. Still further, a conviction
has long been prevalent that the Greek architects in per-
fecting their designs were not content to rely upon an
indefinite and general sense of proportion, but must have
corrected them by the application of some system derived
from rational scientific principles. Greek architecture has
been called petrified music, and the metaphor is by no
means incongruous. The human voice, no doubt, can be
pitched harmoniously by a natural sense of delightful
effect, and the eye may catch, and in like manner the
hand may trace, very happy combinations of lines and
magnitudes independently of a theory; the pleasurable
and expressive effect in both cases is dependent on certain
natural laws, but the full mastery of these is necessary if
we are to hope for sustained and elaborate effects, for purity
and finish, in either art. The eye is as spontaneously
delighted by harmonious architecture as the ear by the
harmonies educed from a musical instrument, but the
instrument is only fitted to yield harmonious combinations
in virtue of scientifically calculated dimensions and adjust-
ments ; and the architectural instrument, so to speak, is
not exempt from the like obligations.
The treatises in which several Greek architects deve-
loped their systems are lost, and the rules which are given
by Vitruvius do not justify themselves either by any
natural propriety or by agreement with a single Greek
building. Viollet le Due, in his dictionary of architecture
(Art. " Echelle "), expresses the difficulty of the problem
though he does not venture to attempt its solution :—
"Nous ignorons le mecanisme de l'architecture grecque;
nous ne pouvons que constater ses resultats sans avoir
decouvert, jusqu'a present, ses formules. Nous reconnais-
sons bien qu'il existe un module, des tonalites differentes,
des regies mathematiques, mais nous n'en possedons la
clef, et Vitruve ne peut guere nous aider en ceci, car
lui-meme ne semble pas avoir ete initio aux formules de
l'architecture grecque des beaux temps, et ce qu'il dit au
sujet des ordres n'est pas d'accord avec les exemples
laissees par ses maitres. Laissons done ce probleme a
resoudre," &c.
Considerations of purpose and convenience, and regard
to the nature of the materials to be employed, as wood or
marble, furnish ever certain limits of proportion to the
o
architect, but also with such wide margin of variation as
not ever to decide dimensions absolutely; it is vain to
expect from these conditions alone the evolution of exqui-
site expression and faultless beauty; these must have their
origin in a mental conception, a birth of imagination ; but
if they are to be "turned to shape" and endowed with a
" local habitation," the artist has need of all the assistance
that can be derived from a theory drawn from the essential
conditions and characteristics of his art.
The supreme beauty of the Parthenon has ever certified
most absolutely that, whatever was the system by which its
proportions were regulated, it must have had as true a
scientific basis as that which governs the harmonious divi-
sion of the monochord. This building, therefore, of which
the measurements have been obtained by Mr. Penrose,
with the utmost completeness and accuracy, represents the
illustrations of a treatise of which the text is lost. The
importance and advantage of the study of it from this
point of view can scarcely be over-estimated. The first
condition for success in this study appears to be to realise
by independent study of the problem of architectural pro-
portion what are the structural terms a variable proportion
between Avhich would naturally have most effect upon
architectural expression ? When the value of a few such
tests has been thoroughly certified, we have guidance as to
the points at which to search for exact proportional adjust-
ments in the great normal exemplar; the proof of the
correctness of our original rigorous analysis is given by
the firstfruits of its application being the acquisition of
hints and instruction for perfecting still further our instru-
ment of inquiry.
It is with the assistance of certified results from assiduous
study of the chief monument of Athenian architecture that
the present inquiry has been undertaken. It may be stated
at once that the prosecution of this has brought home the
conviction that in architecture, as in literature, it was at
Athens that Greek genius attained its ultimate perfection.
Neither in Sicily nor on the eastern coast of the iEgean
do we find that the canons which the architects of the
Parthenon discovered rather than invented are consistently
recognized and strictly applied, and the crowning grace
and last refinements of beautiful proportion are in conse-
quence wanting.
There are indications however in the buildings which we
are now concerned with of a much closer approximation
to Athenian principles than can be credited to the Sicilians.
It is not impossible that the Ionian architects may have
had some elaborated system of their own, and have been
prepared to vindicate it as an improvement. So far as any
glimpses of such a system betray themselves, it has the
MEMOIR ON THE PROPORTIONS OF THE IONIC TEMPLES OF PRIENE,
TEOS, AND THE SMINTHEUM.
PRIENE.
The charm of Greek architecture has always been recog-
nized as appealing to a sense of refined proportion, and its
varied forms of expressive beauty, as graceful or majestic,
elegant or imposing, to be largely dependent on appro-
priate proportional variations. Still further, a conviction
has long been prevalent that the Greek architects in per-
fecting their designs were not content to rely upon an
indefinite and general sense of proportion, but must have
corrected them by the application of some system derived
from rational scientific principles. Greek architecture has
been called petrified music, and the metaphor is by no
means incongruous. The human voice, no doubt, can be
pitched harmoniously by a natural sense of delightful
effect, and the eye may catch, and in like manner the
hand may trace, very happy combinations of lines and
magnitudes independently of a theory; the pleasurable
and expressive effect in both cases is dependent on certain
natural laws, but the full mastery of these is necessary if
we are to hope for sustained and elaborate effects, for purity
and finish, in either art. The eye is as spontaneously
delighted by harmonious architecture as the ear by the
harmonies educed from a musical instrument, but the
instrument is only fitted to yield harmonious combinations
in virtue of scientifically calculated dimensions and adjust-
ments ; and the architectural instrument, so to speak, is
not exempt from the like obligations.
The treatises in which several Greek architects deve-
loped their systems are lost, and the rules which are given
by Vitruvius do not justify themselves either by any
natural propriety or by agreement with a single Greek
building. Viollet le Due, in his dictionary of architecture
(Art. " Echelle "), expresses the difficulty of the problem
though he does not venture to attempt its solution :—
"Nous ignorons le mecanisme de l'architecture grecque;
nous ne pouvons que constater ses resultats sans avoir
decouvert, jusqu'a present, ses formules. Nous reconnais-
sons bien qu'il existe un module, des tonalites differentes,
des regies mathematiques, mais nous n'en possedons la
clef, et Vitruve ne peut guere nous aider en ceci, car
lui-meme ne semble pas avoir ete initio aux formules de
l'architecture grecque des beaux temps, et ce qu'il dit au
sujet des ordres n'est pas d'accord avec les exemples
laissees par ses maitres. Laissons done ce probleme a
resoudre," &c.
Considerations of purpose and convenience, and regard
to the nature of the materials to be employed, as wood or
marble, furnish ever certain limits of proportion to the
o
architect, but also with such wide margin of variation as
not ever to decide dimensions absolutely; it is vain to
expect from these conditions alone the evolution of exqui-
site expression and faultless beauty; these must have their
origin in a mental conception, a birth of imagination ; but
if they are to be "turned to shape" and endowed with a
" local habitation," the artist has need of all the assistance
that can be derived from a theory drawn from the essential
conditions and characteristics of his art.
The supreme beauty of the Parthenon has ever certified
most absolutely that, whatever was the system by which its
proportions were regulated, it must have had as true a
scientific basis as that which governs the harmonious divi-
sion of the monochord. This building, therefore, of which
the measurements have been obtained by Mr. Penrose,
with the utmost completeness and accuracy, represents the
illustrations of a treatise of which the text is lost. The
importance and advantage of the study of it from this
point of view can scarcely be over-estimated. The first
condition for success in this study appears to be to realise
by independent study of the problem of architectural pro-
portion what are the structural terms a variable proportion
between Avhich would naturally have most effect upon
architectural expression ? When the value of a few such
tests has been thoroughly certified, we have guidance as to
the points at which to search for exact proportional adjust-
ments in the great normal exemplar; the proof of the
correctness of our original rigorous analysis is given by
the firstfruits of its application being the acquisition of
hints and instruction for perfecting still further our instru-
ment of inquiry.
It is with the assistance of certified results from assiduous
study of the chief monument of Athenian architecture that
the present inquiry has been undertaken. It may be stated
at once that the prosecution of this has brought home the
conviction that in architecture, as in literature, it was at
Athens that Greek genius attained its ultimate perfection.
Neither in Sicily nor on the eastern coast of the iEgean
do we find that the canons which the architects of the
Parthenon discovered rather than invented are consistently
recognized and strictly applied, and the crowning grace
and last refinements of beautiful proportion are in conse-
quence wanting.
There are indications however in the buildings which we
are now concerned with of a much closer approximation
to Athenian principles than can be credited to the Sicilians.
It is not impossible that the Ionian architects may have
had some elaborated system of their own, and have been
prepared to vindicate it as an improvement. So far as any
glimpses of such a system betray themselves, it has the