DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4327#0059
50
APPENDIX.
appearance of a modified scheme for the sake of simplifica-
tion adopted without counting the cost in forfeited effect.
In any case it has seemed better that the limited treatment
of the subject which is appropriate here should be directed
to a comparison of the works as executed, with principles
sanctioned by rational considerations of fitness and by
the practice of the most accomplished of ancient architects.
There is doubtless a certain disappointment in finding
that these beautiful Ionian temples cannot by the most
stringent and assiduous analysis be brought into entire
harmony with the Athenian canons of proportion upon a
well-combined system; on the other hand this failure
certifies in the most positive way that the system which is
found to apply with such minute accuracy and also com-
prehensive scope to the Parthenon especially, and then to
other temples in Attica, and to that at Bassae, has nothing
in its simplicity of the illusory and fortuitous. Had
accident produced such surprising coincidences in these
instances, some closer approximations to coincidences must
have occurred by accident in the others also.
The proportionate relations which contribute essentially
by their specific adjustment to the expressive effect of
architecture may be thus set down sufficiently for our
present purpose:—
First, the general solid relations of height, breadth, and
length of the entire structure affect the impression which
it produces of lofty or low, quadrate or extended. It is
characteristic of the Ionic facades with which we have to
deal that height more nearly equals breadth than is the
case with hexastyle Doric temples;
Secondly, a satisfactory proportionate adjustment is
required between sujjport and impost, between the sustained
and the sustaining masses, as the lighter Ionic entablature
rests upon a slenderer column;
Thirdly, an occasion for adjustment of characteristic
proportion exists in the relation of voids to solids; in
modern buildings this comparison would be taken between
window and door apertures and the intermediate Avail piers;
in a Greek temple it lies between the diameter of the
column and the adjacent open space or intercolumn firstly,
and then between leading horizontal members of the archi-
tecture above and below, the epistylia and stylobate jointly
and the intermediate space. In the Ionic style the inter-
column is wider relatively to the diameter of the column
than in the Doric, and in like manner the interval measured
by the height of the column is enhanced relatively to the
joint height of entablature and steps. Thus the' lateral
opening out of the columns is harmonised by a concurrent
enhancement of the vertical separation of members. To
what extent lightness and openness are thus consulted
depends manifestly on proportionate adjustment; and this
adjustment was not made by the Athenian architect by
random estimate but in accordance with some deliberately
selected and simple ratio.
Furthermore, the value of the architecture in effect will
be influenced by the adjustment of the proportions of the
horizontal members between themselves, as the height of
the entablature to that of the stylobate, and by the propor-
tions of a member in itself as exemplified in the diminution
of the shaft of the column and the exquisite refinements of
entasis.
The temple of Athene Polias at Priene as hexastyle has
six columns on the front and eleven on flank, making thirty
in all, besides a pair of columns in cmtis at either end of
the cella. There are two stejDS below the platform or proper
stylobate; five less steep were mounted to enter a spacious
square pronaos, and beyond this still three others conducted
to the threshold and level of the chief apartment, the naos,
at the further end of which was erected on a pedestal the
statue of Athene Polias, the goddess of the dedication.
The dignity which would be gained by these successive
ascents may be appreciated by comparing the effect of the
arrangement at Canterbury with the tameness of the dead
level of Cologne Cathedral.
The breadth given to the temple on plan at once invites
the conjecture that the architect started from a double
square; but the nearest approximation to this is only
obtainable by comparison of the breadth of the top step
with the length of the lowest (64-00 : 127-70); such a
comparison, however, even had it yielded a more exact
result, is one of those which must be neglected as irrational
and arbitrary. But the governing double square is in fact
detected as given by the lines of centres of five columnia-
tions on front and ten on flank; the centres of the angle
columns are on the angles of this double square.
The absolute dimensions of the platform were of course
decided by taking into consideration the size desirable for
the naos, and also the magnitude which could be assigned
to the columns. We are not to consider that one proportion
was settled independently and finally, and then the pro-
portions of other members simply deduced from it or
made to conform to it as best they might. In the progress
of a proportionate design, when so many dimensions have
to be reduced to systematic coherence, it must be necessary
for the artist not unfrcquently to try back upon his con-
tingent conclusions, while ever maintaining before his mind
the type of dignity or grace which he is bent on realizing.
The bases of the columns are set on plinths which are
brought very near to the margin of the stylobate and
arranged with intervals that on the front are equal to
them in breadth, and on the flank arc very slightly less;
5*815 : 5-750, a difference which -will be accounted for.
Six plinths and five intervals on the front compared with
eleven plinths and ten intervals on flank, all nearly equal,
would give an approximate proportion on plan of 11 : 21;
a ratio, however, too remote from simplicity to commend
itself to Hellenic practice. But the steps by their breadth
add an increment of an equal margin to the unequal sides,
and the dimensions of the lower step then give one of those
ratios with a difference between their terms of five, which
seem to have been especially affected by the Athenian
architects.
Lowest step—69-60 : 127-270 :: 6 : 11 (error 0-18)
The Theseum at Athens is an example of a definite ratio
established not on the top step, as in the Parthenon, but on
the lowest.
If now we divide the breadth of the lowest step by 12
we obtain 69-60-^12=5-80, exactly the breadth of the
plinths and interplinths of the front. Of these there are
but eleven, the other twelfth is divided between the
breadths of the steps at either side including the slight
margin of the top step.
On the same principle we divide the length of the lowest
step by 22, the number of plinths and interplinths plus one,
127-270^-22=5-785 ; the plinths on the flank are equal to
those on the front, and the interplinth is consequently
reduced. The flank interplinth, and plinth together,
5-750 + 5-815 = 11-565, the mean of which is 5-782, an
exact coincidence with the dimension as derived propor-
tionally.
The plinths thus placed decide the centres of the columns;
the diameter assigned to these is nearly one-fifteenth of
the breadth of the top step; 64-00-j-15= 1-27 to compare
with 4-23 measured; but a more accurate proportion deriva-
tion is the following:—
The columniation or extent from centre to centre of
adjacent columns measures 5*810 X 2 = 11-620, to be
divided between the lower diameter, or two semi-diameters
of a column, and the intercolumnar space or intercolumn.
By the distribution adopted 4 parts arc given to the solid
and 7 to the void, with the inconsiderable error of 0-006
on the fronts and even less on the flanks. That is to say,
an intercolumn compares with the sum of the diameters of
the adjacent columns in the ratio of 7 : 8, or, what amounts
APPENDIX.
appearance of a modified scheme for the sake of simplifica-
tion adopted without counting the cost in forfeited effect.
In any case it has seemed better that the limited treatment
of the subject which is appropriate here should be directed
to a comparison of the works as executed, with principles
sanctioned by rational considerations of fitness and by
the practice of the most accomplished of ancient architects.
There is doubtless a certain disappointment in finding
that these beautiful Ionian temples cannot by the most
stringent and assiduous analysis be brought into entire
harmony with the Athenian canons of proportion upon a
well-combined system; on the other hand this failure
certifies in the most positive way that the system which is
found to apply with such minute accuracy and also com-
prehensive scope to the Parthenon especially, and then to
other temples in Attica, and to that at Bassae, has nothing
in its simplicity of the illusory and fortuitous. Had
accident produced such surprising coincidences in these
instances, some closer approximations to coincidences must
have occurred by accident in the others also.
The proportionate relations which contribute essentially
by their specific adjustment to the expressive effect of
architecture may be thus set down sufficiently for our
present purpose:—
First, the general solid relations of height, breadth, and
length of the entire structure affect the impression which
it produces of lofty or low, quadrate or extended. It is
characteristic of the Ionic facades with which we have to
deal that height more nearly equals breadth than is the
case with hexastyle Doric temples;
Secondly, a satisfactory proportionate adjustment is
required between sujjport and impost, between the sustained
and the sustaining masses, as the lighter Ionic entablature
rests upon a slenderer column;
Thirdly, an occasion for adjustment of characteristic
proportion exists in the relation of voids to solids; in
modern buildings this comparison would be taken between
window and door apertures and the intermediate Avail piers;
in a Greek temple it lies between the diameter of the
column and the adjacent open space or intercolumn firstly,
and then between leading horizontal members of the archi-
tecture above and below, the epistylia and stylobate jointly
and the intermediate space. In the Ionic style the inter-
column is wider relatively to the diameter of the column
than in the Doric, and in like manner the interval measured
by the height of the column is enhanced relatively to the
joint height of entablature and steps. Thus the' lateral
opening out of the columns is harmonised by a concurrent
enhancement of the vertical separation of members. To
what extent lightness and openness are thus consulted
depends manifestly on proportionate adjustment; and this
adjustment was not made by the Athenian architect by
random estimate but in accordance with some deliberately
selected and simple ratio.
Furthermore, the value of the architecture in effect will
be influenced by the adjustment of the proportions of the
horizontal members between themselves, as the height of
the entablature to that of the stylobate, and by the propor-
tions of a member in itself as exemplified in the diminution
of the shaft of the column and the exquisite refinements of
entasis.
The temple of Athene Polias at Priene as hexastyle has
six columns on the front and eleven on flank, making thirty
in all, besides a pair of columns in cmtis at either end of
the cella. There are two stejDS below the platform or proper
stylobate; five less steep were mounted to enter a spacious
square pronaos, and beyond this still three others conducted
to the threshold and level of the chief apartment, the naos,
at the further end of which was erected on a pedestal the
statue of Athene Polias, the goddess of the dedication.
The dignity which would be gained by these successive
ascents may be appreciated by comparing the effect of the
arrangement at Canterbury with the tameness of the dead
level of Cologne Cathedral.
The breadth given to the temple on plan at once invites
the conjecture that the architect started from a double
square; but the nearest approximation to this is only
obtainable by comparison of the breadth of the top step
with the length of the lowest (64-00 : 127-70); such a
comparison, however, even had it yielded a more exact
result, is one of those which must be neglected as irrational
and arbitrary. But the governing double square is in fact
detected as given by the lines of centres of five columnia-
tions on front and ten on flank; the centres of the angle
columns are on the angles of this double square.
The absolute dimensions of the platform were of course
decided by taking into consideration the size desirable for
the naos, and also the magnitude which could be assigned
to the columns. We are not to consider that one proportion
was settled independently and finally, and then the pro-
portions of other members simply deduced from it or
made to conform to it as best they might. In the progress
of a proportionate design, when so many dimensions have
to be reduced to systematic coherence, it must be necessary
for the artist not unfrcquently to try back upon his con-
tingent conclusions, while ever maintaining before his mind
the type of dignity or grace which he is bent on realizing.
The bases of the columns are set on plinths which are
brought very near to the margin of the stylobate and
arranged with intervals that on the front are equal to
them in breadth, and on the flank arc very slightly less;
5*815 : 5-750, a difference which -will be accounted for.
Six plinths and five intervals on the front compared with
eleven plinths and ten intervals on flank, all nearly equal,
would give an approximate proportion on plan of 11 : 21;
a ratio, however, too remote from simplicity to commend
itself to Hellenic practice. But the steps by their breadth
add an increment of an equal margin to the unequal sides,
and the dimensions of the lower step then give one of those
ratios with a difference between their terms of five, which
seem to have been especially affected by the Athenian
architects.
Lowest step—69-60 : 127-270 :: 6 : 11 (error 0-18)
The Theseum at Athens is an example of a definite ratio
established not on the top step, as in the Parthenon, but on
the lowest.
If now we divide the breadth of the lowest step by 12
we obtain 69-60-^12=5-80, exactly the breadth of the
plinths and interplinths of the front. Of these there are
but eleven, the other twelfth is divided between the
breadths of the steps at either side including the slight
margin of the top step.
On the same principle we divide the length of the lowest
step by 22, the number of plinths and interplinths plus one,
127-270^-22=5-785 ; the plinths on the flank are equal to
those on the front, and the interplinth is consequently
reduced. The flank interplinth, and plinth together,
5-750 + 5-815 = 11-565, the mean of which is 5-782, an
exact coincidence with the dimension as derived propor-
tionally.
The plinths thus placed decide the centres of the columns;
the diameter assigned to these is nearly one-fifteenth of
the breadth of the top step; 64-00-j-15= 1-27 to compare
with 4-23 measured; but a more accurate proportion deriva-
tion is the following:—
The columniation or extent from centre to centre of
adjacent columns measures 5*810 X 2 = 11-620, to be
divided between the lower diameter, or two semi-diameters
of a column, and the intercolumnar space or intercolumn.
By the distribution adopted 4 parts arc given to the solid
and 7 to the void, with the inconsiderable error of 0-006
on the fronts and even less on the flanks. That is to say,
an intercolumn compares with the sum of the diameters of
the adjacent columns in the ratio of 7 : 8, or, what amounts