DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0137
Chap. YIII,
DOMES.
73
45) 011 tlie principle of vonssoirs, or truncated wedges, radiating from
a centre. Tliis enabled tlie Eomans to cover nxucli larger spaces with
their domes than perhaps was possihle on the horizontal principle;
but it involved the inconvenience of great lateral thrusts, continually
tending to split the dome and tear the building in pieces, requiring
consequently immense and massive abutments to counteract their
destructive energy. This class of dome was entirely overloolred or
rejected by the Grothic architects, but was taken up by the contem-
porary Byzantines, and made by them the principal feature of their
architecture, and from them passed to the Saracenic architects, who
also adopted it as their most important mode of architectural expression.
To this we shall return hereafter, as the other is the form with which
D
46. Horizontal Arch.
The Indian or horizontal dome never can be made circular in
section, except when used on the smallest scale, but almost always
takes a form more or less pointed (woodcut No. 46). From the time
of' the building of the Treasury of Mycense to the birth of Christ we
have a tolerably complete series of arches and vaults constructed on
this principle, but few domes properly so called. After the Christian
era the first example is found in a singular tomb at Mylassa near
Halicamassus,1 where it exhibits all the peculiarities of construction
found in the Jaina temples of India. After this we lose the thread of
its history till the form reappears in porches like that of the temple
of Yimala Sah, where it is a perfectly established architectural feature
that must have been practised long before being used as we find it
employed in that building. "Whether we shall ever be able to recover
the lost links in this chain is more than doubtful, but it would be
deeply interesting to the history of art if it could be done. In the
mean time, there is no difficulty in explaining the constructive steps
by which the object is now attained in India, which most probably
explain also its history, though this is not, of course, capable of direct
proof.
Tlie simplest mode of roofing a small square space supported by
four pillars is merely to run an architrave or stone beam from each
pillar, and cover the intermediate opening by a plain stone slab. Unless,
however, stones of great dimensions are available, this mode of con-
struction has a limit very soon arrived at. The next step tlrerefore is
to reduce the extent of the central space to be covered by cutting off
1 Fully illustrated in vol. ii. of the Dilettanti Soeiety’s Antiquities of Ionia. A woodcut
of it will be given further on.
DOMES.
73
45) 011 tlie principle of vonssoirs, or truncated wedges, radiating from
a centre. Tliis enabled tlie Eomans to cover nxucli larger spaces with
their domes than perhaps was possihle on the horizontal principle;
but it involved the inconvenience of great lateral thrusts, continually
tending to split the dome and tear the building in pieces, requiring
consequently immense and massive abutments to counteract their
destructive energy. This class of dome was entirely overloolred or
rejected by the Grothic architects, but was taken up by the contem-
porary Byzantines, and made by them the principal feature of their
architecture, and from them passed to the Saracenic architects, who
also adopted it as their most important mode of architectural expression.
To this we shall return hereafter, as the other is the form with which
D
46. Horizontal Arch.
The Indian or horizontal dome never can be made circular in
section, except when used on the smallest scale, but almost always
takes a form more or less pointed (woodcut No. 46). From the time
of' the building of the Treasury of Mycense to the birth of Christ we
have a tolerably complete series of arches and vaults constructed on
this principle, but few domes properly so called. After the Christian
era the first example is found in a singular tomb at Mylassa near
Halicamassus,1 where it exhibits all the peculiarities of construction
found in the Jaina temples of India. After this we lose the thread of
its history till the form reappears in porches like that of the temple
of Yimala Sah, where it is a perfectly established architectural feature
that must have been practised long before being used as we find it
employed in that building. "Whether we shall ever be able to recover
the lost links in this chain is more than doubtful, but it would be
deeply interesting to the history of art if it could be done. In the
mean time, there is no difficulty in explaining the constructive steps
by which the object is now attained in India, which most probably
explain also its history, though this is not, of course, capable of direct
proof.
Tlie simplest mode of roofing a small square space supported by
four pillars is merely to run an architrave or stone beam from each
pillar, and cover the intermediate opening by a plain stone slab. Unless,
however, stones of great dimensions are available, this mode of con-
struction has a limit very soon arrived at. The next step tlrerefore is
to reduce the extent of the central space to be covered by cutting off
1 Fully illustrated in vol. ii. of the Dilettanti Soeiety’s Antiquities of Ionia. A woodcut
of it will be given further on.