DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0427
Chap. I.
HULLABID.
403
would lose more than half its effect, while the vertical angles, without
interfering with the continuity of the frieze, give height and strength
to the whole composition. The disposition of the horizontal lines of
the lower friezes is equally effective. Here again the artistic com-
bination of horizontal with vertical lines, and the play of outline and
of light and shade, far surpass anything in Gothic art. The effects
are just what the mediaival architects were often aiming at, but which
they never attained so perfectly as was done at Hullabid.
Before leaving Hullabid, it may be well again to call attention
to the order of superposition of the different animal friezes, alluded
to already, when speaking of the rock-cut monastery described by
the Chinese Pilgrims (ante, p. 135). There, as here, the lowest were
the elephants ; then the lions ; above these came the horses ; then the
oxen; and the fifth storey was in the shape of a pigeon. The oxen
here is replaced by a conventional animal, and the pigeon also by a
bird of a species that would puzzle a naturalist. The succession,
however, is the same, and, as mentioned above, the same five genera
of living things form the ornaments of the moonstones of the various
monuments in Ceylon. Sometimes in modern Hindu temples oidy
two or three animal friezes are found, but the succession is always
the same, the elephants being the lowest, next above them are the
lions, and then the horses, &c. AVhen we know the cause of it, it
seems as if this curious selection and succession might lead to some
very suggestive conclusions. At present we can only call attention
to it in hopes that further investigation may afford the means of
solving the mystery.
If it were possible to illustrate the Hullabid temple to such an
extent as to render its peculiarities familiar, there would be few things
more interesting or more instructive than to institute a comparison
between it and the Parthenon at Athens. Not that the two buildings
are at all like one another; on the contrary, they form the two
opposite poles—the alpha and omega of architectural design ; but they
are the best examples of their class, and between these two extremes
lies the whole range of the art. The Parthenon is the best example
we know of pure refined intellectual power applied to the production
of an architectural design. Every part and every effect is calculated
with mathematical exactness, and executed with a mechanical pre-
cision that never was equalled. All the curves are hyperbolas, para-
bolas, or other developments of the highest mathematical forms—
every optical defect is foreseen and provided for, and every part has a
relation to every other part in so recondite a proportion that we feel
inclined to call it fanciful, because we can hardly rise to its appre-
ciation. The sculpture is exquisitely designed to aid the perfection
of the masonry - severe and godlike, but with no condescension to tlie
lower feelings of humanity.
2d 2
HULLABID.
403
would lose more than half its effect, while the vertical angles, without
interfering with the continuity of the frieze, give height and strength
to the whole composition. The disposition of the horizontal lines of
the lower friezes is equally effective. Here again the artistic com-
bination of horizontal with vertical lines, and the play of outline and
of light and shade, far surpass anything in Gothic art. The effects
are just what the mediaival architects were often aiming at, but which
they never attained so perfectly as was done at Hullabid.
Before leaving Hullabid, it may be well again to call attention
to the order of superposition of the different animal friezes, alluded
to already, when speaking of the rock-cut monastery described by
the Chinese Pilgrims (ante, p. 135). There, as here, the lowest were
the elephants ; then the lions ; above these came the horses ; then the
oxen; and the fifth storey was in the shape of a pigeon. The oxen
here is replaced by a conventional animal, and the pigeon also by a
bird of a species that would puzzle a naturalist. The succession,
however, is the same, and, as mentioned above, the same five genera
of living things form the ornaments of the moonstones of the various
monuments in Ceylon. Sometimes in modern Hindu temples oidy
two or three animal friezes are found, but the succession is always
the same, the elephants being the lowest, next above them are the
lions, and then the horses, &c. AVhen we know the cause of it, it
seems as if this curious selection and succession might lead to some
very suggestive conclusions. At present we can only call attention
to it in hopes that further investigation may afford the means of
solving the mystery.
If it were possible to illustrate the Hullabid temple to such an
extent as to render its peculiarities familiar, there would be few things
more interesting or more instructive than to institute a comparison
between it and the Parthenon at Athens. Not that the two buildings
are at all like one another; on the contrary, they form the two
opposite poles—the alpha and omega of architectural design ; but they
are the best examples of their class, and between these two extremes
lies the whole range of the art. The Parthenon is the best example
we know of pure refined intellectual power applied to the production
of an architectural design. Every part and every effect is calculated
with mathematical exactness, and executed with a mechanical pre-
cision that never was equalled. All the curves are hyperbolas, para-
bolas, or other developments of the highest mathematical forms—
every optical defect is foreseen and provided for, and every part has a
relation to every other part in so recondite a proportion that we feel
inclined to call it fanciful, because we can hardly rise to its appre-
ciation. The sculpture is exquisitely designed to aid the perfection
of the masonry - severe and godlike, but with no condescension to tlie
lower feelings of humanity.
2d 2