DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0731
Chap. II.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
707
teristic of the style, cannot be praised either for the elegance of its
form or the appropriateness of its ornamentation.
Perhaps their most successful efforts in this direction were 'when
they combined a solid basement of masonry with a light superstructure
of wood, as in the Winter Palace at Pekin (Woodcut No. 31)3). In
this instance the height and solidity of the basement give sufficient
dignity to the mass, and the light superstructure is an appropriate
termination upwards.
3!'3. View in the Winter Palace, Pekiu. (PromI Photograph.)
This last illustration is interesting, because it enables us to realise
more distinctly than any other example yet known, what must have
been the effect of the palaces of Nineveh and Khorsabad in the days of
their splendour. Like this palace, the}' were raised on a solid base-
ment of masonry, and were themselves composed of pavilions of light
and ornamental woodwork; the great difference being that they had
Hat-terraced roofs instead of those covered with tiles, as in snowy
Pekin ; but the resemblance is curious, and examples even more nearly
akin might probably be found if looked for.
The engineering works of the Chinese have been much extolled by
some writers, but have less claim to praise as works of science than
their buildings have as works of art. Their canals, it is true, are
extensive; but with 300 millions of inhabitants this is small praise,
and their construction is most unscientific. Their bridges, too, are
sometimes of great length, but generally made up of a series of small
arches constructed on the horizontal-bracket principle, as nine-tenths
of the bridges in China are, and consequently narrow and unstable.
2 Z 2
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
707
teristic of the style, cannot be praised either for the elegance of its
form or the appropriateness of its ornamentation.
Perhaps their most successful efforts in this direction were 'when
they combined a solid basement of masonry with a light superstructure
of wood, as in the Winter Palace at Pekin (Woodcut No. 31)3). In
this instance the height and solidity of the basement give sufficient
dignity to the mass, and the light superstructure is an appropriate
termination upwards.
3!'3. View in the Winter Palace, Pekiu. (PromI Photograph.)
This last illustration is interesting, because it enables us to realise
more distinctly than any other example yet known, what must have
been the effect of the palaces of Nineveh and Khorsabad in the days of
their splendour. Like this palace, the}' were raised on a solid base-
ment of masonry, and were themselves composed of pavilions of light
and ornamental woodwork; the great difference being that they had
Hat-terraced roofs instead of those covered with tiles, as in snowy
Pekin ; but the resemblance is curious, and examples even more nearly
akin might probably be found if looked for.
The engineering works of the Chinese have been much extolled by
some writers, but have less claim to praise as works of science than
their buildings have as works of art. Their canals, it is true, are
extensive; but with 300 millions of inhabitants this is small praise,
and their construction is most unscientific. Their bridges, too, are
sometimes of great length, but generally made up of a series of small
arches constructed on the horizontal-bracket principle, as nine-tenths
of the bridges in China are, and consequently narrow and unstable.
2 Z 2