DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4423#0123
88
THE CURVES OF THE HORIZONTAL LINES.
PLATE III.
THE MEASURED HORIZONTAL CURVATURE OF THE LINES IN THE
UPPER STEP AND IN THE ARCHITRAVE OF THE PARTHENON AND
OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS, observed by Mr. Penrose in 1846.
According to Colonel Leake, " It was probably about the eighth century before the
" Christian Era that the Athenians built the great Temple of Minerva in the Acropolis."
This first Temple was destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes, but portions of the
Entablature and of the Columns still remain built into the walls of the Acropolis, and the
existing Parthenon is built partly upon the sub-basement of the older one.
Mr. Penrose has measured the curvature of the lines in the sub-basement of the first
Temple as follows :—
Length of the front, 104*2 ft.; amount of curvature in the vertical plane at the centre, 0*150 ft.
Length of the flank, 221-0 ft.; „ „ „ 0*233 ft.
This is probably the oldest existing example of the curvature of the horizontal lines
of Greek Architecture, B.C. 800, or four centuries later than the Temple of Medinet Haboo.
But it is in the designs of the Greek Architects of the age of Pericles, that we meet with the
principal development of these curved lines, and, fortunately, of all the horizontal curves now
remaining, the best preserved and the most carefully executed will be found to be in the
Upper Steps of the Parthenon, in both the East and West Porticoes, and on the north and
south return sides.
These are the curves Mr. Penrose has most accurately observed, and his own
measurements are given by perpendicular ordinates measured from the horizontal line.
Twrv^rmtal forte
For the sake of comparing one segment of a circle with another, namely the curves
of the Upper Steps in the East and in the West Porticoes, or on the north and on the south
return sides, or for comparing together the curvatures of the Upper Step and of the Architrave,
it will be more convenient to measure the per-
pendicular ordinates from the chord line BB',
passing through the extreme points of the arc
BB^ This method I have adopted, for the reason
stated, but the measurements are all founded
upon Mr. Penrose's original observations.
THE CURVES OF THE HORIZONTAL LINES.
PLATE III.
THE MEASURED HORIZONTAL CURVATURE OF THE LINES IN THE
UPPER STEP AND IN THE ARCHITRAVE OF THE PARTHENON AND
OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS, observed by Mr. Penrose in 1846.
According to Colonel Leake, " It was probably about the eighth century before the
" Christian Era that the Athenians built the great Temple of Minerva in the Acropolis."
This first Temple was destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes, but portions of the
Entablature and of the Columns still remain built into the walls of the Acropolis, and the
existing Parthenon is built partly upon the sub-basement of the older one.
Mr. Penrose has measured the curvature of the lines in the sub-basement of the first
Temple as follows :—
Length of the front, 104*2 ft.; amount of curvature in the vertical plane at the centre, 0*150 ft.
Length of the flank, 221-0 ft.; „ „ „ 0*233 ft.
This is probably the oldest existing example of the curvature of the horizontal lines
of Greek Architecture, B.C. 800, or four centuries later than the Temple of Medinet Haboo.
But it is in the designs of the Greek Architects of the age of Pericles, that we meet with the
principal development of these curved lines, and, fortunately, of all the horizontal curves now
remaining, the best preserved and the most carefully executed will be found to be in the
Upper Steps of the Parthenon, in both the East and West Porticoes, and on the north and
south return sides.
These are the curves Mr. Penrose has most accurately observed, and his own
measurements are given by perpendicular ordinates measured from the horizontal line.
Twrv^rmtal forte
For the sake of comparing one segment of a circle with another, namely the curves
of the Upper Steps in the East and in the West Porticoes, or on the north and on the south
return sides, or for comparing together the curvatures of the Upper Step and of the Architrave,
it will be more convenient to measure the per-
pendicular ordinates from the chord line BB',
passing through the extreme points of the arc
BB^ This method I have adopted, for the reason
stated, but the measurements are all founded
upon Mr. Penrose's original observations.