Riou, Stephen: The Grecian orders of architecture: delineated and explained from the antiquities of Athens ; also the parallels of the orders of Palladio, Scamozzi and Vignola (London, 1768)

IO gfe Grecian Orders
and placed very high in the walls os the buildings, occasioncd a (hade and darkness within sitj$
and were well contrived to guard agafctst the fiweest rays of the sun, yet were ill suited to those lati-
tudes where that glorious luminary sheds its feebler inssuences and is rarely ieen but through a
watry cloud. The heavy Gothic by Sir C. Wren, is diitinguiihed as Anglo-Saxonic, the
lighter as Saracenic, of this last the following account may be added to what has
jttst now been delivered on the same subject. The holy war gave the christians, who had
been there, an idea of the Saracen's works, which were afterwards imitated by them in
the wftstj and they refined upon it every day as they proceeded in building churches. The Ita-
lians (among which were yet som-e Greek refugees) and with them the French* Germans and
Flemings, joined into a fraternity, procuring papal bulls -sor their encouragement and particular
privileges. Thev rtiled themselves Frec-Masons, and ranged from nation to nation as they
found churches to be built (for very many in those days were every where in building) through
the piety of multitudes. Their Government was regular, and where they fixed near the buildine
they made a camp of hills. A survcyor governed in chief, and every tenth man was called a war-
den, and overlooked each nine: The gentlemen of the neighbourhood, either out of charity- or
commutation of penance, gave the material^ and carriage, and hence were called accepted Majbns. It is
admirable with what ceconomy and how soon they erected such considerable Structures. But as
all modes, when once the old rational ways are despised, turn at lalt into unbounded fancies, the
tracery of these architects who assected towers and steeples, though the Saracens atrected
cupolas, introduced too much mincing of the stone into open battlements, spindling pinnacles,
and little carvings without proportion of distance, so that the essential rules of good perspective
and duration were forgot;
Shall We, then, who by a considerate retrospection upon the" works os former ages, are ena-
bled to judge with equal discernment and impartiality between the various vestiges at this day'
remaining ? ihall we then hesitate to decide in favour of Grecian architecture? where not a single
ornament is placed, but what gives beauty, where every part is simple, measured and retrained
to a just proportion, and fitted to the intended purposes; where conveniency, solidity and dignity
can always be united in every design of public or private concern.-
Proportion, Eurythmy and Symmetry, require their particular explanations, previously to the
articles treated of in the next chapter. Proportion (cj) in architecture consists in that reciprocal
relation, which the several parts and total bulk of any fabric have among themselves withrespect
to quantity in length, breadth and depth; arismg primarily from their joint relation to a certain
given quantity or common measure, by which their magnitudes are regulated and determined. Thus
the proportion of the (haft of a column, which consists in the relation of it's length to it's diameter,
being given, the terms of that proportion prescribe measures corresponding to themselves, for all die
other parts of the order; as for the bale and capital, for the entablature, or any of it's principal
divisions: and alternately, if the relation of the entablature and it's principal divifions to each
other be asiigned, the magnitude of the column and that of it's members, with the absohitc
quantity of the entire order, are from thence determined; and from this mutual dependence
of the different parts, interchangeably asfecting each other, results that general harmony
which gives both itrength and beauty to a building.
Now those proportions are adapted to produce beauty sn the highest degree, which present all
the minuter divisions fairly and dislinctly to the Spectator's eye, so that he is enabled to judge oi'
their relative measures with tolerable exactness; but such only can do this as are formed srom the
molt simple measures or numbers m their lowed terms, which are clearly the moil Striking, and
therefore preferable to others more complex, which even the moil experienced in architecture
will never pretend to discern. For examples of what <ve mean by numbers in their lowelt terms,

(a) Proportio qua; Greece analogia dicitur, est rata; partis in omili Opere totlulijuc
metriarum. Lib. III. c, i.

Julado, e.\-<jua ratio c;r:;;;'J.r !)"'■'-
Nulla architect major ctira esse debet, nisi uti propottionibus rote, partis habeatit a?Jisieia ratitfmim Sto&nmeS, Lib. VI c. 2.
tsh