. Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . ple thatbegan to put stones or bricks together into a , if nothing else, would have suggested of construction, and arched vaulting in brick orstone are found in the tombs and pyramids of Egypt asfar back as four thousand years before Christ. Thegranaries of Rameses 11 at Thebes are vaulted in brick,and arched drains and vaults occur in the substructureof the palaces of Nineveh. But though the arch hadlong been employed as a useful expedient in constructionit is the glory of Roman architecture to have raised itinto the region of a
. Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . ple thatbegan to put stones or bricks together into a , if nothing else, would have suggested of construction, and arched vaulting in brick orstone are found in the tombs and pyramids of Egypt asfar back as four thousand years before Christ. Thegranaries of Rameses 11 at Thebes are vaulted in brick,and arched drains and vaults occur in the substructureof the palaces of Nineveh. But though the arch hadlong been employed as a useful expedient in constructionit is the glory of Roman architecture to have raised itinto the region of art. Without it the theatres, amphi-theatres, aqueducts, baths, basilicas, and bridges of theRoman world would have been impossible. It is to thepractical turn of the Roman mind that we must credit itsadoption, while on the other hand it is probably due to CH. l] ROMAN ARCHITECTURE the versatility of the artists, mostly Greek or Greco-Roman, to whom the direction had been given by theirRoman masters, that we must attribute the development. ^wvz^^ Fig. I. of what originated in mere considerations of utility intoa consistent and novel style of architecture. It has been objected to the Roman architects that 8 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE [ch. i whereas, except in porticos of temples where Greek tra-dition survived, they rejected the principles of trabeateconstruction, they nevertheless continued to use its such buildings as the Theatre of Marcellus, and allthe amphitheatres known to us from Nimes in the westto Pola in the east (Fig. i), the real construction is byarches, but yet the architectural effect depends largely onthe columns and entablatures in which the arches are, asit were, framed. It is contended that to apply the con-structional forms of a trabeated style to an arcuatedfabric as a mere surface decoration is a sham ; and assuch it stands self-condemned in the eyes of the GothicPurist and worshipper of absolute truth. There is an element of justice in the accusation : thi
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