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Article ARCHITECTURE. ← Page 2 of 3 Article ARCHITECTURE. Page 2 of 3 →
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Architecture.
column of the Doric merged into the more gracefully sculptured capital and pillar of the Ionic . As the Greek progressed in knowledge and became more subtile in taste , his architecture passed beyond the simplicity
of the Doric , and the beauty of the Ionic for the richness of the Corinthian . Though not a higher order of architecture than these , it was the manifestation of a graceful artist culture . The wealth and luxury of the city in which it
arose and which it adorned , clustered around it , and while taking from it , the severe grandeur of the Doric made it more beautiful in proportion than the Eastern Ionic . Its pillars , with capital and flowing leaf , were more lofty and
slender . Its entablatures , which distinguish Grecian architecture from the true Roman , were more finely wrought ; its friezes and its cornices , taking to themselves
the characteristics of the Doric and Ionic , made it in rare beauty and majesty the embodiment of the three great orders of Grecian architecture .
The Doric , the Ionic and the Corinthian , each with its own special genius , was great in its generation . Strong , solemn , tender , harmonious , the precious legacy of Greece
to mankind , they abide through the ages , a monument of man ' s power over matter , the school of high thought and the seminary of splendid culture .
Greece and Etruria transferred their art , their philosophy and gods to Rome ; and Rome appropriated to herself the arts and treasures of the peoples that she conquered . Her physioal power was beautified by the rich spoils of learning or science of the members of the nationalities she
incorporated into her own . But she so impressed herself on her dependencies that each portion of her wide domain felt her power as if it was its own as an integral part of the kingdom . As from a great central heart there flowed into every
colony or subdued principality the life-blood that made it a living member of the great empire , and therefore Roman art and Roman architecture are found as monuments of her greatness in the East and West . The splendid
architecture of Baalbec and Palmyra attest the power of Rome , and the magnificent buildings in Spain are monuments of Roman influence as strong as the noblest structures on the Tiber . Rome sought not alone to conquer , but to civilize
humanity and impress upon it the truth that peace is grander in its effects than war . In the greatness of her idea of government all faiths were allowed to worship and
build temples and enjoy the freedom of the empire under the outspread wings of her eagles , the symbol of universal dominion .
Roman architecture , as the name indicated , denoted strength . While in its manifold details it is the repetition of the cultured thought of Greece , it is also the expression of law . Rome was the fountain of law ; the well-spring of
that wisdom which manifests itself in right and the forms of human government . Law and morality raised and sustained the vast fabric of her imperial commonwealth . The will of man was the ruling power . It passed along and
was woven like a line of thick gold into all her civil and martial history . Her greatness was power ; her nationality was world-wide dominion . The eternal city was to be the capital , not of the kingdom , but of the habitable earth .
This was her ruling idea rather than to carve in marble or build in stone her artistic conceptions . This spirit pervaded and filled the remotest land over which her eagles flew , with the same fullness as in the royal city itself . And
it was only after centuries , therefore , of waiting that art became a moving power in the empire and' broke into full splendour under the dominion of the Csesars . Then art passed East and West , and , to-day , the enduring monuments of her skill and greatness attest the victory of Roman
spirit and Roman power . Her architecture everywhere witnesses her far-reaching influence . If she followed Greece in the construction of her temples , she had also an architecture profoundly her own . The amphitheatre and cloaca , the aqueducts and
baths are Roman in design and completion . Her baths are the monumental expression of the wealth and grandeur of the strong character of her people . Iu all these structures
Rome was revealed , and whatever beauty might be perpetuated in them , they were always the superscription of abiding strength , the symbol of a commanding will .
But Rome added to Grecian architecture , and in the emblem of power and union which she revived or brought to larger application , she opened , in the arch , a new history for art . Grecian architecture was the architecture of the outside , for its gods were in forest and hill , in valley and star , in sunset and flower and sea . Her most splendid
Architecture.
temples were ceiled only with the entablature or flat covering , roofed with tho heated day or tho far-off stars of the night . But Rome made the inside of her temples a home for the gods . Strength and power , majesty and greatness
were joined together . Fluted columns , broad areas of space , arch and dome and poised roof draw the mind and eye until Rome impresses herself as a world compelling influence—power joined with material grandeur .
But Roman architecture gave way to another , as Rome felt that there was more spiritual force on the earth than material dominion . A new faith had come to ascend the throne of empire , and to set up its authority in the
spiritual and moral nature of man . Its cross was the symbol of a world-wide victory . It was the visible signs in the heavens , that by it man should conquer . It came with a new power , a more splendid purpose , and was to
work among men until nations that owned its sway were the nations that moved with the lustre and achievement of the higher civilizations . With the stillness of all the grandest force , it was to conquer and possess , and the
stately fabrics of human government were to go down before it , to rise as the instruments of a purer morality for man , and on a new mission for the spread of knowledge and law . It was the revelation of man to himself and of
God , and the destiny to which he aspires , and from the first it was a power struggling amid hostile forces to raise man to his true position . The work that he did through the centuries of travail is the impeachable wituess of the faith
which animated him and by which he toiled . Kingdoms with truer conceptions of government than eastern despotism were erected out of the paganism of Athens and Romo aud the barbaric hosts that swept with tidal forces
over ancient civilizations . And not only are these the witnesses of the marvellous power of the new revelation in the growth of empires to this hour , but the structures which
rose as the home of faith , bear large witness to the unrivalled skill of the builders who piled in stone their thought and agonies , the conflict and aspiration of their belief in Jesus Christ .
Christianity , catching gleams of beauty and majesty from the classic grandeur of the immortal ages of Greece and Rome , gave birth to a new architecture , instinct with religion and consecrated by spirituality . It offered truer
ideals to architecture , and the artist gave forth his conceptions not alone in the strength of granite , but in the richness and colour of painting . Christianity was a regenerating and quickening power , and elevated and gave
a new meaning to what it touched . The pillar or leaf that spread over the shrine of a marble god grew into a glorious form of stoneand adorned the sanctuary of the God of the universe . The chiselled vine that spoke only of heathen
orgies was lifted into a higher use , and became the symbol of a sacred ordinance . Greek and Roman temples that were voiced for stone idols were transformed by the power of its intelligent faith into the temples of the living God .
But the new faith brought an order and greatness of its own in architecture . At first solid and firm , it was the architecture of the ronnded arch , the symbol of serenity ; but by the slower growth of centuries it developed into
the pointed arch , the symbol of aspiring effort , like the aspiration of its faith . The Romanesque into which the Roman architecture developed and the Lombard were not the true expression of the new religion , and were too weak
and out of harmony with its solemn and ever-rising spirit . Out of these grew the Gothic , the noblest development of human architecture , the Temple of the faith that rules the earth , and is drawing all nations to itself . In Italy and
Spain the Gothic took an Eastern character , and is glorious with Moorish type and the richness of Arabic forms . But in France and Britain and Germany it developed into a truer , purer shape , as the home of religion and the shrine of the revelation of God , the Father of All .
Symbols are greater in their meaning and express a higher and more spiritual thought , as they aspire . The breadth , therefore , of the architecture of Greece and Rome gave way to height in the Gothic . For the new faith came with
freedom and power ; it was not bound by any narrow system of heathen gods . It was not the home of a marble idol , but its cathedrals the shriue and sanctuary for the oue infinite God . And as He was the Creator of all beauty ,
the house for His worship was to be all beautiful within ; the inspiration to lift the soul upwards and quicken it by vision of high art to the eye . The clustered and aspiring shafts , flowers blooming in capitals , arches rhythmic with the measures of poetry , vaulted roofs pressing upon chiselled
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Architecture.
column of the Doric merged into the more gracefully sculptured capital and pillar of the Ionic . As the Greek progressed in knowledge and became more subtile in taste , his architecture passed beyond the simplicity
of the Doric , and the beauty of the Ionic for the richness of the Corinthian . Though not a higher order of architecture than these , it was the manifestation of a graceful artist culture . The wealth and luxury of the city in which it
arose and which it adorned , clustered around it , and while taking from it , the severe grandeur of the Doric made it more beautiful in proportion than the Eastern Ionic . Its pillars , with capital and flowing leaf , were more lofty and
slender . Its entablatures , which distinguish Grecian architecture from the true Roman , were more finely wrought ; its friezes and its cornices , taking to themselves
the characteristics of the Doric and Ionic , made it in rare beauty and majesty the embodiment of the three great orders of Grecian architecture .
The Doric , the Ionic and the Corinthian , each with its own special genius , was great in its generation . Strong , solemn , tender , harmonious , the precious legacy of Greece
to mankind , they abide through the ages , a monument of man ' s power over matter , the school of high thought and the seminary of splendid culture .
Greece and Etruria transferred their art , their philosophy and gods to Rome ; and Rome appropriated to herself the arts and treasures of the peoples that she conquered . Her physioal power was beautified by the rich spoils of learning or science of the members of the nationalities she
incorporated into her own . But she so impressed herself on her dependencies that each portion of her wide domain felt her power as if it was its own as an integral part of the kingdom . As from a great central heart there flowed into every
colony or subdued principality the life-blood that made it a living member of the great empire , and therefore Roman art and Roman architecture are found as monuments of her greatness in the East and West . The splendid
architecture of Baalbec and Palmyra attest the power of Rome , and the magnificent buildings in Spain are monuments of Roman influence as strong as the noblest structures on the Tiber . Rome sought not alone to conquer , but to civilize
humanity and impress upon it the truth that peace is grander in its effects than war . In the greatness of her idea of government all faiths were allowed to worship and
build temples and enjoy the freedom of the empire under the outspread wings of her eagles , the symbol of universal dominion .
Roman architecture , as the name indicated , denoted strength . While in its manifold details it is the repetition of the cultured thought of Greece , it is also the expression of law . Rome was the fountain of law ; the well-spring of
that wisdom which manifests itself in right and the forms of human government . Law and morality raised and sustained the vast fabric of her imperial commonwealth . The will of man was the ruling power . It passed along and
was woven like a line of thick gold into all her civil and martial history . Her greatness was power ; her nationality was world-wide dominion . The eternal city was to be the capital , not of the kingdom , but of the habitable earth .
This was her ruling idea rather than to carve in marble or build in stone her artistic conceptions . This spirit pervaded and filled the remotest land over which her eagles flew , with the same fullness as in the royal city itself . And
it was only after centuries , therefore , of waiting that art became a moving power in the empire and' broke into full splendour under the dominion of the Csesars . Then art passed East and West , and , to-day , the enduring monuments of her skill and greatness attest the victory of Roman
spirit and Roman power . Her architecture everywhere witnesses her far-reaching influence . If she followed Greece in the construction of her temples , she had also an architecture profoundly her own . The amphitheatre and cloaca , the aqueducts and
baths are Roman in design and completion . Her baths are the monumental expression of the wealth and grandeur of the strong character of her people . Iu all these structures
Rome was revealed , and whatever beauty might be perpetuated in them , they were always the superscription of abiding strength , the symbol of a commanding will .
But Rome added to Grecian architecture , and in the emblem of power and union which she revived or brought to larger application , she opened , in the arch , a new history for art . Grecian architecture was the architecture of the outside , for its gods were in forest and hill , in valley and star , in sunset and flower and sea . Her most splendid
Architecture.
temples were ceiled only with the entablature or flat covering , roofed with tho heated day or tho far-off stars of the night . But Rome made the inside of her temples a home for the gods . Strength and power , majesty and greatness
were joined together . Fluted columns , broad areas of space , arch and dome and poised roof draw the mind and eye until Rome impresses herself as a world compelling influence—power joined with material grandeur .
But Roman architecture gave way to another , as Rome felt that there was more spiritual force on the earth than material dominion . A new faith had come to ascend the throne of empire , and to set up its authority in the
spiritual and moral nature of man . Its cross was the symbol of a world-wide victory . It was the visible signs in the heavens , that by it man should conquer . It came with a new power , a more splendid purpose , and was to
work among men until nations that owned its sway were the nations that moved with the lustre and achievement of the higher civilizations . With the stillness of all the grandest force , it was to conquer and possess , and the
stately fabrics of human government were to go down before it , to rise as the instruments of a purer morality for man , and on a new mission for the spread of knowledge and law . It was the revelation of man to himself and of
God , and the destiny to which he aspires , and from the first it was a power struggling amid hostile forces to raise man to his true position . The work that he did through the centuries of travail is the impeachable wituess of the faith
which animated him and by which he toiled . Kingdoms with truer conceptions of government than eastern despotism were erected out of the paganism of Athens and Romo aud the barbaric hosts that swept with tidal forces
over ancient civilizations . And not only are these the witnesses of the marvellous power of the new revelation in the growth of empires to this hour , but the structures which
rose as the home of faith , bear large witness to the unrivalled skill of the builders who piled in stone their thought and agonies , the conflict and aspiration of their belief in Jesus Christ .
Christianity , catching gleams of beauty and majesty from the classic grandeur of the immortal ages of Greece and Rome , gave birth to a new architecture , instinct with religion and consecrated by spirituality . It offered truer
ideals to architecture , and the artist gave forth his conceptions not alone in the strength of granite , but in the richness and colour of painting . Christianity was a regenerating and quickening power , and elevated and gave
a new meaning to what it touched . The pillar or leaf that spread over the shrine of a marble god grew into a glorious form of stoneand adorned the sanctuary of the God of the universe . The chiselled vine that spoke only of heathen
orgies was lifted into a higher use , and became the symbol of a sacred ordinance . Greek and Roman temples that were voiced for stone idols were transformed by the power of its intelligent faith into the temples of the living God .
But the new faith brought an order and greatness of its own in architecture . At first solid and firm , it was the architecture of the ronnded arch , the symbol of serenity ; but by the slower growth of centuries it developed into
the pointed arch , the symbol of aspiring effort , like the aspiration of its faith . The Romanesque into which the Roman architecture developed and the Lombard were not the true expression of the new religion , and were too weak
and out of harmony with its solemn and ever-rising spirit . Out of these grew the Gothic , the noblest development of human architecture , the Temple of the faith that rules the earth , and is drawing all nations to itself . In Italy and
Spain the Gothic took an Eastern character , and is glorious with Moorish type and the richness of Arabic forms . But in France and Britain and Germany it developed into a truer , purer shape , as the home of religion and the shrine of the revelation of God , the Father of All .
Symbols are greater in their meaning and express a higher and more spiritual thought , as they aspire . The breadth , therefore , of the architecture of Greece and Rome gave way to height in the Gothic . For the new faith came with
freedom and power ; it was not bound by any narrow system of heathen gods . It was not the home of a marble idol , but its cathedrals the shriue and sanctuary for the oue infinite God . And as He was the Creator of all beauty ,
the house for His worship was to be all beautiful within ; the inspiration to lift the soul upwards and quicken it by vision of high art to the eye . The clustered and aspiring shafts , flowers blooming in capitals , arches rhythmic with the measures of poetry , vaulted roofs pressing upon chiselled