On The Arch And Arcades.

period of Roman history , composed of excellent masonry , and a perfectly well-constructed semicircular arch has been exposed to vieAv . The antiquaries of Rome regard with confidence this arch as the Avork of S . Tullius , 578 B . C . The Cloaca Maxima , whose arched entrance into the Tiber is familiar to most who have visited Rome , is by common consent pointed to as the work of Ancus

Martins , 610 B . C . ; and this is a semicircular arch turned with excellently cut stone voussoirs . It is , therefore , impossible to deny the extreme antiquity of the arch , but what we may feel justified in saying , is , that it is an invention of slow growth ; i . e . one of Avhich the advantages aud wide application were not at once and generally appreciatednor Avere the aesthetic and

con-, structive merits of the form marked by any very early recognition . That the Greeks did not use the arch is a pretty generally admitted fact ; the absence of any indication of ifc in any remains of pure Greek work , is sufficiently strong negative evidence ; and the stratagems that we find the builders of that period resorting to in order to overcome difficulties which the arch at once

effectually overcomes afford strong collateral proof . I would call attention , for instance , to the construction of masonry over an opening at one end of the Temple of Concord at Agrigentum , in Sicily . The courses sail over on either side of the opening , vrith a view to diminish the bearing of its straight , flat lintel , whilst the ordinary relieA * ing-arch Avould have ansAvered tho purpose so much

more effectually . However , it is certain thafc , whatever may have been the cause , Avhether ignorance or the force of habit , for a very long time indeed the value of the arch ivas not duly appreciated . Nor , ] 3 erhaps , have we any right to taunt the builders of antiquity Avith the slowness of their apprehension . Even in our own age of science aud civilization , and Avith all our modern means of interchange of kiiOAvledge , a hundred years or more passed

between the first discovery of the mechanical power of steam and the full recognition of its utility . We may regard it , I think , as pretty Avell agreed , thafc architecture had not appropriated the arch as one of her important features until two or three hundred years before the Christian era . We find it in familiar use during the existence of the Roman republic ; and , AA'hen

once generally adopted , one of the most ; complete revolutions in the whole history of our art was effected . The whole character of Roman architecture under the Emperors seems influenced by the arch . The great Avorks of the Pantheon , the Colosseum , and indeed nearly all the great monuments of that age OAve much of their character to this system of construction . Ifc is probable that not

sesahefcic considerations alone , but motives of a practical nature , may have had much influence in favouring the use of the arch . The transport of large , heavy blocks must have at all times taxed the mechanical ingenuity as well as the pecuniary resources of builders . Even afc the present day the cost of a stone increases with its size in a compound ratio -, hoAV much more so must this have

been the case in the early times of Avhich Ave are treating , when roads and canals scarcely existed ? "We may then well understand that a system of construction which not only admitted of , bufc which almost demanded , the use of stones of moderate size , was peculiarly welcome to the builder , and invited his adoption . How rejoiced , too , must have been the architectto resort to a mode of

con-, struction by Avhich not only cost , but time , was saved , and his boldest designs , his grandest ideas , migh be realised hi the least possible time . He had no longer to drag , perhaps from a remote distance , his cumbrous blocks of many tons weight , over a trackless country , and then to rear them , tediously and expensively , by the agency of a multitude of labourers . The nearest quarry would HOAV

probably be such as to furnish him with stones quite large enough where > vith to turn his arches , however gigantic their span . JTor was he any longer compelled to select exclusively

the hardest and strongest stones for his building : the pressure of weight upon the wedge-shaped voussoirs of an arch is to be measured by the crushing power of thafc Aveight , Avhereas the effect of the same weight bearing perpendicularly on a horizontal beam of stone would be much more effectual in fracturing and destroying ifc . We see , too , how speedily the Roman builders foun

that an arch specially favoured the use of bricks . Tha more ancient types of temple architecture seem almost necessarily to exclude , in great measure , the use of bricks : whereas an arcuated construction Avas carried out in every way more advantageously Avith bricks than with stones . We may considerthereforethat it is to the read

, , y applicability of bricks to arch building , thafc we owe the existence of the stupendous Colosseum , the Temple of Peace , and others of Rome ' s proudest monuments . I may here remark the fact that all the great' distinctions of style in our art are traceable , not so much to the ' genius of the designers as to the circumstances of the

time and the place . How differently would the Egyptians have built had they not had granite and stone quarries available ! How different an expression would have distinguished Greek art had Greece been an alluvial country affording bricks only instead of stone and marble ! How differently Avould the Romans have built had they been acquainted

Avith the economic uses of wrought and cast iron ! Were I disposed to encourage the search after a new style ( a search Avhich I am very far indeed from encouraging you to prosecute ) , I Avould say to you , seek it- in the application of some material , or in the invention of some new system of construction ; for truly ifc is iu our own art as it is in the fabric of the human bod the

y ; general aspect of every animal depends for its varieties of form far more on the structure of the skeleton than on the superficial integuments with which its exterior is clothed . I revert now to the state of our art , when the arch had acquired that influence which ifc never afterwards ceased

to exercise . I suppose that we may regard the Tabularium , on the Capitoline Hill , as the earliest , Avell authenticated , example of a regular arcade . An inscription exists to this day Avhich tells us that ifc was builfc by Q . - Luctatius Catulus , who Avas consul , A . TJ . C . 676 , a hundred years therefore before onr era .

After this date examples become much more frequent . I believe I am justified in saying that the earliest surviving example of the superposition of one arcade upon another is the Theatre of Marcellus , builfc by Augustus . There was but a step between this system of construction and that Avhich Avas perfected in that stupendous pile , the Colosseum .

I have , in a lecture which I had the honour to deliver last year , pointed out the deep and durable effect on architectural design thafc must have been produced on all subsequent time by thafc marvel of art . When Ave remember that this building was the great centre of attraction in the pleasure-loving capital of the world ; the eager resort of a countless populationwhose was ever

, cry " Panem et circenses ! " such a building would almost necessarily be the object , first , of admiration , and then of imitation . Hence we find the arcaded corridors of the Colosseum repeated in various parts of the wide spread Roman empire , thus exercising a powerful influence on the architecture of the whole civilised world . The accomplished artists of Rome were not slow to perceive that ,

besides tho opportunities for rich ornamentation which this union of the arched and columnar principle afforded , and the pleasing variety of effect obtained by this combination of straight and curved forms , there were practical benefits resulting from ifc ; the far wider span that could be given to the arches than it would be possible to give to an intercolumination , was an important advantage in a great public building resorted to by the teeming