On The Arch And Arcades.

opulation of Rome ; whilst the three-quarter columns , bonded in as they Avere , so as to form an integral part of the piers of the arcade , became a source of great additional stability to the structure , acting in truth , exactly as the buttresses in mediasval Avork . It would be out of place here to dwell upon the magnificent masonry of this Avondei * ful building ; but I would

remark that the Roman builders , hoAvever deficient they may have been in the higher efforts of genius , Avere certainly most remarkable for uniting a strong artistic feeling with a knowledge of construction that might well put to shame the puny efforts of modern masons , whose ingenuity generally exhausts itself on ignoble endeavours to down their work to the minimum of substance

pare , ¦ and to ascertain what is the greatest tenuity that may be given to their walls so that they may just stand , and no more . Certainly had such penurious calculations influenced the great masters of Roman art , Ave should not now , at the end of eighteen centuries , be contemplating ¦ the gigantic remains that still survive to surprise and instruct us .

Ifc was said by one of the most eminent engineers of the last century , Mr . Mylne , that he derived more practical benefit from the careful study of the masonry of ancient Rome than from any other professional object of his attention on the Continent . With reference , hoAvever , to the combinafcion of arches and columns , I am not prepared altogether to defend the union of these tAvo modes

of support , on the ground of any great propriety there may be in that union . The arches or the columns ought , perhaps , each to suffice for the purpose of carrying the superincumbent weight , without the aid of the other . In the case , for example , of the triumphal arch of Severus , at Rome , and the numerous similar structures to which the patriotism of the Romans and their love of military

glory gave birth , the coupled pillars on either side of the arch seem superadded for no purpose whatever beyond mere embellishment . Critics may differ as to whether ¦ that , is a sufficient justification . It is a wide question how far an architect is to be permitted to avail himself of forms of no real utility for the sake of their aasthetic merits . I have already , on a former occasion , sufficiently discussed that question ; and the result Avhich I—perhaps I may say we—came to was , that pure and excellent as

is the principle that utility should be at the foundation of all architectural design , a too literal acceptance of that principle would lead to the abandonment of much of that pleasure Avhich we derive from the contemplation of abstract beauty ; it would deprive the pinnacle of its crockets and the frieze of its foliage . Such considerations incline me to justify the ancient artists in that pleasing

combination of arches and columns , which became afterwards so rich a source of beauty , when the cinque-centists came to found , on the antique type , their own essentially new style . The arch having now become the form most favoured by Roman architects , we find it entering into the construction of all their most important works , both public

and private . An arcaded cloister forms the most marked feature in the beautiful building at Tivoli , known as Maacena ' s villa , bub attributed by some antiquaries to a date somewhat later than the lifetime of that patron of art . Arches also form the essential feature of the Temple of Peace , the magnitude of which arches may be understood by considering that the span of each arch or vault is about the width of Regent-street , and is in height up to the crown of the vault something more than the height of the York column .

We have not time , were it expedient , to follow the history of this form through the period of the decadence ; the palaces of Caracalla and Diocletian present many magnificent examples of it , and a peculiar character is given to the early Christian basilicas by its almost constant use . An arcade completely surrounded the multangular tomb of Theodoric . The architecture , indeed , of the Bassi Tempi is especially characterised by these

arcades , though reduced , it is true , to very insignificant dimensions . The facades of perhaps all the churches of thafc period were usually covered with them ; and ifc is curious to observe how direct the descent is from these arcaded Romanesque fac ; ades down to the west fronts of our Chichester and Litchfield cathedrals . All art is generative . We begin by simply repeating what we have

seen and learnt to admire and revere ; but the active mind of man is not content to stop there—it goes on to vary , and modify , and amplify . New ideas will supervene , new resources of art arise ; thus great changes are made and wide departures suggest themselves , till the ^ original type remains uneffaced , and the parent ideathe arcade , the dome , the spire—is handed doAvn in . a

numerous and diversified progeny . Hastening now on to the early renaissance , I do not call to mind any surviving building of thafc date wherein columns , if introduced at all , do not play a very subordinate part as compared with arches . Ifc is true that Alberti , writing about the middle of the fifteenth century , does lay down some not very definite rules for

the Orders , such as he found taught by Vitruvis , whose treatise , although then but little studied , was beginning to receive that attention which was affcerivards even too lavishly bestowed upon it . Nevertheless , ifc is very certain that the early masters of the revival sought for architectural effect , not from stately colonnades , but from variety of outline in their masses produced by the

infinite diversity of graceful forms afforded by the arch . If you examine the pictures and frescoes of that early period to which I advert , you will find the painters perpetually revelling in the graces of the arch . Arcades of infinite variety and originality occur in the works of P . Perugino , Alberti , Albert Durer , and others . But the architecture of painters is a subject too pregnant and important to be treated on incidentally or slightly ; and I shall , therefore , reserve that subject for a future occasion .

I have IIOAV detained you at perhaps more than sufficient length on the historical view of my subject ; but all history , remember , is a treasury of useful lessons . The politician is ill prepared for his task of advising how a country is to be ruled if he be not thoroughly well informed how , under various circumstances and at former periods , other countries have been ruled , and with what

results ; and so the young architect will find himself unequal to cope with the difficulties , or to Avin in the contests which await him in his future professional career , unless he shall have learnt how his . pvedecesors have contended Avith and overcome like difficulties . Reynolds goes so far as to predict that , " when the great masters of past times shall cease to be studied , the arts will no

longer flourish , and Ave shall again relapse into barbarism . " It is an undoubted truth that the artist , whatever may be the branch of arfc he Avould cultivate , must take these retrospective , general vieAVS , if he desires to be well informed in his arfc . A man who is in search of the riht path must needs scan well the country around him

g , far and wide , in order to find it . My special purpose on this occasion is , as I have told you , to confine your attention to the subject of the arcade . I trust I may say , honestly and without risking the charge of conceit , that I feel somewhat of kin to enthusiasm on this subject . In the earlier days of my studies , when I first viewed the noble works which time

has spared us on the Continent , nothing attracted a more eager attention , nothing impressed me more deeply , then the beauty of those arcades Avhich , in endless variety , offer themselves to our admiration in thafc land of art , Italy . It is far from my purpose , or wish , to depreciate the beauty of columnar architecture : the cortile of St . Peter's and the facade of the Louvre are evidence of the noble effects attainable by a simple colonnade : yet it cannot , I think , be denied that the arcade has in many respect an advantage over the colonnade : there is more