Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/63

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL STYLES. 5 Grecian architecture is considered by many to have had its origin in the wooden hut or cabin formed of posts set in the earth, and covered with transverse beams and rafters, and this was the type which was developed in the early Mycenaean period into the prodomus of the Greek house. This timber archi- tecture, copied in marble or stone, was naturally at first very simple and rude ; the influence of the material, however, was soon felt, when the permanence and value of stone aided in the growth of the art. It should be noted, however, that many writers hold that Greek architecture is developed from an early stone type. As civilization and technical skill, moreover, advanced, the qualities of refinement in detail and proportion were perceived, and the different orders of architecture — Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian (No. 38; — came into existence. By the word " order" is meant certam methods of proportioning and decorating a column, and the part it supports, i.e., the entablature. The above " orders " are characteristic of Greek architecture, and the beauty and grace with which they were treated, and the artistic and mathematical skill with which they were constructed, illustrate the keen artistic temperament of the Greeks. Greece eventually succumbed to the conquering Romans who, however, adopted their architecture, and in many cases employed Greek artists in the erection of their buildings. While borrowing this trabeated architecture, they added the use of the arch, which they had probably already learnt to construct from the Etruscans, the ancient inhabitants of Central Italy. The column and arch were used conjointly by the Romans for some time, good examples being the Colosseum at Rome (Nos. 62 and 63), and the Triumphal Arches (Nos. 65 and 66). This dualism is a very important fact to remember, because, as will be seen, it eventually ended in the exclusion of the beam altogether, and in the employment of the arch alone, throughout the entire constructive system of the building. In the numerous buildings which the Romans erected, it will be noticed that the column has, in the generality of cases, become merely a decorative feature, the actual work of support being performed by the piers of the wall behind, connected together by semicircular arches. As time went on, however, such practical people as the Romans could not but discard a feature which was no longer utilitarian, so the column as a decorative feature disappeared, and the arcuated system it had masked was exposed. Columns were, however, used constructively, as in many of the great basilicas, in which the semicircular arches spring directly from their capitals. As the Romans conquered the whole of the then known world, that is to say, most of what is now known as Europe (No. 45), so this feature of the semicircular arch was introduced in every part, by its use in the settlements