Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/870

 702 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [May, from influences ■which an examination of the subject will reveal. Prominent among these influences are Religious Belief, Climate, Government. Others of less force, but j^et exertiug material power, might be named in large num- bers, and if we should attempt an exhaustive examination of the subject, we should doubtless find it impossible to omit any one of them, without making a break in our deductions, which would interfere greatly with their logic. But we can discourse upon gen- eral principles without entering into these minutiae, and a cursory glance at the subject will show that the three influences above named, are the great original causes of those effects which we denominate Architectural Styles. With regard, then, to Religious Belief, (we are tempted to say Religious Pre- judice,) it is generally conceded that men — whether Christian or Pagan — are more intolerant, less willing to open their minds to conviction, and more obstinate in the maintenance of their particular theories, respecting it, than in any other matter upon which it is not possible for all mankind to agree. They will set up a false dogma at the sword's point ; they will fight battles, commit murders, give up life in support of an exploded creed ; they will infuse their religion into their literature, weave its symbols into their garments, and build it into their Sdifices. Under these circumstances it is hardly surprising that we should find Religious Belief a great primary source of national architectural st3 T le, and that from long usage, a people's tastes and preferences should be moulded into those channels most in accord with the requirements of their prejudices. An idolatrous people, viewing all things from the stand-point of their highest ideals, and regarding a golden bull, or a stone sphinx-head, as not only a manifestation of divinity, but as a very god incarnate, naturally introduce these deified animal figures into their buildings, both as a pi'opitiatory offering and mark of reverence, and as having more power than aught else to awe into quietude the otherwise troublesome aspi- rations of the superstitious. On the contrary, other nationalities, as, for instance, the Moors, from their abomination of the lower forms of idolatry, are forced to eschew animal figures entirely, and introduce emblems of vegetable life — plants, flowers, and fruits — as a means of adornment. Even these are not at all times sufficient, for in the Arabian Architecture the eye is con- tinually struck by cabalistic geometrical figures, arranged in the most singular manner, — figures which might be termed mathematical impossibilities, but whose well-cut lines serve well the purposes for which they were intended, and thus relieve the whole structure of that mo- notony so distasteful to a cultivated eye. The rise of this style was nearly simul- taneous with that of Mohammedanism, and it is to be remarked that it has ever followed that religion, although, singu- larly enough, its origin seemed rather to be a mere matter of chance, than the result of any pre-determined system. It is a matter of histoiy that the first Mohammedan mosques were designed and built by Christian architects from Constantinople and elsewhere, and to this fact we may trace the resemblance which exists between this stj'le and the Byzantine. The Moors, however, by the subsequent introduction of arabes- ques, and the great profusion of fanciful devices, (a trick which they learned from the Greek and Roman edifices,) considerably modified their structures and rendered their style distinctive. The horse-shoe arch, with which we have become so familiar as to expect it as a matter of course in all diagrams of Moorish gateways, &c, was undoubtedly original with them, and for some reason has alwaj T s remained their own particu- lar property, although its beauty and grace are generally conceded.