Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/894

 726 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [May, portable braziers, in which they burnt wood or charcoal. Some of these were fixed for culinary purposes, and in all cases the smoke was allowed to find its way out as it best could. A glance at the Roman mansions, in the declining daj-s of the Republic under the Emperors, shows us a scene of splendor, magnificence and lavish costliness which even in our day of civi- lization and refinement can hardly be surpassed, nay even equalled. The conquest of the world had brought to their doors all the arts that minister to the luxury of man, and the rough thatched or tiled cottages with sun-dried brick walls, earth or rough stone floors, from whence the Romans had issued when they started on their career of con- quest, had given way to splendid palaces in the city, elegant villas, adorned with every art that wealth could procure or fancy could suggest. To give some idea of the lavish splendor and wealth which characterized this age of Roman Architecture, I may here state that the house of Publius Claudius cost £131,000 ; and one of the Scauri owned a villa, which with its, furniture, decora- tions and works of art, articles of verlu costly statues and paintings, Babylonian tapestries, &c, was valued at the vast sum of £885,000. I cannot help here giving a very brief description of a Roman house of the higher order. Before the door was an open space — the vestibule, open towards the road, but enclosed on the other three sides by the outer walls of the house. The outer door was of striking height, sur- mounted by a very elegant cornice ; the door posts inlaid with rich ivory, tor- toise shell, or some other costty material. The door itself was sometimes con- structed of precious woods, marble, or bronze, and turned upon pivots, either working in sockets in the sill and lintel, or encircled by metal rings ; metal hinges being never employed. The exterior of the house was frequently faced with marble, but from the lowness of the ele- vation, was devoid of effect from without, which, however, was amply compensated for by the luxury within. The floors were not boarded, but formed in wealthy mansions of marble, white, black, or colored, forming a pattern. These tes- selated pavements are frequently met with, and evince a very high degree of skill and art in their construction and arrangement. The reader will be able perhaps to form some idea of this when we state that so minute are the frag- ments composing these fine mosaic re- mains, fragments of glass, earthenware, marble, and even precious stones, as agate and onyx, that one hundred and fifty have been counted on one square inch of surface. The walls were often overlaid with costly marbles, and these marbles again were as often covered with paintings bj r the most famous artists, or in panels, either in fresco, distemper, or encaustic, in the most bril- liant colors. The most elaborate mouldings, cornices, &c, were employed in the interior decorations; and the ceilings formed of polished beams, arrayed in panels and decorated. The Romans, it may be remarked, were in the habit of heating their houses with hot air, convej'ed to the various chambers by pipes, the hot air being ob- tained from a furnace, which also heated the w r ater for the baths. At this time, in Rome and Northern Italy, Chimneys w r ere everywhere used in dwelling houses, baths and bake-houses. It would take up too much space, and make this sketch perhaps too tedious, to give any lengthened description of the interior arrangment of one of these Roman palaces. Suffice it to say that the private withdrawing rooms, bed- rooms, baths, terraces, libraries, porti- coes for air and exercise, cool summer- rooms, fronting north, and opening into ornamented gardens with rows of trees clipped into all kinds of the most fan- tastic and grotesque shapes, all com- plete a scene replete with the highest degree of comfort and luxury, and de- note the most relined taste. J.I.