Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, first edition - Volume I, A-B.pdf/402

 A R C H I T E C T U R E. 348 coincidence. One example is given of this coincidence, ceives a difagreement or difproportion which difgufts. an the numbers l6, 24, and 36 ; but to be convinced that Hence a long gallery, however convenient for exercife, it is merely accidental, we need but refled, that the fame is not an agreeable figure of a room. proportions are not applicable to the external figure of a In buildings deflined chiefly or folely to pleafe the eye, •houle, and far lefs to a column. regularity and proportion are effentially neceffary, beIt is'ludicrous to obferve writers acknowledging the caufe they are the means of producing intrinfic beauty. neceffity of accurate proportions, and yet differing wide- But a fldlful artift will not confine his view to regularity ly about them. Laying afide reafoning and philofophy, and proportion; he will alfo ftudy congruity, which is one fad univerfally agreed on ought to have undeceived perceived when the form and ornaments of a ftrudure them, that the fame proportions which pleafe in a model are fuited to the purpofe for which it is appointed. are not agreeable in a large building: A room 48 feet Hence every building ought to have an expreflion fuited ■in length, and 24 in breadth and height, is well propor- to. its deftination. ' A palace ought to be fumptuous and tioned ; but a room 12 feet wide and high, and 24 long, grand; a private dwelling, neat and modeft; a playapproaches to a gallery. houfe, gay and fplendid; and a monument, gloomy and Perrault, in his comparifon of the ancients and mo- melancholy. A heathen temple has a double deflination: derns, goes to the oppofite extreme, maintaining, that It is confidered as a houfe dedicated to fome divinity; the ,different proportions affigned to each order of co- therefore it ought to grand, elevated, and magnifilumns are arbitrary, and that the beauty of thefe pro- cent : It is alfo confidefed as a place of worfhip; and portions is entirely the effed of cuftom. But he fhould therefore’ ought to be fomewhat dark and gloomy, behave conflJered, that if thefe proportions had not origi- caufe dimnefs or obfcurity produces that tone of mind nally been agreeable, they could never have been effa- which is favourable to humility and devotion. Columns, befides their chief deftination of being fupports, contriblifhed by cuffom. For illuftrating this point, we fliall add a few examples bute to .that peculiar expreflion which the deftination of of the agreeablenefs of different proportions. In a fump- a building requires: Columns of different proportions tuous edifice, the capital rooms ought to be large, other- ferve to exprefs loftinefs, lightnefs, &C. as well as wife they will not be proportioned to the fize of the ftrength. Situation may alfo contribute to expreflion: building; for the fame reafon, a very large room is im- Conveniency regulates the fituation of a private dweliproper in a fmall houfe. But in things thus related,_the ing-houfe; and the fituation of a palace ought to be lofmind requires not a precife or Angle proportion, rejeding ty. This leads to a queftion, Whether the fituation, all others; on the contrary, many different proportions where there happens to be no choice, ought, in any are equally agreeable. It is only when a proportion be- meafure, to regulate the form of the edifice ? The concomes loofe and diflant, that the agreeablenefs abates, ne&ion between a great houfe and a neighbouring field, and at laft vanifhes. Accordingly, in buildings, rooms though not extremely intimate, demands however fome of different proportions are found to be equally agree- congruity. It would, for example, difpleafe us to find elegant building thrown away upon a wild uncultivated able, even where the proportion is not influenced by -uti- ancountry: Congruity requires a polifhed field for fuch a lity. With regard to the proportion the height of a building. old Gothic form of building was well room Ihould bear to the length and breadth, it muff be fuited to theThe uncultivated regions where it was inextremely arbitrary, confidering the uncertainty of the vented ; but rough was very ill adapted to the fine plains of eye as to the height of a room when*it exceeds 16 or France and Italy. 17 feet. In columns, again, every archited muff con- The external ftruflure of a houfe leads naturally to fefs, that the proportion of height and thicknefs varies betwixt 8 diameters and 10, and that every proportion its internal ftrudure. A large and fpacious room, which the firft that commonly receives us, is a bad contribetween thefe two extremes is agreeable. Befides, there isvance in feveral refpeds. In the firft place, when immuff certainly be a further variation of proportion, depending on the fize of the column : A row of columns mediately from the open air we ftep into fuch a room, in appearance is diminifhed by contraft; it looks 10 feet high, and a row twice that height, requires itslittle,ftzecompared with the great canopy of the fky. In different proportions: The intercolumniations muff allb differ in proportion according to the height of the row. the next place, when at recovers its grandeur, as it foon Proportion of parts is not only itfelf a beauty, but is doth, it gives a diminutive appearance to the reft of the infeparably conneded with a beauty of the higheft relifh, houfe. palling from it, ev6ry apartment looks little. In that of concord and harmony ; which will be plain from the third place, by its fituation it ferves only for a waitwhat follows : A room, the parts of which are all finely ing-room, and a paffage to the principal apartments. adj uffed to each pther, ftrikes us not only with the beau- Rejeding therefore this form, a hint may be taken from ty of proportion, hut with a pleafure far fuperior. The the climax in writing for another that appears more fuitA handfome portico, proportioned to the fize and length, the breadth, the height, the windows, raife each able: of the front, leads into a waiting-room of a larof them a feparate emotion: Thefe emotions are fimilar; fafhion and,, though faint'when feparately felt., they produce, in ger fize, and this to the great room, all by a progreffion conjundion, the emotion of concord or harmony, which from fmall to great. is very pleafant. On the other hand, where the length Grandeur is the principal emotion that architedure of a room far exceeds the breadth, the mind, comparing is capable of raifing in the mind: it might therefore be together parts fo intimately conneded, immediately per- the chief ftudy of the artift, in great buildings deftinedto