Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/373

 Ek. IV. Ch. V. PILLARS OF VICTORY. 341 these are mere Corinthian pillars of the usual form, and with the details of those used to support entablatures in porticoes. However beautiful these may be in their proper place, they are singularly inappropriate and ungraceful when used as minarets or single columns. There are two in Rome not quite so bad as these, both being of the Doric order. Had the square abacus in these been cut to a round form, and oi-namented with an appropriate railing, we might almost have for gotten their original, and have fancied that they really were round towers with balconies at the top. The great object of their erection was to serve as vehicles for sculpture, though as we now see them, or as they are caricatured at Paris and else- where, they are little moi-e than in- stances of immense labor bestowed to very little purpose. As originally used, these ]>illars were placed in small courts surrounded by open porticoes, whence the spectator could at two or perhaps at tliree different levels ex- amine the sculpjture at his leisure and at a convenient distance, while the absurdity of the i)illar supporting nothing was not apparent, from its not being seen from the outside. This arrangement is explained in Woodcut No. 199, which is a section through the basilica of Trajan, showing the ]iosition of his column, not only with reference to that building, but to the surrounding colonnade. The same Avas almost certainly the case with the ])illar of Marcus Aurelius, which, Avith slight modifications, seems to have been copied from that of Trajan ; but even in the most favorable situations no monuments can be less worthy of admiration or of being copied than these. A far better specimen of this class is that at Cussi, near Beaune, in France. It probably belongs to the time of Aurelian, but it is not known either by whom it was erected or what victory it was designed to celebrate ; still that it is a pillar of victory seems undoubted ; and its resemblance to pillars raised with the same object in India is quite striking. 221. Colunin at Cussi. (From La^ borde's "Mouumeus ile la France.") Supposed Capital of Coluum at Cussi.