Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/544

* BRICK. 478 BRICK. material of houses and palaces, together with wood. In fact, this seems to have been the ease with the llittites and other early Mediterranean peoples. For this reason only the stone founda- tions remain of most structures, as crude bricks, when used for thin walls, cannot last. Wlien in historic times the (Greeks had in general substi- tuted stone for wood, crude brick, and terra- cotta in their public buildings, they still often used crude brick for city walls, because, as Pau- sanias says, it is "safer against the shock of mili- tary engines tlian either burnt brick or stone." Against such brick ramparts streams of water were used, as in the siege of Mantinea by the Spartans, when a river was turned into the trenches. There were two sizes: 14Vi> inches square for public buildings: V> inches square for private buildings; and half bricks, to be used in alternate courses. Burned bricksappearhardly to have been used at all by the Greeks until after the Roman conquest. The Greeks called crude bricks plinthoi omai, and fired bricks plinthoi optai ; the Roman names were latcres crudi and lateres cocti or coctiles. The Romans began by using crude bricks al- most exclusively. Vitruvius, Pliny, Columella, Varro, and other Latin authors give interesting details as to their manufacture. An especially choice kind was made in parts of Spain and Asia Minor, so light that they would float in water. They also resisted dami)ness. It was considered advisable to let bricks dry for two years before use; but the laws of Utica required five years. The best period for manufacture was said to be May, Ijccause summer bricks dry so quickly on the surface tluit they retain an internal damp- ness which causes cracks. The Roman brick was smaller than any hitherto made, and the square form was for the first time abandoned. The norm was 12 X 6 inches. When the Empire began, under A>igustus, the Romans had largely substi- tuted fired for crude brick in both private and public buildings ; and the adoption of concrete for heavy walls, faced with fired bricks, in place of the earlier stone walls, gave permanent promi- nence to this kind of brick in consti-uction throughout the civilized world. The modern Ital- ian bricks have preserved many qualities of the old Roman ones, which were substantially tiles, beaten flat and dried on the ground, then stacked edgewise in the furnaces on cross-pieces or on the floor itself. Roman brick-furnaces have been found on sites in Italy, Gaul, Germany, England, etc. In laying them, the mortar bed was pre- pared first, and the brick laid with both hands. The Romans not only brought back the Babylo- nian popularity of brick, but also revived Baby- Ionian methods. Tlicy added an inscription to their molds, bearing the name of the reigning Emperor, magistrate, contractor, or manufac- turer, of great value in identifying and dating buildings. They also used a variety of shapes to Buit all purposes and constructive forms. Such bricks verge on tcrrncotta (q.v.), under which head the combination of plastic earthenware with brickwork will be described. .' geographical survey will show that brick did not bectmie equal- ly popular in all parts of the Roman Empire. For instance, in Syria, in North Africa, in the south of France, and in Asia Minor, the Greek tradition of stone construction was maintained nearly intact. When Christian architecture arose, the solid Roman concrete construction was abandoned, and brickwork became even more prevalent ; though stone was still used in the regions just named, except that brick, being adopted at once liy Byzantine architecture, drove stone out of most Hellenic lands by the Seventh Century. Bvit the universal decadence affected even brickmaking. AH the basilical churches being of brick (cxcej)! in Syria, etc.), it is easy to compare their quality in different centuries. Often the bricks were drowned in mortar, espe- cially in Gaul. Really good brickwork does not return until the Twelfth Century in the West. But meanwhile the good traditions had been maintiiined in the East, not only by the Byzan- tines, but by the Mohammedans of Persia, Syria, Egypt, etc. The Byzantines soon sought to vary the ]dain brick exteriors by making a facing of alternate courses of stone or m.aible and bricks, and by laying the bricks so as to form panels and patterns. Churches thus constructed begin to be numerous in the Ninth and Tenth centuries (e.g. Ch. Theotocos, Constantinople; Ch. Apos- tles, Saints Bardias and Elias, Salonica; Mistra churches). It was Byzantine art which invented decorative brickwork, for that of the Romans was always perfectly plain. Hence it passed into the Romanesque art of Italy in the Eleventh Cen- tury, through such nioiuiments as Santa Fosca, at Toreello, and San Donato, at Murano. Then arose the one really decorative school of brick architecture in two niiiin branches, the earlier and finer in northern Italy, the second in north- ern Germany. It is true that there is consider- able good brickwork in the south of France. Its largest monument. Saint Ternin. at Toulouse, is partly of brick, and the convent of the .Jacobins, at Toulouse, is a most artistic brick structure; and wall patterns were sometimes obtained here by bricks of different colors, or a mixture of stone and brick, especially during the Renais- sance. But Italy remained preeminently the home of brick construction, and the Lombard school solved the problem of combining it with details in marble and terra-cotta. as well as by inventing a wonderful variety of molded bricks. Its results still serve as models. Mr. Street's book, Uriel; and Marble Architecture of the Mid- dle Afics ill Northern Italy (London, 18,55), came as a revelation of possibilities. Pavia, Bologna, Cremona, Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, Vi- cenza, and many more cities are full of churches and town halls built entirely in this style, be- tween the Eleventh and the Si.xtecnth centuries. The style reached its culmination in the Gothic period of the Tliirtecnth and Fourteenth cen- turies. The dillerent materials were variously combined. In the Merchants' Exchange at Bo- logna, the shafts, tracery, and balcony are of marble, the capitals and archivolts of terra- cotta, and the rest of brick; but in many cases most of the detail is obtained purely by pressed bricks. One of the charms in many cases lies in the uneven sizes and shapes of the bricks made by hand. Of course, brickwork was used also in Tuscany, Umbria. the Roman Stjites. and in other regions, but not as generally or elTectively. Sjiain also used it largely in the region between Saragossa and Toledo, and so did Flanders. But it was in northern (iermany. especially in Bran- denburg and Pomerania, that a second original note was struck, throughout the Middle .Vges and the Renaissance, in such cities as Liibeck, Ham- burg. Brandenburg, Stralsund. .Terichow, Bres-