Annual Report - Archaeological Institute of America Volume 12-17 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ...--but horizontal cornices, level lines, severity, and even monotony. Greek art, then, in all its forms, might well be studied as a basis for future work. But, as the Greeks of the great time used no arches, no mortars nor cements, no chimneys in the modern sense, and, so far as we can learn, no windows such as we are accustomed to, and as we do not know much about even their roofs, it is quite necessary that we should study the practice of the later Greeks, of those who were the heirs of the Athenians of Pericles's time in artistic sense and feeling, however much they might have been influenced by the ampler resources and more extensive demands of their masters of later times. The Syrian buildings of the first six centuries A. D., and the Byzantine architecture of the fifth and succeeding centuries, were especially well fitted to instruct us as to this. In these styles, indeed, we could see how the Greeks of old would have met our modern requirements; and a little careful analysis of the spirit and inward meaning of those styles would help us to solve nearly all our problems. A number of lantern pictures of Syrian and Byzantine buildings were shown, and the designs critically examined. Finally, a number of rules or maxims were laid down as necessary to be observed in using Greek design in modern architecture; as, that the arch should be used very little, and only when the opening to be spanned was too large for the safe use of a lintel; that all other openings should be simply square-headed; that all piers between openings which are near together should be treated with capital and base, marked sufficiently to separate them from the decoration of the lintel courses above and the sill courses below; that, when openings were fewer and the piers...