Volume II Part 6 (2/2)
85-88 Alberti and other Renaissance architects reco upon a soft surface
(_L'Architettura di Leon Batista Alberti, tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli_, Venice, 1565, 4to, p 70)
If we are to take it as established that the vault or arch was ayptian construction, we have no reason to believe that _off-set_ arches were older, in Egypt at least, than true arches We have described this form of arch elsewhere, and explained the contrivance by which the superficial appearance of a vault was obtained[86] The process could obviously only be carried out in stone We shall here content ourselves with giving two examples of its es 74, 75, 76
[Illustration: FIG 49--Elliptical vault; Thebes]
[Illustration: FIG 50--Foundations with inverted segmental arches; cohteenth dynasty, and occurs in the teives a transverse section of a passage leading to one of the cha 52 offers a view in perspective of the sa chaht above
[87] See p 111, Vol I, _et seq_
[Illustration: FIG 51--Transverse section of a corridor at Dayr-el-Bahari; from Lepsius, i pl 87]
[Illustration: FIG 52--Section in perspective through the same corridor; composed from the elevation of Lepsius]
The second example of this construction comes from a famous work of the nineteenth dynasty, the teure (53) shows one of the curious row of chapels in which the originality of that building consists[88] This quasi-vault, for which Mariette finds a reason in the funerary character of the building, has been obtained by cutting into three huge sandstone slabs in each horizontal course The stone fore
[88] See also pp 385-392, Vol I and Fig 224--Our perspective has been coypte_, froraphs
[Illustration: FIG 53--Vaulted chapel at Abydos]
Brick vaults and arches ht be supposed froested the use of off-set vaults in the case of stone, which, it yptians to offer all the advantages of a vault without its drawbacks In other countries the stages of progression were different, and the true arch caypt it certainly seems to have preceded the off-set arch In the valley of the Nile the latter is an imitative form The form of elliptic arch which we find in certain funerary chambers at Abydos seems to show this When the architect of a tomb or temple wished to substitute a concave surface for a flat ceiling he made use of this hollowed-out vault He thus saved himself from any anxiety as to the stability of his structure, he avoided the necessity of introducing ould seeave variety of line and, perhaps, additional sy to his work
-- 5 _The Pier and Coluyptian Orders_
THEIR ORIGIN
After the wall and the covering which the wall supports, we must study in some detail the pier, and the column which is the perfected form of the pier Thanks to these latter elee spaces without ith and nuht to be carried and to the other conditions of the problem By the form of their bases and capitals, by the proportions of their shafts, by the ornament laid upon them in colour or chiselled in their substance, he is enabled to give an artistic richness and variety which are practically infinite Their arrange are also of the greatest i to define a style of architecture and its individual expression, there is no part to which so much attention should be paid as the column It should be examined, in the first place, as an isolated individual, with a stature and physiognomy proper to itself
Then in its social state, if we o to in, therefore, by exayptian orders, and afterwards we shall describe the principal combinations in which they were employed by the Theban architects
Our readers must remember the distinction, to which we called attention in the early part of our task, between two systeypt; wooden architecture and that in which stone was the chief material used[89] Under the Ancient Empire the only kind of detached support which appears to have been known in stone architecture, was the quadrangular pier, exa 204, vol i) It was not so, however, in wooden construction We find in the bas-reliefs belonging to that early epoch nuh all possessing the same slender proportions, were surns In these capitals occur the first suggestions of the forms which were afterwards developed with success in stone architecture
[89] See Chapter II vol i
The type of capital which occurs s of the New Empire is certainly that which has been compared to a truncated lotus-bud;[90] we may call it the _lotiform_ capital, and a bas-relief has come down to us from the fifth dynasty, in which two colu only fros 54 and 55)
[90] These slender coluured in considerable nuypte_, vol i pl 10
[Illustration: Fig 54--Bas-relief fro 55--Detail of capital; from the same bas-relief]
After the type of capital just mentioned, that which occurs most frequently at Karnak and elsewhere is the _caeneral outline resembles that of an inverted bell It has been referred to the imitation of the lotus-flohen in full bloom