The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Part 1 — CHAPTER XV FOR ARCHITECTS

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THE READER’S GUIDE TO THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA INTRODUCTION

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Although architecture is more and more coming to be recognized as one of the fine arts, it is at the same time so largely practical and utilitarian that its theory and methods may to a great extent be gathered from systematic reading. In the article Fine Arts in the Britannica, by Sir Sidney Colvin, it is well said that “The original or rudimentary type of the architect, considered not as a mere builder but as an artist, is the savage, who, when his tribe had taken to live in tents or huts instead of caves, first arranged the skins and timbers of his tent or hut in one way because it pleased his eye, rather than in some other way which was as good for shelter.” Whether the architect wishes to learn how the eye may be pleased, to study critically the history of architecture, or, like the less imaginative savage who failed of being the first inspired architect, to consider comfort and shelter rather than beauty and charm, he will find much to help him in the Britannica. If his interest is chiefly practical, he should consult the chapter For Builders in this Guide.

The architect should read first—and he will constantly be referring to it afterwards—the article Architecture (Vol. 2, p. 369), equivalent in length to 235 pages of this Guide and illustrated by 140 figures, about one-third of which are photogravures. The article is historical in the main and a brief outline of it is as follows:—

Egyptian

Assyrian

Persian

Greek

Parthian

Sassanian

Etruscan

Roman

Byzantine

Early Christian

Coptic Church in Egypt

Romanesque and Gothic in Italy France Spain England Germany Belgium and Holland

Renaissance: Introduction Italy France Spain England Germany Belgium and Holland

Mahommedan

Modern Classical Revival in British Architecture Classical Revival in Germany French Classicism Barry’s “Commonsense” Style Gothic Revival in England

72Gothic Revival in France

Queen Anne Style

“Free Classic” Style

Arts allied to Architecture

Craftsmanship Ideal

Architecture in United States (Figures 97, 98, 99, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138)

English Churches

English Public Buildings

English Domestic and Street Architecture

Recent French Architecture

Germany

Other Countries

The part of the article dealing with Modern Architecture is by H. H. Statham author of a well-known book on the subject. Earlier sections are by R. Phené Spiers, late master of the Royal Academy’s Architectural School, with sections on the Romanesque and Gothic in France by W. R. Lethaby, principal of the Central (London County) School of Arts and Crafts.

Before continuing his more systematic historical readings the student may well read the article House (Vol. 13, p. 810), illustrated with 12 figures (3 plates), including four particularly fine examples of “half timbered buildings,” and one English house, the Jew’s House at Lincoln, dating from the 12th century. An interesting article on Mural Decoration (Vol. 19, p. 16) is by a remarkably distinguished trio: William Morris, poet, craftsman and painter, John Henry Middleton, late Slade professor of fine art, Cambridge, and Walter Crane, the well-known illustrator and decorator. This is illustrated with 16 figures in black and white and with a reproduction in colours of a wall-painting from a Roman villa of the early Empire. The article deals with: reliefs in marble and stone; marble veneer; glazed bricks or tiles; hard stucco; sgraffito; stamped leather; painted cloth; printed hangings and wall-papers; and painting.

If the student of architecture would know about the buildings of prehistoric times, in which there was little architecture in the sense of a fine art, he should read the articles Archaeology, (Vol. 2, p. 344), Lake Dwellings (Vol. 16, p. 91), Stonehenge (Vol. 25, p. 961) and Stone Monuments, Primitive (Vol. 25, p. 962),—the last two of particular interest to the building engineer because it is so puzzling a problem how these great blocks could have been brought such distances and set in place without modern appliances.

Early Oriental Architecture

Engineering problems will be the most interesting in a large part of the student’s reading about Egyptian architecture. Supplementing the 4,000 or 5,000 words on this subject under Architecture, accompanied by seven illustrations, there is much information in the articles Egypt (Vol. 9, p. 21); Abydos (Vol. 1, p. 81) and Karnak (Vol. 15, p. 680); and in the articles Pyramid (Vol. 22, p. 683), (by W. M. Flinders Petrie) and Sphinx (Vol. 25, p. 662) by Francis Llewellyn Griffith, another well-known Egyptologist. In the former article the author points out that the outside and inside work on all the pyramids was excellent and that the casings were not a mere veneer but were “of massive blocks, usually greater in thickness than in height, and in some cases (as at South Dahshur) reminding the observer of horizontal leaves with sloping edges.” The massive character of the roofing of the sepulchral chambers is indicated by Prof. Petrie’s estimate that “in Pepi’s pyramid it is of three layers of stone beams, each deeper than their breadth, resting one on another, the thirty stones weighing more than 30 tons each.” But neither Stonehenge nor the pyramid was really an engineering problem. Here, and as in all his studies of early architecture, artist or engineer will find religion and worship the aim and the reason of the building even more, if that is possible, 73than in the great European cathedrals of comparatively recent times.

In the article Babylonia and Assyria there is a brief section (Vol. 3, p. 108) on Art, supplementing the treatment under Architecture. It is interesting to note that even in Assyria architecture was trammelled, reactionary, governed by Babylonian styles and using brick and clay because Babylon did, although there was stone in Assyria, and none in Babylonia; and keeping the heavy brick platform foundation which the Babylonian architects had adopted because of the marshy character of their country, although there was no need of such construction in Assyria. Here too the function of architecture was largely as an aid to religion: as shown in the article Nippur (Vol. 19, p. 707), with its description of the “ziggurat” or artificial mountain in the shrine, built probably 40 or 45 centuries B. C. One temple was 272 ft. square, with seven storeys, each smaller than the one below and thus surrounded by a terrace, each dedicated to a planet, each coloured a separate tint, the first probably 45 ft. high, and the total height 160 ft.

In Assyria great palaces of the 9th, 8th and 7th centuries B. C. have been found, and these are probably the earliest large buildings of any architectural importance not religious in their purpose; but this distinction must not be carried too far, for the king was sacrosanct, half priest and half god, and his palace was a shrine.

Greece and Rome

Although the main treatment of Greek and Roman architecture is in the article Architecture, the student should read the articles Greek Art (Vol. 12, p. 470; equivalent to 70 pages in this Guide; written by Percy Gardner, author of Grammar of Greek Art) and Roman Art (Vol. 23, p. 474; equivalent to 40 pages of this Guide; written by H. Stuart Jones, director of the British School at Rome). The article on Greek Art contains 82 illustrations, many of them halftones. It makes clear the dependence of the other fine arts in Greece on architecture—and on religion—in showing that the greatest sculptures were adjuncts to temples, and (p. 471–472) in a discussion of the architecture of Greek temples calls attention to four basal principles of Greek architecture:

(1) Each member of the building has one function and only one, and this function controls even the decoration of that member. Pillars support architraves; their perpendicular flutings emphasize this. Moulding at a column’s base suggests the support of a great weight.

(2) Simple and natural relations prevailed between various members of a construction.

(3) Rigidity of simple lines is avoided; scarcely any outline is actually straight. Columns are not equidistant.

(4) Elaborate decoration is reserved for those parts of the temple which have, or seem to have, no strain laid upon them.

The article Temple (Vol. 26, p. 603) gives plans and general information about Greek and Roman sacred architecture, as well as Hebrew, Egyptian and Assyrian temples; and the reader should study the article Parthenon (Vol. 20, p. 869) and the diagram in that article, and the article Pergamum (Vol. 21, p. 142) and the two plates which accompany it.

The article Roman Art (Vol. 23, p. 474) is probably the first brief and authoritative treatment of a topic long overshadowed in popular interest by the earlier art of Greece and the later art of Italy. It begins with a history of recent research. Architecture, pre-eminently the most Roman of the arts as combining utility with beauty, is outlined (pp. 476–477 especially) and the main point in regard to Roman architecture is brought out as follows: “the specific 74achievement of the Roman architect was the artistic application of a new set of principles—those which are expressed in the arch, the vault and the dome,” as contrasted with the rectilinear buildings of the Greeks. The arch, particularly the triumphal arch, is specifically a Roman product and is specifically Roman besides in being an expression of reverence for governmental authority,—which, it should, however, be remembered, cannot be separated from religion. Among the most important of Roman sculptures and particularly reliefs are those of the arches, described in the articles Arch (Vol. 2, p. 342) and Triumphal Arch (Vol. 27, p. 297), the latter with eight figures. The part of the article Aqueduct which deals with Roman aqueducts (Vol. 2, pp. 241–243, with 2 plates, 6 illustrations) will interest the architect as well as the contractor or engineer. And he should read the article on the Roman architect and writer on architecture, Vitruvius (Vol. 28, p. 150), whose book so strongly affected the Renaissance.

Before taking up modern architecture as distinguished from ancient, the student will do well to examine the architecture of some more remote peoples—for instance,

Aztec (Vol. 5, p. 441 and p. 677)

Abyssinian (Vol. 12, p. 232)

Hittite (Vol. 13, p. 537)

Indian (Vol. 14, p. 428, with 4 plates)

Japanese (Vol. 15, pp. 181–182)

Chinese (Vol. 6, p. 214)

Byzantine (Vol. 4, p. 906, with 2 plates), and the article Constantinople (Vol. 7, p. 3)

Modern Architecture

The last topic will serve as a transition to the modern architecture of Europe, especially because the influence of the Byzantine was so strong in the early church.

The study of the Italian Romanesque and Gothic in an elaborate section of Architecture (Vol. 2, p. 391) may well be supplemented by reading the articles on the Italian cities in which this art is preserved. The following list is roughly chronological, the cities named first being those in which there are the oldest churches.

Ravenna, Pisa and Venice, for Byzantine Romanesque.

Milan for Lombard Romanesque

Pavia

Brescia

Bergamo

Piacenza

Parma

Modena

Bari for Southern Romanesque

Molfetta

Palermo for Sicilian Romanesque

Messina

Monreale

Cefalu

Würzburg, for Romanesque in Germany

Genoa for Italian Gothic

Assisi

Orvieto

Verona

Perugia

Siena

In the same way, for Gothic in other countries, the student should read:

Aix-la-Chapelle for French Gothic

Le Puy

Angoulême

Arles

Nimes

St. Denis

Noyon

Senlis

Sens

Reims

Le Mans

Oviedo for Spanish Gothic

Leon

Avila

Segovia

Lerida

Toledo

Burgos

Seville

Salamanca

75_

Durham for English Gothic

Lincoln

Salisbury

Gloucester, etc.

Aix for German Gothic

Mainz

Worms

Spires

Cologne

Tournai, Louvain, etc., for Belgian,

and in general, the articles Cathedral, Nave, Aisle, Choir, Apse, Chevet, Lady-Chapel, Vault, Flying Buttress, Pinnacle, Clerestory and Triforium. The article Cathedral has plans of Canterbury, Salisbury, Durham, Ely, Chartres, Sens and Angoulême and a perspective of Amiens cathedral.

In the same way the student of the Renaissance architecture may supplement the section in the article Architecture (p. 408, etc.) by reference to the articles on the cities in which the great Renaissance buildings stand. But now “the career of the individual has to be taken into consideration,” so true is it that the Renaissance in architecture as in scholarship was intensely individualistic. The article Architecture points this out and in this section is largely biographical in its treatment. The reader should study the following separate articles also

For Italian Renaissance

Filippo Brunelleschi

Florence

Leone Battista Alberti

Michelozzo di Bartolommeo

Bramante

Rome (for St. Peters: see Fig. 51 in Architecture)

Borgognone

Baccio d’Agnolo

Sangallo

Pollaiulo

Michelangelo

Jacopo Sansovino

Michele Sanmichele

Andrea Palladio

Barocchio da Vignola

Galeazzo Alessi

Lombardo

Domenico Fontana

Baldassare Peruzzi

The French Renaissance

For this period, less individual than in Italy, the reader will find it best to study the geographical articles. Let him read

Blois (noting Plate VIII, fig. 84, in the article Architecture)

Tours

Chambord

Orleans

Chenonceaux

Fontainebleau

Paris

Spanish Renaissance

Granada

Valladolid

Saragossa

Malaga

Salamanca (Plate V., fig. 73 in Architecture)

Seville (Plate V., fig. 74 in Architecture)

Escorial (with plan)

Madrid (Palacio Royal)

English Renaissance

John Thorpe

Inigo Jones

Sir Christopher Wren

St. Paul’s Cathedral (see Fig. 53 in Architecture)

Greenwich (for Hospital)

Nicholas Hawksmoor

Sir John Vanbrugh

Dean Henry Aldrich

George and James Dance

William Kent

Robert Adam

Sir William Chambers

German Renaissance

Rothenburg (town-hall)

Augsburg (town-hall)

Heidelberg (see Plate VII in Architecture)

Renaissance in Belgium and Holland

Antwerp

Amsterdam

Rotterdam

Haarlem

On Mahommedan Architecture the student should read not only the section (Vol. 2, pp. 422–427) in the article Architecture, with eight illustrations, but the separate articles

Indian Architecture (with 4 plates, 17 figures)

Mosque (with 3 diagrams)

Minaret

Cairo

Constantinople

Damascus

Jerusalem

Mecca

Kairawan

Cordova

Alhambra

Tabriz

Isfahan

On the more recent period, the 19th century, roughly, the student should supplement the last part of the article Architecture by reading the following articles

For the Classical Revival in the British Isles

Dublin (see also Fig. 85 in Architecture)

Edinburgh

Sir John Soane

English Gothic Revival

A. W. N. Pugin

Sir George Gilbert Scott

George S. Street

William Butterfield

John Loughborough Pearson

Alfred Waterhouse

France (Figs. 122–129 in article Architecture)

L. P. Baltard

J. L. C. Garnier

The Last 50 Years

George Frederick Bodley England

R. Norman Shaw

William Morris

Harvey L. Elmes

Charles R. Cockerell

Liverpool (and Fig. 86 in Architecture)

H. H. Richardson United States (and see Plates XV and XVI, and Figs. 97, 98, 99 in article Architecture)

Richard M. Hunt

Charles F. McKim

Stanford White

William R. Mead

Russell Sturgis

Steel Construction

Classical Revival in Germany

Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Berlin (and Fig. 87 in Architecture)

Potsdam (and Fig. 88 in Architecture)

Munich (and Fig. 89 in Architecture)

Gottfried Semper

French Classicism

Adolphe Theodore Brongniart

Jacques Ignace Hittorff (Plate XII in Architecture)

English “Commonsense”

Sir Charles Barry

Halifax (Fig. 90 in Architecture)

Westminster (Houses of Parliament; see Fig. 91 in Architecture)

Budapest (Fig. 92 in Architecture)

The sections of the article Architecture dealing with France and Germany in the last two generations may best be supplemented by a study of the articles Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest.

The following is a brief alphabetical list of architectural articles and topics in the Britannica, including topics for the builder and contractor.

77Abacus

Abated

Abbey

Abutment

Acroterium

Adam, Robert

Aedicula

Aisle

Aiwan

Leone Battista Alberti

Alcove

Galeazzo Alessi

Alley

Almery

Almonry

Almshouse

Alure

Ambo

Ambulatory

Amphiprostyle

Amphitheatre

Andron

Angel-lights

Antae

Ante-chapel

Ante-choir

Ante-fixae

Anthemion

Apophyge

Apollodorus of Damascus

Apse

Apteral

Aqueduct

Araeostyle

Araeosystyle

Arcade

Arch

Architrave

Archivolt

Arcosolium

Arena

Arris

Ashlar

Astragal

Astylar

Atrium

Attic

Attic Base

Baccio d’Agnolo

Back-choir

Bailey

Balcony

Ball-flower

L. P. Baltard

Balustrade

Banker-marks

Baptistery

Barbican

Bargeboard

Giacomo Barocchio

Bartizan

Base

Basement

Basilica

Batement-lights

Baths

Batter

Battlement

Bay

Bed-mould

Belfry

Bell-cot

Belvedere

Bema

Bench-table

Bevel

Bezantée

Sir A. W. Blomfield

G. W. Bodley

Bonding

Giuseppi Bonomi

Francesco Borromini

Bowtell

Bracket

Bramante

Brattishing

Sir Reginald Bray

Brick, and Brickwork

Bridges

Broach

Sir I. M. Brunel

Filippo Brunelleschi

Building

Charles Bulfinch

Bungalow

William Butterfield

Buttress

Cable moulding

Luigi Cagnola

Caissons

Camber

Campanile

N. le Camus de Mézières

Canal

Canalis

Cancelli

Candelabrum

Canephorae

Canopy

Cantilever Foundations

Capital

Carpentry

Cartouche

Caryatides

Casement

Castle

Cathedral

Cathetus

Cauliculus

Cavaedium

Cavea

Cavetto

Ceiling

Cella

Cements

Chalcidicum

Sir William Chambers

Chamfer

Chancel

Chapter-house

Charnel-house

Chateau

Chersiphron

Chevet

Chevron

Chimney

Chimney-piece

Choir

Chresmographion

Cinque Cento

Cleithral

Clerestory

Cloaca

Cloister

C. R. Cockerell

Coenaculum

Coffer, and Coffer Dams

Cogging

Colonnade

Placido Columbani

Column

Compluvium

Composite Order

Compound pier

Conch

Concrete, Concrete Piers, etc.

Consisterium

Construction

Coping

Corbel

Corbie

Cornice

Counterfort

Coursed Rubble

Cramps

Crenelle

Crest

Crocket

Crossing

Cross springer

Crypt

Crypto-porticus

Cubicle

Cuneus

Cupola

Curvilinear

Cusp

François de Cuvilles

Cyclopean Masonry

Cyclostyle

Cyma

Cyrto-style

Cyzicenus

Daedalus

Dais

Dance (family)

Decastyle

Decorated Period

Dentil

Diaconicon

Diastyle

Diaulos

Diazomata

Dikka

Dinocrates

Dipteral

Philibert De l’Orme

Discharging Arch

Distyle

Docks

Dodecastyle

Dog-tooth

Dome

Donjon

Door

Doorway

Dormer

Dormitory

Dosseret

Dovetail

Dowels

Drafted masonry

Dredging

Dripstone

Dromos

Dungeon

Early English Period

Eaves

Echinus

Eiffel Tower

Elevator

Elizabethan Style

H. L. Elmes

James Elmes

Embrasure

Engaged Column

Entablature

Entasis

Ephebeum

Epi

Epinaos

Epistyle

Estrade

Eupalinus

Eustyle

Exedra

Extrados

Façade

Facing

Fan Vault

Femerell

Fenestration

Feretory

James Fergusson

Festoon

Fillet

Finial

Flamboyant Style

Flèche

Floor

Flue

Flying Buttress

Pierre F. L. Fontaine

Domenico Fontana

Footing

Foot-stall

Formeret

Foundation

Fountain

Charles Fowler

Frater

Freestone

Fret

Frieze

Frigidarium

Frontispiece

Gable

Gablets

78Galilee

Gallery

Gargoyle

J. L. C. Garnier

Garret

Garretting

Gate

Gatehouse

Gazebo

Girder

Glazing

Glyph

Glyptothek

Godroon

Gothic

Grange

Granite

Griffe

Groin

C. G. Guarini

Guilloche

Gutta

Gutter

Joseph Gwilt

Gynaeceum

Hagioscope

Half-timber Work

Hall

Halving

Hammerbeam Roof

J. A. Hansom

Nicholas Hawksmoor

Heating

K. A. von Heideloff

Helix

Hemicycle

Herring-bone

Hexastyle

Hip-knob

Hipped roof

Hippodamus

Hippodrome

J. I. Hittorff

Hôtel-de-Ville

Hôtel-Dieu

Hot-water Heating and Supply

House

Hypaethros

Hypocaust

Hypostyle

Hypotrachelium

Ichnography

Iconostasis

Ictinus

Imbrex

Impluvium

Impost

In-antis

Indian Architecture

Intercolumniation

Interlaced arches

Intrados

Jacobean Style

Jamb

Jesse

Joinery

Joints

Joggles

Inigo Jones

Owen Jones

Jubé

Keel-moulding

Keep

Keystone

Label

Labrum

Laconicum

Lacunar

Lady-Chapel

Lancet

Lantern

Lanterns of the Dead

Lectern

Libon

Lighting

Lightning Conductor

Limestone

Lintel

Loft

Louver (Louvre)

Lucarne

Lunette

C. F. McKim

Machicolation

Maksoora

Manor-house

Marble

Mastaba

Mausoleum

Megaron

Merlon

Meshrebiya