Vitruvius

“ Architecture rises, like an ancient spirit from the tombs, and bids me study its laws just as people do the rules of a dead language, not in order to practise or to take a living joy in them, but only in order to enable myself in the quiet depths of my own mind to do honor to her existence in bygone ages, and her for ever departed glory. As Palladio everywhere refers one to Vitruvius, I have bought an edition of the latter by Galiani ”

“ Vitruvius, after going through the many accomplishments of nature, and the many acquirements of learning, necessary to an architect, proceeds with great gravity to assert that he ought to be well skilled in the civil law; that he may not be cheated in the title of the ground he builds on. But without such exaggeration we may go so far as to assert that a painter stands in need of more knowledge than is to be picked off his palette, or collected by looking on his model, whether it be in life or in picture. He can never be a great artist, who is grossly illiterate. ”

“ It is often taken by Vitruvius for all the Cornice.
Corona, called the Plat or flat Crown, is a particular Member in the Dorick Gate; it’s made by so extraordinary enlargement of the Face of the Corona or Drip, that it has six times more Breadth than Projecture. This sort of Corona is no where found among the Ancients, but only in the Writings of Vitruvius.
Cymatium, from κυμάτον, which signifies a rouling Wave; is a Member of Architecture, of which the one half is Convex and the other Concave, the one being hollow above, and the other below. ”

“ One should speak with gratitude of the labours of Vitruvius, because, after all, his is the only technical treatise left us on the subject; but he applied to the pure Greek temples a system evolved centuries later by critics and theorists; he was thinking chiefly of Roman versions of Greek architecture, and he was more interested in technical rules and precepts for the use of architects than in that abstract beauty which was all the Greek cared for. No classification, however laborious, will reach the mystery of Greek architecture. Its beauty is too subtle to be reduced to any formula. ”

“ Chap. 7. Though Vitruvius hath only divided Architecture into Three Orders; viz. The Dorick, the Ionick and the Corinthian; he doth not for all that forget to give the Proportions of the Thuscan, and speak of the Compound.
ART. IV.
Of Things that are Common to several Orders.
Before we treat of the Differences of these Five Orders, it would be proper to speak of those Things that are common to several Orders; as are the Steps, Pedestals, the Diminution of Pillars, their Channelling, Piedements, Cornices, and Acroteres.
The Steps which are before the Temple, ought always to be of an Lib. 3. ”

“ To Vitruvius the work is coloured plaster, not a picture on plaster, and he shows how important it is that the plaster should be finished with a fine surface of gleaning white so as to light up the transparent film of colour that clothes it. It is the result of such care in classical times that a surface of Pompeian plastering, self-tinted “a fresco,” is beautiful without there being any question of pattern or design. ”

“ During the last years of his life, Professor Morgan had devoted much time and energy to the preparation of a translation of Vitruvius, which he proposed to supplement with a revised text, illustrations, and notes. He had completed the translation, with the exception of the last four chapters of the tenth book, and had discussed, with Professor Warren, the illustrations intended for the first six books of the work ”

“ Vitruvius, in his treatise on Architecture, claims for the architect a knowledge of letters, of drawing, of geometry, of arithmetic, of optic, of history, of natural and moral philosophy, of jurisprudence, of medicine, of astrology, of music, and so on. Everything is worth knowing: learn the art and lay it aside.
It should be evident that such empirical collections are not reducible to a science. ”

“ His turgid and pompous rhetoric displays itself in the introductions to the different books, where his exaggerated effort to introduce some semblance of style into his commonplace lectures on the noble principles which should govern the conduct of the architect, or into the prosaic lists of architects and writers on architecture, is everywhere apparent. Even in the more technical portions of his work, a like conscious effort may be detected, and, at the same time, a lack of confidence in his ability to express himself in unmistakable language. ”

“ It does seem necessary to add a few words about the literary merits of Vitruvius in this treatise, and about Professor Morgan's views as to the general principles to be followed in the translation.
Vitruvius was not a great literary personage, ambitious as he was to appear in that character. As Professor Morgan has aptly said, "he has all the marks of one unused to composition, to whom writing is a painful task." ”

“ The Architecture which we call Antique, is that which may be9 found in the Famous Edifices, which, since the Time of Vitruvius, were built at Rome, Constantinople, and many other places. The Modern, is that which being more accommodated to the present use, or for other Reasons, has changed some of the Dispositions and Proportions which were observed by the Ancient and Antique Architects.
ART. II. The Method of the Works of Vitruvius, with short Arguments of every Book.
ll his Works are divided into Three Parts: The First Lib. 1. ”

“ Then, taking courage and looking forward from the standpoint of higher ideas born of the multiplication of the arts, they gave up huts and began to build houses with foundations, having brick or stone walls, and roofs of timber and tiles; next, observation and application led them from fluctuating and indefinite conceptions to definite rules of symmetry. Perceiving that nature had been lavish in the bestowal of timber and bountiful in stores of building material, they treated this like careful nurses, and thus developing the refinements of life, embellished them with luxuries. ”

“ These rules were based on the descriptions which Vitruvius had studied of Greek temples, but as he was not acquainted with the examples quoted, never having been in Greece or even in south Italy at Paestum, his knowledge was confined to the architectural monuments then existing in Rome. ”

“ Order, those Fabricks are said to be of different Orders, when the Proportion which is between the thickness of the Pillars and their height, with all other things which are required to this Proportion, are different.
Ornaments, Vitruvius so calls the Architrave, Frise, and Cornice. ”

“ Disconnected from the context, drawing is almost like the babble of a child, or like a fragmented, unfinished expression. Vitruvius had a culture of drawing very different from that of the many architects who followed him. ”

“ He solved the puzzle which all Vitruvius's commentators had found insoluble by identifying the 'scamilli impares' with those top and bottom blocks of the columns which, by virtue of the inclination of the column or the curvature of stylobate and architrave, are 'unequal' (i.e. they have their upper and lower faces out of parallel) . Some important conclusions relating to the Roman temple of Jupiter Olympius at Athens Penrose laid before the Institute of British Architects in 1888. ”

“ HE Materials of which Vitruvius speaks are, Stone, Brick, Wood, Lime, and Sand.
All the Stones are not of one sort, for some are soft, some harder, and some extreamly hard.
Those that are not hard are easily cut, and are good for the Inner Parts of the Buildings, where they are cover'd from Rain and Frost which brings them to Powder, and if they be made use of in Buildings near the34 Sea, the Salt Particles of the Air and Heat destroys them.
Those that are indifferently hard, are fit to bear Weight; but there are some sorts of them, that easily crack with the heat of the Fire. ”

“ Taking me for an architect they praised me for having recourse to this master in preference to all the rest, saying that he was of more practical utility than Vitruvius himself, since he had thoroughly studied the ancients and antiquity, and had sought to adapt the latter to the wants of our own times. I conversed for a long time with these friendly men, learned something about the remarkable objects in the city, and took my leave.
Where men have built churches to saints, a place may sometimes be found in them, where monuments to intellectual men may be set up. ”

“ They professed themselves either Renaissance or Gothic architects. The mediævalists acknowledged a subjection to certain principles of design. The classicists accepted certain forms and formulæ as efficacious and final. They were both, therefore, under some restraint. But the new movement seems to mean that aspiring genius shall not be fettered by mechanical laws or academic rules, by reason or by revelation, but that every architect shall build what is right in his own eyes, even if analysis finds it absurd and Vitruvius condemns it as incorrect. ”

“ Bramante, Michelangelo, Palladio, Vignola and earlier architects were careful students of the work of Vitruvius, which through them has largely influenced the architecture of almost all European countries.
Bk. i. opens with a dedication to Augustus. C. 1 is on the science of architecture generally, and the branches of knowledge with which the trained architect ought to be acquainted, viz. grammar, music, painting, sculpture, medicine, geometry, mathematics and optics ”

“ The ground to which the colours are applied in the ancient fresco paintings, is precisely such as is described by Vitruvius, powdered marble cemented by lime, highly polished and beautifully white. With regard to the mode in which their colours were applied, Vitruvius and Pliny agree as to the employment of wax in encaustic painting, which was subsequently liquefied by heat so as to give a varnish to the painting. ”

“ This normal form we shall understand if we consider the essential character of the building in the light of what Vitruvius tells us of it.
Vitruvius treats the basilica in close connexion with the forum, to which in his view it is an adjunct. In the earlier classical times, both in Greece and Italy, business of every kind, political, commercial and legal, was transacted in the open forum, and there also were presented shows and pageants. When business increased and the numbers of the population were multiplied, it was found convenient to provide additional accommodation for these purposes. ”

“ The immense extent and number of the Roman buildings, the coarse materials often used, the relative scarcity of highly trained artisans, and above all, the necessity of making a given amount of artistic design serve for the largest possible amount of architecture, combined to direct the designing of detail into uniform channels. Thus in time was established a sort of canon of proportions, which was reduced to rules by Vitruvius, and revived in much more detailed and precise form by Vignola in the sixteenth century. ”

“ In the case of all the other Orders Vasari mentions the upper and lower mouldings of the pedestal, and it would be most natural to imagine him doing so here, but the ‘torus and two fillets (bastone e due piani) as Vitruvius directs’ sounds more like the ‘Attic’ base of the column, and the reference to Vitruvius should be conclusive that it is not the pedestal of which there is question, for the good reason that Vitruvius knows nothing of the pedestal under the single column of any of the Orders. ”

“ The methods of fixing a standard and defining the proportions of the human frame, are either analytic or synthetic, from the whole to the parts, or from the parts to the whole, and have been promiscuously adopted. The human is the measure of perfection in Vitruvius; he applies its rules to architecture, and indeed to every object of taste.
The length of human proportion in Vitruvius, measured by a perpendicular, or a horizontal, from the middle finger points of both arms extended, is ten heads, the head measured from the chin to the hair-roots of the front ”

“ At first the enthusiasm for antiquity inspired architects and scholars alike with a desire to imitate per saltum, and many works of fervid sympathy and pure artistic intuition were produced. In course of time the laws both of language and construction were more accurately studied; invention was superseded by pedantry; after Poliziano and Alberti came Bembo and Palladio. In proportion as architects learned more about Vitruvius, and scholars narrowed their taste to Virgil, the style of both became more cramped and formal. ”

“ For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like Aristoxenus, though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelles, though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was Myron or Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor again a physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor in the other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be unskilful in them. ”

“ Wisdom consists in the reasonable use of Positive Beauties, which result from the use and convenient ranking of the Parts; for the76 Perfection of which, to a rich and precious Material, is given an Equal and Uniform Figure, with all the Property and Correctness possible.
Vitruvius gives us two Examples of this sort of Beauty; The first is, When Bosses or Relievo’s are made to hide the Joynts, putting them directly under the Bosses which hide them by their jetting or projecture, for this gives them great Beauty and an agreeable Aspect. ”

“ Callimachus, according to Vitruvius, invented this capital, and is supposed to have lived about 396 B.C.,{157} forty years before Alexander the Great was born. Besides the beauty of this order of the choragic monument of Lysikrates, it is the only undoubted and complete Greek specimen that we have in Europe. The main importance of the invention, besides its intrinsic beauty, is its being adopted by the Romans as their favourite order and used throughout their dominions. I give you here the story Vitruvius tells of its invention. ”