ARCHITECTONIC

ARCHITECTONIC, that which builds a thing up regularly, according to the nature and intentions thereof.

Thus, that plastic power, spirit, or whatever else it bewhich hatches the ova of females into living creaturesof the same species, is by some called the architectonic spirit. See PLASTICK. ARCHITECTURE, Architectura, the art ofbuilding; i.e., of erecting edifices proper for habitation, or defense. See BUILDING, EDIFICE, etc.



Architecture is usually divided, with respect to its objects, into three branches: Civil, Military, and Naval.

Civil Architecture, called also absolutely and by way of eminence Architecture, is the art of contriving andexecuting commodious buildings for the uses of civil life; as houses, temples, theaters, halls, bridges, colleges,porticos, etc. See HOUSE, TEMPLE, THEATER, etc. Architecture is scarcely inferior to any of the arts inpoint of antiquity—Nature and necessity taught the firstinhabitants of the Earth to build themselves huts, tents,and cottages; from which, in course of time, they gradually advanced to more serious and stately habitations, withvariety of ornaments, proportions, etc. See Vitruvius’s account of the origin of architecture under the articleOrnament. The ancient writers represent the Phoenicians as the firstamong whom architecture was carried to any tolerablepitch; and hence it was that Solomon had recourse therefor workmen to build his temple. Vossius, indeed,contends that only under-workmen were sent for fromTyre, artificers in gold, silver, brass, etc., and that the rules of architecture were delivered by God himself to Solomon. Hence, he adds, the Phoenicians rather learned theirarchitecture from Solomon; which they afterwards communicated to the Egyptians; these to the Grecians, andthese again to the Romans—In effect, the author last cited,undertakes to prove, that all the beauty and advantages ofthe Greek and Roman buildings, were borrowed from thisfabric. To confirm this, writers produce several passages inVitruvius, where the rules given by that architect, align perfectly with what Josephus relates of the Jewish Temple. See TEMPLE. To what a pitch of magnificence the Phoenicians and Egyptians carried architecture, ere it came to the Greeks, may be learned from Isaiah xxiii. 8 and Vitruvius’s account ofthe Egyptian Oecus; their pyramids, obelisks, etc. SeeObelisk, Pyramid, etc.

Yet, in the common account, architecture should be almost wholly of Grecian origin: Three of the regular orders or manners of building are denominated from them,viz. Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric: And scarce a part, asingle member, or molding, but comes to us with a Greekname. See CORINTHIAN, DORIC, IONIC; SEE ALSO MOLDING, etc. Be this as it will, it’s certain the Romans, from whom we derive it, borrowed what they had entirely from theGreeks, nor seem, till then, to have had any other notion of the grandeur and beauty of buildings, besides what arisesfrom their magnitude, strength, etc.—Thus far they wereunacquainted with any order besides the Tuscan. See TUSCAN.

Under Augustus, architecture arrived at its glory:Tiberius neglected it, as well as the other polite arts. Nero, amongst a heap of horrible vices, still retained an uncommon passion for building, but luxury and dissoluteness had a greater share in it, than true magnificence.—Apollodorus,excelled in architecture under the Emperor Trajan, bywhich he merited the favor of that prince; and it was hewho raised the famous Trajan Column, subsisting to thisday. See TRAJAN.

After this, architecture began to dwindle; and though the taste and magnificence of Alexander Severus supported itfor some time, yet it fell with the western empire, and sunk into a corruption, from whence it was not recoveredfor the space of twelve centuries. The ravages of the Visigoths, in the 5th century, destroyed all the most beautiful monuments of antiquity; andarchitecture thenceforward became so coarse and artless,that their professed architects understood nothing at all ofjust designing, wherein its whole beauty consists: Hence a new manner of building took its rise, called the Gothic. See GOTHIC.

Charlemagne did his utmost to restore architecture,and the French applied themselves to it with success, under the encouragement of H. Caste: His son Robertsucceeded him in this design; till by degrees the modern architecture was run into as great an excess of delicacy, as the Gothic had before done into massiveness. Tothese may be added, the Arabesque and Moorisharchitecture; which were much of a piece with the Gothic, only brought in from the South by the Moors and Saracens, as the former was from the North by the Goths andVandals. See ARABESQUE, MORISCO, GROTESQUE, etc.

The architects of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, whohad some knowledge of sculpture, seemed to make perfection consist altogether in the delicacy and multitude of ornaments, which they bestowed on their buildings, with aworld of care and solicitude; though frequently without anyconduct or taste.
In the two last centuries, the architects of Italy andFrance were wholly bent upon retrieving the primitive simplicity and beauty of ancient architecture, in which theydid not fail of success: Inasmuch, that our churches, palaces, etc. are now wholly built after the antique. Civil architecture may be distinguished, with regard to theseveral periods or states thereof, into antique, ancient, gothic, modern, etc. See Antique, Ancient, Gothic,and Modern, etc.

Another division of civil architecture arises from thedifferent proportions which the different kinds of buildings rendered necessary, that we might have some proper for every purpose, according to the bulk, strength, delicacy, richness, or simplicity required.

Hence arose five orders or manners of building, all invented by the ancients at different times, and on differentoccasions, viz. Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite; the history, characteristics, etc. of each whereof seeunder their respective articles, Tuscan, Doric, Ionic,Corinthian, and Composite. What forms an order, is the column with its base andcapital; surmounted by an entablature, consisting of architrave, frieze, and cornice; and sustained by a pedestal.

See ORDER; see also COLUMN, ENTABLATURE, PEDESTAL, etc.; see also CARYATID, etc.

For a general view of the elements of architecture, with the rules which obtain with respect to the matter,form, proportion, situation, foundation, distribution, covering, apertures, etc. See the article BUILDING.

For particulars; see FOUNDATION, WALL, ROOF, WINDOW, DOOR, CEILING, etc.; see also BEAUTY, etc.

There are several arts subservient to architecture, ascarpentry, masonry, paving, joinery, smithery, glazery,plumbery, plastering, gilding, etc. See Carpentry,Masonry, Paving, Joinery, Smithery, Glazery, Plumbery, Plastering, Gilding, etc.—See also TIMBER, STONE, BRICK, TILE, MORTAR, LEAD, GLASS, etc.

We have no Greek authors extant on architecture—The first who wrote of it was Agatharcus the Athenian, who was seconded by Democritus and Theophrastus — Among the Latins; the younger Pliny seems to speak thebest; and indeed shows himself very knowing therein.

Of all the ancients, Vitruvius is the only entire author; though Vegetius relates that there were 500 architects at Romein his time—He lived under Augustus, and composed acomplete system of architecture, in ten books, which hededicated to that prince. There are two things censuredby the moderns in this excellent work, viz. want of method, and obscurity. The mixture of Latin, Greek, inVitruvius, is such, that Leon Battista Alberti has observed, he wrote Latin to the Greeks, and Greek to the Latins. Headds, that the work contains an abundance of things superfluous and foreign to the purpose.—For this reason M. Perrault has extracted all the rules out of Vitruvius’s prolixwork, methodized and published them in a little abridgment:—Several authors have also endeavored to explainthe text of Vitruvius, particularly Philander, Barbaro, andSalmasius, in notes added to their several Latin editions;Rivius and Perrault in the notes to their German and French versions; and Baldus in his Lexicon Vitruvianum:—The same M. Perrault has also composed an excellent treatise of the five orders, which may be esteemed a supplementto Vitruvius, who left the doctrine of the orders defective.

The authors upon architecture since Vitruvius are—Leon Battista Alberti, who in 1512, published ten booksof the art of building, in Latin, designed to outvie Vitruvius; in which, however, he has not succeeded. His workhas an abundance of good things, but is deficient in the doctrine of the orders—Seb. Serlio, who wrote seven books ofarchitecture, five of which concerning the five orders, weremade public in 1602; throughout all which, he religiously keeps to Vitruvius’s rules: The seventh was sincepublished in 1575; But the sixth, concerning private buildings, has not yet appeared. Andrea Palladio, who wrote four books of architecture, containing the fundamental rules of the art, with various instances of all the kinds of works, published in Italian in 1575. The first two books were rendered into High-Dutch and enlarged with annotations by Boeckler—Philibert de L'Orme, who published nine books of architecture, in French, in 1567—Barozzio da Vignola, who in 1631, made public his Rules of the five orders, in Italian; since translated, with large additions, by Daveler, under the title of Cours d'Architecture, etc., and since also into High-Dutch, with notes.

To these are to be added Vincenzo Scamozzi, his Idea of Universal Architecture, published in 1615, in Italian, and Charles Philippe Dieufart, in his Theatre of Civil Architecture, published in High-Dutch in 1697; wherein he not only delivers the rules of architecture. but explains and compares the five Orders as laid down by Palladio, Vignola, Scamozzi,&c., which same design was also executed in French by R. Freart de Chambray, in a Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern, published in French in 1650, andsince translated into English with additions, by Mr. Evelyn.

Fr. Blondel, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting, &c.

in 1698, gave a Course of Architecture, in French, beinga collection from all the celebrated writers upon the subject of the Orders, &c.—Nich. Goldmann, in a Treatise deStylometris, published in Latin and High-Dutch, in theyear 1661, has done good service, in reducing the Rulesand Orders of Architecture to a further degree of perfection, and showing how they may be easily delineated bymeans of certain instruments invented by him. Lastly, the Elements of Architecture are laid down bySir H. Wotton—The same are reduced by Sturm, and Wolf, to certain rules and demonstrations; and thus is Architecture brought into the form of a Mathematical Art;by the first, in his Mathematicis Juvenilis, and the second, in hisElementa Matheseos, Vol. II. Aug. 1715. Military Architecture, is the Art of strengtheningand fortifying places, to screen them from the insults ofenemies, and the violence of arms. See FortifyingPlace. This we more usually call Fortification. See FORTIFICATION. The business of Military Architecture, is to erect forts,castles, and other fortresses, with ramparts, bastions,&c. See FORTRESS, RAMPART, BASTION, &c.

Naval Architecture, or Ship-Building; is that whichteaches the construction of ships, galleys, and other floating vessels for the water; with ports, moles, docks, &c.

on the shore. See VESSEL, SHIP, GALLEY, BOAT, &c.

see also Mole, Dock, &c. Architecture in Perspective, is a sort of building,wherein the members are of different measures and modules, and diminish in proportion to their distance; to make the work appear longer and larger to the view than reallyit is. See PERSPECTIVE.

Such is the celebrated Pontifical Staircase of the Vatican,built under Pope Alexander VII by the Cavalier Bernini.

Counterfeit Architecture, is that which has its projections painted, either in black or white, or colored after the manner of marble; as is seen practiced in the façades and palaces in Italy, and in the pavilions of Marly. This painting is made in fresco, upon plastered walls;and in oil, on walls of stone. See PAINTING and FRESCO.

Under the name of Counterfeit Architecture, which weotherwise call Scenework, is likewise comprehended, thatpainted on slight boards or planks of wood, whereon thecolumns, pilasters, and other parts of building, seem to stand out, with a relief; the whole being colored inimitation of various marbles, metal, &c. and serving in thedecorations of theaters, triumphal arches, public entries,funeral pomps, &c.

ARCHITECTONIC