| XXX | (354) | XXX |
ARCHITECTURE. 354 lofe much of its beautiful appearance. Thus, in the. in- diameters and three quarters ; or araeoftyle, of four diafides of churches, if the columns that fupport the vault meters ; and the Tufcan intervals were very wide, fome were placed immediately on the ground, the feats would pf them being above feven diameters,'which was very hide their bafes, ancL a good part of their (hafts ; and, pra&icable, as the architraves were of wood. jn the theatres of the ancients, if the columns of the fcene Among thefe different intercolumniations, the pychad been placed immediately on the ftage, the a<3ors noftyle and fyftyle are too narrow; for although the anwould have hid a part of them from the audience. In cients ma^e frequent ufe of them, that ought rather to interior decorations, a pedeftal diminilhes the parts of be aferibed to neceffity than choice. For, as the archithe order, which otherwife might perhaps appear too iraves were compofed of Angle ftones, extending from clumfy, and hath the advantage of placing the column in the middle of pne column to the middle of another, it a more favourable view, by raifing its bafe nearer the would have been difficult, efpecially in large buildings, level of the fpe&ator’s eye. In a fecond order of area-- to find blocks of a fufficient length for diaftyle intervals. des, there is no avoiding pedeftals; as without them it With regard to the arasoftyle and Tufcan intercolumniais impoflible to gives the arches any tolerable proportion. tions, they are by much too wide, and can only be ufed With regard to the proportion that pedeftals ought to in ruftic buildings, where the architraves are of wood; bear to that of the columns they fupport, it is by no neither is the diaftyle fufljciently foiid in large compofimeans fixed. Both the ancients and moderns vary tions. The euftyle is a medium between the narrow and greatly on this head. Vignola’s proportions are general- broad intervals; and, being at the fame time both fpaly reckoned the beft. He makes his pedeftals, in all the cious and foiid, hath been preferred to any of the reft orders, of the fame height, viz. one third of the co- by the ancients as well as the moderns. lumn ; and as their breadth of courfe increafes or dimi- Vignola obferved nearly the fame proportion in all his nifties in the fame degree as the diameters of their refpec- intercolumniations; which practice, though condemned tive columns do, the character of the order is always by feveral writers, is certainly preferable to any other ; preferved, which, according to any other method, is as it preftrves the charafter of each order, and maintains in all of them an eqpal degree of real folidity. Setting i.mpoflible. As to the divifions of the pedeftal; if the whole afide therefore the pycnoftyle and fyftyle difpofitions on height be divided into nine parts, one of them may be account of their want of fpace, and the arseoftyle for its given to the height of the cornice, two to the bafe, and deficiency in point of ftrength, it may be eftablilhed, that the fix remaining to the dye. The breadth of the dye the diaftyle and euftyle intercolumniations, (the latter of is always made equal to that of the plinth of the column. which, on moft occafions, ought to have the preference), The projeftion pf the cornice may be made equal to its may be employed in all the orders without diftinftion, exheight; and the bafe being divided into three parts, two cepting the Doric ; in whiclt the moft perfeft interval is of them will be for the height of the plinth, and one for ditriglyph; neither the monotriglyph, nor the arseoftyle, the mouldings, whofe projection muft be lefs than that being to be fuffered but in cafes of neceflity. of the cornice. Thefe meafures are common to all pe- Sometimes, on account of the windows, doors, niches, and other decorations, which correfpond with the inter* deftals. See Plate XXX. columniations of the periftyle, or gallery, it is not polfito make the intervals fo narrow as euftyle, or even OF IN T E RCOLUMNIATIONS. asblediaftyle
- Wherefore the moderns, authorifed by fome
Columns are either engaged, or infulated; and, few examples of the ancients, where grouped columns when infulated, are either very near the wall, or at a are employed, have invented a manner of difpofing them, confiderable diftance from it. Engaged columns, or called by Perrault araojiyle, which admits of a larger infuch as are near the walls of a building, are not limited terval, without any detriment to the apparent folidity of in their intercolumniations, as thefe depend on the the building, This kind of dilpofition is compofed of breadths of the arches, windows, niches, or other de- two fyftyle intercolumniations; the column that fepacorations placed between the columns. But columns rates them being approached towards one of thofe at the that are entirely detached, and perform alone the office extremities, fufficient room only being left between them of fupporting the entablature, as in periftyles, porches, for the projeftion of the capitals; fo that the great fpace and galleries, muft be near each other, for the fake both is three diameters and a half wide, and the little one half of real and apparent folidity. _ a diameter. The intercolumniations among die ancients were va- In periftyks, galleries, or porticos, all the intercorious. Thofe ufed in the Ionic and Corinthian orders lumniations muft be equal: But in a logic,, or porch, the were the pycnoftyle, of which the interval was equal to middle interval may be broader than the others, by a one diameter and a half of the column; the fyftyle, triglyph or modilion, or three or four dentils; unlefs whofe interval was equal to two diameters; the euftyle, the columns at the angles be coupled, or grouped with tp two and a quarter ; the diaftyle to three, and the pilafters; in which cafe, all the intervals fhould be of the arasoftyle to four. In the Doric order, they ufed other fame dimenfions. intercolumniations, regulating them by the triglyphs,, When buildings are very fmalfi as is frequently the one of which was always placed direCtly over the middle cafe in temples and other inventions ufed for ornamenting of each column ; fo that they were either fyftyle, mono- gardens, the intercolumniations may be broader, in protriglyph, of one diameter and a half; diaftyle, of two portion to the diameter of the columns, than ufual;caufe. be.-
