UWJV. Of CALIF. LIBRARY, LQS ANGM6 LIBRARY OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS Gift of The Heirs of R . Germain Hubby , A . I . A. . HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE FACADE OF THE CATHEDRAL AT RHEIMS HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE y % THE HUMAN ELEMENTS . IN THE EVOLUTION OF STYLES BY FRANK E. WALLIS, A.A.I.A. AUTHOR OF "OLD COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE" ILLUSTRATED HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON M C M X Copyright, iqio, by HARPER & BROTHERS Published November, 1910. Printed in til' fnittd St.itrt <>/ .-I'ntrff.i CONTENTS PAGAN THE FIRST PERIOD CHAP. PAGE I. THE HUMAN FACTORS IN ARCHITECTURE .... 3 II. TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS 10 III. GREEK FACTORS 26 IV. THE FIRST GREAT TRANSITION 55 CHRISTIAN THE SECOND PERIOD V. THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE ... 87 VI. THE SECOND GREAT TRANSITION 96 VII. PREPARATION FOR THE GOTHIC 125 VIII. THE GOTHIC 132 IX. FLAMBOYANT GOTHIC 150 INTELLECTUAL THE THIRD PERIOD X. THE THIRD GREAT TRANSITION 169 XI. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE 196 XII. FRANCIS I. TO Louis XVI 213 XIII. FROM Louis XVI. TO MODERN FRANCE .... 229 XIV. PARALLEL DEVELOPMENTS IN ENGLAND .... 239 XV. THE GEORGIAN PERIOD OF ENGLAND .... 256 MODERN THE FOURTH PERIOD XVI. THE GEORGIAN IN AMERICA 271 XVII. THE AMERICAN DECADENCE 294 XVIII. PROGRESS IN OTHER COUNTRIES 304 XIX. THE ARCHITECT AND THE FUTURE 312 INDEX 321 ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. PAGE FACADE OF THE CATHEDRAL AT RHEIMS . . . Frontispiece I EGYPTIAN COLUMNS FROM THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR . . 15 2 THE OLD TOMBS PRISON, NEW YORK l"J 3 AN ASSYRIAN COLUMN, PERSEPOLIS l8 4 ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE IQ 5 AN ASSYRIAN CAPITAL SHOWING THE ORIGIN OF THE IONIC 2O 6 DIAGRAM OF AXIS PLAN 23 7 NEW HAMPSHIRE BARN FRAME 33 8 GREEK STONE CONSTRUCTION 35 9 THE PARTHENON 37 IO DORIC COLUMN FROM THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES, AGRIGENTUM 4! II AN IONIC COLUMN FROM THE TEMPLE OF " WINGLESS VICTORY" 43 12 DETAIL OF IONIC CAPITAL SHOWING VOLUTE .... 44 13 CORINTHIAN CAPITAL, PANTHEON, ROME 45 14 MODIFIED CORINTHIAN 46 15 CORINTHIAN CAPITAL FROM THE TEMPLE OF LYSICRATES . 47 1 6 PORCH OF HOUSE AT SALEM, MASS., SHOWING IONIC COLUMN 48 17 UNION SQUARE SAVINGS-BANK, NEW YORK (CORINTHIAN) 50 1 8 OLD CUSTOM-HOUSE, NEW YORK (lONIC COLUMNS) . . 5! IQ COLONNADE ON LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK (CORIN- THIAN) 53 2O ENTRANCE TO THE ASTOR HOUSE, NEW YORK (DORIC) . 54 ILLUSTRATIONS FIG - PACK 21 TOMB OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 56 22 TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF TITUS rg 2J ST. SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE 64 24 ST. MARK'S, VENICE 65 25 ROMAN ARCH WITH PEDIMENT ()7 26 GREEK-CROSS PLAN AT TORCELLO, ITALY, WITH DRUM AND DOME 69 27 THE DUOMO AT SIENA, ITALY (POINTED BYZANTINE) . JO 28 DOORWAY OF CHURCH AT ST. MARK'S, VENICE ... 71 29<7 BYZANTINE CAPITAL, ST. MARK'S, VENICE .... 72 296 BYZANTINE CAPITAL, RAVENNA 72 JO COMPOSITE CAPITAL FROM SEVILLE (MOORISH) ... 7} 31 MOORISH ARCH AND ARABESQUE, ALHAMBRA .... 74 32 THE ZENANA AT AGRA, INDIA 75 33 KNICKERBOCKER TRUST COMPANY, NEW YORK (ROMAN CORINTHIAN) 77 34 CHURCH OF THE MADELEINE, PARIS 78 35 MADISON SQUARE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK . 79 36 UNITARIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK 8 I 37 TEMPLE EMANU-EL, NEW YORK 82 38 INTERIOR OF ST. LORENZO, ROME (BASILICA) ... 89 39 ROMAN CAPITALS AT MOISSAC, SHOWING THE IN- CREASED SIZE OF ABACUS AND ORNAMENT IN- FLUENCED BY THE BYZANTINE IOI 4O ST. TROPHIME, ARLES, FRANCE (ROMANESQUE) . . . 103 41 ROMANESQUE PORTAL AT ST. GILLES, FRANCE . . . 105 42 DETAIL OF PORTAL AT ST. GILLES, FRANCE .... 106 43 NOTRE DAME DU PUY, LE-PUY-EN-VELAY, FRANCE . IO8 44 DOORWAY OF NOTRE DAME DU PORT, CLERMONT- FERRAND, FRANCE HO 45 DETAIL OF APSE, CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME DU PORT, CLERMONT-FERRAND, FRANCE Ill 46 CATHEDRAL OF ST. FRONT, PERIGUEUX, FRANCE . . 112 47 TOWER OF ST. PIERRE AT ANGOULEME, FRANCE . . 115 ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. PAGE 48 PORCH OF TRINITY CHURCH, BOSTON, MASS. (ROMAN- ESQUE) 119 49 MAIN ENTRANCE OF COURT-HOUSE, PITTSBURG (ROMAN- ESQUE) 121 50 ENTRANCE TO THE CITY HALL, ALBANY, N. Y. (ROMAN- ESQUE) 122 51 ROMANESQUE BRACKET AT MOISSAC, FRANCE . . . 123 52 THE ARCH THRUST 133 53 THE CATHEDRAL AT BEAUVAIS, FRANCE 135 54 TENEMENT IN MORLAIX, FRANCE, BUILT ON THE RUINS OF NORMAN WORK 137 55 CARVED CORNER-POST AT SENS, FRANCE 139 56 DORMER AT LISIEUX, FRANCE, SHOWING TRANSITION FROM FIFTEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC 14! 58 PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL AT RHEIMS 143 59 INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL AT ROUEN 145 60 SAINTE CHAPELLE, PARIS (GOTHIC) 148 6l SCREEN OF THE CATHEDRAL AT TROYES, FRANCE (FIF- TEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC) 154 62 ST. MACLOU, ROUEN 156 63 ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, NEW YORK 158 64 RESIDENCE OF W. K. VANDERBILT, NEW YORK (siX- TEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC') l6o 65 THE LADY CHAPEL, ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, NEW YORK l62 66 DOOR ON BROADWAY, NEW YORK (FIFTEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC) 164 67 RICCARDI PALACE, FLORENCE (ITALIAN RENAISSANCE) . 171 68 THE ROUND ARCHES OF ST. MARK*S, VENICE . . . 173 69 DUCAL PALACE, VENICE 175 70 THE LIBRARY, VENICE 177 71 FARNESE PALACE, ROME . 179 72 THE CAPITOL, ROME l8l 73 A TENEMENT IN VITERBO, ITALY 183 ILLUSTRATIONS fin. PACE 74 NFW YORK HERALD BUILDING 1 86 75 PALACE AT VERONA, ITALY l88 76 TIFFANY AND COMPANY, NEW YORK (VENETIAN) . . IQO 77 PUBLIC LIBRARY NO. 29, NEW YORK (FLORENTINE) . IQ2 78 PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD STATION, NEW YORK (ROMAN) 194 79 LOUIS XII. DOORWAY (LATE GOTHIC) 197 80 CHATEAU AT BLOIS, FRANCE (FRANCIS I.) .... 198 8 1 CHIMNEY AT BLOIS, FRANCE (FRANCIS I.) .... 2OO 82 DORMER AT BLOIS, FRANCE 2OI 83 THE PAVILION AT FONTAINEBLEAU, PARIS (FRANCIS I.) 2O2 84 FINE ARTS BUILDING, NEW YORK (FRANCIS I.) . . 203 85 CHATEAU AT CHAMBORD, FRANCE 205 86 CHATEAU OF AZAY LE RIDEAU, FRANCE 207 87 CHATEAU AT CHENONCEAUX 2o8 88 THE SCHWAB RESIDENCE, NEW YORK 2IO 89 BILTMORE HOUSE, NORTH CAROLINA 212 90 VERSAILLES (LOUIS XIV.) 217 91 DOORWAY AT VERSAILLES (LOUIS XIV.) 2ig 92 DOORWAY AT VERSAILLES (LOUIS XV.) 223 93 INTERIOR OF A DRAWING-ROOM (l.OUIS XVI.) . . . 227 94 THE LOUVRE OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS 235 95 A PAVILION OF THE MODERN LOUVRE 237 96 CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL (EARLY NORMAN AND LATE GOTHIC) 241 97 INTERIOR OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY 243 98 MODERN TRANSLATION OF TUDOR GOTHIC .... 245 99 MODERN TRANSLATION OF LATE GOTHIC 249 100 ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAI 253 IOI CITY HALL, NEW YORK (ENGLISH RENAISSANCE.) . . 259 I O2 GEORGIAN IN ENGLAND 262 IO3 DOORWAY IN NEW YORK CITY (GREEK) 264 IO4 DOORWAY IN NEW YORK CITY (GREEK) 266 105 CHURCH IN MEXICO 273 ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. PAGB IO6 DUTCH BUNGALOW, NEW YORK STATE 277 107 A GAMBREL ROOF AT NEWPORT, R. 1 278 IO8 CHURCH AT SALEM, MASS 280 109 ARCHITECT'S DRAWING OF HOUSE IN SALEM (1799) . 282 IIO STATE CAPITOL, BOSTON, MASS . 284 III A DOORWAY AT PORTSMOUTH, N. H 287 112 A MODERN EXAMPLE OF GEORGIAN (CORINTHIAN) . 289 113 A MODERN EXAMPLE OF GEORGIAN (DORIC) . . . 292 114 THE BLACK-WALNUT PERIOD (VICTORIAN GOTHIC) . 295 115 POST-OFFICE AT MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA (FRENCH RENAISSANCE) 299 Il6 POST-OFFICE AT PORTSMOUTH, VA. (ENGLISH RENAIS- SANCE) 302 117 A DEPARTMENT STORE IN DUSSELDORF, GERMANY . 311 PAGAN THE FIRST PERIOD HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER I THE HUMAN FACTORS IN ARCHITECTURE ACING the vast amount of literature on architectural history, it would be almost an impertinence to offer the public an- other book were it not that so little has been written that may be readily understood and enjoyed by those without technical training. I have undertaken to discuss this subtle and fascinat- ing expression of human development from the viewpoint of familiar, every-day experience here in our American homes. With the construction and design of the build- O ings on our own streets in city, town, or village, as ex- amples, we will trace the growth of form and detail back through the ages, learning to read in the familiar things about us the strange but intensely human story of the evolution of architectural styles and to understand their significance in our own lives. Every American city, and most of our towns, contains examples of all the principal styles or periods in archi- tecture, besides some of no legitimate parentage whatever. 3 HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE This in itself is a plain exposition of a basic architectural truth, which we will Hncl repeating itself over and over in all phases of the subject. It is that architecture is man's most self-revealing record of his struggle upward from barbarism to the complex civili/ation of to-day. It expresses intimately and unerringly his ambitions and ideals, his strength and his weakness, his ignorance and his awakening. The stud) of architectural progress must for this reason be also the study of human progress. History and this most permanent and all-embracing of the arts are thus most intimately united. There is noth- ing in architecture, down to the curve of a molding or the proportions of an individual brick, that has not its specific human reason. Often in the case of such trivial details as these we must go back through the centuries to some great crisis in human affairs for that reason. The polyglot character of American architecture is an excellent example of this general truth. We are a young nation, composite in character, and not yet bound to- gether by any great ties of common tradition. We are made up from all the nations of civilization. The Latin and the Saxon stand cheek by jowl with the Teuton and the Celt, and the progress of amalgamation, though more rapid than ever before in the world's history, has not yet been fast enough to produce anything like complete homogeneity. Our architecture in its odd mixtures of types perfectly reflects this state of things. It is Classic or Gothic, French, German, Spanish, or something else, with no one influence dominant incohesive and with little continuity of growth. Architecture, though the aesthetically sensitive may rail at it, is thus a prolific source of historical data, a most 4 HUMAN FACTORS IN ARCHITECTURE comprehensive and interesting text-book of which I shall make frequent use, and shall do my best to interpret simply and, I hope, interestingly. Accepting, then, the dictum that architecture is a rec- ord of man's development, we seek first the basic forces, or motives, in the human advance, so that we may find the primary sources of architectural inspiration. What impelling ambition, in other words, has driven men to the astonishing feats of building that are our heritage ? A little thought gives us a comprehensive answer: Man's first purely human realization was of the value of ma- terial possessions, for which he went out into the wilder- ness to conquer and trade. His next step was the awak- ening of fear or respect for the mysterious, unaccountable forces of nature, the beginnings of religion, and the volun- tary contribution of his finest material possession in the propitiation or glorification of these forces. We will look at this progression somewhat more closely in a few mo- ments, but this gives us the fundamental truth for a basic formula or text which may be expressed thus: Trade sub- dues the wilderness, and science, with art, builds therein temples to the Ideal. In pursuit of this idea, let us now step backward through the ages in search of the beginnings of trade, of science, and of idealism, those three primal factors in human development. How did man, in his progress through apehood, come to evolve these three elements of existence that have given us all we have of civilization, including, of course, our legacy of architecture, and on which we depend for all future progress ? The basis of trade is material possession. It is not impossible to imagine the life of our arboreal ancestors 2 5 HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE at the time when they Hrst began to value worldly goods. The desire for food was, of course, instinctive, and so apparently was the male's sense of possession of the female. The dawning of a reasoning faculty came a little later. The ape-man's hahit of throwing missiles at intruders, from his aerial perch, changes into a hahit of retaining in his pa\v the hranch or cluh he has hereto- fore hurled. A fight or two at close quarters would teach him this. The particular value of a good, heavy, knobby club would soon dawn on him, and he \vould get into the way of carrying it about with him, or of hiding it in a convenient place. Later we can imagine that the demand for good clubs became brisk. The most enterprising of the ape-men went out into the wilderness to hunt for them, and ac- quired a collection, which was prized highly and was constantly raided by neighbors. This subject of clubs, or what not, soon became so interesting that it formed a basis for social intercourse. Clubs were compared and, finally, exchanged the first commercial transaction. This possession of a club gave the ape-man confidence to remain longer on the ground, and at last to desert permanently the tree-tops for the more or less strenuous life below. This meant that he must become the pro- tector of his females and young, as conditions held them together for a longer period than heretofore. In this way a new attachment grew, so that when a partner died he felt grief, and unable to comprehend finality evolved the primitive conception of future life. The need of protection from foes for himself and family and the desire for physical comfort led the ape-man to occupy such caves as he could find. When they were too 6 HUMAN FACTORS IN ARCHITECTURE small, he made enlargements and piled debris around the mouth for future protection. In some such incident as this we probably had the birth of science, the constructive application of the reasoning faculties, and of architecture. This ape-man he of the bridged nose and straight hair multiplied his power and comforts by the acquisition of better and more effective weapons, and the continued improvement of his cave along lines suggested in the interchange of ideas with his neighbors and by his own increasing inventiveness. The community grew with the increase of individual power, and with it developed senti- ment the clan spirit. Our newly evolved man became a chief, or king. His sense of importance expanded ac- cordingly, and he began to consider even the great forces of nature as having some direct personal relation to him- self. What they were he did not know, and, naturally enough, he took them for enemies. When he found that his weapons were of no avail against them, he grew more afraid, and invested them with powers and personalities which they did not possess. Man's next idea was to propitiate the unknown powers, a plan doubtless originating in his domestic experience. Logically his first thought w r as to ofTer them food. In order that this should not get into the hands of those for whom it was not intended, and the powers be un- appeased, he chose for it a secret place in the forest, open to the sky and as far above the ground as he could raise it with stones. So we have the first altar and the be- ginning of the church. His visits to this place became more and more ceremonious as his imagination created greater demands of the unknown power, and thus grew the formalism of religious worship. 7 HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE He also began to give to this power some of his own attributes, and as the young in his growing family imi- tated him because of his power and leadership, and offered him, through growing affection and respect, the good results which grew from emulation, so he in turn grew to imitate the powers beyond him, offering on his altar the choicest of his possessions. As the ambition of the younger generation increased because of his example, so the attributes of this mighty unknown power stimulated the man's mental and moral growth. With God man also created idealism. We find, then, at the very birth of the race, man going abroad among other men, to subdue the wilderness and to trade; and science, the constructive intelligence, build- ing temples for the worship of the ideal. This may seem an almost childishly confident way of dismissing that mysterious dawn-period of human life which so many great minds have attempted in ponderous tomes to reconstruct for us. Darwin and Haeckel and Mil Her, among others, devoted the best part of their lives to the synthesis. But it is important here only to indi- cate that those three elements of our racial life to-day were basic from the first, and have been the threefold thread of our worldly destiny down through the ages. Trade ambition is the discovering and acquisitive force, science is the constructive capacity that trade ambition calls into being, and idealism is a master passion of the race, and levies tribute of the best from the race in every field. In so doing it begets the creative faculty, which in turn, operating under the inspiration of an ideal with enthusiasm, adds the element of beauty, and the result we call art. HUMAN FACTORS IN ARCHITECTURE We have traced the beginning of primitive idealism to the worship of the mysterious, the birth of religion, for we find it through all early times the dominant ideal in the production of architecture. Until the fifteenth cen- tury of our own era, the great "temples to the ideal" were actually religious edifices. Nevertheless, from earliest times a domestic ideal existed and expressed itself in dwellings, which have been enlarged, improved, and beau- tified through the ages to this day, as the domestic ideal rose and expanded. Somewhat later came the civic and national ideal in turn, and many others of lesser impor- tance, all of which have called to their glorification the service of science in the creation of special, tributary architecture. A close parallel to the development of architecture, which we have seen as a graven and structural language, exists in our spoken and written language. A brief ex- amination would show that both languages are created and differentiated in response to the same subtle human forces. The parallel might even be traced historically, from age to age and from country to country, but a mere mention of it here suffices, and it strengthens our premise that architecture is an accurate and readable human document. CHAPTER II TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS HE intimate relation of architecture to trade is dramatically illustrated in your own act of building a house. The mo- ment that science is called upon by you for the construction of your individual temple to the ideal of family, the trade of the world is enlisted in your service. Miners, quarrymen, lumbermen, sailors, artists, and artisans of every sort, in the four corners of the earth, set to work to supply you with materials. The one item of the locks on your doors may involve almost an infinity of diverse interests and efforts. Every part of this huge machine is at your command. Not only does it place at your disposal all the modern products of all the markets of the world, but it ransacks the past for you, and the accumulated treasures of the ages are your heritage. Thus it has been since earliest times. Trade has made possible the interchange of knowledge and experience, and so contributed to the development of style in archi- tecture. The products that you assemble by way of the modern trade routes for the building of your house, and the ideals and accumulated knowledge of yourself and your archi- 10 TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS tect, will unite in a record by which the future historian will know you and your time perhaps better than you do yourself. So we can see broadly the part that trade plays in the life of the world, and particularly its great contribution to the development of human expression in architecture. This gives us a special reason for looking back into history in search of periods of great trade activity, for if our theory holds good they will be found associated with impor- tant eras of building and architectural progress. This is indeed the case, and it has never been more vividly illus- trated than in our own country to-day, when a great in- dustrial era is leaving its amazing mark in an astonishing architectural outburst which we shall study with interest in its proper place. We are concerned now with beginnings, with the orig- inal impetus that gave us modern architecture. We find it in that splendid pageant of trade through the inland seas which made the ancient city of Byzantium, afterward renamed Constantinople, the commercial centre of the world. It was the flood-tide of this stream of commerce that afterward made Athens and the cities of Italy great, and that opened later the whole of western Europe to Grecian and Roman culture. We may consider briefly the trade routes of an earlier period. These made Memphis and all Egypt rich until, by natural and very modern methods, Nineveh and Baby- lon cut them off, at the same time diverting the profits from customs to themselves, and the sea trade to the ports of Tyre and Sidon. Through this, Egypt suffered loss of power and consequent decadence of her school of architecture. This again was, in later days, the fate of ii HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE the Assyrian cities when the Greeks, using the same tactics, diverted the stream of wealth, that was pouring into the West from the East, to themselves, by way of the ancient city of Trebizond, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and by the rivers uniting the great inland lakes. Earlier Byzantium and the Greeks also had the ad- vantage of a distinct and shorter, though hardly safer, route into the North and Northwest, in addition to the Mediterranean route. This was by way of the Danube, that back-door to Europe, with its short land portage to the headwaters of the Rhine and the Elbe, and thence into the North Sea. By this route a side-current ot Eastern architectural influence entered northern Europe, to reappear, as we shall see, many centuries later. Let us take a sort of bird's-eye view of the great trade routes of this period, using Byzantium as the centre. Far to the East and to the South are the camel routes of the Mon- golian traders, their endless caravans bringing the silks, jewels, and ivories of the manufacturing Orient to the Western world. Beyond the Caspian Sea, by way of Bokhara and Samarkand, the trail branches, running southward to India to gather its spices and fabrics and to give in exchange the metals and grain of the North. From the Caspian, by the Volga and the Don, to the Black Sea, there is a short land portage. Otherwise, for a long distance inland, the lakes and rivers offer easier o routes, as water transportation is cheaper than overland, and in every case advantage is taken of inland seas and navigable rivers, trade travelling along the lines of least resistance. Down the length of the great Black Sea the stream of Oriental trade pours through the Dardanelles, to be held 12 TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS up for tolls at imperious Byzantium. Little wonder that the city grew rich and flourished. It held the key to transportation between Europe and Asia. Down through the isles of the ./Egean Sea these strange ancient trade routes spread. The cities dotted along the shores of the Mediterranean are fed and grow fat upon them. It is barter or trade that is making the greatness of Byzantium, of Carthage and Athens, and later of Venice, Naples, Genoa, and Marseilles. Northward and westward the trade routes spread to the seaports and the mouths of rivers, in the land which later became France and Germany, with a portage just north of the Pyrenees and across country from one river to another. But water travel for freight is still the cheaper, and before long we find the trade streams uniting in a single longer one that runs out through the Strait of Gibraltar and, by the open Atlantic, to the western coast of Europe and to the British Isles in the far North. Trade is subduing the wilderness. Its line of march from Byzantium is consistently northwestward. Begin- ning in the ancient Eastern countries we call Oriental- India, Persia, and Assyria trade moves forward to Byzantium, where it establishes centres for the develop- ment of culture. Following westward from Byzantium, we find Athens developing into a central power, to become, as we shall see, the birthplace of modern culture and, especially, of our architecture. Moving still westward, we find Rome becoming the world centre, and Venice on the one side of Italy and Genoa on the other, because of their geographical situa- tion, becoming great and influential cities. HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE Thence the advance starts overland, still in the same direction, for the reason that the fighting tribes of the Goths and Mongolians kept the traders from the North- east, and the Saracens kept them from entering into Spain on the Southwest, the mountain ranges on either hand assisting. They therefore, of necessity, took the middle course, the land of the Western Franks being more or less civili/ed and open to foreign influences. Thus we find the beautiful valley of the Loire, which stretches eastward and westward across France, become a common trading-ground for the Northern tribes and the men of the Mediterranean regions. Correspondingly, we find a higher degree of civilization in this valley, growing from the development of trade. We shall follow this great trade development just one step further before taking up the other phase of our subject. In the fifteenth century of the Christian era (1453) the Turks took Constantinople, and thus effec- tively blocked the main trade route between the East and the West, and forced the Genoese and Venetian carriers to seek other routes. It is but a few years after the cutting-ofF of Eastern trade (in 1492) that we find the Genoese sea-captain Christopher Columbus setting sail to find another route to India, and landing, as he supposed, in the island of japan. A few years later Africa was circumnavigated by Vasco da Gama in a similar quest. These are but a few of the striking ex- amples in history of the influence of trade conditions on world progress. I propose to show how these early East- ern trade currents, which we have been viewing from the eminence of the present, were the real forces in the crea- tion of our heritage of architecture. '4 TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS Up to the time of its subjugation by the Romans, which reached its climax in the first century of the Christian era, Europe was in the fullest sense a barbaric country. The population consisted almost entirely of marauding tribes. The only culture of consequence was along the great Mediterranean trade routes that we have been trac- ing, and this was distinctly Oriental in character. Egypt, of course, had its marvellous civilization complete, and its influence on architecture is traceable along the western FIG. I EGYPTIAN COLUMNS FROM THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR coast of Asia, but in a limited degree, as the particular building material of the country, soft sandstone or lime- stone, was not found elsewhere (Fig. i). As it was, India, Persia, and Assyria, especially Assyria, '5 HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE dominated the architecture of the new world. Assyria, while drawing inspiration from Egypt, had continued to individualize itself in buildings more practical and grace- ful than the Egyptian, primarily because of its use of clay, which gave a brick and terra - cotta architecture. Nineveh was, of course, the fountain-head of Assyrian art and civilization, and the trade currents were, as we have seen, northwestward from the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that we find Byzantium growing up under these Eastern influences a wholly Eastern and largely an Assyrian city. Until recently we had an excellent example of Egyptian architecture in the old Tombs prison in New York City (Fig. 2). The demolition of this gloomy and impractical but mightily impressive old pile leaves almost no example to cite, but I have reproduced Mielatz's well-known etch- ing of the Tombs, and this gives a vivid impression of its architecture. The style is associated for us with death and mystery, and for this reason it has been used occa- sionally for entrances to cemeteries and for lodge-rooms. We are happily past the period when it was thought fitting for the incarceration of the law-breaker, and there seems no other appropriate use to which its darkness and massive- ness almost invariably expressed in granite can be put. Assyrian and Babylonian architecture is subject to much the same comment (Fig. 3). It is curiously lacking in modern expression, and has never been used in its purity. It, of course, was the father of the Greek, though the parentage is hardly recognizable, and it also bears a slight relation to the so-called "art nouveau," a recent Austrian attempt to modernize the flowing line and modelling in low relief of the East (Fig. 4). 16 FIG. 2 THE OLD TOMBS PRISON, NEW YORK HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE II MM v <;) y & i? --am FIG. 3 AN ASSYRIAN COLUMN, PERSEPOUS Greek culture, which later was to blossom into so marvellous a thing, is an evolutionary development of the arts and science of the East, and its distinctive character came chiefly from the human medium through which it passed in its progress to the Grecian mainland, and also from the use of marble as building material after the influence of the terra-cotta Assyrian type had disappeared (Fig. 5). This medium was the Ionian Greek colo- nists who had settled along the shores of Asia Minor and the Black Sea. The lonians were a people of artistic sensibilities, gay, poetic, inquiring, and beauty -loving, and the Oriental art and learning which followed the trad- ing vessels along their shores into the West found susceptible students and interpreters among them. Such peo- ple were naturally idealists, and being also highly creative, they built temples of great beauty to their ideals. The charm of these Ionian cities, built as they were along one of the most beau- tiful coasts in the world and by a people of rare qualities, of whom it was said "they had no enemies," must have been great. But when Croe- sus, King of Lydia, before the great Persian wars, began a war of conquest, 18 TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS his first step was the capture and destruction of the Ionian cities. The beautiful coast was laid waste, and the people were forced either into subjection or emigration. Many chose the latter, crossing the ^gean Sea either to the islands or to the Grecian mainland, where their influence in the advance of Athenian culture was of the greatest importance. Another of the Greek tribes inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean was the Dorian. In disposition they seem to have been just the opposite of the lonians. The Dorians were conserva- tives, stern, and insensible to outside influences. These people also, as we shall see, contributed to the glory of the Golden Age of Greece, for which the Per- sian wars were preparing the way. By this time religious ideal- ism had developed to such an extent that each group of men had its own especial gods and goddesses, evolved by the unfolding but still infantile human mind after its own image. The greater mysteries of life had created strange myths, some of which seem common to all primitive religions. Ritualism had developed to such an extent that the priests formed a class in themselves and ruled the people through their ignorance. '9 FIG. 4-^ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE The sun and the planets, the laws of generation, the rise and fall of the tides, and other phenomena of nature he- came the study of a special class of scientists, who erected temples and created forms to tit the special plan of wor- ship, evolving a ritual that seemed most effective in its power over the people. The placing of the figures of the god in the temple so that they might receive the sunbeam at the proper moment, the shape and form of the chamber, its roof and orientation, and the details and minor parts of FIG. 5 AN ASSYRIAN CAPITAL SHOWING THE ORIGIN OF THE IONIC the buildings all grew out of the needs of a ritual created by the racial characteristics of the various tribes and nations. So we have the creation of national types of architecture and the beginning of a strong northwesterly 20 TRADE AND SCIENTIFIC FACTORS tide of conquest, commerce, and culture, along the route of which we may expect to trace the sources of our own architectural, scientific, and religious heritage. There is a grammar to this language we call architect- ure, a few of the fundamentals of which we should have clearly in mind before attempting to read the language. To say it is the whole science of building is hardly saying too much and comes nearest to my own thought. Yet architecture is also an art, for it involves the creation of beauty through the action of imagination and enthu- siasm. But there is one type of definition that I vigorously object to. That is the kind that, like Ruskin's, limits ar- chitecture merely to the ornamental treatment of the basic structure. To Ruskin the union of four unadorned walls with their requisite openings and a protecting cover on top was not architecture. To me these essentials seem the very basis of architecture, as the skeleton is the basis of the human figure. Buildings were created for protection either from the elements or from foes. Their primary and essential quality is therefore stability, giving security. Every building, then, to be true as a production for a practical purpose, must be strong, stable, balanced, and as a work of art, continuing "in character," it must look so. Beauty is a great deal more than skin deep, for one of its essential qualities is suitability, fitness. There is, in fact, in suitability a fine and abiding spirit of beauty. The mere fact that a simple kettle is perfectly suited to its work of boiling water over a fire and discharging it hot into another vessel gives it a mysterious and essential dowry of loveliness. So a building that merely fulfils its primary task of protecting and fulfils that task well in all particu- 3 21 HOW TO KNOW ARCHITECTURE lars is to that limited extent a work of art, and that art is architecture. The ordinary building is a protection against the ele- ments and the ravages of man. The chief forces that question its stability are the elements, human assaults, and gravity. Obviously the most potent and constant is the force of gravity. Resistance to gravity presupposes, first, the idea of adequate vertical support, and, second, that of balance. This latter, the moment your building is con- sidered