Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-01-24
THE CAPITOL,
And the Model After winch 4, was Com
ttTuCtcd.


ttructcd.
To the Editor of the Dispatch
read an article in your paper few
days ago taken from the Lynchburg
V'rginian making inquiry as to the
true history Of the building Of the Capt.
toll Of our State and the model after
which it was constructed. 1t is posi-
bic | may be able to throw some light
upon the subject.
1t is the generally received opinion,
and have never heard it contradicted,
that Mr.. Jefferson suggested it and that
the Maison Carree at Nismes was the
model adopted. But there is this
difference between the original build
ing and our Capitol : The former is
pure COrinthian in every detail Of its
| architecture, while the latter is Ionic.
have before me at the moment an en-
craving of the Maison Carree. The en-
trance is through the portico by the
ascent OF ten or twelve steps, sur
mounted by ten lofty Corinthian
columns enclosing it. And the sides
or body Of the building are embellished
by sixteen more of what are called
/" engaged cOlumnS''-that is, project
ing two thirds Of their width from the
wall-of the same architecture.
Our Capitol, as ! dared say before, is
Ionic, with the same number Of columns
in front, but with pilasters or square
columns at the sides, and for adapta-
ton to its present purposes the en-
frances are at the sides.
In building our Capitol the Ionic
order was adopted, probably because
it was simpler, and it may be at the
time we had no artist who could exc
cute a Corinthian capital.
There is no building in Europe, per-
haps, more distinguished for the beauty
of its proportions than the Maison
Carree. An English writer has said
that sit was no doubt built by Roman
hands, but entirely after Greek models.
1t is wholly Of Athens-not at all OF
Rome-a Corinthian temple Of the
purest taste and divinest beauty.
Cardinal Alberoni said that the Maison
Carree was gem that ought to be set
in gold and the two great Jupiters of
France-Louis Quatorze and Napoleon
had both of them schemes for lifting
the temple bodily out Of the ground
and carrying it to Paris. The building
is perfectly simple, merely an oblOng
square, with a portico and fluted Co.
rinthian columns yet the loneliness Of
it is like enchantment. The essence Of
its power over the senses appears to
me to consist in an exquisite subtlety
of proportion, which amounts to the
very highest grace and the very truest
and purest beauty
The building is supposed to be all of
eighteen hundred years old, and the
object of its erection was for a long
time lost in obscurity amid the muta-
tons Of governments and the corrosions
of time. But an enterprising antigua
rian, perceiviDg spots upon the frieze,
came to the conclusion that they must
have held the bolts that once fastened
the letters Of an inscription. lie made
a careful copy of the holes, and by
close study and drawing lines from one
to the other found it to be temple that
bad been dedicated to CaiuS and Lucius
Caesar, who were Consuls-sons Of
Agrippa and grandsonS Of Augustus.
Augustus died at the age Of seventy
seven years, A. d. II, having reigned
over the Roman empire forty-one years.
The Maison Carree is now used as
museum.
| have also an engraving Of the
Grectheion, in every essential purely
Greek. The proportions are very beau
tiful, and the architecture Ionic-the
front portico reached by three steps
and surmounted by six futed columns
in front only, with no engaged columns
or pilasterS at the sides. The frieze
and gable are richly decorated; but,
beautiful as this building is, it has never
excited the worlds admiration like that
Of the Maison Carree. W. Ii. Ii.