St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-03-15
ART IN ARCHITECTURE.

koe " O1lO~ W bOC f0SSbO0 ZOE A0DPS0tbOu
and Uybridization.
Architectural forms, like letters Of the
alphabet, seem perpetually to have been
borrowed from one nation by another.
Each borrows what it can assimilate and
throws away the rest, the assimilated
portion undergoing q Transforming proc.
ess by which, in the course Of time,
new and remarkable forms are evolved.
Hellas borrows from Asia Minor;
Etruria, from Hellas; Rome, from
Etrutia and Hellas; Mohammedan mos.
ques seem the beautiful and ~incrediable
offspring of Roman byzantine colon
nades and basilcas, flushed with dreams
Of Bagdad; and Gothic cathedrals spread
their mantels Of point-lace over apses
and naves and roofs reminiscent
Of both Greece and Rome. In
architecture, however, the Romans
were more discriminating bor-
rover than they showed themselves
in sculpture. They stole the Jewels Of
the Egyptians, but they transformed
them. OF the three orders of Greek
temple architecture-Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian-so clearly outlined by Mr..
Sturgis in his ''Arch@ologist in Greece"
the Romans adopted all, but domesti-
Gated only Like some rare orchid,
the Co%rinthian style alone with its
floriated capital took root at once in
Italian soil, grew and flourished there
wonderfully, and developed originalities
and graces Of its own unknown to the
honeysuckle and acanthus-loving Greeks.
The sever Doric. the graceful voluted
Ionic with its whorl-like capitals and
curves recur again and again in Roman
structures, but 50 coarse, SO material
lied, SO unspiritual and barbaric that
they more frequently resemble carica-
ture Of the Greek ideas than transplant
ingsofdelicatee exotic flowers. In transit
Grating the Ionic and Doric styles into
their own architectural speech. the Ro-
mans came upon . language which they
did not understand, and there survive Of
these attempts only such stammering
interpretations as the temple Of For
tuna Virilis ~(lonic) and the barbarous
theater Of Marcellus (Doric). The Ro-
man carried their passion for adapta-
ton and hybridization even into the do
main Of the gods, taking the lovely
C%orinthian and Ionic capitals Of the
Greeks and combining them in many
striking and fanciful forms. This was
the origin Of the Composite style-a
style blending Ionic spirals with COrin-
THAN acanthus leaves in the capitals,
with many novel and ingenious arrange.
ments Of the shafts, drums, and fllets.
From the Roman capital, indeed,
sprouted innumerable variations on
the picturesque Greek original; they
sparkled with blazing acanthus
leaves Of gilt and brQnze; heads Of
animals, human figures nrmo-, exotic
foliage, surmounted shafts and columns,
no longer fiuted in delicate grooves, but
carved or cabled or wrought with Leaf
and flower, like an architectural flower
garden gone wild; and no two Roman
COrinthian temples would be construed
in the same terms or were sufficiently
alike for a generalization. The classic
specimens of this order on Italian soil
were the brilliant temple Of Jupiter
Stator at Rome and the temple at Tivoli.
" I'll VIC AukCuuANACS oAAU CAeA0S0S
gances, however, lavished by the imag-
NATIVE Roman architects on the Cor
inthian. this style, which became the
national style Of Rome, was always rec
ognizable-often, indeed, developed .
columnar beauty, q floral charm,
. wondrous airness and versal-
ity not even lshown by the
Greeks in their most exquisite specimen
of the order, the Choragic monument Of
Lysicrates at Athens. Athens was ever
the purist in speech, in grammar, in
poem. in tragedy. in historic compost
ton, in ideal and almost unearthly forms
OF sculptural snd architectural beauty,
while Rome vas always aggressive.
roeoco, practical, full Of . superintendent
life that could 0 be petrifled, full Of
restless composite elements that must
find varied and multifold u~tterance in
literature and art-Prof. James A. Har
risOn, in Chautauquan.