Architecture. D'Anvers N.
Out of the Buddhist religion grew that known as the Jaina, and many fine temples, of which the most remarkable are that at Sadri and the Dilwana Temple on Mount Abu, remain that were erected for the use of its professors. It was usual to group a number on some hill-top, and the plan of each was generally that of a Greek cross, a columned portico giving access to a complex collection of shrines, each approached by avenues of pillars and roofed in with a separate dome, whilst the exterior was adorned with rounded towers finished off with pointed finials suggestive of a spire, the whole both inside and out being richly decorated with carvings.
Hindu architecture, or that of those who hold the Brahmanic faith, differs very greatly from Buddhist, its chief characteristic being a lofty pyramidal tower of several stories, as a general rule covered with ornament, that reached its fullest development in the so-called pagodas, of which there are fine specimens at Jaggernaut, Mahavellipore, and Palitana. In different parts of India various modifications of this general style occur to which distinctive names have been given, but the same spirit may be said to pervade them all, from the great Temples of Bhuvaneswar, Tanjore, Bundaban, and elsewhere, to the humbler shrines scattered throughout the length and breadth of the vast continent and of its island dependencies.
There is nothing very distinctive about the architecture of China or Japan. The Buddhist temples in both countries recall those of India, but the pagodas, most of which are of wood faced with porcelain tiles, differ slightly in having a curved roof to each story. The palaces of China are impressive on account of their vast extent and the use of copper in their construction, but the domestic buildings of Japan are all of comparatively small size.
In America as in Asia are many deeply interesting architectural relics of the civilisation of the early inhabitants, of which the most remarkable are the ruins of Cyclopean buildings on the shores of Lake Tatiaca, the remains of the ancient city of Cuzco, all in Peru, and the Teocallis or temples and Palaces of the kings in Mexico, Yucatan, and Guatemala, none of which however call for description here as they did not influence the architecture of the future in their own or any other country.
CHAPTER II
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
In their architecture as in their sculpture the Greeks gave eloquent expression to the exquisite feeling for symmetry of form which was one of their most distinctive characteristics. Architects and masons were in close touch with the people for whom they built, no social barriers, so far as the arts and crafts were concerned, divided class from class, citizens, aliens, and even slaves vying with each other in their zeal to produce the best work possible.
The finest buildings of ancient Greece and its dependencies entirely fulfilled the conditions of true architecture, for they were beautiful alike in design and execution, admirably adapted to the purpose for which they were erected, and in complete harmony with their surroundings. Moreover they are of exceptional importance in the history of the evolution of the art on account of the influence they exercised on that of other countries, all their distinctive features having been either copied or modified in those of the rest of Europe.
The Greeks, though they were doubtless acquainted with the arch, the dome, and the tower, refrained as a general rule from using them, probably because they considered them unsuitable to the topographical and climatic conditions that prevailed in their native land. They achieved their highest results by means of correctness of proportion and dignity of outline, giving far more attention to the exterior than to the interior of their buildings, and in this respect differing greatly from the Egyptians, who endeavoured to impress the spectator chiefly by the vast extent and massiveness of their temples and palaces.
Recent discoveries on the site of Knossos in Crete of the remains of a many-roomed palace, and elsewhere in the same island of circular stone tombs, all of which betray strong Oriental influence, confirm the opinion of archæologists that it was in the islands of the Ægina Sea that the first works of architecture properly so called were erected in Europe. On the mainland of Greece, notably at Mycenæ and Tiryns, exists relics of many buildings, including at the former the noble Lion Gate that gave access to the Acropolis, and at the latter the residence of a chieftain, which maintain the continuity between the earliest and the latest phase of Greek architecture, and may justly be said to presage the triumphs of the Golden Age.
From first to last Hellenic architecture was characterised by unity of purpose, its grandest forms being essentially the same in general principle as its earliest efforts, the mud walls with timber pillars upholding a flat wooden roof, having been gradually transformed into stately colonnaded structures in costly materials, that to this day remain absolutely unrivalled in their exquisite beauty of proportion and the close correlation of every detail with each other and the whole.
The grand temples of Greece were built either of stone or of marble. As a general rule they are set on a platform to which a long flight of steps lead up, and are enclosed within an outer wall or a continuous colonnade. Their plan is extremely simple: a parallelogram, formed in some cases entirely of columns, in others with walls at the side and columns at the ends only, encloses a second and considerably smaller pillared space known as the cella or naos, that enshrined the image of the god to whom the building was dedicated, and was entered from a pronaos or porch, and with a posticum or back space behind it, sometimes supplemented by a kind of second cella called the opisthodomus or back temple. The front columns at either end are spanned by horizontal beams that uphold a sloping gable called a pediment, the flat, three-cornered surface of which is generally adorned with sculpture in bas-relief, and along the side-columns is placed what is known as the entablature, that consists of three parts, the architrave resting on the capitals of the columns, the frieze above it and the cornice, the last of which sustains the flat roof, usually covered with tiles or marble copies of tiles.
Greek architecture is generally divided into three groups or orders: the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, each of which, though the buildings belonging to them resemble each other in general plan, is distinguished by certain peculiarities of the columns and entablatures. The Doric was the earliest to be employed, but the Ionic, that early succeeded it, was long used simultaneously with it, sometimes even in the same building, whilst the Corinthian did not come into use until considerably later.
In the Doric order the column has no separate base, but rises direct from the top step of the platform on which the building it belongs to stands. It is of massive form and has what is known as an entasis or slightly convex surface, it is generally fluted, that is to say, cut into parallel perpendicular channels, several rings called annulets connecting it with the capital, which consists of an echinus or rounded moulding and an abacus or unrounded slab resting on the echinus. The Doric entablature is equally simple,