Rules of Classic Architecture, Their Use and Misuse. Classic architecture is distinguished from the later and more transitory styles, such as developed during the Romanesque and Gothic periods, by the fact that the various forms composing its parts have been reduced to a fairly definite set of rules.
No other style of architecture has been so consistently developed or has so well stood the test of time. But it must always be remembered that the "rules" to which we have now reduced the Classic Orders, are not to be considered as the principles upon which they were first de signed. Rather, these rules and systems of proportioning the details of the Classic Orders of architecture have been invented by enthusiastic theorists and students of later times to fit the old examples. The people who erected these ancient monuments understood no such rules, but rather created their work under-the direct influence of a vital artistic instinct and life of which to-day we are imitating the mere empty forms. It must be thoroughly realized, therefore, that in reducing the Orders to the understanding individuals of a different civilization by a mere "rule of thumb," much of their subtlety and true spirit must have been lost, and that the rule only suggests to us a mere outline or general idea of the true beauty of any one of these Orders. So, while we may not hope to equal or approach their original perfection, experience and constant study may be relied upon to sug gest the principles which underlie them and which they represent, and so to help us to produce individual refinements and variations in a modern and therefore truly vital spirit.
The rules, then, which we follow on all Classic work to-day must be considered not as the principles which governed the Greek design ers, but as those which we have invented in order to render the use of the Orders easier and more available without great errors of proportion.
It is quite impossible at this day to expect to know the principles which the Classic designers actually followed. Every year there are discovered new variations from the .supposed rules which we have applied. It is now known, for instance, that in the Parthenon, at Athens, every supposedly straight line was laid out and determined on some flexible principle of curves proportioned, probably, solely with regard to their final effect upon the eye of the observer.
Superiority of Greek Architecture. Greek civilization developed refinement and subtlety of taste in architecture to a point that ar chitecture has never since attained. The best buildings erected by the Greeks combine such dissimilar qualities as richness, simplicity, magnitude and strength, with refinement and harmony.
Contrary to the general impression regarding the coldness and strict formalism of Greek architecture, probably no people have ever combined Classic architectural forms with more variety, or with more insistence upon the flexibility and interest of their compositions.
Refinement of Lines. No one understood more thoroughly than the Greek artists the abuses and defects of a mathematical system when applied to a vital art. They were compelled to progress beyond this limitation before they succeeded in creating an architecture that was worthy of being included among the Fine Arts; while of no period since has it been possible to give its architecture front rank among them. The ancient Greeks considered the whole effect of their architecture largely with regard to the eye of the beholder, and this principle seems to have been more thoroughly understood by them than by any succeeding nation of builders. As all their masses and details were carefully studied with this optical effect in mind, so nearly all the lines in their work—both horizontal and vertical—curve; and the curves were studied with the apparent intention of counter acting certain awkward optical defects which might be occasioned by the use of a mechanical exactitude in straightand rectangular lines.
These principles the Greeks developed and refined to an almost incalculable degree, while their application was broadened until they subtly varied almost every supposedly straight line. The student of their architecture is nowadays very careful about accepting from casual observation of the effect of the building, the apparent means by which this effect was produced.