The pannels of the pilasters, in the Arch of' the Goldsmiths at Rome, arc charged with winding foliage and trophies of war. Pilasters, when placed on the front or outside of a building., should pro ject one quartet. of their breadth at the bottom ; but when placed behind a range of colunms, or in the interior of a build ing, should not project more than the eighth part of the same breadth.
In a large recess, when two or any even number of insulated columns support an entablature, which terminates at each end upon a wall or pier, a pilaster is most commonly placed against each wall or pier, to support the extremities of the architrave. When the entablature over the columns is recessed within the sur fitce of the wall or pier at each end, the pilaster projects towards the column, its thickness is shewn on the front, and its breadth faces the , void or adjacent co lumn : in this case the architrave may either profile against the sides °Nile aper ture or recess, or it may return at each interior angle, and then again at the ex terior angles, and proceed along each wall or pier.
If the intermediate columns and ex treme pilasters are so ranged as to pro ject a small distance beyond the face of the wall at each end, the pilasteis shew the same breadth towards the front as to wank the void, and the entablatiire may be continued unbroken, as in the chapels of the Pantheon ; and if it breaks, it must be at the extreme or most distant angles. Pilasters are of great strength to a wall, as well as ornamental to the building ; they are less expensive than columns, and in situations where they are either placed behind a range olcolumns, or support the extremes or an eniablatilre aCrOsS opening, they are more concordant with the walls to which they are attached.
Clustered pilasters, or those which halve both exterior and interior angles, and the planes of those angles parallel and per pendicular to the front, may be executed with good. effect, when the order is plain, as in the Tuscan : but in the three Gre cian and Coniposite orders, this junction should be avoided as much as possible, because the triglyphs and capitids of these orders always meet imperfectly in the in. terior angles. The same may also be said of' Ionic and. Corinthian capitals of half pilasters, meeting each other in the interior angles of rooms. In the Ionic order it becotnes necessary to make a dif. ference between the capitals of pilasters and tItOSe of columns; for in die capitals of the cclumns the projection of the ovo lo is greater than that of the volutes ; but as the horizon.tal section of the ovolo is circular, the ovolo itself is bent behind the Item or border of the volutes : now, supposing a vertical section through the axis of the column to be perpendicular to the face, and another through the middle of the breadth of the pilaster, and that the corresponding mouldings are equal and similar in both section; then, be cause the horizontal section, through the °vela, is rectangular, as in the trunk, the ovolo would, if continued, pass over the volutes, or must terminate abruptly, and shew the profile of the moulding„ which is a. palpable defect. This there fore renders it necessary to give the o%olo so inuch convexity on the front, as to make its extremes retire, and pass be hind the back of the border of the vo lutes ; or to make the ovolo of small pro jection; or to twist the volutes from a plain surface, which the ancient Ionic boa, and make every part of the spirals pro ject more and inore toWards the eye ; or, lastly, to project the whole abacus, uith the volutes, beyond the projection of the ovolo. The same thing is also to be ob
SerVed With regard to the Corinthian and Composite capitals, where the tipper part of the vase projects beyond the middle of the abacus, and would, in the pilaster capitals, pass over the face of the spirals or volutes.
Persians and Cary atides. Instead of columns, or pilasters, it is sometimes cus tomary to support tile entablature hy hu Man figures : the males of which are call ed Persians, Talamones, or Atlantides ; and the females, Carians, or Cayratides. 'file history of these Vitruvins relates as follows : Caria, a city of Peloponnesus, having joined with the Persians against the Grecian states. and the Greeks having put all end to the war, by a glorious vic tory, with one consent declared War against the Caryatides. They took the city, destroyed it, slew the men, and led the matrons into captivity, not permitting. them to wear the habits and ornaments of their sex ; and they were not only led in triumph, but were loaded with scorn, and kept in continual servitude ; thus suf fering for the crimes of their city. The architects therefore of those days intro. &iced their effigies sustaining weights, in the public buildings, that the remem brance of the crime of the Caryatides might be transmitted to posterity. The Laced zmonians, likewise, u nder the com mand of Pausanias, the son of Cleombro tus, having at the battle of Platea, with a small number, vanquished a numerous ar my- of Pemians, to solemnize the triumph, erected with the spoils and plunder the Persian Portico, as a trophy, to transmit to posterity the valour and honour of the citizens; introducing therein the statues of the captives, adorned with habits in the barbarian manner, supporting the roof." There can be little doubt but that hu man figures, and those ofinferior animals, had a very early introduction in architec ture, and are of more remote antiquity than that assigned by Vitruvius ; for we are informed by Diodorus Siculus, that in the sepulchre of Osymanduas there was a stone hall four hundred feet square, the roof of which was supported by animals instead of pillars : the number of these supports is not mentioned. The roofs of several Indian buildings, supposed of the most remote antiquity, are sustained in the same manner. In Denon's travels in Egypt, amongother fragments, are repre sented five insulated pilasters or pillars, bearing an entablature : the fronts of the pillars are decorated with priests or di vinities. The molten ses, recorded in Holy 'Writ, was supported by twelve bulls. In the Odyssey of Homer, transla ted by Pope (book vb. ver. 118,) we find the effigies of animals, both rational and irrational, employed as decorations, which ppears by the following extract.