ARCHITECTURE. Architecture is the art of building wisely and, as the embodied philosophy of man's community ideals, is the complete index of the civilization of each age. Beauty in architecture involves such a dispo sition of the structural elements demanded by a problem as will give to each a maximum value in the given situation. The development, growth, and change that characterize archi tectural expression in different climates, countries, and ages determine historic styles. No style is the result of chance, but is always the concrete representation of the humanities, a reflection of intellectual, social, religious, military, and political conditions. Architectural styles are identified by the means employed to cover enclosed spaces; first, by the character istic forms of the supports; and secondly, by the decorative embellishment of the elements of the structural form.
Prehistoric Monuments.— Geographically and chronologically, the earliest construction forms are the Lake Dwellings which have been discovered at the bottom of some of the Swiss lakes. These lake dwellings were very primitive houses or huts erected on piles. These hut villages were built over the water for protec tion. They were known to writers of antiq uity, and Assyrian reliefs picture them. They date back to the Paleolithic Age. More im portant from the standpoint of architecture are the Megalithic remains of Europe and Asia. They are widely distributed and probably were erected as religious or funerary monuments. Upright stones without lintels are called Men hirs; tomb chambers consisting of upright stones carrying a lintel are termed Dolmens. The circles of stones, the Cromlechs, the most famous of which is at Stonehenge, near Salis bury, in England, has a religious significance. While it is true that the earliest human works known, found in the caves of the provinces of Dordogne, France, and Santander, Spain, show various decorative treatments, no evidences of structural art appear.. There is every reason to believe that the state of civilization marked by these finds in the caves of Western Europe typify an era of the Stone Age, during which the South of Europe was 'Populated. This being true, it is possible to establish as an approximate date for the inception of prehistoric styles, a date of 25,000 or 30,000 years before Christ.
Egypt.— The Valley of the Nile was peo pled as long ago as 7000 B.C. with a race highly skilled in prehistoric arts. Dr. Petrie's dis coveries between Nagada and Ballos have shown that a flint working people in the Paleolithic era dwelt in this region. Their technique, judged from the knives and bracelets that have been found, was more advanced than in any other country where relics of the stone age have been exhumed. These finds character ize an art that must have been developed over a vast series of years, and the remark able skill in manipulating stone exhibited in the Pyramids and structures of the dynastic periods is directly traceable to these Stone Age ancestors. The works, major and minor, of the historic Egyptians from the time of the ancient Empire through the .Roman period are characterized by a lavish use of color. The presence of this chromatic element indicates the persistent influence of a race whose art was de veloped out of the clay industries, for the evolution of the pottery art brought into use, necessarily, constant and various methods of color decoration. The question as to the origin of this color influence is satisfactorily answered by the examination of the development of the arts of Mesopotamia. The absence of the color feature before the time of the early Memphitic dynasties and its lavish use subsequent to that time indicates that the historic Egyptians com bined a Nilo-Prehistoric and a Mesopotamian race, and the art of the Valley of the Nile, hitherto considered simple and elemental, is in reality a composite of earlier totally opposite origins. A general survey of the entire field of Egyptian architecture develops five notable characteristics. First, the colossal character of the monuments; second, the evolution of the proto-Doric and the proto-Corinthian columns and capitals; third, the development of the clere story and its effect upon the problems of scale and ornament; fourth, the Egyptian temple, containing as it does the elements of the Greek temple and the later Christian Basilica, from which was subsequently developed the form of the Romanesque churches and Gothic cathe drals; fifth, architectural refinements, by which certain optical illusions were counteracted and vigor of aspect was added to the monuments. Five distinct periods marked the history of Egyptian architecture. The ancient empire is characterized by sepulchral works and includes the most ancient monumental buildings of which we have any remains. The period is terminated by the 10th dynasty, 3000 B.C., and the centre of the constructive activity was Memphis. The most typical works of the era, the Pyramids, number over a hundred, and in six groups extended from Abu Roash in the north to Medum in the south. They were all tombs, and housing the requirements of the religious ideal of the Egyptians contained a sepulchral chamber, to gether with a dependency votive chapel built separate from hut adjacent to the pyramid. As the cardinal point in the religious doctrine of the Egyptians was the belief •in a future state of existence,— that at some distant time the body would he revivified,— so every effort was directed to the preservation of the embalmed body to insure the comfort of the soul. The stupendous pyramids and numerous mastabas and rock-cut tombs were lavishly decorated with scenes depicting surroundings and conditions of the life of the deceased. Each fresco wall is a page from the history of the civilization that flourished 5000 years ago. The Gizeh group, three in number, presents the most perfect type of pyramid construction. The works of the Middle Empire (3000 to 2100 a.c.) were almost
entirely sepulchral in character, although the rock-cut tombs hewn in the limestone cliffs at Beni-Hassan for the great vassal princes of the 11th and 12th dynasties furnish, in their disposition and decoration, an indestructible record of the domestic habitations of the period. Likewise they register the experimentations in the civil architecture of the age. The first evi dences of temple architecture that occur in Egyptian history belong to this middle period, dating probably from the 12th dynasty, about 2000 B.C. From these remains, both at Bubastis and Karnak, it is certain that structural stone columns as well as monolithic stone columns were used as elements of Egyptian architecture. It can be definitely assumed that the philosophy of the whole architectural system of the new empire, and subsequently of the historic col umnar eras in Europe, had their origins in the age of the Middle Empire. There was an interruption in the current of Egyptian art his tory for some five centuries following the fall of the Middle Empire. The re-establishment of the Theban supremacy in the 18th dynasty marked the inception of an extraordinary series of religious and funerary monuments. In the development of these structures the column formed an important part. This period, com prising the 18th to the 20th dynasties, 1700 1000 a.c., was characterized by the great temple constructions at Karnak, Luxor, and a mag nificent series of tombs, some of which were structural and others excavated, the most mag nificent of which were those of Queen Hatasu at Deir-El-Bahari and that of Rameses II and Rameses III, erected on the west bank of the Nile opposite Thebes. During this period col umnar architecture was magnified to an ex traordinary scale and the planning of the tre mendous temple halls, the roofs of which were upheld by numerous massive columns, brought to the designer a new problem, the solution of which was destined to find its most notable expression thousands of years later in the noble cathedrals of Northern Europe. The problem presented by these Egyptian archi tects of the Theban supermacy was one of light ing the interior parts of the far extending temple halls. The difficulty was solved by lift ing the central part of the hypostyle roof (a roof resting on columns) clear above the roof of the sides of the hall. The part of the hall which, higher than the parts adjoining, admits light through traceried openings is called a clerestory. A most important architectural re sult of this solution of the lighting problem was the development of a great central nave which for its proper construction necessitated details proportionate to its height and width. Larger shafts called for increased capitals. The bell-shaped or campaniform capital was used to meet the conditions of scale imposed by the new problem. The form was not a new one. It appears in the wall decorations of the earliest dynasties, and in the sanctuary area of the great Ammon Ra, Karnak, we find it cut in exquisitely executed relief upon a monolith that belonged to an older temple of the 12th dynasty. The bell shape accorded with the imagery of re ligious tradition, recalling either the papyrus or the lotus and it afforded profiles that solved effectively the problem of scale and surfaces, that, under the peculiar conditions of illumina tion would, to the best advantage, carry a curved and colored decoration. The artistic consistency of the Egyptian decorator is shown by the careful adjustment of his decorative lines to the profile of the embellished objects. The abacus block, borrowed originally from the proto-doric order, was retained as part of the calyx or bell capital. There being no connec tion between the vertical lines of this block and the flowering curves of the bell, an wsthetic dis cord resulted which the Egyptian artists were never able to obviate. The Greeks received this calyx order as an artistic heritage from the older civilization and developed a form, to-day called the Corinthian, which, in a mechanized Roman adaptation, appears frequently in mod ern architecture. The splendor of the Theban period was followed hy a decadence that con tinued through the Saitic period (1000-324 ac.) During the (324 ac.-330 A.D.) an epoch comprising Ptolemaic and Roman domina tions foreign influence brought certain changes. While there was no attempt to create a new architecture, the eclecticism of the Greek and his love of light caused the innovation of a screen wall in place of the sombre pylons of the Pharonic temple. The simple decorated inverted bell capital of the former period was replaced by a variety of liberally carved modi fications. The Greek influence is most typi cally expressed at Phyla and Dendera, while the mechanization of Rome is shown at Koum Ombos and Edfu. The temple form in its general divisions underwent great change through all of the various eras of Egytian history. Its origins are lost in the mists of antiquity. Undoubtedly the early nature worshippers of Egypt did homage to a sacred stone or shaft. The holy object at first was un protected, but in time an enclosing wall or wooden palisade more practically isolated it, creating a Temenos, or sacred enclosure. Early, too, a shelter was provided. Because the huts of the chiefs or leaders of the aborigines had been marked by wooden posts or stone shafts, this custom was employed to dignify the en trance to the simple shrine. In historic temples this procedure is reflected in the obelisks and great votive statues that were used to flank the entrances to the sacred edifice. As the temple, in the course of time, was looked upon not as a place of meeting for worshippers, but as a dwelling place for deity, whose presence indicated ndicated by a consecrated effigy, provi sion had to be made for the people. To this end an antespace, an hypostyle hall was added to the shrine.