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that the people of Italy, on the other, would accept any award as the award of Europe respecting Rome, unless at its foot appeared a signature on behalf of that State which alone, in 1832, by refusing to acquiesce in the scandalous policy of Gregory XVI., proved at once her fidelity and her foresight.

We have thus endeavoured, with great rapidity, to traverse or skim an almost boundless field. Many of its tracts which we have barely touched, such as the details of the Pian reforms, the policy of France in 1849, the actual condition of the Roman States, and the enormous difficulties in which the friends of the popular cause in Italy entangle themselves by their views of the question of national independence, demand, and would well repay, the pains of a separate discussion. But we must close, with a recommendation to the reader to avail himself of the lights thrown upon Italian history and politics by the recent literature of the country. We do not refer only to well-known names, such as those of Balbo, Gioberti, and D'Azeglio; but to the yet more recent works of which we have given the titles at the head of this Article. Gualterio is of the Constitutional party, like Farini: his work abounds in valuable documents, and is, we believe, trustworthy, but it is too bulky for our common literature. Farini is admirable both for general ability and moral tone, and for the indulgent fairness with which he states the case of the Popedom and the Pope. In other matters, especially, for instance, when he deals with the more advanced shades of Liberalism, he can lay about him with considerable vigour; but, upon the whole, we believe that his history has quite enough of the judicial tone to secure to it the place of a high permanent authority in Italian questions. The Memorie 'Storiche' of Torre, are the production of a writer about half way between Farini and Mazzini in opinion. They are written with a lively clearness, and with every appearance of sincere intention; and they contain important military details. Ricciardi's Histoire de la Révolution d'Italie en 1848,' is the production of an intelligent, straightforward, and thorough-going Republican; and may be consulted with advantage, in order to obtain the prospect of the whole subject from his point of view. As a Neapolitan he deals most copiously with that portion of the case, which is well handled, in the Constitutional sense, by Massari, in the Casi di Napoli.' As to the literature of the late struggle on the reactionary side, we know not where to look for it. The Ultimi 69 Giorni della Republica in Romana' has absolutely nothing but extravagant party spirit to recommend it. But all genuine historical memoirs of Roman affairs well deserve a peculiar attention from English readers; for their im

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Athenian Architecture.

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portance extends far beyond the range of mere local interest; they belong to a chapter of human history only now beginning to be opened, but full of results of deep and as yet uncertain moment to every country in Christendom.

ART. IV. An Investigation of the Principles of Athenian Architecture; or the Results of a recent Survey, conducted chiefly with reference to the Optical Refinements exhibited in the Construction of the Ancient Buildings of Athens. By FRANCIS CRANMER PENROSE, Architect, M.A., &c. Illustrated by numerous Engravings. Published by the Society of Dilettanti. London: 1852.

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HE title-page of this work is the only part of it against which we have to enter any complaint. Mr. Penrose says little concerning the leading Principles of Athenian Archi'tecture'; but he has presented us with an accurate statement of a number of facts which will prove to be of the very highest value in enabling us to arrive at a true and full estimate of those principles. The real scope of the present publication is thus indicated in the preface:The work now brought for'ward may be described as a treatise on the systematic devia'tions from ordinary rectilineal construction, found in the principal works of Greek architecture, which arise out of, and 'pervade, the entire design of the building. The aim proposed is, first, the establishment of the fact of those deviations; secondly, the determination of their exact nature and forms; and, lastly, the bringing forward some views as to the theory on which they were founded. My object generally has been to fill up what has been left imperfect by Stuart and Revett.' Mr. Penrose has performed the task which he proposed to himself in a thorough and masterly manner, and we can scarcely praise his work more highly and appropriately than by allowing its claim to be regarded as a necessary and complete supplement to the great work of Stuart and Revett.

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The principal results of the Athenian investigations of Mr. Penrose were first announced in two short Letters to the • Society of Dilettanti,' printed for the Society's use in 1847. Since that time those results have become very generally known and appreciated among architects; and we believe that they were recently propounded, in a popular form, by Mr. Penrose, in the lecture-room of the Royal Institution. The circle in which the interesting facts in question are known continues, however, to be unduly limited; and as it is not likely to be

much extended by the present work, of which the high price and technical character must render its circulation almost exclusively professional, we shall be doing acceptable service to our readers by placing before them the leading facts and views which Mr. Penrose has established, omitting the vast mass of minute observations and admeasurements, which form the bulk of the work, and add immensely to its value for professed architects.

It must be premised that Mr. Penrose is not the first discoverer of some of the most remarkable of the facts he has treated of. He has, however, the merit of having been the first to appreciate and explain their importance; and of having established their real extent and limitations, with a thoroughness that scarcely leaves room for further investigation in the same direction. It should also be understood that the peculiar practices of Greek architecture, which are demonstrated by Mr. Penrose, stand, for the most part, distinctly defined and recommended in the great work of Vitruvius, which is, and for centuries has been, the text-book of the builder in the classical styles; though, strange to say, no modern architect has thought of putting them into practice, or even, until lately, of crediting the ancient architects, who were the teachers of Vitruvius, for having practised them.

We proceed to make a selection of the most interesting facts and views brought forward by Mr. Penrose, having first reminded those of our readers who may be disposed to condemn some of them as trifling, because they result from minute observations, that these facts and principles constitute almost the sole difference between the Greek Architecture' of London, Paris, and Berlin, at which few people care to look twice, and that of Athens, which fills all beholders with delight and wonder.

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The principal fact, which has been finally established by Mr. Penrose, is, that, in pure Greek architecture, there are scarcely ever found either perfectly horizontal, or perfectly perpendicular, lines and surfaces. The Parthenon, on account of its perfect execution, and comparatively high state of preservation, was naturally the building to which Mr. Penrose directed his chief attention. The result of his observations, which were conducted with the most diligent and scrupulous concern for accuracy, are, with respect to that chef-d'œuvre of Greek architecture, mainly these:

The sub-basement, representing the natural ground of the edifice, as if to prepare, by contrast, for the work of art to be raised upon it, is constructed to form a dead level,'—a term,

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by the way, which is full of artistic significance. As soon as we come to the steps of the stylobate, or true architectural basement, the level is abandoned: the edges of the steps, and the lines of the entablature, which are usually understood to 'be straight level lines, are convex curves, lying in vertical planes; the curves of the entablature being nearly parallel to those of the steps. These, like nearly all the curves adopted in Greek architecture, are found to be conic sections; the particular curves in question being parabolas, wrought with an accuracy, and a variety and subtlety of reference in their proportions, which must seem almost incredible in these days of striking effects' and cheap workmanship. These curves were discovered by Mr. John Pennethorne, and mentioned by him, for the first time, in 1837; and they were subsequently, but not very accurately, described by him, in a pamphlet printed for private circulation.

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Mr. Penrose refers the curves in question, together with the numerous other minute irregularities' of Greek architecture, to certain optical illusions perceived by the fine sense of the architects, and gradually corrected by them. Without denying that some general theory might be formed to embrace all the optical corrections of Greek architecture, Mr. Penrose considers it more probable that the want of each correction was felt, and the correction applied, separately. And this will appear the more likely when we consider the very long period during which the Greeks were working out the perfection of the "Theseum and the Parthenon: so that an amount of intellect unparalleled in the history of art was concentrated on a com'paratively limited field, and time was given carefully to examine and obviate all the causes which tended, in practice, to ⚫ disturb the lines of the architecture.' Mr. Penrose gives most ingenious and satisfactory accounts of the reasons which governed the architects in all their deviations from right lines and flat surfaces.

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There can be little doubt that the origin of the horizontal curve was to obviate a disagreeable effect produced by the contrast of the horizontal with the inclined lines of a flat pediment .... causing the former (i. e. the cornice) to appear deflected 'from the angles. As the line so affected is continuous, this deflection appears to take place in a curved line; and, within ordinary limits, it becomes the more apparent, the more acute the angle which the contrasting lines make to each other.'

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The curves of the entablature on the flanks of the Temple are shown to be necessary consequences of those on the fronts; and again, the curves of the stylobate or basement are necessitated

by those of the entablature. In the pediments of the Theseum, the inclined lines are themselves very delicately curved; probably, as Mr. Penrose suggests, in order to correct the slight tendency to deflection produced by the curve in the horizontal lines.

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Mr. Penrose attributes, the entasis or swell, which accompanies the taper of the Greek column, to the necessity of correcting the attenuated appearance of a tapering column built with straight sides. This appearance, which is an admitted fact, is attributed by him to: 1. The apparent hollowness in the sides of a frustrum of a cone or pyramid in any position. 2. An additional feeling of the same kind when that figure is employed as a column or pilaster to support weight. 3. Inequalities of chiaroscuro; the strongest lights coming upon the upper or lower parts of the shaft, and thereby making those parts in appearance relatively broader than the intermediate portion. Mr. Penrose affirms that the entasis in Greek architecture was not more than just sufficient to correct the above optical illusions. In another place, however, he allows that the entasis and horizontal curves have a value independent of their corrective efficiency. It cannot be doubted,' he says, "that those travellers who have wondered that the fronts of the 'Greek buildings were so much less dry and hard than our imi'tations of them, must have felt (however unconsciously) the beauty of the horizontal curvature; and we may also feel satis'fied that the effect of the entasis of the Greek columns in the 'Parthenon was felt long before its existence was actually esta'blished.'

No less curious and important are the deviations from the perpendicular in the vertical lines. These deviations are found in the diminution of the columns, in the inclination inwards of their axes, and of the walls and most of the other plain faces, and in the inclination outwards of the antæ, the faces of the abaci, acroteria, and coronæ: these points are thus luminously explained:

'The diminution of the upper, or, as we may rather say, the enlargement of the lower, diameter of the columns, accords with the obvious mechanical principle that in any system of frame-work in which any member is required to resist a pressure acting at a distance from the point from which it derives its origin and support, (the strain being greatest at that point,) the chief strength also must be there provided. . . . the recognition, either through innate feeling or from practice, of this principle, has become so much a part of our nature, that a pilaster built with parallel sides, as we not unfrequently find in Roman, and revived classical works, generally appears broader at the top than at the bottom.

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