DRAWING-Ancient Style-Instruction of Grecian masters- Various Kinds-Remarks on Combination in producing Beau ty-Drapery-PERSPECTIVE-Description of the SHIELD OF ACHILLES-The PARTHENON-Its Size, Cost, and Mutilation- THEBAN TOMB opened by Belzoni-LABYRINTHS-Egyptian, HISTORY OF THE FINE ARTS. PART I. ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. The superiority of Architecture to other fine Arts-Fosters them --Its Originality-Gradual Advancement according to the laws of Necessity-Connexion with Religion-Specimens of early Efforts at sacred Architecture-Antediluvian ArchitectureFamily of Lamech, and Tubal's Discovery of Iron-Altar erected by Noah-Two antediluvian Pillars-Connexion of monumental and sacred Architecture -Simple Monuments of the Ancients-Progress of the Art, and Building of Babylon and the Temple of Belus-Erection of other Chaldaic CitiesFounding of Grecian Cities--Description of Babylon. "ARCHITECTURE," says an eloquent writer, "aims at eternity; and is therefore the only art incapable of modes and fashions in its principles, the ORDERS. It is also the most faithful recorder of the great and noble deeds of nations long since passed away, and its works are speaking witnesses of the truth of history. It establishes a nation, draws people, creates commerce, makes the people love and respect their native country, which passion is the origin of all great actions in a commonwealth.” But architecture does not rest its claims to superiority upon this ground alone-it also demands reverence for its antiquity. In every age and in every country where civilization has spread its light, it has been the fosterer, protector, and promulgator of all the fine and polite arts. Wherever it hath reared temples and altars, without and within the sculptor and painter have found employment for the chisel and pencil. The capital of the column and its ornamental pedestal, the splendid entablature, and the symbols of deity and his attributes, are but the consequences of the work of the architect. And during the dark period from the sixth to the thirteenth century, when the world was shrouded in a moral night, and art and science were brother exiles in the dreary waste, the churches and altars which piety bade architecture erect, were the only nurseries where these children of refinement, once so pampered by Greece when in her glory, were sustained and strengthened. Architecture also forms an important part of the history of a people, and presents an index by which to determine their social advancement and the progress of knowledge among them. It is original in its nature, for, unlike sculpture, painting, and engraving, it is not a process of imitation. It is the creation of man's invention, and just so far as it approaches or recedes from that standard of beauty and excellence, which common consent has formed, does it magnify or depreciate the inventive genius of mortals. Its dignity, too, as an art, cannot be doubted, for it combines utility with ornament. It is essential to the happiness of man, whether in forming the rude hut to shelter him from the cold, the tem pest, or the burning sun, or in rearing the magRificent temple calculated to impress him with feelings of awe as he draws near in worship to the presence of his Creator. Viewed in all these important relations to individuals and to society, architecture justly assumes a superiority far above painting and sculpture, for it affects us with double power; it administers to our physical comforts and enjoyments, as well as elevates and refines the intellectual powers, while its sister arts only excite our admiration and love by imitations of the sublime and beautiful of the world around us. وو To seek for the origin of architecture among any particular people, or at any particular period of the history of the human race, would be a vain task; for it is probable that in every land, even from the first century of man's creation, some structures have been erected for purposes before mentioned. "We may,' says Malte Brun, "divide the human race into four classes, in respect of their four sorts of dwellings, (domestic architecture,) which are: 1, caves in the rocks and under ground; 2, inud huts, cabins made of branches of trees, hovels of stone or other raw material; 3, tents; these moveable dwellings are in 'the eyes of the wandering tribes, preferable to the most sumptuous palace; 4, houses, which are in fact but improved cabins, for the most superb colonnade is only an imitation of the rude beams that supported the strawthatched cottage of the savage." All of these varieties are still exhibited in various parts of the globe. We see the Esquimaux Indian casting up a hollow mound of snow and ice, and dwelling within; the Laplander rears a similar mound of turf and rude sticks, and so does the Kamschatkan; the Indian of our forest erects several poles in pyramidal form, and covers them with buffalo robes or other materials, and that is his castle; the Arab stretches his light canvass tent upon the desert; the Hindoo builds a slight wickerwork house of bamboo; the Chinese improves upon the Hindoo, and adds strength and beauty to his edifice, and the European improves upon the Chinese, by adding solidity and symmetry and costly materials to the strength and beauty of the latter. The perpetuity of these various styles of domestic architecture, depends materially upon climate and the habits of the people; for necessity is, in this matter, as much the mother of invention," as in any other. The pastoral hordes of the vast plateaus of Asia, are compelled to change their places of residence in search of food for their flocks and herds; and so with the Indians upon our great prairies, who travel hundreds of miles in their summer hunting excursions. Hence the necessity of tents or moveable dwellings. On the Andes of South America where the earthquake shock is often felt, the towering walls of our northern cities, or the tapering and tall edifices which adorn the oriental countries, could not stand, and hence low walls of great solidity are there built. The necessity of guarding against the cold and the tempest in northern latitudes, does not apply to the habitations of the tropics, and hence the bamboo house is just as useful to the inhabitant beneath the equator, as the solid masonry of northern climes. But in countries where luxury, added to necessity, nourished the science of architecture |