Fig. 303.—Etruscan Door from Perugia.
They were considerably advanced in architecture and the minor arts at the time when Rome was first beginning to show its signs of power, and were the architects and builders who executed all the works for the early Romans. The Etruscans used the arch very much in building, a feature that the Greeks, although they were acquainted with its use, did not think it necessary in their trabeated system of building. It was, on the other hand, a very favourite feature with the Etruscans, from whom the Romans learnt the use of it. The Tarquins were an Etruscan family who were masters of Rome in the sixth century B.C., and it was under these Emperors that the great sewer, known as the Cloaca Maxima, was built, part of which is still in existence.
This work consists of an arched waterway built in three concentric rings of large wedge-shaped stones (voussoirs). The Etruscans constructed temples, palaces, and dwelling-houses, all of which have perished or have been destroyed, and only a few remains of their walled cities survive. The gate of Perugia (Fig. 303) is the remains of a characteristic Etruscan building. The arch is seen in perfect construction, and the Doric frieze; above is seen a little Ionic column. Etruscan architecture was mostly a kind of Doric with a round shaft. According to Vitruvius the Etruscan temple consisted of three cells, with one or more rows of columns in front, the distance between the columns, or intercolumniation, being much greater than in Greek temples. Sometimes the temple consisted of a circular cell only and a porch, like the later development of this form in the Roman temple at Tivoli, and the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Many Etruscan tombs have been found, consisting of rock-built and detached structures. Some of the rock-built tombs at Castel d’Asso have beams and rafters cut out of the rock in imitation of wooden construction, and also figures cut out in high relief all around the chambers. Great quantities of vessels in pottery and metal-work objects, and also jewellery, have been found in recesses of the walls and roofs of these chambers. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome was an Etruscan building. The Etruscan religion was dark and full of superstition; their gods were mostly deities of the thunder and lightning and subterranean spirits rather than divinities of comfort and mercy, and the Romans adopted most of them in their mythology. The Romans having mastered the principle of the arch, made very good use of it. The greater number of their principal buildings were erected in a mixture of the arch and trabeated system.
The Roman Doric and Ionic orders were ill-proportioned in their various members, bad in profiling, and also very heavy in appearance. The Theatre of Marcellus is an example of the former in its lower columns, and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis an example of the latter.
Fig. 304.—Roman Corinthian, half Capital of Mars Ultor.
The Tuscan order is noted for a more elegant development of the Etruscan smooth column, and a great projection of cornice. A good example of this order may be seen in the portico of St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, London, designed by Inigo Jones.
Fig 305.—Roman Corinthian, Entablature, Capital, and Base of the Pantheon.
The Corinthian order received better treatment at the hands of the Romans; some of their buildings are fine examples of this order.