[7]. Extracted from an Essay written in 1852, and published in Germany under the title of “The Four Elements of Architecture.” By Professor Gottfried Semper.
But no notice has been taken of the much more evident and less doubtful influence, which drapery itself, in its quality of a vertical wall, or partition, has exercised on certain architectural forms. Nevertheless it is the motif which I venture to cite, as the one on which ancient art has been principally founded.
It is well known that the nascent taste for the beautiful among those races which are in a state of social infancy, is first exercised in the manufacture of coarse tissues, which serve either as beds or as partitions.
The art of dress is less ancient than that of the manufacture of stuffs, as several examples of people to whom clothing is unknown, and who nevertheless possess an industry, more or less developed, in tissues and embroidery, may satisfy us.
The earliest woven work would seem to be the fence, that is, branches of trees interlaced, serving the purpose of enclosure and of partition. The most savage tribes are acquainted with this method of construction. Thus the employment of coarse tissue or woven work (which was a mere fence) as a means of securing privacy from the world outside certainly far preceded the constructed wall of stone, or of any other material; this last only became necessary at a much later period, for requirements which in their nature bear no relation whatever to space and its subdivision. The stone wall was made for greater security, longer duration, and to serve as a support for heaps of various materials and stores; in fine, for purposes foreign to the original idea; viz., that of the separation of space, and it is most important to remark, that wherever the secondary motives did not exist, woven fabrics maintained, almost without exception, especially in southern lands, their ancient office, that of the ostensible separation of space; and even in cases where the construction of solid walls became necessary, these last are but the internal and unseen scaffolding of the true and legitimate representatives of division, that is to say, of drapery richly varied with ornamental work, interlacings, and colours.
The difference which exists between the ostensible and principal separation, and the constructed separation, is expressed in ancient and modern languages by terms more or less significative.
In the Latin tongue, a distinction is made between paries and murus.
The Germans, in the word wand (of the same root with gewand, which means texture) recal still more directly the ancient origin and type of a wall.
New inventions soon led to different methods of replacing the primitive drapery, and every art was successively called in to contribute its part to these innovations, which may have been brought about by various reasons; such, for example, as the desire for longer endurance, for the sake of cleanliness, economy, comfort, distinction, coolness, heat, &c.
One of the most ancient and most general methods of replacing the use of drapery or tapestry is the coat of stucco or of plaster, furnished by the masons who built the walls.