Architecture, Mysticism and Myth
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ARCHITECTVRE MYSTICISM AND MYTH. By fT. R. ythaby with illustrations by the Author ' Are there symbols which may be called constant ; proper to all races, all societies, and all countries P ' C^sar Daly. 1892 New York: Macmillan & Co. <15 A. 3^^i 1 yJ«af «/«» pelers grete'offasper longe I sawgh a temple ofglas ifounded strange.'—Chaucer. Vv-.....-.^'.--i, vb-t:: Ji PREFA CE TN sending out this essay, I must ask for indulgence. In the first place, because this is, so far as known to me, the only attempt to set out, from an architect's point of view, the basis of certain ideas common in the architec- ture of many lands and religions, the purposes behind structure andform which may be called the esoteric principles of architecture. And secondly, for an attempt to deal with a subject that could only be rightly handled by one having the equipments of a wide scholarship ; while I can only claim that there should come of regular apprenticeship and long practice in any craft or art, a certain instinct of insight not possessed by 7nere outsiders though never so learned. The author who asks the question quoted on the title-page, says that Mr. Herbert Spencef^s essay on the origin of the styles of architecture fails because he was not himself an architect, and no architect had prepared the way. 1 refer to this in the vi PREFACE hope that writing thus, on my own art, may be sufficient excuse for any appearance of affectation and presumption in quoting unfamiliar matter at secondhand; for I must say at once, what will be sufficiently apparent on any page, that my knowledge of books is only that of the general reader, and that I have made use of such inferior editions, translations, and chance extracts as have come in my way; venturing to suppose that, if the thought were clear, a passage originally in hiero- glyphs, or on clay tablets, might be dealt with as readily as a paragraph from an evening paper. In such a wide field T have thought it well to con- centrate my attention on some few definite points, and I fear, in doing this, there may be some unnecessary insistence and repetition : a tendency to overprove, and an attempt to explain too much ; on the one hand to burden with what is obvious, on the other to weaken by unfounded conjecture. The main proposition occurred to me after collecting and comparing a large number of architectural legends, and it was not until I read definitely, for further confirmation, that I found statements, a sentence here and there, anticipating me on nearly every point. It is only since this has been in the publisher^ hands that I have seen Dr. Warren's ' Paradise Found,' to find there several coincidences with my chapters IV. andv. PREFACE vii To clear the page of footnotes, and to strengthen the structure of the argument by expert evidence, T have gener- ally preferred to transcribe my authorities directly rather than attempt, by paraphrasing them, to give an air of ease and unity to my own work. Equally by either method— ' Wouldyou know the new, you must search the old.' T have the pleasure of thanking friends who have helped me, especially Mr. Ernest Newton and Mr. E. S. Prior. The figures 22, 24, and 30 are from sketches kindly lent me by Mr. Brindley, Mr. Schultz, and Mr. Barnsley. 2 GRAY'S INN SQUARE. ' The prince Humayun fitted up seven houses of entertainment, and named them after the seven planets, ordering all thefurniture, paintings, and also the dresses of those who waited upon him, to bear something that was an emblem of the tutelar star of the house. In the house of the Moon met foreign ambassadors, travellers, and poets. Military men attended him in the house of Mars, and judges, lawgivers, and secretaries were received in that of Mercury.^ Ferishta's History of India. CONTENTS FRONTISPIECE Ziggurat of Belus at Babylon see page 128 INTRODUCTORY I I. THE WORLD FABRIC 9 ' II. THE MICROCOSMOS 32 I Chinese ' Hall of Distinction ' I Fig. I. \ Buddhist Plan of the World 46 \Astrologers' Houses of the Sky J Fig. 2. A Buddhist Tope 48 III. SQUARE . FOUR S3 ' Fig. 3. EzeMeVs City . 63 Fig. 4. Chinese Plan ^^63 IV. AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH Fig. 5. The Four Rivers and Central Tree 75 Fig. 6. The Central Stone of Delphi 79 Fig. 7. The Same 80 Fig. 8. Plan of Dome of the Rock V. THE JEWEL-BEARING TREE 95 Fig. 9. Indian Lamp Tree "5 Fig. 10. Greek Lamp Tree 116 Fig. II. The Gqfden Candlestick from the arch of Titus .... 117 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE VI. THE PLANETARY SPHERES . .122 Fig, 12. Seven-Walled City, from \l,%\ Dante . 137 Fig. 13. The Throne on Seven Steps of the Heavens . 138 VII. THE LABYRINTH . -149 Fig. 14. Floor Labyrinth at Ravenna . IS' Fig. 15. Early Coins of Crete . -153 Fig. 16. Isle of Crete, frofn the Hereford Map IS4 VIII. THE GOLDEN GATE OF THE SUN . -174 Fig. 17. Door Lintel, Ebba, Carthage 178 Fig. 18. Syrian Tomb Door, Galilee . 180 Fig. 19. East Toran, Sanchi Tope . 182 Fig. 20. Phcenician Toran, Coin of Paphos 183 Fig. 21. Chinese Tomb Door, Canton . .185 . IX. PAVEMENTS ' LIKE THE SEA . .; 201 Fig. 22. Marble Pavement, Constantinople . .211 Fig. IT,. Roman Pavement, Cirencester . 213 Fig. 24. Pavement Patterns, The Baptistery, Florence 216 X. CEILINGS LIKE THE SKY . .221 Fig. 25. Mosaic Dome, Ravenna . 223 Fig. zd. Egyptian Goddess of the Sky . .231 Fig, 27. Egyptian Temple Ceiling . 233 XI. THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN AND THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DAYS .... 23s XII. THE SYMBOL OF CREATION . -254 Fig. 28. Italian Canopy, from a Tile . 259 Fig. 29. Italian Lamp from Mantegna . 261 Pig, SO- Ostrich Eggfrom Mycente . 269 ARCHITECTVRE, MYSTICISM AND MYTH INTRODUCTORY ' Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images, that have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory : nothing can come of nothing : he who has laid up no materials can produce no combinations,^—Reynolds, Discourse I i. THE history of architecture, as usually written, with its theory of utilitarian origins from the hut and the tumulus, and further developments in that way —the adjustment of forms to the conditions of local circumstance ; the clay of Mesopotamia, the granite of Egypt, and marble of Greece—is rather the history of building : of ' Architecture ' it may be, in the sense we so often use the word, but not the Architecture which is the synthesis of the fine arts, the commune of all , the crafts. As the pigments are but the vehicle of painting, so is building but the vehicle of architecture, which is the thought behind form, embodied and realised for the purpose of its manifestation and transmission. Architecture, then, interpenetrates building, not for satisfaction of the simple needs of the body, but the complex ones of the intellect. I do not mean that we can thus distinguish between architecture and A 2 INTRODUCTORY building, in those qualities in which they meet and overlap, but that in the sum and polarity of them all ; these point to the response of future thought, those to the satisfaction of present need ; and so, although no hut or mound, however early or rude, but had something added to it for thought's sake, yet architecture and building are quite clear and distinct as ideas—the soul and the body. Of the modes of this thought we must again dis- tinguish ; some were unconscious and instinctive, as the desire for symmetry, smoothness, sublimity, and the like merely aesthetic qualities, which properly enough belong to true architecture ; and others were direct and didactic, speaking by a more or less perfect realisation, or through a code of symbols, accompanied by tradi- tions which explained them. The main purpose and burthen of sacred architecture—and all architecture, temple, tomb, or palace, was sacred in the early days —is thus inextricably bound up with a people's thoughts about God and the universe. Behind every style of architecture there is an earlier style, in which the germ of every form is to be found ; except such alterations as may be traced to new conditions, or directly innovating thought in religion, all is the slow change of growth, and it is almost impossible to point to the time of invention of any custom or feature. As Herbert Spencer says of cere- monial generally: 'Adhering tenaciously to all his elders taught him, the primitive man deviates into novelty only through unintended modifications. Every one now knows that languages are not devised but evolve ; and the same is true of usages.' It has, rightly, been the habit of historians of architecture to lay stress on the differences of the several styles and schools of successive ages, but, in the far larger sense. INTRODUCTORY 3 all architecture is one, when traced back through the stream of civilisations, as they followed or influenced one another. For instance, argue as archaeologists may, as to whether the columns at Beni Hassan are rightly called proto-Doric, it is a fact to be read as in an open book, that a Greek temple and an Egyptian temple are substantially at one, when we consider the infinite possibilities of form, if dis- associated from tradition. It has often been pointed out, how early examples of stone construction still repeat the forms of the manner of building in wood that went before, and so is it always. How long the steamship retained survivals of the sailing vessel, and how the vocabulary of the coachroad still answers for the railway.