Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

space in the centre of the roof was left open to the sky, called the Impluvium, through which the rain-water fell into the Compluvium, a square basin in the middle of the court, whence it flowed into cisterns for domestic use. Several of these reservoirs were sometimes connected together upon different levels, so that the water became purified by passing from one to the other. Spring water was however used at table and also in the kitchen

Many houses had in the centre of the Cavædium a fountain, fed from the public aqueduct by means of leaden or earthen pipes'.

1 Ducts of water, according to Vitruvius, were of three kinds; channels of masonry, leaden pipes, or tubes of fictile ware. When it was required to conduct water at the least expense, tubes of earthenware were used, which were so formed as to join together. Aqueducts of tubes, continues the Roman architect, have these advantages;— —if any damage should happen, any person may rectify it; and water from earthen tubes is more wholesome than that from pipes, as the use of lead is found to be pernicious. The taste also of that from tubes is better, as is proved at our daily meals; for all persons, although they have tables furnished with vases of silver, use fictile ware on account of the purity of the taste.

The Impluvium, or open part of the Atrium, is represented to have been, occasionally at least, covered by linen of a purple colour', which being gently agitated by the wind, cast upon the columns and statues a tinged and moving reflection.

The more these curtains spread, the pleasing dye
Rides on the beams the more, and courts the eye;
The gaudy colour spreads o'er every thing,—
All gay appear, each man a purple king 2.

This was so much the more, agreeable as the
Cavædium received no other light.

The corridor of the Atrium in the House of Scaurus, according to Pliny, was of Lucullan

1 Pliny's Natural History, book xix. chap. 1. 2 Lucretius, book iv. Creech's translation.

3 Marcus Scaurus, the son of a distinguished Roman consul of the same name, was celebrated on account of his passion for luxury in buildings. No one, says Pliny, could expect to be compared to him for expensive profusion in his villa of Tusculum, so vast was his riches. Petronius also makes Trimalchion exclaim, in giving an idea of the magnificence of certain parts of his mansion, "When Scaurus comes here, he will lodge no where else." Sat. cap. 17.

marble,—a black species obtained from the island of Chio; and the columns of which it was composed were thirty-eight feet high'. But he also tells us that no other House then in Rome could boast of such lofty columns.

The pavement, beautiful in appearance and of imperishable solidity, was composed of the rarest marbles fixed in a bed of cement. Horace speaks of

....

the rich Floor with inlaid marble bright 2.

The Atrium was an architectural distribution of the mansion which originated in Italy, and was unknown in Greece'. The Andronites of

1 Natural History, book xxxvi. chap. 2. And his English translator continues, in the homely language of Queen Elizabeth's days, "And least any man should say that this is done in secret and hucker mucker, know he that when these pillars were to be carried up into the Mount Palatine where his house stood, the bailife that had the charge of the publick sinkes vaulted under the ground, dealt with Scaurus for good securitie, yea, demanded cautions and sureties for satisfying of all harmes and dammages that might be occasioned by their carriage, so huge and heavie they were." 2 Francis's Translation, book i. epist. 10.

› Vitruvius, lib. iv. cap. 10.

the Greek houses was something of the kind'; but the invention is expressly said to have been derived by the Romans from the Atriates, a people of Etruria, and must be understood as perfectly distinct from the Vestibule before described as standing without the Atrium".

This part of a Roman mansion was peculiarly appropriated to the public, every house having two grand and important divisions in its plan; one for the general use and reception of visitors, and the other for the residence and immediate use of the proprietor.

1 Andron signified that apartment of the house which was appropriated to the men, usually placed in the outer or lower part; while that inhabited by the women and children was in the inner or upper part.

2 Mr. Wilkins gives the following definition of Atrium : "The Court of a Roman house, entered immediately from the fauces of the vestibulum. Varro, De Ling. Lat. iv. 33, makes the Atrium the same as the open Cavædium of Vitruvius. In the description which Pliny gives of his villa, both the Cavædium and Atrium are mentioned." The etymology of Valpy is the most satisfactory; he says, Atrium or Athrium is derived from the Greek Aithrion, as being in the open air: sub dio. Etymolog. Lat. Dict.

In the architectural disposition of houses there were no less than five different kinds of Atrium, each named from the particular manner in which the Cavædium was covered.

The first, called the Tuscan, was simply composed of four beams crossing each other at right angles, and supporting the roof. This primitive form of Atrium could only be adopted in a small house; for when the Cavædium was increased in its dimensions, the beams having too great a length would not bear the weight of the roof.

The second kind of Atrium, called Tetrastyle, had only four columns to support the trabs, or beams of the roof at the points of intersection.

The third, or Corinthian, Atrium was the most magnificent of them all; the only one, indeed, that could be adopted in a Palace, because the number of columns required to support the roof allowed of any extent to be given to the Cavædium.

The Displuviatum formed the fourth kind of Atrium; its difference consisted merely in the

« FöregåendeFortsätt »