The Ten Books on Architecture
not capable of giving its approval authoritatively and on the principle
of propriety to that which really can exist. The fact is that pictures
which are unlike reality ought not to be approved, and even if they are
technically fine, this is no reason why they should offhand be judged to
be correct, if their subject is lacking in the principles of reality
carried out with no violations.
5. For instance, at Tralles, Apaturius of Alabanda designed with skilful
hand the scaena of the little theatre which is there called the [Greek:
ekklêsiastêrion], representing columns in it and statues, Centaurs
supporting the architraves, rotundas with round roofs on them, pediments
with overhanging returns, and cornices ornamented with lions' heads,
which are meant for nothing but the rainwater from the roofs,--and then
on top of it all he made an episcaenium in which were painted rotundas,
porticoes, half-pediments, and all the different kinds of decoration
employed in a roof. The effect of high relief in this scaena was very
attractive to all who beheld it, and they were ready to give their
approval to the work, when Licymnius the mathematician came forward and
said that (6.) the Alabandines were considered bright enough in all
matters of politics, but that on account of one slight defect, the lack
of the sense of propriety, they were believed to be unintelligent. "In
their gymnasium the statues are all pleading causes, in their forum,
throwing the discus, running, or playing ball. This disregard of
propriety in the interchange of statues appropriate to different places
has brought the state as a whole into disrepute. Let us then beware lest
this scaena of Apaturius make Alabandines or Abderites of us. Which of
you can have houses or columns or extensive pediments on top of his
tiled roof? Such things are built above the floors, not above the tiled
roofs. Therefore, if we give our approval to pictures of things which
can have no reason for existence in actual fact, we shall be voluntarily
associating ourselves with those communities which are believed to be
unintelligent on account of just such defects."
7. Apaturius did not venture to make any answer, but removed the
scaena, altered it so that it conformed to reality, and gave
satisfaction with it in its improved state. Would to God that Licymnius
could come to life again and reform the present condition of folly and
mistaken practices in fresco painting! However, it may not be out of
place to explain why this false method prevails over the truth. The fact
is that the artistic excellence which the ancients endeavoured to attain
by working hard and taking pains, is now attempted by the use of colours
and the brave show which they make, and expenditure by the employer
prevents people from missing the artistic refinements that once lent
authority to works.
8. For example, which of the ancients can be found to have used
vermilion otherwise than sparingly, like a drug? But today whole walls
are commonly covered with it everywhere. Then, too, there is malachite
green, purple, and Armenian blue. When these colours are laid on, they
present a brilliant appearance to the eye even although they are
inartistically applied, and as they are costly, they are made exceptions
in contracts, to be furnished by the employer, not by the contractor.
I have now sufficiently explained all that I could suggest for the
avoidance of mistakes in stucco work. Next, I shall speak of the
components as they occur to me, and first I shall treat of marble, since
I spoke of lime at the beginning.
CHAPTER VI
MARBLE FOR USE IN STUCCO
Marble is not produced everywhere of the same kind. In some places the
lumps are found to contain transparent grains like salt, and this kind
when crushed and ground is extremely serviceable in stucco work. In
places where this is not found, the broken bits of marble or "chips," as
they are called, which marble-workers throw down as they work, may be
crushed and ground and used in stucco after being sifted. In still other
places--for example, on the borderland of Magnesia and Ephesus--there
are places where it can be dug out all ready to use, without the need of
grinding or sifting, but as fine as any that is crushed and sifted by
hand.
CHAPTER VII
NATURAL COLOURS
As for colours, some are natural products found in fixed places, and dug
up there, while others are artificial compounds of different substances
treated and mixed in proper proportions so as to be equally serviceable.
1. We shall first set forth the natural colours that are dug up as such,
like yellow ochre, which is termed [Greek: ôchra] in Greek. This is
found in many places, including Italy, but Attic, which was the best, is
not now to be had because in the times when there were slaves in the
Athenian silver mines, they would dig galleries underground in order to
find the silver. Whenever a vein of ochre was found there, they would
follow it up like silver, and so the ancients had a fine supply of it to
use in the polished finishings of their stucco work.
2. Red earths are found in abundance in many places, but the best in
only a few, for instance at Sinope in Pontus, in Egypt, in the Balearic
islands of Spain, as well as in Lemnos, an island the enjoyment of whose
revenues the Senate and Roman people granted to the Athenians.
3. Paraetonium white gets its name from the place where it is dug up.
The same is the case with Melian white, because there is said to be a
mine of it in Melos, one of the islands of the Cyclades.
4. Green chalk is found in numerous places, but the best at Smyrna. The
Greeks call it [Greek: theodoteion], because this kind of chalk was
first found on the estate of a person named Theodotus.
5. Orpiment, which is termed [Greek: arsenikon] in Greek, is dug up in
Pontus. Sandarach, in many places, but the best is mined in Pontus close
by the river Hypanis.
CHAPTER VIII
CINNABAR AND QUICKSILVER
1. I shall now proceed to explain the nature of cinnabar. It is said
that it was first found in the Cilbian country belonging to Ephesus, and
both it and its properties are certainly very strange. First, before
getting to the vermilion itself by methods of treatment, they dig out
what is called the clod, an ore like iron, but rather of a reddish
colour and covered with a red dust. During the digging it sheds, under
the blows of the tools, tear after tear of quicksilver, which is at once
gathered up by the diggers.
2. When these clods have been collected, they are so full of moisture
that they are thrown into an oven in the laboratory to dry, and the
fumes that are sent up from them by the heat of the fire settle down on
the floor of the oven, and are found to be quicksilver. When the clods
are taken out, the drops which remain are so small that they cannot be
gathered up, but they are swept into a vessel of water, and there they
run together and combine into one. Four pints of it, when measured and
weighed, will be found to be one hundred pounds.
3. If the quicksilver is poured into a vessel, and a stone weighing one
hundred pounds is laid upon it, the stone swims on the surface, and
cannot depress the liquid, nor break through, nor separate it. If we
remove the hundred pound weight, and put on a scruple of gold, it will
not swim, but will sink to the bottom of its own accord. Hence, it is
undeniable that the gravity of a substance depends not on the amount of
its weight, but on its nature.
4. Quicksilver is a useful thing for many purposes. For instance,
neither silver nor copper can be gilded properly without it. And when
gold has been woven into a garment, and the garment becomes worn out
with age so that it is no longer respectable to use, the pieces of cloth
are put into earthen pots, and burned up over a fire. The ashes are then
thrown into water and quicksilver added thereto. This attracts all the
bits of gold, and makes them combine with itself. The water is then
poured off, and the rest emptied into a cloth and squeezed in the hands,
whereupon the quicksilver, being a liquid, escapes through the loose
texture of the cloth, but the gold, which has been brought together by
the squeezing, is found inside in a pure state.
CHAPTER IX
CINNABAR (_continued_)
1. I will now return to the preparation of vermilion. When the lumps of
ore are dry, they are crushed in iron mortars, and repeatedly washed and
heated until the impurities are gone, and the colours come. When the
cinnabar has given up its quicksilver, and thus lost the natural virtues
that it previously had, it becomes soft in quality and its powers are
feeble.
2. Hence, though it keeps its colour perfectly when applied in the
polished stucco finish of closed apartments, yet in open apartments,
such as peristyles or exedrae or other places of the sort, where the
bright rays of the sun and moon can penetrate, it is spoiled by contact
with them, loses the strength of its colour, and turns black. Among many
others, the secretary Faberius, who wished to have his house on the
Aventine finished in elegant style, applied vermilion to all the walls
of the peristyle; but after thirty days they turned to an ugly and
mottled colour. He therefore made a contract to have other colours
applied instead of vermilion.
3. But anybody who is more particular, and who wants a polished finish
of vermilion that will keep its proper colour, should, after the wall
has been polished and is dry, apply with a brush Pontic wax melted over
a fire and mixed with a little oil; then after this he should bring the
wax to a sweat by warming it and the wall at close quarters with
charcoal enclosed in an iron vessel; and finally he should smooth it all
off by rubbing it down with a wax candle and clean linen cloths, just
as naked marble statues are treated.
4. This process is termed [Greek: ganôsis] in Greek. The protecting coat
of Pontic wax prevents the light of the moon and the rays of the sun
from licking up and drawing the colour out of such polished finishing.
The manufactories which were once at the mines of the Ephesians have now
been transferred to Rome, because this kind of ore was later discovered
in Spain. The clods are brought from the mines there, and treated in
Rome by public contractors. These manufactories are between the temples
of Flora and Quirinus.
5. Cinnabar is adulterated by mixing lime with it. Hence, one will have
to proceed as follows, if one wishes to prove that it is unadulterated.
Take an iron plate, put the cinnabar upon it, and lay it on the fire
until the plate gets red hot. When the glowing heat makes the colour
change and turn black, remove the plate from the fire, and if the
cinnabar when cooled returns to its former colour, it will be proved to
be unadulterated; but if it keeps the black colour, it will show that it
has been adulterated.
6. I have now said all that I could think of about cinnabar. Malachite
green is brought from Macedonia, and is dug up in the neighbourhood of
copper mines. The names Armenian blue and India ink show in what places
these substances are found.
CHAPTER X
ARTIFICIAL COLOURS. BLACK
1. I shall now pass to those substances which by artificial treatment
are made to change their composition, and to take on the properties of
colours; and first I shall treat of black, the use of which is
indispensable in many works, in order that the fixed technical methods
for the preparation of that compound may be known.
2. A place is built like a Laconicum, and nicely finished in marble,
smoothly polished. In front of it, a small furnace is constructed with
vents into the Laconicum, and with a stokehole that can be very
carefully closed to prevent the flames from escaping and being wasted.