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Desgodets, Antoine Babuty, 1653-1728 / Les edifices antiques de Rome
(1771)

Chapitre II: du Temple de Bacchus à Rome = Chapter II: of the Temple of Bacchus at Rome,   pp. 31-35


Page 34

34 
OF THE TEMPLE OF BACCHUS AT ROME. 
He marks niches in the wall which clofes that court, inftead of the windows
that are there. As for 
the meafures, he gives them fo' difproportioned, that it may be fafely faid
there is not one of them 
true. 
T      H E fecond plate reprefents the profile of the temple and porch in
their prefent flate. There 
is reafon to believe that this temple had formerly a portico quite round,
becaufe of the remains 
ftill to be feen without, of a fallen vault, which I have marked A; and probably
the other fide of 
that portico was on the bafement already mentioned, of which the profile
is alfo fhown in this plate., 
I found in the environs of this temple bafes of columns like thofe of the
infide, which might belong to 
the columns on which the vault reted in the fame manner it does within: for
there is no probability 
that this temple, which is not very large, thould have had four doors as
it has, and all four opening 
to the outfide: on the contrary thofe openings are very proper into a portico.
It mufl be noted that the arches which reft upon the columns, and which fupport
the cupola, are 
made coving: they are encrufled With marble underneath, and are of different
heights; The middle 
ones are four feet ten inches and a half high, and the others but four feet.
The niches, which are 
fquare in their plans, are circular at top.  In the top of the vault of the
cupola is a recefs, which 
may have been an aperture to emit the fmoke of the facrifices. The door of
the principal entrance is 
fquare at top, and there as wide as at bottom. In the cradle-vault, which
goes round within, remain 
fome ancient paintings, which have been repaired in many places. In what
remains of the antique, 
there are. little children who reprefent vintagers, and feveral forts of
different compartments : all the 
paintings in the cupola are inodern ; the cover is alfo modern, and of tile.
The roof of the cupola 
is likewife modern: I have marked the timbers with dotted lines, becaufe
I took them but by con- 
je&ure, not having been able to get at them. The whole itrudure is of
brick, except the columns, 
which are of granite ; and their bafes, capitals, and entablature, which
are of white marble, with the 
incruftation of the arches that reft upon the columns, as has been faid.
Serlio marks neither the bafement, nor the fpringing of the vault on the
outfide; and gives no 
meafures that are true. 
T H E third plate reprefents the parts of the order within the temple, which
are the bafe of the 
columns, the face of the capital, and the profiles of the entablature, with
an outline of the 
proportion of the columns marked C. 
The columns of this temple are of different fizes, nay may be faid to be
of different fpecies; there 
being fome of which the diminution commences from the bottom, and others
where it does not begin 
till the top of the loweft third. I have given the profile of that which
feemed to me the beft propor- 
tioned, with all its meafures, as well thofe of the height as the different
diameters it has at the bottom, 
at the top, and at the firfi third from the bottom. It is one foot four inches
one quarter in diameter 
at the bottom, which I have reduced into two modules divided as ufual each
into thirty parts. In 
the bafe it may be remarked that the contour of the fcotia goes lower than
the top of the orl under 
it. The bands of the architrave proje&t more below than above. What is
remarkable in the capital, 
which is compofite, is a hollow above the quarter-round of the abacus ; and
on the reverfe of the 
volutes, beides the acanthus-leaf which covers it, another water-leaf below,
which fallens by its re- 
verfe againt1 the drum of the capital. 
All the proje~tions are to be counted from the axis of the column prolonged.
Palladjo puts olive-leaves on the capital, inftead of the leaves of acanthus,
formed like parfley- 
leaves, that are there; he does not make the flower in the middle of the
abacus as it is: :he puts "a 
grea bunch of leaves coveing the whole top of the volutes,, where is only
a little foliage adorning 
th  ie of the band which forms the revolutions of the volute.~  He omits
the little hollow which 
is at the top of the abacus. On the architrave he makes all the bands plumb,
whereas they proje& 
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