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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& more
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