Hellenistic Architecture: An Introductory Study

by Theodore Fyfe

Text extracted from opening pages of book: HELLENISTIC ARCHITECTURE An Introductory Study by THEODORE FYFE, M. A. Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects Lecturer in Architecture and sometime Director of the School of Architecture in the University of Cambridge CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1936 To M. N. F.' rin *' f/\. f, -; .' v/ ) 1: >' C -. j . ... AffiV-* i \ ._-****** MW **'' A** -* v, >* * j 2; 2Ss-; 7 s (, >*; *.''' W \ Fj/'-r; , -; ;, L, -i --*. v Af ''' t . WC* '', ., ', ' Vaulted antechamber in the Anfashy Necropolis, Alexandria; rock-cut, stuccoed and painted. Ptolemaic-Roman period. FOREWORD The amount of written material which is available on the various aspects of Greek and Hellenistic architecture is already so great that the production of a new work might be regarded as superfluous; but Hellenistic architecture has not, so far, formed the subject of a separate treatise* I have been forced to realise the need of such a work from the bewilderment of younger students about the actual meaning of the term Hellenistic **. It seemed a favourable oppor tunity to produce this book when the interest which I had taken in the study of classical architecture, extending over many years, was stimulated considerably by an extensive tour in the Eastern Mediterranean during the first half of 1934, in the course of which I visited most of the sites and buildings now described. 1 A series of lectures delivered at Cambridge, early in 1935, enabled me to arrange the material in the order required. As its title indicates, the book does not pretend to be more than a brief introduction to a subject which could be pre sented much more thoroughly. From the great range ofavailable material it seemed advisable to make a selection suitable for presentation in a short volume. It might be considered that, for an introductory study, certain portions are too technical. A great deal, if not all, of Chapters iv, v and vi could indeed be omitted* altogether by the general 1 The tour was undertaken to fulfil the requirements of the Henry L. Florence Bursary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which I was the holder in 193234. The Institute have kindly permitted me to use, in the present work, some of the material of the Report on the tour published in their Journal on January 26th and April 6th, 1935. viii Foreword reader, but I have tried to maintain, in the remainder of the work, a narrative flow which might interest such a reader sufficiently; and it should be recollected that the book generally not only the more technical parts of it has been written mainly for the student of architecture. A more serious criticism might be made of a direct or implied characteristic of the whole book the inclusion of work dating from some two centuries or more after the Roman domination. Concerning this I need not enlarge on what I have said in various parts of the text, particularly in the first Chapter, but I would emphasise again the extreme difficulty of assigning any definite limit to the term Hellen istic except on stylistic grounds; many forms which were wholly or partly inspired by Hellenism were continued right into the Early Christian building periods of the fifth and sixth centuries. It is of course most regrettable that so little is yet known about architecture which is definitely Hellenistic in a historical sense ( i. e. as belonging to the third andsecond centuries B. C.), but the enlightened attitude of the present Turkish Government encourages a hope that the more thorough investigation of Asia Minor may yield additional architectural evidences of the first importance belonging to this period. In the first Chapter I have suggested the importance of historical geography for any account of the architecture of the Hellenistic Age, but a considerable amount of historical research is necessary before definite conclusions can be reached about the control of architectural events. This is particularly app

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936