Book Description

Excerpt from The Princes of Art: Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers Translated From the French Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Engraving, Music, and Poetry, are known under the name of fine arts. Architecture. Architecture is the art of building. As soon as man felt the need of sheltering himself from the injurious effects of the air, and defending himself against ferocious animals, he sought to construct a habitation. Therefore it is evident that the origin of architecture dates back to the earliest times. The Bible says that Cain built a city, after the death of his brother Abel, and it mentions the cities of Nineveh and Babylon, founded by Nimrod the hunter, great grandson of Noah. The Egyptians perfected the art; but the Greeks were the first to unite the rules of this art, form a method, and furnish fine models to posterity. The Tuscans, the Romans, then the French and the Italians, had celebrated, architects, and constructed magnificent monuments. Every nation, according to its taste or genius, added to, or took from what had already been done. These changes originated the different orders, which are distinguished by the proportions and various ornaments of the columns which sustain or beautify large buildings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.