#cauliculi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

classicalmonuments · 4 years

Photo

Nymphaeum of Bosra

Bostra (Busra), Arabia, Syria

2nd century CE

The four columns of the Nymphaeum, which are beautiful in themselves, and are quite perfectly preserved, are practically all that remains of the building of which they formed the façade. They stand on a line diagonal to the two main streets of the town which intersect at this point and were so placed as to cut off the sharp angle which would have been produced if the colonnades of the two streets had met, for the streets do not meet at an exact right angle, but at an angle rather more acute. The north colonnade of the east-and- west street, and the west colonnade of the north-and-south street, terminated against the two end columns of this façade.

The central intercolumniation is wider than the other two which are equal. When Puchstein was here he excavated to find this curved wall, and we found his excavation almost completely filled up when we entered the enclosure behind the wall. I took measurements of as much of the wall as I could find, which would be sufficient for our Plan of Bosra, and from these I have drawn the accompanying plan. Puchstein called the building a Nymphaeum and I have followed him. The plan is sufficiently like that of the Nymphaeum of Gerasa to make this identification practically certain.

I contented myself with measuring some of the details of the base of one of the columns which were easily reached. For a restoration I have assumed the height of the pedestals, and, knowing the diameter of a column (1.20 m.), I have erected the four columns by finding their approximate height in diameters from photographs. The capital was drawn from a sketch and from photographs. The present level of the soil is shown by a broken line. The visible parts of the building are shaded to represent basalt. The rear wall was restored from a similar plan in the central portion of the Nymphaeum at Amman, where the wall is standing.

An apsis must be covered by a half dome; at Amman the half dome springs from the level of the tops of the columns. This disposition of the half dome suggests an arched entablature even if the wide middle intercolumniation did not demand it. I have chosen to strike the semicircle of the intrados of the arched architrave from the level of the tops of the columns rather than from the level of the top of the architrave, because the remnant of the arcuated architrave of the Central Arch here in Bosra and other examples of arched entablatures in the Hauran have this form.

The members of the entablature are drawn roughly from other buildings in the neighborhood, the roof is wholly conjectural. It is very probable that the walls adjoining the apsis had two or three storeys of niches in them, like the walls beside the great niche at Amman, and it is not impossible that the apsis itself was also provided with superposed niches, like the one at Jerash, but I found no proof or suggestion of these details.

The upper part of the pedestal and the base of a column are given herewith in a measured drawing. The octagonal form of the pedestal and of the plinth below the Attic base is interesting, and was probably employed in the present case to accommodate the end columns of the street colonnades which approached them at an angle. I have made the adjoining bases of the columns of the colonnades to correspond with them.

The four capitals, which are of unusual beauty, present charming variations in minor details, as may be seen by a careful observation of the photograph. The proportions of the capital given in my drawing may not be absolutely accurate, as they were not measured; but certain observations may be made which are, in the main, correct. The capitals are unusually tall, the part between the acanthus leaves and the abacus being almost as high as the taller leaves. The acanthus leaves have a prominent V section, the cauliculi, or stalks, are tall and flowing. The angle volutes and the intermediate spirals are quite free from the bell, as in the early Greek capitals of this order from Epidauros. Each volute and spiral was composed of a slender moulded fillet, and was cut entirely free as a detached member, in the most delicate manner possible, springing out of the stalk and touching only the angle of the abacus in the case of the volutes, and only the lip of the bell in the case of the spirals. The flower in the middle of the abacus has several varieties, and the sides of the abacus are slightly moulded. The execution could not have been more perfect in the finest quality of marble.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

#art #Architecture #travel #history #bosra #busra #bostra #arabia #syria #nymphaeum #octagon #water #fountain #syrian pediment #corinthian #roman #roman syria #roman art #roman architecture

70 notes · View notes