ABSTRACT
In accordance with the derivation of the pure aesthetics of architecture given in the text, from the lowest levels of the objectification of will, or nature, whose Ideas it attempts to bring to distinct perceptibility, its sole and constant theme is support and load, and its fundamental law is that there be no load without sufficient support, and no support without a load appropriate to it, consequently that the relation between the two be exactly fitting.The purest elaboration of this theme is the column and beam; for this reason, the arrangement of columns has become, as it were, the basso continuo of the whole of architecture. In the column and beam, in particular, support and load are completely separated; thereby the reciprocal effect of the two and their interrelation is made evident. For of course even every simple wall contains support and load, but here the two are still fused. Everything here is support and everything load: hence no aesthetic effect. This first occurs through separation and turns out according to the degree of the latter. For there are many intermediate stages between the row of columns and the simple wall. Just in breaking through the wall of a house merely for the purpose of windows and doors, we attempt at least to indicate that separation with projecting flat pilasters (antae) with capitals, which we insert beneath the lintel, indeed depict them with mere painting if need be, so as at least somehow to denote the beam and an arrangement of columns. Actual pillars, as well as consoles and supports of various kinds, still more fully realize that pure separation of support and load to which architecture aspires throughout. In this respect, vault and pillar are most closely related to column and beam, but as a unique
construction, not imitative of the latter. The former are of course far from achieving the aesthetic effect of the latter, because support and load are not yet purely separated in them, but rather, passing over into each other, are fused. In the vault itself every stone is simultaneously load and support, and even the pillars, especially in the cross vault, are kept in their position, at least in appearance, by the pressure of arches at right angles; and so, precisely on account of this lateral pressure, not only vaults, but even mere arches should not rest on columns, but rather demand the more massive, four-cornered pillars. Only in the row of columns is the separation complete, in that the beam makes its appearance as pure load here, and the column as pure support. Accordingly, the relation of the colonnade to the simple wall is comparable to that which would exist between a scale ascending at regular intervals and, from the same depth to the same height, a tone ascending gradually and without distinct steps, which would produce a mere howl. For in the one as in the other the material is the same, and the immense difference results only from pure separation.
