The Evolution of the Facade in a Sacred Sense
And I could not be myself.
I am a king — I am a slave — I am a worm — I am a god!
(G. Derzhavin)
The animal world has its own kind of "facade-building" too, but those facades are more often than not merely mating displays or a "mask" to mislead an enemy. Perhaps there is some evolutionary potential in this as well, but it unfolds apart from the creature's consciousness, and it is, in all likelihood, a natural manifestation rather than a personal, creative one.
In the structures that simply accompany human life, a column would have been superfluous (not to be confused with a post, a stele, or a support). But when man needed to capture his idea of the world and his place within it, the column became the very thing that reflected his participation in the multiplicity of being. The capital, of course, is a symbol of the upper world's involvement in human life. It took very little time for man to grasp himself as more than a son of the earth (even a technically equipped one); his self-awareness began to reach toward heaven. As early as the 18th century B.C., Amenhotep III, pondering the divine power of an earthly ruler, saw himself as such a reformer: on one of the sculptures, among his adornments, sits the head of a ram, an attribute of the god Amun. Pharaohs, too, began to see themselves within the sacred space of the world, as the center of power, and finally as the representative of God on earth, and then as the demiurge himself.
Did architectural knowledge come "from men," or from other spheres of being? Accounts of God's direct design and architectural involvement in human life can be found in the Bible, and they refer to objects and structures of a kind never before seen in human experience. Before Noah, no one on earth had ever had to build ships of such magnitude that they could hold thousands of creatures along with provisions and supplies of every kind for a new age of life. In building the Tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant, Moses is given the most detailed description of what is to be done, expressly instructed to raise "the tabernacle after the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." And the third time, when the moment came to build a substantial temple in Jerusalem, this too was a task beyond the abilities of a nomadic pastoral tribe who lived in tents. They had no experience of their own in such construction, no architects, no builders, no craftsmen to work the wood and stone.
From Pillar to Column
In the words of King David, "All this the Lord made me understand in writing... as he instructed me in all the works of this plan." This is also where, for the first time in the book, we find descriptions of the columns set at the entrance to the temple:
A reconstruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem,
circa 10th century B.C.
14 And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre..
15 and he cast two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of each pillar;
16 and he made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars, the height of the one capital being five cubits and the height of the other capital five cubits;
19 and the capitals on the tops of the pillars in the vestibule were shaped like lilies, four cubits high,
20 and the capitals were on the two pillars, fashioned like lilies four cubits high, and there were two hundred pomegranates in rows around the tops of both pillars, beneath the latticework.
21 And he set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple; he set up the pillar on the south side ... and he set up the pillar on the north side ...
22 and on the tops of the pillars he set capitals shaped like lilies...
(3 Samuel, ch. 7)
For the peoples who were able to appreciate and apply the pillar, an entirely new era of life began. They received a "magic wand" that transformed space and human society itself. Humanity began to give material form to the archetypes of heavenly harmony and to strive, in its thoughts, actions, and social laws, toward those patterns. For everyone else, culture and social relations remained at a primitive level.
Temple at Karnak, Egypt
1600–1500 B.C.
Facades with columns, or with other specially composed elements, demonstrate man's already "supra-natural" condition, his special place in the world, his overcoming of the "pull of the earthly." He does not merely arrange his dwelling, or even a public building, in a comfortable and beautiful way (as, for example, at Mohenjo-Daro); he asserts his will in a special way and begins to feel the Promethean fire within himself.
With the development of Christianity, and the adoption of the idea of the family as a small church, the entire space of the home comes to aspire toward the prototype of a temple, with its own special elements of construction, the correlation of its parts, its pieces of furniture, and its attitude toward individual objects (the table, for example, as "the hand of God").
The Erechtheion in Athens, Greece
421–406 B.C.
This new attitude toward the home is reflected in the design of facades as well. In Mediterranean cultures, thanks to the mild climate and the abundance of easily worked stone, columns became a ubiquitous element of building. Roman city buildings and country houses were built on the finest Hellenistic models, and the main facade was given even greater splendor, deftly combining elements of the newly developed vaulted structure with a rich colonnade and pediment, and making use of Etruscan arches. New elements of urban architecture consisting of facades alone were created: the triumphal arches.
The Arch of Constantine in Rome,
built in 315.
These new houses and temples became models for construction, and their influence can be seen in the architecture of many nations and eras. Exquisite architectural forms and the harmonious facades of different epochs and styles say a great deal about the masters of construction: about their connection to the finest examples of human creation, their continuation of tradition, and their striving for perfection in their craft. Architecture nurtures philosophy, music, jurisprudence, and social thought. Facades with colonnades, arched elements, and triangular pediments became a classic of construction, a silent testament to the pursuit of divine perfection.
M. Potyrniche, "Acasa amintiri"
All the classical elements of facade construction were lovingly used in Russian estate architecture. In every corner of the Empire you could come across manor houses with summer terraces in the form of Greek porticoes, with beautiful molded pediments or, at the very least, a "literary" mezzanine, with a columned front entrance and an ivy-covered arbor at the far end of the garden. Traveling through the south of the country, in some unknown backwater, even today you can still find houses that bear witness to a piercing unity of views on the universe, on existence, and on people's place within it, shared by those who were torn apart by political borders, language barriers, and the conflicts of history.
Modern facade design has been shaped in particular by advances in the science of strength of materials, new discoveries in materials science, humanity's cosmic aspirations, consumer philosophy, militaristic values, cronyism, the strategic display of power, and much else besides, in different parts of the world. But we have to admit that an architectural (that is, artistic) facade is always a representation of the future perfected state of the owner, or owners, of a particular house, and that is why we so often face the need to change the construction or design of facades, since goals and values tend to shift in our hectic age.