And a, a fellow sitting over here at the base
of the finial is very helpful to us because he
gives us a sense of human scale. This is this man.
He's small compared to the finial.
So you can imagine how small he is in relationship to the tomb as a whole.
So, once again, bitter, bigger is better, reigns
supreme in Jordan as it did in Rome.
Where we can see that the Romans are building very large in the second century.
If we look at this finial here, this decoration with
the apex.
We see that they have used one of these Nabataean capitals again here and that,
that supports a kind of fat vase on the top with a, with a top on it.
A and, that, that you see that sort of thing in, in
Roman art you see it sometimes in second style Roman wall paintings.
Probably a Greco-Roman motif that has been combined with the Nabataean capital here.
And you can also see from looking at this, as well as the tomb as a
whole, that the architect is really treating these
buildings almost more as sculpture than as architecture.
Molding them in a way that a sculptor might.
And that's not so different from what we saw Rabirius, for example, doing in his
octagonal room and in the fountain at the, at the palace on the Palatine hill.
Here again Borromini, Francesco Borromini Sant'Ivo
the uppermost part of that.
Just to show you again the kinds these are, by no means,
ex, you know, exact, there's no exact relationship between these two at all.
And this one has different features than that.
But just to show you that it's this
kind of thing that unquestionably inspires architects like Borromini
in the 17th century in Italy to create the kind of, of of, of lanterns and so on,
that they do for the churches that they design.
Here's another interesting comparison.
This is another wonderful view of the Deir in Petra which shows you I guess best off
all the way in which is carved out of
and still embedded into the rock of Petra itself.
Magnificent.
And I compare it to another Borromini church this is the famous San Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane most, most, better known
as San Carlino, the little, little San Carlo.
San Carlino as you see here.
And you see what Borromini has done. He has an, he has the undulating facade.
He is using the traditional vocabulary
of architecture just like these architechts are.
These nameless architects are.
The columns and the entablatures and the pediments and so on and so forth.
He's using all of those here.
He even has the tholos in the second story, in the upper story right there.
But he is use and he is, and he is also very
taken with the whole idea of the, of an actual undulating wall.
As you can see also in this view.
But he is doing the same sort of thing that we see architects doing here.
And I don't think that there's any question
that the sort of building that we see
on the right, the Deir, was, had impact on architects of the 17th century.
We know that some of them traveled to this part of the world.
We know that drawings were made That books were made, that these were brought back.
These were seen by people in Rome in the 17th century.
And of course they had local things to see as well in Italy.
And that they were influenced by what they saw.
The other rock cut tomb, the other very impressive,
there are many of these in Petra.
I'm only showing you two out of a fairly nice variety.
But I want to show you the other most famous one, the Khazne, in, in, Petra.
It also dates to the mid-second century AD.
Once again, carved out of the living rock. Once again, pure facadism.
This is nothing more than a facade. You can see how
in this case, once again, second two storied.
Very similar scheme to what we saw at the Deir.
With a temple front down below and a tholos above
that is revealed by the splitting of the triangular pediment.
As you can see well.
Once again the tholos definitely treated as a decorative motif.
Yes, in this case it has a statue on a base.
But a statue on a base that
is not a real statue on a base, but a statue
on a base that is carved onto the, onto the stone.
So once again we get a sense that this is a
decorative motif rather than an actual statue standing in the Tholos.
And the same for the items on the bases on either side.
You can see the triangular pediment very well.
You can see the way it has been split aside to reveal the tholos.
You can see down below,
a real temple front, in this case.
This one is much closer, to its Roman
prototypes in the sense that even the decorative
motifs are Roman unlike in the Deir where
we saw the Nabataean capitals in the discs.
Here we see actual versions of the Corinthian order used.
The Corinthian order used here.
This looks very much like a real temple
front with an actual pediment sculptural decoration, a frieze
as well.
We're beginning to see in this one not only the use
of the traditional vocabulary of architecture, not only the enlivening of
the surface using that traditional
vocabulary of architecture through these through,
in such a way that it
creates motion, projection, recession, projection, recession.
But we also are seeing here in a way that we did not in the Deir.
This interest in excess ornamentation,
ornamenting every surface that you possibly
can with sculpture friezes, with pedimental
sculpture with with statuary carved into the stone in all of the niches.
And but then again a much closer relationship to earlier Roman
precedence by the temple front by the use of the Corinthian order.
But this one too a very similar Athenial at the top of the tholos
but using a kind of Corinthian capital with one of those vases on top.
Vases, by the way, that we often see in second style Roman wall painting.
