Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/170

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1 54 THESEUM, ERECHTHEUM, AND OTHER WORKS. Fig. 152. — Nike Temple : Anta Capital in the British Museum. anta capital is assigned to the little temple, now entirely de- stroyed, which stood by the Ilissus river, but this I shall show also belonged to the Nike building. (Fig. 152.) Both these small temples were very much alike, both had " prostyles " of four Ionic columns at each end and no columns along the sides. The temple of Nike, although smaller, was richer than the other. Its sculp- tured frieze is clearly of later date than the Parthenon, and may hardly be dated before 430. On the other hand, an inscription of about the year 450 — which was found in 1897 — orders that a temple to Athena Nike should be built by the architect Callicrates. It would appear that it and the Propylaea were begun or con- templated with the earliest of the new works on the Acropolis, and that they were then delayed so that the Parthenon might be pressed forward to completion. Besides their general resemblance some of the details are identical in the two temples, and if one was designed by Callicrates we may assign the other to him also. One little point at the Ilissus temple may be pointed to as showing that it was of the age of the Parthenon. Stuart and Revett, who give valuable illustrations of the lost building, figure a palmette ornament which was painted on its architrave ; now this is identical with that of the Parthenon as engraved by an independent observer. (Fig. 69.) had no marble architrave, but there was a sunk band around it for a bronze-covered wood frame.* The doorway of the Parthenon was similar, so also were the doors of the Propyla;a Fig. 153. — Ilissus Tem- ple : Sketch of Capital, by Pars. Again the doorway

  • I have seen this type called the Doric, and the marble frame the Ionic,

but the Ilissus temple was Ionic.