Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/291

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Bk. III. Ch. II. FOEMS OF TEMPLES. 259 unpardonable, unless it is done as a mere secondary adjunct to a building. In the Erechtheium it is a little too prominent for this, though used with as much discretion as was perhajjs possible under the circum- p^"^, stances. Another example of the sort is shown in Woodcut No. 142, which, by employing a taller cap, avoids some of the objections to the other; but the figure itself, on the other liand, is less architectural, and so errs on the other sid,e. Another form of this class of sup- port is that of the giants or Telamones, instances of which are found supporting the roof of the great temple at Agri- gentum, and in the baths of the semi- Greek city of Pom]^eii. As they do not actually bear the entablature, but only seem to relieve the masonry behind them, their employment is less objectionable than that of the female figures above described ; but even they hardly fulfil the conditions of true art, and their place might be better filled by some more strictly architectural feature. 144. Telamoiies at Agrigentum. Forms of Temples. The arrangements of Grecian Doric temples show almost less variety than the forms of the pillars, and no materials exist for tracino- their gradual development in an historical point of view. The tem])les at Corinth, and the oldest at Selinus, are both i)erfect examples of the hexastyle arrangement to which the Greeks adhered in all ages ; and though there can be little doubt that the peripteral form, as well as the order itself, was borrowed from Egypt, it still was so much modi- fied before it appeared in Greece, that it would be interesting, if it could be done, to trace the several steps by which the change was effected. In an architectural point of view this is by no means difh'cult. The simplest Greek temples were mere cells, or small square apart- ments suited to contain an image — the front being what is technically called distyle in antis, or with two pillai-s l)ctween antm, or s(juare pilaster-like piers terminating the side walls. Hence the interior enclosure of Grecian temples is called the cell or cella, however large and splendid it may be. The next change was to separate the interior into a cell and porch by a wall with a large doorway in it, as in the small temple at