Page:Ware - The American Vignola, 1920.djvu/21

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THE DORIC ORDER—PLATES V, VI, AND VII
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THE DORIC ORDER—PLATES V, VI, AND VII

The distinguishing characteristics of the Doric Order, Figs. 53 and 54, are features in the Frieze and in the Bed Mold above it, called Triglyphs and Mutules, which are supposed to be derived from the ends of beams and rafters in a primitive wooden construction with large beams. Under each Triglyph, and beneath the Taenia that crowns the Architrave, is a little Fillet called the Regula or Listel. Under the Regula are six long drops, called Guttæ, which are sometimes conical, sometimes pyramidal. There are also either eighteen or thirty-six short cylindrical Guttag under the soffit of each Mutule. The Guttæ are supposed to represent the heads of wooden pins, or treenails.

Two different Doric Orders are in use, the Mutulary, Figs. 53, 54, and 55, and the Denticulated, Figs. 56, 57, and 58. They differ chiefly in the cornices. In both of them the height, of three-quarters of a Diameter, is divided into four equal parts, the upper one embracing the gutter, or Cymatium, and the Fillet below, the next the Corona and the small Cyma Reversa, or Cymatium, above it. But the Bed Molds are unlike. In both of them, the lower member of the Bed Mold is a broad fillet, a sort of Upper Taenia, called the Cap of the Triglyph. This, unlike the Tasnia below, breaks around the angles of the Triglyph, serving as a sort of crowning member, or cymatium, to both the Triglyph and the Metope.

In the Mutulary Doric, above the Cap of the Triglyph, is a narrow fillet that does not break around the angles and accordingly shows a broad soffit over the Metopes and at the corner of the building. These two fillets occupy the lower half of the lower quarter of the cornice. The upper half of the lower quarter, above this little fillet, is an Ovolo, and above this, the second quarter of the Cornice is occupied by a broad Fascia, called the Mutule Band, upon which are planted the Mutules, one over each Triglyph, which are half a Diameter wide, like the Triglyphs below them. They are broad, low, oblong brackets crowned with a Fillet and Cyma Reversa, which also crown the Mutule Band between the brackets. On the soffit of each Mutule are thirty-six Guttæ and a drip molding.