Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/204

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
178
ORDER


which were sometimes additional antefixae placed parallel with the ridge tile. As the mouldings of the pediment were returned foi a short distance along the side, there was a small cymatium or gutter with lions' heads, through the mouth of which the water ran. In the principal and rear front of the temple the lines of the cornice were repeated up the slope of the pediment, which coincided with that of the roof, and the tympanum, which they enclosed, was enriched with sculpture. On the centre of the pediment and at each end were pedestals (acroteria), on which figures, or conventional ornaments, were placed. Supplementary to the order at the back of the peristyle were antae, slightly projecting pilasters which terminated the walls of the pronaos; these had a small base, were of the same diameter from the top to the bottom, and had a simple moulded capital.

The Greek Ionic Order. — The Ionic order, like the Doric, owes its origin to timber prototypes, but varies in its features; the columns are more slender, being from 8 to 9 diameters high, with an intercolumniation of sometimes as much as 2 diameters; the architrave also is subdivided into three fascia, which suggests that in its origin it consisted of three beams superposed, in contradistinction to that of the Doric architrave, which consisted of a single beam. As in the Doric order, the Ionic temple rested on a sty lob ate of three steps (fig. 3). The columns consisted of base, shaft and capital. In the Ionic examples the base consisted of a torus moulding, fluted horizontally, beneath which were three double astragals divided by the scotia, sometimes, as in the temple at Priene, resting on a square phnth. In the Attic base employed in Athens, under the upper torus, which is either plain, fluted or carved with the guilloche, is a fillet and deep scotia, with a second torus underneath. The shaft tapers much less than in the Doric order; it has a slighter

entasis, and is fluted, the flutes being eUiptical in section but subdivided by fillets. The number of flutes is generally 24. The lower and upper parts of the shaft have an apophyge and a fillet, resting on the base in the former case and supporting the capital in the latter. The capital consists of an astragal, sometimes carved with the bead and reel, and an echinus moulding above enriched with the egg-and-dart, on which rests the capital with spiral volutes at each end, and from front to back with cushions which vary in design and enrichment. In the capitals of the angle columns the end volute is turned round on the diagonal, so as to present the same appearance on the front and the side; this results in an awkward arrangement at the back, where two half-volutes intersect one another at right angles. A small abacus, generally carved with ornament, crowns the capital. In early examples the channels between the fillets of the spiral are convex, in later examples concave. In the capitals of the Erechtheum (fig. 4), a greater richness is given by intermediary fillets. In all great examples the second fillet dips down in the centre of the front and a small anthem ion ornament marks the receding of the echinus moulding, which is circular and sometimes nearly merged into the cushion. In the Erechtheum the enrichment of the capital is carried further in the

Fig. 3. — T he Greek Ionic Order. Temple of Nike Apteros, Athens.

necking, which is decorated with the anthem ion and divided off from the upper part of the shaft by a bead and reel. The entablature is divided, like that of the Doric order, into architrave, frieze and cornice. The architrave is subdivided into three fasciae, the upper one pro- (^ jecting shghtly beyond the lower, and crowned by small mouldings, the lower one sometimes carved with the Lesbian leaf. Above this is the frieze, sometimes plain and at other times enriched with figure sculpture in low reUef. In the Ionian examples there was no frieze, its place being taken by dentils of great size and projection. The cornice consists of bedmould, corona and cymatium; in the Ionian examples the bedmould is of great richness, consisting of a lower moulding of egg-and-dart with bead and reel, a dentn course above, and another egg-and-dart with bead and reel above, sinking into the soffit of the corona, which projects in the Ionian examples more than half a diameter. The corona consists of a plain fascia with moulding and cymatium above, and as the cymatium or gutter is carried through from end to end of the temple it is provided with lions' heads to throw off the water, and sometimes enriched with the anthem ion ornament. In the Attic examples much greater simpUcity, ascribed to Dorian influence, is given to the bedmould, in which only the cyma-reversa with the Lesbian leaf carved on it and the bead and reel are retained. The mouldings of the cornice, including the cymatium, are carried up as a pediment, as in the Doric temple, and the roofs are similar. The base and capital of the antae are more elaborate than in those of the Doric order, and are sometimes, both in Ionic and Attic examples, richly carved with the Lesbian leaf and egg-and-dart, in both cases with the bead and reel underneath. The chief variation from the usual entablature is found in that of the caryatid portico of the Erechtheum, where the frieze is omitted, dentils are introduced in the bedmould, paterae are carved on the upper fascia of the architrave, and the covering was a flat marble roof. The caryatid figures, the drapery of which recalls the fluting of the columns, stood on a podium which enriched cornice and base.

The Greek Corinthian Order (fig. 5). — As the entablature of this order was adapted by the Greeks from that of the Ionic order, the capital only need be described, and its evolution from the earliest examples known, that in the temple at Bassae, to the fully developed type in the temple of Zeus Olympius at Athens, can be easily traced. It consisted of either a small range of leaves at the bottom, or of a bead-and-reel moulding, a bell decorated in various ways and a moulded abacus, the latter as a rule being concave in plan on each face and generally terminating in an arris or point. In the Bassae capital we find the first example of the spiral tendrils which rise up to and support the abacus with other spirals crossing to the centre and the acanthus leaf and flower. In the more perfected example of the Choragic

Fig.

4. — Greek Ionic Order. Erechtheum, Athens.

The