Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/207

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ORDER
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which is unique; the spirals of the centre are larger than usual and interlace one another. A variety of the bedmould of the cornice is found in the so-called Temple of the Sun on the Quirinal Hill; although of late date, the entablature has the character of the Renaissance of the Augustan era, so fine and simple are

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Fig. 11. — The Roman Corinthian Order; Temple of Castor.

its proportions and details; there are only two fasciae to the architrave, and the upper feature of the bedmould consisted of large projecting blocks with two fascia and an upper egg-and tongue moulding, lilce the Ionic dentil, these blocks projecting half-way between the fascia of the frieze and the edge of the corona.

The Roman Composite Order. — As already noted, the Composite order differs from the Corinthian only in the design of its capital, which is a compound of the foliage of the Corinthian and the volutes of the Ionic capital. Already, in the Ionic capital of the Erechtheum, a further enrichment with the anthem ion was provided round the necking; this was copied in the capitals of the interior of Trajan's basilica; in Asia Minor at Aizani (1st century a.d.) a single row of leaves was employed round the capitals of the pronaos under the volutes of an Ionic capital; the architect of the Arch of Titus (a.d. 8i) went one step farther and introduced the double row of leaves; both examples exist in the Arch of Septimus Severus (fig. 12), in the tepidarium of the thermae of Diocletian; and, to judge by the numerous examples still existing in the churches at Rome, it would seem to have been the favourite capital. The Byzantine architects also based most of their capitals on the Roman Composite examples. There are other hybrid Roman capitals, in which figures of a winged Victory, rams' heads or cornucopia, take the place of the angle spirals of the Corinthian capital.

The Arcade Order. — This, which was defined by Fergusson as the true Roman order, is a compound of two distinct types of construction, the arcuated and the trabeated, the former

derived from the Etruscans, the latter from the Greeks. Whilst, however, the arcade was a constructive feature, the employment of the semi- or three-quarter detached column with its entablature complete, as a decorative screen, was a travesty of its original constructive function, without even the excuse of its adding in any way to the solidity of the structure, for the whole screen could be taken off from the Roman theatres and amphitheatres without in any sense interfering with their stability. The employment of the attached column only, as a vertical decorative feature subdividing the arches, might have been admissible, but to add the entablature was a mistake, on account of the intercolumniation, which was far in excess of that employed in any order, so that not only was it necessary to cut the architrave into voussoirs, thus forming a flat arch, but the stones composing it had to be built into the wall to ensure their stability; the entablature thus became an element of weakness instead of strength (fig. 13). The earliest example of the Arcade order is the Tabularium in Rome (80 B.C.) where it was employed to light a vaulted corridor running from one end to the other of the structure and raised some 50 ft. from the ground. The column is semi-detached, yj diameters high with an intercolumniation of nearly 4 diameters, and an entablature with an architrave which is less than half a diameter, quite incapable, therefore, of carrying itself, much less than the rest of the entablature; the impost pier of the arch is half a diameter, and the height of the open arcade a little more than half its width. The shaft

Fig. 12. — The Composite Order; Arch of Septimus Severus.

had twenty-four flutes with arrises, and rested on a square plinth, and in the capital the echinus was only about one-twelfth of the diameter, the shallowest known. The frieze was divided by triglyphs, there being four between those over the axis of each column; the correct number in the Greek Doric order being one. In the theatre of Marcellus there were three triglyphs; the impost pier was | diameter, thus giving greater solidity to the wall, but resulting in a narrower opening. The Tabularium had originally a second arcade above that now existing, with