ARCHITECTURE. 



this form of arch only being found in the country, 

 were ignorant of the use of the true arch ; but as 

 we have already seen that the earlier countries 

 occasionally used the radiating as well as the 

 horizontal form, there can be little doubt that the 

 Greeks used the horizontal lintel, and refused to 

 use the arch from choice, and not from ignorance. 

 Nor is it difficult to understand the reason : the 

 arch ' never sleeps,' but is always exerting a thrust, 

 which tends gradually to destroy a building, 

 whereas the lintel rests calmly in stable equili- 

 brium. 



The interior of this tomb, like many others, was 

 covered with plates of brass, and these tombs are 

 often known as ' treasuries.' The extensive use of 

 brass in architecture prevailed after the Assyrian 

 epoch : the temple of Jerusalem, for instance, seems 

 to have owed much of its effect to the metallic 

 coverings of the timbers with which it was con- 

 structed (after the example of the Assyrian temples 

 already described). The Pelasgians used large 

 blocks of stone in the construction of their great 

 walls, sometimes laid in regular courses, and some- 

 times in large polygonal blocks. 



Greek architecture proper does not owe much 

 to the Pelasgi, but, as already mentioned, rather to 

 the Egyptians and Assyrians ; but whatever forms 

 the Greeks adopted from these countries, they so 

 modified and improved as to stamp them with 

 a new spirit, and purify and refine them to suit 

 their own chaste styles. 



Greek architecture is divided into three styles, 

 called the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, according 



CORINTHIAN 



always circular and fluted, with a necking, ovalo 

 and abacus. Above the column is placed the 

 entablature, which 

 always comprises 

 three parts : First, 



' the architrave, rest- 

 ing on the capital ; 

 then the frieze, and 

 then the cornice 

 crowning the whole. 

 In the Doric style 

 there are always tri- 



j glyphs introduced 



! in the frieze. It 

 seems most likely 

 that these parts 

 have been derived 

 from an original 

 wooden style. The 

 architrave repre- 

 sents the wooden lin- 

 tel stretching from 

 column to column ; 

 the triglyphs, the 

 ends of the 'cross- 

 beams resting on it 

 and supporting the 

 rafters of the roof, 

 the ends of the lat- 

 ter suggesting the 

 dentils and modil- 

 lions of the cornice. 



Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14. 



to the place which gave birth to each. Of these, 

 the Doric is the oldest. The earliest example 

 remaining is the temple at Corinth (650 B.C.). The 

 remains of this temple shew the various members 

 of the style fully developed, but they are all of 

 a very massive description, strongly resembling 

 similar buildings in Egypt. We have already seen 

 the prototype of this style at Beni-Hassan (see fig. 

 2), and there are columns in the southern temple 

 at Karnac even more strikingly similar to those of 

 the temple at Corinth. 



In the earlier styles of other countries we find a 

 great freedom of design and variety in the arrange- ! 

 ment of the parts, but in Greek art everything 

 becomas more defined and fixed. The column is 



Fig. 15. Column : 

 Tuscan, with details. 



The columns may have been originally brick 

 piers, with a 'square slab laid on top, and by 

 cutting off the corners, and again cutting off the 

 remaining corners, a polygon was produced, which 

 suggested the fluting of the shaft. 



The Temple of yEgina is about 100 years later 

 than that of Corinth (550 B.C.), and there is no 

 other example till the time of Pericles, which was 

 the great building epoch of Greece. To this 

 period belong the Parthenon at Athens (438 B.C.), 

 and all the best examples of the Doric style. In 

 the countries colonised by the Greeks we also 

 find fine specimens of their architecture. 



As the Doric art progressed, the early massive 

 forms gave place to more elegant and slender pro- 

 portions. In the temple at Corinth the column 

 is only 4-47 diameters in height ; in the Parthenon 

 at Athens (fig. 16), which is universally recognised 



Fig. 16. 



as the most perfect example of the style, the 

 column is 6-025 diameters in height. In later 

 examples the proportions were so attenuated as 

 to become meagre, and lost the vigour of the 

 earlier examples. 



Doric architecture is generally adorned with 

 beautiful sculpture, for the reception of which the 



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