CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



531 



M.VII. 

 andU.IX 



Origin of 

 the Ionic 

 capital un- 

 known ; 



History, the coast of Asia, named by them Ionia, being in pos- 

 S """~V^'' session of a rich country, with many cities well situated 

 for commerce, became very populous and rich. Philo- 

 sophy, science, and the arts, flourished there in so high 

 a degree of perfection, that their claim to eminence has 

 been reckoned to surpass that of any district of the mo- 

 ther country in the zenith of her glory, and they are 

 even said to have finally adjusted and refined the propor- 

 tions of the Doric order. See Ionian Antiq. Preface, vol. 

 i. p. 3. 



In Ionia, the temple of Apollo Panionius was built 

 after the Doric manner ; but that refined people, not 

 satisfied with the simplicity of this order, invented ano- 

 ther of a more delicate character, and named it after their 

 own country, the Ionic. (SeePlatesCLVII.and CLIX.) 

 They made the height of the column greater in propor- 

 tion to its diameter than in the Doric ; the capital was to- 

 tally different in principle, the entablature was also chan- 

 ged in its members and proportions, and a base was add- 

 ed to the bottom of the column. Of the origin of this 

 capital, we have no satisfactory account ; Vitruvius, and 

 later writers (who have all retailed precisely his rela- 

 tions,) reckon, that as the Doric was strong and mascu- 

 line, the loniani modelled their order with female 

 delicacy, and that the volutes were taken from the 

 curls of hair on each side of the face. It is difficult to 

 conceive how the proportions of a Greek order of archi- 

 tecture could be taken from the human figure, to which 

 it has no relation or resemblance ; masculine and femi- 

 nine have rather the air of figurative expressions, adopt- 

 ed by this lively people, in comparing these orders after 

 they had been established. It has been, by others, wiih 

 some degree of probability, alleged, that the shape arose 

 from the custom of nailing rams horns upon the top of 

 the post?. But the most simple and natural hint for the 

 Ionic volute, which may be conceived as having fallen 

 under the immediate notice of artists and workmen, 

 seems to be the curling of the bark of a tree crushed 

 down by a weight laid upon a rude upright post. The 

 edifices constructed after this order were numerous and 

 most magnificent. It wag employed in the temple of 

 Bacchus at Teos ; Apollo at Miletus ; Minerva at Pri- 

 ene and Tegea ; and of Diana at Magnesia and Ephesus. 

 It was likewise used in the temple of Minerva Polias in 

 the Acropolis, in those of the Delphic Apollo and JEscu- 

 lapius at Athens, and in a temple of Juno in Attica. 



That of Diana of Ephesus, the design of Ctesiphon 

 the Cnosian, and his son Metagenes, (who wrote a trea- 

 tise upon it,) is said to have been 4-2.5 feet in length, 

 220 in breadth, and 70 in height ; it had a double por- 

 tito all around the cell, erected by the contribution of 

 all Asia. Xerxes, who destroyed all the other temples 

 in his rout, spared this magnificent fabric. It was burnt 

 by Herostr.tus during the night in which Alexander was 

 born. It was rebuilt after a design of Dinocrates ; Ca- 

 nachus the Sicyonian, a scholar of Polyclctus the Argive, 

 made the statue I2i years after Xerxes destroyed the 

 first, and 365 before the Christian sera. See Vitruo. Io- 

 nian Antiq, vol. i. c. 9. 



ti Diana The temple of Diana at Magnesia was constructed 



t Magae- Dnder the direction of Hermogenes. He made the general 



lia> dimensions the same as for the dipteros or double range 



of columns ; but, in order to afford more space in the 



porticos, he omitted the inner range : By that means a 



Origin of c ' ear >P acc wa! ' e ^ between the outer range and the wall 



the PKU- of the cell, and he thereby established the Pseudodipteros. 



dodipteros. He wrote a treatise upon this temple and that of Teos, 



(Ionian Antitj. vol. i. c. JI.) Vitruvius speaks with 



great vencratios of the talents of tkw architect. 



supposed 

 to be a 

 imitation 

 ( ranu 



horu', 



and of 

 curled 

 kark; 



where em- 

 ployed. 



Temple of 

 Diana at 

 Rpbeiut. 



The temple of Minerva Ulea at Tegea, designed and History, 

 erected under the direction of Scopa?, was of singular ^"""X"^ 

 construction : The peristyle which surrounded the tern- M e ' r va 

 pie was of the Ionic order, the cell was divided into three at Tegea, 

 aisles by two rows of Doric columns, and over these were by Scopas, 

 placed others of the Corinthian order. The sculpture 

 upon the two pediments was by the hand of Scopas hira- 

 self. Upon the one was represented the hunting of the 

 wild boar of Caledon, where, among a great number of 

 figures, were those of Hercules, Theseus, Pirothous, and 

 Castor ; upon the other, the- subject was the combat 

 of Achilles and Telephus. Anacharsis, vol. iii. p. 71. 



Of the Corinthian Order. 



The artists of Grecia Proper, perceiving that, in the Corinthian 

 Ionic order, the severity of the Doric had been departed order, 

 from, by onehappyeffort invented a third, which still much 

 surpassed the Ionic in delicacy of proportion and richness 

 of decorations: this was named the Corinthian order. (See P LAT B 

 Plate CLX. The merit of this invention is ascribed CLX. 

 to Callimachus, an Athenian sculptor, who is said to have invented 

 had the idea suggested to him, by observing Acanthus v V 

 leaves growing around a basket which had been placed, m 

 with some favourite trinkets, upon the grave of a young 

 Corinthian lady ; the stalks which rose among the leaves 

 having been formed into slender volutes by a square tyle 

 which covered the basket. It is possible that a circum- 

 stance of this nature may have caught the fancy of a sculp- 

 tor who was contemporary with Phidias, (Stuart's Antiq. 

 Athens, Pref. ) and who was doubtlsss, in that age of 

 competition, alive to every thing which promised dis- 

 tinction in his profession. But, in the warmth of our de- 

 votion for the inspiration of Greek genius, we must not 

 overlook the facts, that, in the pillars of several of the 

 temples in Upper Egypt, whose shafts represent bun- Egypt ai.d 

 dies of reeds or lotus bound together in several places by Persia af- 

 fillets, the capitals are formed by several rows of deli- ford hints- 

 cate leaves. (See Denon.) In the splendid ruins of o'thi^or. 

 Vellore in Hindostan, the capitals are also composed of der ' 

 similar ornaments ; and it in likewise well known, that 

 the Persians, at their great festivals, were in the habit of 

 decorating with flowers the tops of the pillars which 

 formed their public apartments: It is therefore not impro- 

 bable that these circumstances, after so much intercourie 

 with those countries, might have suggested ideas to Cal- 

 limachus, which enabled him to surpass the capital of 

 Ionia. The whole fabric of the Corinthian order is com- 

 posed with a great delicacy of taste. It is admirably fit- 

 ted for the most highly ornamented states of architecture, 

 and is strongly expressive of the refinement and excel- 

 lence to which the Greeks had carried their taste and 

 skill in architecture and sculpture. 



The Greeks having invented and established three or- 

 ders, with each a separate character, calculated for edi- 

 fices, gradually ascending from the most simple to those 

 which were highly ornamented, completed a distinct and 

 perfect school of architecture, to which there remained 

 nothing to be added. 



From the account given of the various edifices con- 

 structed after each order, it it evident, that the passion 

 for magnificent buildings aad fine sculpture was carried 

 to a great height. It so far exceeded the apparent ex- 

 tent of the meant of the Greek, states, that an eminent 

 architect and architectural writer of our own country, 

 (Sir W. Chambers,) disputed their existence. Unfor- Sir W. 

 tunately for his speculations, the labours of late scienti- Chambers 

 fie travellers, perfectly qualified, and of undoubted ve- def P' i w<l 

 racily, have furnished correct drawings of many remains, archhec 

 which fully justify the account! f former times, and are tur. 



