ARCHITECTURE. 



239 



called volutes, occupying opposite sides, and support- 

 ing an abacus, which was nearly square, but moulded 

 at its edges. These volutes have been considered as 

 copied from ringlets of hair, or perhaps from the 

 horns of Jupiter Ainmon. When a column made the 

 angle of an edifice, its volutes were placed, not upon 

 opposite, but on contiguous sides, each fronting out- 

 ward. In this case, the volutes interfered with each 

 other at the corner, and were obliged to assume a 

 diagonal direction. The Ionic entablature consisted 

 of an architrave and frieze, which were continuous 

 or unbroken, and a cornice of various successive 

 mouldings, at the lower part of which was often a row 

 ofdtntels, or square teeth. The examples at Athens, 

 of the Ionic order, are the temple of Erectheus (see 

 RJate VI.), and the temple on the Ilissus, which was 

 standing in Stuart's time, seventy years since, but is 

 now extinct. The Corinthian was the lightest and 

 most decorated of the Grecian orders. Its base re- 

 sembled that of the Ionic, but was more complicated. 

 The shaft was often ten diameters in height, and was 

 fluted like the Ionic. The capital was shaped like 

 an inverted bell, and covered on the outside with two 

 rows of leaves of the plant acanthus,* above which 

 were eight pairs of small volutes. Its abacus was 

 moulded and concave on its sides, and truncated at 

 the corners, with a flower on the centre of each side. 

 The entablature of the Corinthian order resembled 

 that of the Ionic, but was more complicated and 

 ornamented, and liad, under the cornice, a row of 

 large, oblong projections, bearing a leaf or scroll on 

 their under side, and called modillions. No vestiges 

 of this order are now found in the remains of Corinth, 

 and the most legitimate example at Athens is in the 

 choragic monument of Lysicrates (see Plate VI.) The 

 Corinthian order was much employed in the subsequent 

 structures of Rome and its colonies. Caryatides. The 

 Greeks sometimes departed so far from the strict use 

 of the orders, as to introduce statues, in the place of 

 columns, to support the entablature. Statues of 

 slaves, heroes, and gods appear to have been em- 

 ployed, occasionally, for this purpose. The principal 

 specimen of this kind of architecture, which remains, 

 is in a portico called Pandroseum, attached to the 

 temple of Erectheus, at Athens, in which statues of 

 Carian females, called Caryatides, are substituted for 

 columns (see Plate VI.) One of these statues has been 

 carried to London. Grecian temple. The most re- 

 markable public edifices of the Greeks were their tem- 

 ples. These being intended as places of resort for the 

 priests, rather than for the convening of assemblies 

 within, were, in general, obscurely lighted. Their 

 form was commonly tliat of an oblong square, having 

 a colonnade without, and a walled cell within. The 

 cell was usually without windows, receiving its light 

 only from a door at the end, and sometimes from an 

 opening in the roof. The part of the colonnade 

 which formed the front portico, was called the pro- 

 naos, and that which formed the back part, the posti- 

 ctts. The colonnade was subject to great variety in 

 the number and disposition of its columns, from which 

 v'itruvius has described seven different species of 

 temples. These were, 1. The temple with antes. 

 In this, the front was composed of pilasters, called 

 ante, on the sides, and two columns in the middle. 

 2. The prostyle. This had a row of columns at one 

 end only. 3. The amphiprostyle, having a row of 

 columns at each end. 4. The peripteral temple. 

 This was surrounded by a single row of columns, 

 having six in front and in rear, and eleven, counting 



The origin of the Corinthian capital has been ascribed 

 to the sculptor Callimachus, who is said to have copied it 

 from a basket accidentally enveloped in leaves of acanthus. 

 A more probable supposition traces its origin to some of 

 the Egyptian capitals, which it certainly resemble*. 



the angular columns, on each side. 5. The dipteral, 

 with a double row of columns all round the cell, the 

 front consisting of eight. 6. The pseudo dipteral 

 differs from the dipteral, in having a single row of 

 columns on the sides, at the same distance from the 

 cell as if the temple had been dipteral. 7. The hy- 

 pathral temple had the centre of its roof open to the 

 sky. It was colonnaded without, like the dipteral, 

 but had ten columns in front. It had also an internal 

 colonnade, called peristyle, on both sides of the open 

 space, and composed of two stories or colonnades, 

 one above the other. Temples, especially small 

 ones, were sometimes made of a circular form. When 

 these were wholly open, or without a cell, they 

 were called monopteral temples. When there was 

 a circular cell within the colonnade, they were 

 called peripteral.* (Ground plans of the above tem- 

 ples will be found in Plate VI., Figs. 1 to 9.) 

 The theatre of the Greeks, which was afterwards 

 copied by the Romans, was built in the form of 

 a horse-shoe, being semicircular on one side, and 

 square on the other. The semicircular part, which 

 contained the audience, was filled with concentric 

 seats, ascending from the centre to the outside. 

 In the middle, or bottom, was a semicircular floor, 

 called the orchestra. The opposite, or square part, 

 contained the actors. Within this was erected, 

 in front of the audience, a wall, ornamented with 

 columns and sculpture, called the scena. The stage, 

 or floor, between this part and the orchestra, was 

 called the proscenium. Upon this floor was often 

 erected a movable wooden stage, called, by the Ro- 

 mans, pulpitum. The ancient theatre was open to 

 the sky, but a temporary awning was erected to shel- 

 ter the audience from the sun and rain. Grecian 

 architecture is considered to have been in its greatest 

 perfection in the age of Pericles and Phidias. The 

 sculpture of this period is admitted to have been su- 

 perior to that of any other age ; and although archi- 

 tecture is a more arbitrary art than sculpture, yet it 

 is natural to conclude, that the state of tilings, which 

 gave birth to excellence in the one, must have pro- 

 duced a corresponding power of conceiving sublimity 

 and beauty in the other. Grecian architecture was, in 

 general, distinguished by simplicity of structure, few- 

 ness of parts, absence of arches, lowness of pediments 

 and roofs, and by decorative curves, the outline of 

 which was a spiral line, or conic section, and not a 

 circular arc, as afterwards adopted by the Romans. 

 IV. Roman style. Roman architecture had its 

 origin in copies of the Greek models. All the Gre- 

 cian orders were introduced into Rome, and variously 

 modified. Their number was augmented by the ad- 

 dition of two new orders The Tuscan and the Com- 

 posite. The order derived from the ancient Etruscans 

 is not unlike the Doric deprived of its triglyphs and 

 mutules. It had a simple base, containing one torus. 

 Its column was seven diameters in height, with an 

 astragal below the capital. Its entablature, some- 

 what like the Ionic, consisted of plain, running sur- 

 faces. There is no vestige of this order among 

 ancient ruins, and the -modern examples of it are 

 taken from the descriptions of Vitruvius. The Ro- 

 mans modified the Doric order by increasing the 

 height of its column to eight diameters. Instead of 

 the echinus, which formea the Grecian capital, they 

 employed the ovolo, with an astragal and neck below 

 it. They placed triglyphs over the centre of columns, 



* The Intfrcolitmniation, or distance between the co- 

 lumns, according to Vitruvius, wiu differently arranged 

 under the following names: In the pycnostyle, the co- 

 lumns were a diameter and a half apart ; in the systyte, 

 they were two diameters apart ; in the diattyle, three ; in 

 the ara-ostyle, more than three ; in the eustyle, two and a 

 quarter. 



