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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[June, 



the ape of Alexander the Great; where tlie cyma is introduced, 

 as in the Teniple of Apollo Kpicurius, it is (renerally enriched. The 

 Doric pediment was slightly less elevated than in the other orders, 

 giving it a graver cliaracter; the tympanum was sufficiently deep 

 to allow of statues being placed within. Thus every part of the 

 Doric order was calculated to impress the idea of strength, sub- 

 limity, and energ'y; not only by the massiveness of its propoi-tions 

 and the simplicity of its details, but by the boldness of relief 

 given to all its mouldings and ornaments — adding, by deep masses 

 of light and shade, to force and grandeur of outline. 



It is quite as impossible to trace the history of the Ionic as of 

 the Doric order; but we have no reason to sup]>ose it of a less 

 ancient date. As before mentioned, ^'itruvius informs us that the 

 proportions of the human figure were adopted, the Doric repre- 

 senting the manly stature, and being employeil in erecting temples 

 to the gods. But, he adds, the lonians now wished to dedicate a 

 temjile to Diana, and sought to invetit a new order in her honour. 

 This they did by giving the column the proportion of the female 

 figure, that it might be emblematical of feminine delicacy; so 

 the columns were made eight diameters high, and had bases given 

 to them in imitation of sandals. The volutes represented the 

 ringlets on either side the face, and the llutings the folds of the 

 garment falling to the feet; they thus presented the likeness of a 

 woman richly adorned. This account is evidently more fanciful 

 than correct. 



Other authors think the Tonic order may have been borrowed 

 from India or Persia; and other more imaginative writers have 

 fancied a resemblance to the volute in the curling bark of the first 

 rude wooden pillar. 



The idea of the volutes being imitated from the horns of goats 

 or rams appears much the most probable. Altars were erected to the 

 gods long before temples were thought of. These altais were 

 usually decorated with, and sometimes wholly composed of, the 

 skulls and horns of the animals slain in sacrifice; and as far back 

 as history leads us, the ancients built their altars with horns at the 

 corners. ''The horns of the altar" is an expression frequently met 

 with in the sacred writings; thus, in Exodus xxxviii. 1, 5. "And 

 he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood;" "and he 

 made the horns thereof on the four corners of it:" and in the 

 1st Kings, ii. 28: '"And Joab fled into the tabernacle of the 

 Lord, and caught hold on the horns of the altar." The use of 

 these horns is explained in I'salms, cxviii. 27, where the psalmist 

 exclaims, "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of 

 the altar." When temples were erected, these horns might very 

 jirobably have been represented as ornaments on the capitals of 

 the columns. 



Hermogenes of Alabanda, and his colleagues, who were em- 

 ployed in the restoration of the temples of Asia Minor after the 

 Persian invasion, brought the Ionic order to great perfection. 

 They maintained that the Doric was unfit for temples; and from 

 this time the Ionic order prevailed as exclusively in Asia .Minor as 

 the Doric in Magna Grtecia. In the latter country the Doric may 

 have become sacred from association, recalling the mode of con- 

 struction of the mother country; but in Asia Minor, where the 

 wooden dwellings were still in use, and where they have con- 

 tinued even to the present day (the huts of the peasantry still 

 showing the primitive type), this order may have become too 

 familiar to be associated with the service of the temple; and the 

 volutes having a religious origin, the Ionic would consequently be 

 ])referred. 



Though the Ionic always retains its distinctive characteristics, 

 it varies in detail quite as much as the Doric. In this order, 

 expressive of grace and elegance, the parts are multiplied — a base 

 is given to the column; the shaft is made more slender; the dimi- 

 nution from base to capital less; the number of flutings is increased 

 (the best e.\-amples having twenty- four), tliey are also divided by a 

 fillet, and channelled to a greater depth ; the architrave is 

 composed of three bands or fascia?; the ornaments on the frieze, 

 recalling the wooden structure, are suppressed; the denticulus 

 replaces the Doric mutule; and each member and moulding is made 

 more delicate in outline, as well as more elaljorate in decoration. 

 'J'he Ionic does not apjiear at first to have been so distinct an 

 order: several instances exist, especially in Sicily, of Ionic columns 

 with a Doric frieze; these are supposed to be very ancient. The 

 earliest mention of the Ionic order, is met with in I'ausanias, where 

 he describes the Treasury at Olympia, erected liy Myron the Tyrant 

 of Sicyoii, about 650 B.C., as having two chambers, one Doric, the 

 other Ionic. Next follow the Temple of Diana at J>])hesus, and 

 the lleraion or Temple of Juno at Sanios: of the first, we have 

 nothing left but vague description; Herodotus mentions the latter 



as being one of the most stupendous edifices built by the Greeks, 

 and was completed about 5i<) b.c. 



The small Ionic Temple on the Ilissus is one of the most ancient 

 the ruins of which still exist; the columns are only eiirht diameters 

 in height, the upper torus of the base is fluted, and like that of 

 Juno at Samos, the lower torus rests upon the stylobate without 

 intervening plinth. T he capital is simjjle hut elegant, the lower 

 band has a gr.iceful curve between the volutes, and the channels 

 have a double border. The entablature is two dh'mtters in height; 

 the arhitrave is plain without the usual fascis; the denticulus is 

 also omitted. The frieze is supposed to have been originally 

 decorated with bas-reliefs. 



^\'e learn from Pausanias, that on the opposite side of the Ilissus 

 stood an Ionic temple dedicated to Eucleia, or illustrious Fame. 

 On the very sjiot described, a singular Ionic capital has been fouud 

 built into the wall of a modern edifice: no doubt this capital 

 belonged to the "naos of Eucleia." The upper diameter of the 

 shaft is 1 ft. 1'65 in.; a star-like flower occupies the centre of each 

 volute: the lower band instead of forming a continuous curve 

 between the volutes, turns up again, each side terminating in a 

 flower and two tendrails. Another flower is carved in the centre of 

 the capital. As far as we know it is unique, and probably of very 

 early date. 



In the celebrated Temple of Bacchus at Teos, built by 

 Hermogenes, the columns are S^ diameters high, and of the two 

 porticoes of the Erechtheion, tlxise of the northern or Minerva 

 Polias are 9, and those of the eastern portico 9A diameters in 

 height. In another often-cited example, the Temple of Minerva 

 Polias, at Priene, not one column remains entire; it is therefore 

 impossible to ascertain the e.xact elevation. 



The bases and capitals vary in each example. In the Temple of 

 Bacchus, the Athenian base is seen ; in that of .Minerva at Priene, 

 the Ionian: both these are proper to the order. The Athenian 

 consists of two tori, with a scotia between, separated by small 

 fillets. The Ionian of two scotiae, with two astragals both above 

 and belo%v, as well as between them; over all is a large overhanging 

 torus. This produces the unpleasant effect of being weak, and 

 liable to snap below the heavy torus. 



According to Pliny, the Ionian base was first introduced in the 

 Temple of ^Minerva at Priene, and as this temple was completed 

 and dedicated by .\lexander the Great, it belongs to a period when 

 Greek art had already begun to decline, when a minute attention 

 to detail had taken the place of general boldness of design. In 

 the capit;ils of the Temple of Bacchus the channel connecting the 

 two volutes has no border on the lower edge, but terminates in a 

 horizontal line tangent to the commencement of the second 

 revolution of each volute. The Ionic order is found in its most 

 elaborate aad beautiful form in the double temple called the 

 Erechtheion at Athens; but as this buildinj,'- will be described at 

 length in another place, it is not necessary to give it further 

 mention here. 



In the Greek Ionic, the volutes present a flat face on the two 

 opposite sides of the capital, the flanks or balusters being 

 generally formed like two cones, united in the centre by an 

 ornamented band or fillet. In tlie angular columns the volutes are 

 contrived to present the same face in flank as in front, and the 

 returns are likewise placed at right angles instead of on opposite 

 sides. 



The third and most sumptuous order, the Corinthian, is more 

 slender in its proportions tlian either the Doric or Ionic, "with an 

 intention," according to Vitruvius, "to make the form of the 

 column accord with the more delicate pro)iortions of the maiden 

 figure." The invention of this order has been given to C'alli- 

 machus, and the following pretty story is related by Vitruvius, as 

 giving rise to the idea: — A Corinthian virgin, who was of 

 marriageable age, fell a victim to a viident disorder; after her 

 interment, her nurse, collecting in a basket those articles to which 

 she had shown a partiality when alive, carried them to her tomb, 

 and placed a tile in the basket for the longer preservation of its 

 contents. The basket was accidentally placed on the root of an 

 acanthus plant, wliich, pressed by the weight, shot forth towards 

 spring its stems and large foliage, and in the course of its growth 

 reached the angles of the tile, and thus formed the volutes at the 

 extremities. Callimachus, happening at this time to pass by the 

 tomb, observed the basket and the delicacy of the foliage which 

 surrounded it. Pleased with the form and novelty of the combina- 

 tion he took the hint for inventing these columns, using them in 

 the country about Corinth." 



The merit to which Callimaclius can really lay claim is to have 

 fixed and determined the proportions of the Corinthian order more 



