A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present DayFergusson, James
History
A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- History
Juno, at Samos 346 feet long 190 feet wide = 65,740 feet.
Jupiter, at Agrigentum 360 feet long 173 feet wide = 62,280 feet.
Apollo, at Branchidæ 362 feet long 168 feet wide = 60,816 feet.
Diana, at Ephesus 348 feet long 164 feet wide = 57,072 feet.
Jupiter, at Athens 354 feet long 135 feet wide = 47,790 feet.
Didymæus, at Miletus 295 feet long 156 feet wide = 45,020 feet.
Cybele, at Sardis 261 feet long 144 feet wide = 37,884 feet.
Parthenon, at Athens 228 feet long 101 feet wide = 23,028 feet.
There may be some slight discrepancies in this table from the figures
quoted elsewhere, and incorrectness arising from some of the temples
being measured on the lowest step and others, as the Parthenon, on the
highest; but it is sufficient for comparison, which is all that is
attempted in its compilation.
DORIC ORDER.
The Doric was the order which the Greeks especially loved and cultivated
so as to make it most exclusively their own; and, as used in the
Parthenon, it certainly is as complete and as perfect an architectural
feature as any style can boast of. When first introduced from Egypt, it,
as before stated, partook of even more than Egyptian solidity, but by
degrees became attenuated to the weak and lean form of the Roman order
of the same name. Woodcuts No. 136, 137, 138 illustrate the three stages
of progress from the oldest example at Corinth to the order as used in
the time of Philip at Delos, the intermediate being the culminating
point in the age of Pericles: the first is 4·47 diameters in height, the
next 6·025, the last 7·015; and if the table were filled up with all the
other examples, the gradual attenuation of the shaft would very nearly
give the relative date of the example. This fact is in itself sufficient
to refute the idea of the pillar being copied from a wooden post, as in
that case it would have been slenderer at first, and would gradually
have departed from the wooden form as the style advanced.[137] This is
the case in all carpentry styles. With the Doric order the contrary
takes place. The earlier the example the more unlike it is to any wooden
original. As the masons advanced in skill and power over their stone
material, it came more and more to resemble posts or pillars of wood.
The fact appears to be that, either in Egypt or in early Greece, the
pillar was originally a pier of brickwork, or of rubble masonry,
supporting a wooden roof, of which the architraves, the triglyphs, and
the various parts of the cornice, all bore traces down to the latest
period.
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