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
The most typical specimen we now know is that of the Choragic Monument
of Lysicrates (Woodcut No. 143), which, notwithstanding all its elegance
of detail and execution, can hardly be pronounced to be perfect, the
Egyptian and Asiatic features being only very indifferently united to
one another. The foliaged part is rich and full, but is not carried up
into the upper or Ionic portion, which is, in comparison, lean and poor;
and though separately the two parts are irreproachable, it was left to
the Romans so to blend the two together as to make a perfectly
satisfactory whole out of them.
In this example, as now existing, the junction of the column with the
capital is left a plain sinking, and so it is generally copied in modern
times; but there can be little doubt that this was originally filled by
a bronze wreath, which was probably gilt. Accordingly this is so
represented in the woodcut as being essential to the completion of the
order. The base and shaft have, like the upper part of the capital, more
Ionic feeling in them than the order was afterwards allowed to retain;
and altogether it is, as here practised, far more elegant, though less
complete, than the Roman form which superseded it.
[Illustration: 144. Order of the Tower of the Winds, Athens.]
The other Athenian example, that of the Tower of the winds (Woodcut No.
144), is remarkable as being almost purely Egyptian in its types, with
no Ionic admixture. The columns have no bases, the capitals no volutes,
and the water-leaf clings as closely to the bell as it does in the
Egyptian examples. The result altogether wants richness, and, though
appropriate on so small a scale, would hardly be pleasing on a larger.
The great example of the Temple of Jupiter Olympius differs in no
essential part from the Roman order, except that the corners of the
abacus are not cut off; and that, being executed in Athens, there is a
degree of taste and art displayed in its execution which we do not find
in any Roman examples. Strictly speaking, however, it belongs to that
school, and should be enumerated as a Roman, and not as a Grecian,
example.
CARYATIDES.
[Illustration: 145. Caryatide Figure in the British Museum.]
It has been already explained that the Egyptians never used caryatide
figures, properly so called, to support the entablatures of their
architecture, their figures being always attached to the front of the
columns or piers, which were the real bearing mass. At Persepolis, and
elsewhere in the East, we find figures everywhere employed supporting
the throne or the platform of the palaces of the kings; not, indeed, on
their heads, as the Greeks used them, but rather in their uplifted
hands.
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