in common with all the other members of the Ionic column, an active
supporting power; whereas the Doric tile is simply negative, the “point
of rest” between the opposing forces of the column and entablature. The
architrave, the first member of the Ionic entablature, instead of
expressing weight by simple mass, as the Doric architrave does, consists
of two or three layers of masonry, the upper projecting over the other,
and giving to the entire entablature the expression of impending weight,
which in the Doric is limited to the corona. In the frieze there are no
guttæ or triglyphs, because the pendent effect which these give to the
Doric frieze would be inconsistent with the continuation of the idea of
support as well as weight throughout all the members of the Ionic order.
In the pure Doric there is absolutely no such thing as ornament; though
Kugler, notwithstanding that he is of all critics the one who has come
nearest to the perception of the true sense of Greek architecture,
asserts that the head and foot members of the antæ are merely
ornamental. How far this is from being the case has been now shown. The
so-called “egg and arrow” and other figures into which Greek mouldings
were cut have nothing to do with ornament. They are simply the means of
emphasising the forms of the mouldings and rendering them visible at
distances at which otherwise they would not be distinguished. But in the
Ionic we have real architectural ornament, and lines of roses or bands
of foliage are inserted at points where it is desirable to express--in
the absence of more severe means of expression--the freedom and
cheerfulness with which a superincumbent weight is carried.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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