Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/119

 GREEK ARCHITECTURE. 6l the necessity of falsifying the form or the structure." He was not prepared to admit, then, that a wooden original suggested a stone structure in the composition of the Doric order ; indeed, he would rather suppose the converse, Garbett goes so far as to call the wooden theory an " insolent libel," and asserts that in the case of the inclination of the soffit of the cornice this barbarous theory is at once disproved by two facts, the inclination being observed on the fronts equally with the sides of the building, and its angle being wholly independent of that of the roof. A later writer, Mr. H. H. Statham, in a recent work on architecture, rejects the wooden theory as far as the Doric column and capital are concerned, and adds that its adherents have to explain these facts : (i.) That the greater the age of the known and approximately dated examples, the thicker the columns are, while the reverse would probably have been the case had the original forms been wooden ; and (ii.) That the characteristic moulding under the abacus of the Doric column is an essentially stone form, and one which it would not be at all easy to work in wood. These opponents of the wooden theory might, however, have modified their views, had they been familiar with the recently- discovered examples of Pelasgic or " Mycenaean " construction. The similarities between these proto-historic buildings and the later Greek styles of architecture are too numerous to be acci- dental, and Pelasgic or "Mycenaean" palaces undoubtedly had columns and entablatures of wood. The column, which has no base, but stands directly on a stylobate usually of three steps is, including the cap, from 4 to 61 times the diameter at the base in height. The circular shaft diminishing at the top from f to -| of this diameter is divided as a rule in 20 shallow flutes or channels separated by sharp arrises. Occasionally the flutes number 12 (Assos), 16 (Sunium), 18 (Greek Temple at Pompeii), or 24 (Paestum, No. 19 b). The division into twenty flutes seems to have been selected in order that a pro- jection or arris might come under each of the angles of the square abacus above, and at the same time a flute in the centre of the column as seen from the front, back or sides. It will be found that no other number of flutes between twelve and twenty-eight will enable this to be done, thus following out one of the Greek constructive principles of placing projections over projections. The shaft has normally an outward curvature of profile called the "entasis" (No. 17 a), to counteract the hollow appearance of straight sided columns. In early works this is often too obtru- sive {e.g., Basilica at Paestum) ; where it is omitted altogether {e.g., Corinth) the effect is Ufeless ; but the happy mean may be seen in the Parthenon (page 67). The column is surmounted by a distinctive capital formed of abacus, echinus and annulets. The