Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/63

 Greek Architecture. $3 mouldings form the supporting part; they are called bed- mouldings; the projecting part is the corona (crown), but the true crowning point is the moulding surmounting the so-called corona, and forming the highest member of the cornice. The triangular space over the portico, enclosed within the horizontal cornice and two raking (i. e. sloping) cornices, wdiich follow the slope of the roof, is called the tympanum, and is generally filled with sculptures, as in the Parthenon at Athens. The whole of the triangular end, which answers to the gable in Gothic buildings, is the pediment. The roof was most frequently covered with tiles of marble. The Doric Order. The Doric order is remarkable for solidity and sim- plicity, combined with elegance and beauty of proportion (Fig. 18). The Dorians had no base to their columns ; or rather they made the upper step of the platform serve as a common base for the whole row of columns. Doric columns are massive, and have an entasis or convex profile. They are generally fluted — that is, cut into a series of channels touching each other, of which the normal number is twenty. Several rings, called annulets, deeply cut on the shaft, connect it with the capital, and throw into relief the echinus, a convex moulding forming the lower and principal part of a Doric capital. The Doric entablature is distinguished by the ornamentation of the frieze or central portion with triglyphs, i. e. three slight projections, divided by channels or flutes. The spaces between the trighjphs are called metopes. They are square, and were, it has been conjectured, originally left open to serve as windows, but they are in all known EHA d