Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/67

 Geeek Aechitecture. 37 We have next to notice the Corinthian order (Fig. 20), which is in fact but a late variety of the already described Ionic, from which it is distinguished more by its deep and foliaged capital than by its proportions. The base and shaft of the Corinthian column are borrowed from the Ionic, but the capital is a new and distinctive form, representing flower calices and leaves pointing upwards, and curving gracefully like natural plants. On account of its beautiful shape, the deeply-indented acanthus leaf was most frequently adopted. The history of the gradual development of the Greek system of architecture from the first crude rudimentary forms to the perfection in which we see it in the monu- ments which have come down to us, will never be fully known ; but a careful examination of all existing buildings reveals certain differences in the treatment of their several parts, which may be taken as indications of the various stages of development. The first period (b.c. 740 — 600) may be said to be included between the age of Solon and the Persian War. The existing monuments of this period are not very numerous, and are all of a massive and heavy type, with an appear- ance of great antiquity. There are extensive ruins of Doric buildings in Sicily : Selinus has six temples, Agrigentum three, Syracuse one, and iEgesta one ; the last-named is in a very perfect state. At Paestum, in Southern Italy (the ancient Magna Grsecia), is an extremely fine group of temples, of which one — that of Poseidon (Neptune) — is among the most perfect and best preserved of all existing relics of antiquity. The ruins of the Doric temple of Corinth are perhaps the only remains of early Greek architecture on the soil of Greece itself. It is one