Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/434

Rh 404 A R C H I T E C T L K E [GRECIAN - The architrave LJ in one broad face, four- fifths, and sometimes five-sixths of its whole height; and the remain ing fifth or sixth is given to a projecting continuous fillet called the taenia, which occupies one-half the space, and a regula or small lintel attached to it, in lengths c qual to the breadth of the triglyphs above in the frieze. From the regular six small cylindrical drops, called guttae, depend. There are examples to the contrary, but it may be taken as a general rule, that the architrave is not in the same vertical line with the upper face of the shaft, or its circumferential line, at the superior diameter, but is projected nearly so much as to impend the line or face of the column at the base. In one example only is the architrave known to be sculptured, viz., at Assos, where it has bas-reliefs of bulls fighting. The frieze, vertically, is plain about six-sevenths of its whole height, and is bounded above by a fascia, slightly projecting from it, which occupies the remaining seventh. Horizontally, however, it is divided into triglyphs and metopes, which regulate the intercolumniations; the former being nearly a semidiameter in width, and the latter (the space interposed between two triglyphs) generally an exact square, its breadth being equal to the whole height of the frieze, including the fascia. This latter breaks round the triglyphs horizontally, and is a little increased in depth on them. These metopes are shown on the vases to be holes between the ends of beams, and that the metopes were, at one time, open, seems to be proved by a passage in Euripides, who lived during the construction of the Parthenon. No example, how ever, early or late, remains to support this view. Each glyph, of which there are two whole ones and two halves to every tablet, is one-fifth of the width of the whole, and the interglyphs are each one-seventh of the whole tablet or triglyph. The glyphs detail on the taenia of the architrave, but are variously finished above. In some examples they are nearly square-headed, with the angles rounded off ; in others the heads are regular curves, from a fiat segment to a semi-ellipse. The semiglyphs are finished above in a manner peculiar to themselves, with a turn or drop ; but hardly two examples correspond in that particular. The tablets in which the glyphs are cut are vertical to the face of the architrave, the metopes recede from them like sunk panels ; these are often charged with sculptures, and indeed almost appear contrived to receive them. The third and crowning part of the entablature, the cornice, in what may be considered the best examples, projects from the face of the triglyphs and architrave about its own height. Vertically, it is divided into four equal parts, one of which is given to a square projecting fillet at the top, with a small congeries of mouldings, different, and differently proportioned to each other, in various examples. Two other parts are given to the corona, and the remaining fourth to a narrow sunk face below it, with the mutules and their guttaa. These latter form the soffit or planceer of the cornice, which is not horizontal or at right angles to the vertical face of the entablature generally, but is cut up inwards at an angle of about 80. The width of the mutules themselves is regulated by that of the triglyphs over which they are placed, to which it is exactly equal. They are ornamented each with three rows of six small cylinders, similar to those which depend from the regulse under the triglyphs and on the architrave. There is twice the number of mutules that there is of triglyphs, one of the former being placed over every metope also in the manner the examples indicate. This completes the Greek Doric order according to the generally received sense of the term; but there are other parts necessary to it. In the front or on the ends of a temple, or over a portico, a pediment is placed (Plate IX. fig. 1). Its intention is to enclose the ends of the roof, but it forms no Jess a part of the architectural composition. In reason, it should be raised as much as the roof required ; but when the span is great that would be unsightly ; and reference appears to have been made to the common standard of proportion, as the pediments of most Doric temples are found to be about one diameter and a half in height at the apex of the tympanum, which in a hexastyle arrangement makes an angle at the base of about 14, and in an octastyle about 12^. The pediment is covered by the cornice, without its mutules, rising from the point of its crowning fillet, so that no part of it is repeated in pro file. Another moulding, however, is superimposed : some times this is an ovolo with a fillet over it, and sometimes a cymatium. It varies much in its proportion to the cornice, but in the best examples it is about one-half the depth of the latter without its mutules. Ornaments of various kinds, statues or foliage, are believed to have been placed on the apices and at the feet of pediments as acroteria. Of these, however, we have the remains of one only (a very beautiful one), viz., at JEgina; but indications of the plinths or blocks which may have re ceived them exist, and such things appear represented on ancient coins and medallions. The tympana of pediments are well known as receptacles of ornamental sculpture. On the flank of a Doric temple, the cornice supported a row of ornamented tiles called antefixao. These formed a rich and appropriate ornament, but they rather belonged to the roof than to the columnar arrangement or order. The antefixae covered the ends of the joint-tiles as the pediments did those of the roofs ; and corresponding ornaments called stelai rose out of the apices of the joint- tiles, forming a highly enriched ridge (see Plate VIII. fig. 1). A secondary Doric order arises in the disposition of a Grecian temple, from the columns of the pronaos and the inner part of the external entablature continued and repeated. Of this the frieze is generally without triglyphs, though there may be regular and guttae on the architrave. The fascia of the frieze is either moulded or enriched on the face ; and, instead of a cornice, the beams of the ceiling are laid at equal intervals to support sunk panels or coffers, in which there may be flowers or other enrichments (Plate VIII. fig. 8). Propriety in the composition and arrangement of ante is as necessary to the perfection of the Doric order as to that of the columnar ordinance itself, especially if the latter be in antis. Slight projections are made on the end and side faces of a wall, so as to form a species of pilaster, whose front shall be nearly equal to the diameter of the columns to which it is attached, exactly equal indeed to the soffit of the entablature, whose faces have been described as impending the circumferential line of the column at a little above its base. This rests on the stylobate in the same manner as the columns do, with sometimes a small continuous moulding as a base ; and its capital is a congeries of mouldings, about the depth of the abacus, with a plain fascia corresponding to the ovolo of the columnar capital. The entablature of the order to which it is attached rests on it, and, continuing along the flank of the building, is received by a similar combination at the other end. These, it may be remarked, were seldom diminished or fluted, an example at Paestum being about the only exception. Being projections from and upon the ends and faces of walls, they could not be diminished without involving an absur dity, and fluting on a straight surface must be productive of monotony, as the flutes can only project a series of equal and parallel shadows. Not so, however, with columns, on whose rotund surface fluting produces a beautiful variety of light and shade in all their gradations, which it could not possess without that enrichment ; for on a plain