Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/90

 74 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. vellous accuracy but methods of workmanship were developed in marble building suitable only to this fine material. For instance, mitre-joints are used for the moulded members of the beams of the peristyle, and the pediment is cased with slab- work which is in ten large pieces. The architrave is made up of three pieces side by side, as we sometimes use timbers. The frieze above consists of a facing and backing only, allowing a free space in the middle almost big enough for a passage. The slabs of the pediment were hollowed away at the back and the lacunar stones were pared away on the top so as to lighten them as much as possible — a method which was carried further
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10 20 30 40 50 Fig. 6o. — Ground Plan : from Dorpfeld. at Bassse, where some of the marble beams were channelled out in the middle and became of this shape U. (Fig. 63.) Iron dowels and H-cramps were used plentifully in attaching stone to stone, and strong iron bars, or cantilevers, from 6 to 10 inches wide, and about 4 feet long, were placed above the end cornices apparently to relieve the weight of the greater figures. These were only set a little way into the masonry of the pediment, but as the tympanum face was considerably behind that of the architrave the relief to the overhanging cornice must have been sufficient if this was indeed the purpose of the bars. The pedi- ment slabs were attached to the backing by curiously modern- looking holdfasts. (Fig. 64.)