Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/285

 Bk. III. Cu. II. IONIC ORDER. 253 color, which was as integral a part of it as its form. Till very lately, it was denied that Greek temples were, or could be, painted : the unmistakable remains of color, howevei', that have been discovered in almost all temples, and the greater knowledge of the value and use of it which now prevails, have altered public opinion very much on the matter, and most people now admit that some color was used, though few are agreed as to the extent to which it was carried. It cannot now be questioned that color was used everywhere internally, and on every object. Externally too it is generally ad- mitted that the sculpture was painted and relieved by strongly colored backgrounds ; the lacunaria, or recesses of the roof, were also certainly painted ; and all the architectural mouldings, which at a later period were carved in relief, have been found to retain traces of their painted ornaments. It is disputed whether tlie echinus or carved moulding of the capital M-as so ornamented. There seems little doubt but that it was • and that the walls of the cells were also colored throughout and covered with paintings illustrative of the legends and attributes of the divinity to whom the temple was dedicated or of the purposes for which it was erected. The plane face of the architrave was pi'o- bably left white, or merely ornamented with metal shields or inscrip- tions, and the shafts of the columns appear also to have been left j^lain, or merely slightly stained to tone down the crudeness of the white marble. Generally speaking, all those parts which from their form or position were in any degree protected from the rain or atmospheric influences seem to have been colored ; those particularly exposed, to have been left plain. To whatever extent, however, painting may have been carried, these colored ornaments were as essential a part of the Doric order as the carved ornaments were of the Corinthian, and made it, when perfect, a richer and more ornamental, as it was a more solid and stable, order than the latter. The coloi- nowhere interfered with the beauty of its forms, but gave it that richness and amount of ornamentation which is indispensable in all except the most colossal buildings, and a most valuable adjunct even to them. Ionic Order. The Ionic order, as we now find it, is not without some decided advantages over the Doric. It is more complete in itself and less dependent on sculpture. Its frieze was too small for much display of human life and action, and was probably usually ornamented with lines of animals,^ like the friezes at Persepolis. But the frieze of the
 * It was called Zoophorus (life or figure bearer).