Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/302

 270 GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part I. Municipal Architecture. Very little now remains of all the various classes of municipal and domestic buildings which must once have covered the land of Greece, and from what mc know of the exquisite feelings for art that per- vaded that peoi)le, they were certainly not less beautiful, though more ephemeral, than the sacred buildings whose ruins still remain to us. There are, however, two buildings in Athens which, though smalb give us most exalted ideas of their taste in such matters. The first, already alluded to, usually known as the Tower of the Winds, is a plain octagonal building about 45 ft. in height by 24 in width, orna- mented by 2 small porches of 2 pillars each, of the Coiinthian order, the capitals of which are represented in Woodcut No. 141. Its roof, like the rest of the building, is of white marble, and of sim])le but very elegant design, and below this is a frieze of 8 large figures, symbolical of the 8 winds, from which the tower takes its name, they in fact being the principal ob- jects and ornaments of the building, the most important use of which appears to iiave been to contain a clepsydra or water- clock. The other building, though smaller, is still more beautiful. It is known as the Choragic Monument of Lysicratos, and consists of a square base 12 ft. high by 9 ft. wide, on which stands a circular temple adorned by 6 Corinthian columns? which, with their entablature and the roof and pedestal they support, make up 22 ft. more, so that the whole height of the monument is only 34 ft. Notwithstanding these insignificant dimensions, the beauty of its columns (Woodcut No. 140) and of their entablature — above all, the beauty of the roof and of the finial ornament, which crowns the whole and is unrivalled for elegance even in Greek art — make up a com]»osition so perfect that nothing in any other style or age can be said to surpass it.^ If this is a fair index of the art that was i 1 I ' i 1 I 2 jL. 160. Choragic Momiiiicnt of Lysicrates. No scale. J The capital is triangular in plan, and I mortises in them, showing that something there are three scrolls on the roof with | must have stood on them to support the