Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/331

 Bk. IV. Ch. III. ORDERS. 299 was accordingly done, but at the expense of the, Doric order, which, except when thus used in combination, must be confessed to have very little claim to our admiration. Ionic. The Romans were much more unfortunate in their modifications of the Ionic order than in those which they introduced into the Doric. They never seem to have either liked or understood it, nor to have employed it except as a mezzo termine between the other two. In its own native East this order had originally only been used in porticoes between piers or anttp^ where of coui'se only one face was shown, and there were no angles to be turned. When the Greeks adopted it they used it in temples of Doric form, and in consequence were obliged to intro- duce a capital at each angle, with two voluted faces in juxtaposition at right angles to one another. In some instances — internally at least — as at Bass* (Woodcut No. 138) they used a capital with four faces. The Romans, impatient of control, eagerly seized on this moditi- cation, but never quite got over the ex- treme difficulty of its employment. With them the angular volutes became mere horns, and even in the best examples the capital wants harmony and meaning. When used as a three-quarter column these alterations were not required and then the order resembled more its original form ; but even in this state it was never equal to the Greek examples, and gradually deteriorated to the corrupt application of it in the Temple of Concord in the Forum, which is the most degenerate example of the order now to be found in lioman remains. Ionic order. CORINTHIAK. The fate of this order in the hands of the Romans was different from that of the other two. The Doric and Ionic orders had reached their acme of perfection in the hands of the Grecian artists, and seem to have become incapable of further improvement. The Corinthian, on the contrary, was a recent conception ; and although nothing can surpass the elegance and grace with which the Greeks adorned it, the new capital never acquired with them that fulness and strength so