Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/332

 300 EOMAN AECHITECTURE. Part 1. requisite to render it an appropriate architectural ornament. These were added to it by the Romans, or rather perhaps by Grecian artists acting under their direction, who thus, as shown in Woodcut Ko. 181, produced an order which for richness combined wath propor- tion and architec-. ^ siiiiioiiim ymmmmmmmmmmmm^^m BBSS^t^SBS ■ >. ' A ' k ' }. H i „H ' l,i* AH ' JkHAtAM tural fitness has [ hardl}^ been sur- passed. The base is elegant and appropriate ; the shaft is of the most pleasing proportion, and the fluting gives it just the requisite degree of richness and no more ; while the capital though bordering on over- ornamentation, is so well arranged as to appear just suited to the Avork it has to do. The acanthus-leaves, it is true, approach the very verge of that degree of direct imitation of nature which, though allowable in architec- tural ornaments, is seldom advisable ; they are, how- ever, disposed so formally, and there still remains so much that is conventional in them, that, though perhaps not justly open to criticism on this account, they are nevertheless a very extreme exam|)le. The entablature is not so admirable as the column. The architrave is too richly carved. It is evident, how- ever, that this arose from the artist having coj»ied in carv- ing what the Greeks had only jtainted, and thereby produced a complexity far from j)leasing. The frieze, as we now find it, is perfectly plain ; but this un- doubtedly was not the case when originally erected. It either must have been painted (in which case the whole order of course Avas also 181. Coriuthian Order. From the Temple of Jupiter Stator.