Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/524

 Secondary Forms. 497 precision the proportions of its pattern, e.g. the twin members of the capital of the real column found in the palace. The members in question are plainly discernible in the copy; the practical necessity which gave rise to each of them is not hard to grasp. The capital is composed of an abacus or plateau placed under the architrave, and a kind of pillow between the abacus and the shaft, which corresponds to the echinus of the Doric capital. The same impulse which suggested putting the abacus in this situation, also counselled having the architrave supported by the largest section of the jamb.^ To make the quadrangular and deeply- projecting abacus useful, it became F[o. 200. — Green breccia capital. Mdght o m., 60. necessary to provide it with a solid support, and the thickness and breadth of the upper part of the shaft opportunely cariie to render this service. The broadening in question is seen in the capital of the Treasury of Atreus in the shape of a large torus, whilst a double cavetto connects it with the shaft on the one hand, and on the other with the abacus (PI. V. and Fig. 200).' Such tran- sitions from one member to another were of course not skilfully 1 In a house of the Mazenderan figured by us {History of Art) it is a roundel which plays the part of abacus. The effect produced by the plateau, though very similar, is far more clumsy. ^ As the above fragment is seen in perspective, the accompanying scale, divided into centimetres, of this and Fig. 107 cannot be given accurately. VOL. I. K K