Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/188

 The Origin of Doric ARCHixEctuRfi. 147 to go farther into the subject. We beg to be pardoned if, for reasons of demonstration, we anticipate somewhat on the sequel of these studies, and assume a theory, that of the "orders,'' to be known, although as yet there has been no opportunity for broaching it. The reader need feel no alarm as to the allusions which will be made to certain rules and facts, for they will be intelligible to any one possessed of a superficial knowledge of the history of Greek architecture, and easily grasped with the aid of the least elaborate of manuals. In the course of our researches, we have not unfrequently adverted to a tendency, the effects of which we are about to con- sider, as to the influence which the methods proper to the Mycenian architect exercised on Doric architecture, the fairest and most individual creation, perhaps, of the plastic art of Hellas. We said how, among several nationalities whose monumental work we have described, the artisan seems to take pleasure in applying forms to a material clearly sprung from the employment of a different substance, be it artificial stone or brick which imitates natural stone, calcareous rock, or marble ; more frequently, however, it is stone which copies the shapes rendered familiar by wood and sanctioned by usage : a wooden fence set around the property, or a built hut with a covering of unsquared timbers ; then, with the advance of industry, wood is found cut up into planks and squared beams, so as to compose the walls and woodwork of the domestic abode ; this, though still liable to many mischances, is already provided with qualities of size, of comfort, and even of a certain elegance of its own. Egypt and Assyria, Phrygia, Lycia, and Persia furnish us with quaint examples of this transformation of shapes. Not the least curious specimen occurs at Mycenae, in the slab-circle surrounding the royal cemetery of the acropolis (Fig. 100). The edges of the covering slabs have a double row of dowel-like saliences, which fitted into cuttings purposely made in the upper edge of the vertical plaques. The stone-cutter had borrowed from the carpenter one of the most popular and primitive modes of assemblage. The main characteristic of the Mycenian palace is the large place and the part which timber played in it. Not only was the column of wood, but also the architrave which it supported, as well as the longitudinal beams and joists constituting the roof and