Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/202

 The Origin of Doric Architecture. 161 consists like the alabaster frieze of pillars (d) alternating with slabs (e). Our pillars and slabs correspond with the Selinous triglyphs and metopes. The difference is this : the rosettes and other subordinate forms seen about the triglyphs have been dis- carded, and replaced by channellings, the outline of which already furrows the middle of the face of the Mycenian pilaster. The opportunities offered by metopes have been eagerly seized by the sculptor, and the whole field has been covered with mytho- logical subjects carved in low-relief; the arrangement, however, on plan, never varies, and here as there, the function of the pillars is to maintain the slabs in place. The lateral edges of the slabs are tailed into channellings cut in the sides of the triglyphs ; between these slabs and the courses forming the wall Fio. 313. — Mycenian palace. Second epoch. Longitudinal section through prodomos. behind the entablature occurs a cavity, the exact correspondence of which is to be found in the wood-framing, e, g. between the thin stone slabs and the timber beams which they masked. Again, indicated above the triglyphs is plank f, which capped the pilaster, and under the mutules, plate o, the lower member of the cornice. Like the model we have built up, this is com- posed of a listel, M, answering to the course of planks laid against the lower face of the joists, a broad band, o, the counter- part of the plank set edgewise in front of the beam-ends or discs, and a terminal moulding, which is no more than the slightly- jutting plank p, crowning the whole. The slip which served to marry the plat-band with the cyma moulding is non-existent here, for the simple reason that the cyma and plat-band of the Doric temple are not unfrequently carved in a single block of VOL. n. M