Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/207

 t66 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. the constructional elements. It is hard to account for the height of the Doric entablature, unless we see in it a copy of the wood- frame which, in the edifices of the archaic period, had to carry the heavy burden of clay coverings ; for such a style of building, timber frames composed of many pieces, both massive and of resisting power, were absolutely necessary. The temple has a ridged and much lighter roof, because it is covered with tiles ; the reason why the entablature whereon it reposes has retained the same proportions and the same aspect as in the Mycenian palace, resides in the fact of its being copied on a model born under other conditions, and raised to satisfy other needs. It is not the constitution of the entablature alone which testifies to the affiliation and the close union between the first national architecture of Greece and that whose types, even at this time of day, serve as subjects of study and models to our artists. The plan of the Mycenian edifice, of which two different eleva- tions are given (Figs. 314, 315), already shadows forth the arrangements which later builders will choose for the marbled ceilings of their temples. The ceilings in question are divided into rectangular compartments called ** coffers " ; but it was the old carpenter who, on piecing together his timber beams, traced out these fields, where the sculptor and painter were to lavish on stone, ornament of exceeding richness. The only difference between the two sets of ceilings is that the triglyphs which covered the fronts of the longitudinal beams in the archaic wood-frame are non-existent in the stone building. Stone beams of sufficient length to replace in the pronaos the timbers of . another day would never have been found. So great is the stability of the Doric temple, wholly stone built, that it does not r^uire beams of enormous size. yWe are led to the same conclusions as regards the pillar, by ttdcing as subjects for comparison the semi-columns of the domed- buildings at Mycenae on the one hand, and on the other the supports of the oldest Doric temples, those that come nearest to the pre- Homeric buildings of Greece, and may therefore be expected to have points of resemblance with these. The shaft of the stone pillar presents an entasis utterly opposed to that of the semi-column. To us the semi-column appears to be an exact copy of the wooden supports at Tiryns and Mycenae ; its greater diameter occurs above, where it meets the architrave ;