Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/208

 - / The Origin of Doric Architecture, 167 whilst the Doric column, which is a truncated cone, tapers towards the top. Apart from this difference, there is a striking analogy between the two supports, notably in the capital, whose elements, at Mycenae, are already those of the canonical capital. Thus, with less elegance of design and less happy proportions, it consists, like the Doric member, of an abacus, supported by a species of cushion or echinus, whilst the ring of leaflets sur- rounding the lower part of the echinus occurs also, in the same situation, in the most archaic types of this order.^ When the column is fluted, as in Tomb II. (Fig. 198), the flutes are ^ tangent to one another ; to this arrangement the Doric order was faithful from first to last. Its column was never provided with a base, and the Mycenian member which does duty as such is not really deserving of the name. The slender plinth whereon rests the shaft is no base at all, but a reminiscence of the lialf-buried stone block of former days, which prevented the foot of the timber pillar from coming in contact with the hunjid^il (Fig. 197). Finally, under the semi-circular fillet of this facade are other fillets, the feeble height of which is not proportional to that of the shaft. They call up to the mind the three steps usually found in the Doric colonnade, and the question may be raised whether they should not be regarded in the light of an imitation of a similar number of steps which led up to the porches of the Mycenian buildipg^Fig. 83). he upshot of the foregoing observations is to the effect that fhe Doric order is before any other that whose forms are derived from the distinctive shapes of the edifices which we have attempted to restore. The beginnings of the Ionic order are quite different, and will be dealt with by and by. Nevertheless, had we any desire to carry farther this study, we should find no difficulty in tracing to their source the influence exercised by primitive modes of construction, including such arrangements as are not the particular property of this or that order, but which crop up in most Greek buildings. Some brief indications, some examples chosen from among a host that might be named, will suffice to make good our ^ Several examples of the ornaments in question which are associated with the echinus of the Doric capital are carefully examined in M. Otto Puchstein^s learned dissertation. Das loniscJu CapitelL The most part is taken from the temples at Fsestum, in Italy.