Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/211

 170 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. no inconsiderable item in archaic construction, are everywhere traceable in that which superseded it. We have adverted more than once to vertical timbers laid along the wall surface, which it divided into a series of very similar compartments, whose symmetrical arrangement had a pleasing effect of its own (Fig. 318 and PI. XL). The eye was so habituated to this rhythmic balancing of the parts, that we find apparently a reminiscence of these ancient beams in the very narrow pilasters of the cella of the Erechtheion (Fig. 319), where they fulfil no constructional purpose. The explanation for yet another characteristic point in classic architecture should be sought in the same order of ideas ; namely, the shape seen about the anta of the temple, which it preserved l,^v:>-.-ih..^-V:-:||.^-.sv-> l;:>:V:;:;::^^i|::v■^^U^..vi^v^y:V■^.^■| l:^::;^■-■:'u.:1l:Vv^^^>A^:ll^;^•.:>•'.l M l. . .  . 1 I. ' . . I ^ I ' '. I ' ' : - ' I '•• -*-• *'* -».». -11. - . 1 ^l.^ll^^::.ll:^^v•- lKl^^^•^ -.^ Fig. 318. — Showing wall with timber ties. Fig. 319. — Back wall of Erechtheion. down to the end of the third century b.c. The pilaster in question exactly reproduces, on plan, the profile of the Tirynthian anta, where the corner of the wall is covered with a sheaf of five beams, and other two at the return, one on either side (Fig. 320). Our first movement, on perceiving the attenuated lateral face of the anta, is one of unfeigned surprise, as of a want of proportion which the architects of the Graeco-Roman age, one would think, ought to have made good, giving to that part of the pilaster greater depth. To find the cause of this seeming anomaly, we must go back to the origin of things, and carry ourselves to the time when the builder left off covering the exposed corners of his walls with a wooden armour, because his masonry through- out now consisted of well-dressed stones. In making the change, he allowed the anta to preserve the traditional shape given there-
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