Page:Ware - The American Vignola, 1920.djvu/45

Rh THE GREEK IONIC—PLATE XV

general proportions of the Greek Ionic Entablature are, as has been said, about the same as in the Doric, but the Columns are more slender, varying from about seven Diameters in height to more than ten, and the Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice are often made very nearly equal in height, Fig. 122.

The Base is like the Attic Base, except that the Scotia is larger, constituting the principal feature, that the upper Torus is larger than the lower one, that the Fillet above the Scotia projects as far as the face of this Torus, and that there is no Plinth. As the base is still half a Diameter high, the upper Torus and Scotia are very much larger than in the Roman Attic Base. The lower Torus is sometimes very small indeed, and is occasionally omitted altogether, as at Samos, Fig. 123, and in one of the Choragic columns on the south side of the Acropolis at Athens, Fig. 69.

The Shaft is fluted just as in the Roman Ionic, having twenty-four channels, and the Capital resembles, in general, Vignola's Capital with Balusters. But the Scrolls are much larger, measuring a full Diameter and a half from side to side, and two-thirds of a Diameter from the Architrave to the bottom of the curve. The Capital, measured from the Architrave down to the Astragal, is half a Diameter high, instead of a third, the Abacus is very small, consisting generally of a single Ovolo, and the Cushion between the Abacus and the Echinus very wide, its lower outline being curved downwards, Fig. 124. The sprigs of honeysuckle, accordingly, do not cover the eggs and darts, five of which are visible between the Scrolls, instead of three.

The Architrave is sometimes plain, sometimes divided into two or three bands. The Frieze, or Zoophorus, is wide, and the Bed Mold that crowns it is often countersunk into the Soffit of the Corona, so that it does not show in elevation, Fig. 122. It is noticeable that though Dentils are, historically, a distinctively Ionic feature, they are omitted in many Greek examples. The Cymatium is a large Cyma Recta, and has a Fillet and Bead below it, which is sometimes undercut, so as to make a little Beak Molding.