surrounding the cella are not vertical, but lean inward. This
peculiarity was chiefly adopted to counteract an optical deception,
resulting, like the deviation which led to the entasis, from the
diminution of the shafts, making these, when perfectly upright, appear
inclined away from the neighboring wall and from each other. The
deception is particularly felt upon the corner shafts; these were
corrected to lean in the direction of the diagonal, and decided the
inclination of the columns of the front and side. The absolute deviation
from the vertical is very slight, about 1-150th of the height, and by no
means makes the inner sides of the diminished columns parallel to the
wall. The inclination was effected by the irregular cutting of the first
block, which was lower within than without, being so formed that the
surface of its base was not circular, but slightly elliptical. All the
succeeding drums had perfectly round beds, and consequently slanted in
the manner decided by the first. The contact of these stones of the
shaft was restricted to a narrow rim upon the exterior of their plan. In
their centre they were steadied by an encased dowel of wood, the form of
which is known from the remains of the Parthenon; this served as a pivot
for the grinding of one block upon the other.
The stone beams of the epistyle lay from axis to axis of the columns. In
buildings of great dimensions several slabs were laid side by side as
lintels, each having the entire height of this member, which, as forming
the conjunction of the columns, may be conceived as a representative of
the wall. The outer surface of the epistyle block was carved upon its
upper edge with the tainia and trunnels, described as securing the
triglyphs of the original timbered entablature. The forms of these
details show the great reverence with which the primitive wooden
prototypes were imitated, while, at the same time, they were fitted to
be cut in stone in a far more artistic manner than were the direct
copies of carpentry observed in Lycia. The slits of the triglyph
terminated at first in elliptical lines, which became, in the decline of
the style, straight and horizontal. The triglyphs themselves were so
distributed that one was placed over each column and one over the centre
of each intercolumniation. An exception was made at the corner, where
the triglyph could not be placed in the axis of the shaft, being needed
for the support of the angle. It would be contrary to the open and
non-sustaining character of the metope for this to be assigned to a
position so constructively important. Vitruvius, regardless of this
consideration, recommends that the corner triglyph be placed in the axis
of the column beneath it, like all the others; but only one debased
instance is known where this occurs--the so-called Temple of Demeter at
Pœstum. The disturbance of symmetry which resulted to the frieze by
the removal of the corner triglyph from the axis was counterbalanced by
the metopes being made slightly larger, and especially by the outer
intercolumniations being greatly diminished in width. This last step was
also desirable from other considerations, notably because the dark
background of the cella caused the openings between the inner shafts to
appear narrower than the free and light space between those of the
exterior.
[Illustration: Fig. 137.--Entablature of the Parthenon.]
All these changes were primarily caused by the Doric entablature not
having been created for the peripteros; it was necessary thus to fit it
for decorative employment.
The metopes were originally open interstices between the beams;
intertrabies, as they might be called, with reference to the
intercolumniations; having, upon the peripteros, been closed within and
without by light slabs, the votive offerings, formerly placed in the
apertures, were now superseded by sculptures in relief upon these
stones, which gave to the entire entablature--or, when the carving was
restricted, to that of the fronts--an imposing decoration. A continuous
band, like that beneath the triglyphs, terminated the frieze; but the
individuality of triglyph and metope was even here maintained, the
superposed member being broken around them, as a separate coronation for
each.
[Illustration: Fig. 138.--Scheme of the Doric Entablature.]
[Illustration: Fig. 139.--Plan and Elevation of the so-called Temple of
Theseus, Athens.]
[Illustration: Fig. 140.--Painting upon the Pteroma of the Temple of
Theseus.]
The cornice showed reminiscences of the projecting eaves by its corona
being cut with a downward slant, such as would never have been invented
for the treatment of stone. That this inclination was not precisely the
same as the pitch of the roof rafters cannot be adduced as an argument
against its fundamental idea; in the marble structure there was nothing
to call for so exact a resemblance. The decoration of the lower surface
of the corona shows the original motive of its wooden construction as
distinctly expressed as was the formation of the triglyph in the frieze.
The position of the ends of the rafters, beneath the sheathing, is
marked by boards, each being pinned upon it with eighteen wooden pegs.
From the duplication of the triglyphs in the stone building there
resulted an equal number of mutules, and these were still further
multiplied by being placed over each metope--this latter increase having
been at first attempted with members of half the normal width, as at
_Fig._ 136. The whole composition was thus the more richly divided the
higher the building ascended; upon one column rested two triglyphs and
four mutules. It is further remarkable that, to make the decoration
harmonious upon all sides of the edifice, these mutules were also
introduced upon the front and rear entablatures; this repetition, with
the inclination of the corona upon the fronts, naturally without a
gutter, must be regarded as a further concession, made, contrary to the
genetic signification of members, in favor of the monumental appearance
of the entire exterior. The corona is bordered by the so-called Doric
cyma, or beak-moulding, distantly resembling the scotia of Egypt and
Mesopotamia. The concluding gutter is of a beautifully curved outline.
When it occurs upon the sides of the building, where it is frequently
restricted to the corners, it is provided with lions’ heads, which,
arranged over the columns as gargoyles, throw from their open jaws the
rain-water of the roof beyond the steps of the crepidoma. An isolated
instance--the Heraion of Olympia, which seems never to have been
provided with a stone entablature--shows that the timbered roof and
ceiling were placed at times with a wooden epistyle directly upon the
stone columns of a peripteros. The covering of the roof was formed, in
the best period, by flat marble tiles, the joints of which were covered
by smaller curved blocks, running from ridge to eaves, and terminated
over the cornice by antefixes. The apex and corners of the gable were
provided with acroteria, standing upon special bases. They are
reminiscences of an ancient usage of Western Asia: those of the corners
found their origin in the ornaments of primitive altars and sarcophagi,
known in Biblical accounts as horns. They were sometimes supplanted by
votive offerings suited to the position, such as tripods, or by griffins
and other symbolical figures. The pointed acroterium of the apex was
usually the whole of the two half-anthemions represented upon those of
the corners; in larger monuments it was often replaced by statues, just
as extended compositions of figures were created for the tympanon
beneath, as a substitute for the dedicated objects which appear to have
originally filled the gable.
The polychromy of the Doric temple was one of the most important
features of its external appearance. It is probable that the greater
part of its marble surface, possibly the whole, was colored. Our
Northern conceptions can with difficulty comprehend the full value of
this treatment in the general composition; in our gray landscape, a
building thus painted might appear harsh and variegated. The color of
the lower supporting members was restricted to a light tint, the
so-called baphe, which had first been applied to the stucco priming
necessary for the coarse and porous stone of older temples, and was
afterwards transferred from this to the marble of later monuments. It
stained the surface with a light golden-brown tint, moderating the harsh
chalky white of lime stucco, or of marble, and investing the newly
erected building with the patina by which age always modulates the color
of stone. This baphe was employed for the marble temple on account of
the traditional painting of the stucco priming, because of the too
dazzling white natural to the freshly hewn material, and, finally, in
order to harmonize the columns and stylobate with the intensely rich
colors of the entablature. Dark and positive pigments were restricted to
the frieze and cornice, having, without doubt, been first employed to
preserve the original wooden material. The beams and slat-work, like the
triglyphs with their regulas and the mutules, were designated by blue;
the trunnels were red or gilded. That which had at first been open was
treated as a dark-red background; the metopes and tympanon thus clearly
outlining the reliefs and groups of statues which ornamented them. The
continuous members were treated with particular richness; the narrower
strips were painted with the meander and other woven forms; the gutter
with anthemions; while the Doric cyma was decorated with leaves of
various colors, so artistically conventionalized as but little to
resemble nature. The inner side of the entablature was still more richly
colored. (_Fig._ 140.)
[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Coffered Pteroma Ceiling of the Southern
Temple upon the Eastern Plateau of Selinous. Restoration.]
One of the most wonderful refinements of Greek architecture was the
attention paid to optical deceptions, and the correction of these by the
curvature of all straight and horizontal lines. It has been mentioned
that the peripteral columns did not stand mathematically upright, all
the axes being inclined inwards; the discovery of this fact was followed
by a publication, made by the architect Hoffer in 1838, which maintained
that no perfectly level line existed upon the entire temple, the
horizontals being curved slightly upwards. Hoffer’s assertions were
verified by the micrometrical studies made by Penrose, in 1846, upon the
Parthenon, the so-called Theseion, the Propylæa, Erechtheion, and the
Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, and afterwards upon the temples of
Nemea and Segesta. His measurements make evident a curvature of 0.069 m.
in 30.876 m. upon the front of the Parthenon, and of 0.108 m. in 69.525
m. upon its sides. Though so very slight a deviation is not readily
apparent, there are no mathematically rectangular forms upon the entire
building; the corner metopes are, for instance, trapezoidal. Whether
these curves, the existence of which is not to be denied, were really
intentional, was questioned by Boetticher, but it has been proved beyond
a doubt by the further investigations of Ziller. The motive for the
adoption of refinements, so extraordinarily delicate and difficult of
execution, was the same desire to correct displeasing optical deceptions
which prompted the entasis of the columns and the inclination of their
axes from the vertical. The apparent deviation of the lines, sagging
from the horizontal, was most disagreeably apparent upon the front
entablature--the base of the gable triangle, which, when straight,
invariably appears concave, while a corona, in reality curved upwards,
presents itself to the eye as perfectly level. By a deviation from the
absolutely horizontal, the appearance of greater correctness was
attained.
[Illustration: Fig. 142.--Fragments of Coffered Ceilings from the
Parthenon.
_A._ From the Side Pteroma. _B._ From the Epinaos.]
The peripteral columns of the Doric style worthily express the peculiar
character of the Dorians by their simple dignity. By them a passage was
formed around the cella, the pteroma, the ceiling of which was most
richly decorated with cofferings. (_Fig._ 141.) So short a span was here
required of the horizontal beams that it was possible to translate them
into stone simultaneously with the outer entablature; this seems to have
been universal in the larger peripteral temples, that of Zeus in
Olympia possibly being an exception. The ceiling did not remain in its
original position, resting upon the epistyle, but, with the increased
dimensions of the stone frieze, was considerably elevated. The spaces
between the lintels were closed by slabs of stone which retained the
form of the original wooden cofferings, being hollowed by stepped
lacunæ, diminishing in size. A transitional moulding was placed in each
angle formed by a vertical and horizontal surface. Upon the coffered
ceilings of Attic monuments (_Fig._ 142) this member is the Lesbian
cyma, supplemented by an astragal, these signs of an Ionic influence
being further noticeable in other parts of these buildings. The wall of
the cella, though surrounded by the pteroma, still bears traces of the
entablature, which, as shown above, preceded the outstanding columns;
the triglyphs and metopes are repeated, or in their place is a frieze of
sculptured reliefs, in which the isolated carvings of the metope become
continuous and connected. At times there remain beneath the latter the
tænia, regulas, and trunnels--only to be explained and justified as the
reminiscences of portions of an originally well-founded decoration which
had, in part, been gradually supplanted.
[Illustration: Fig. 143.--Plan of the Middle Temple upon the Acropolis
of Selinous.]
The cella itself, within the pteroma, appears in plan either without
columns, as a temple in antis, as a prostylos, or as an amphiprostylos,
thus supporting the assumption that these were the original forms of its
development. The cella was often greatly increased in length; this made
its transverse division desirable, and there resulted the front portico,
or pronaos, the principal hall of the temple, or naos, and the space
partitioned off at the rear, called, analogically, the epinaos. An
especial chamber of the building was at times isolated to serve as a
treasury; this was known as the opisthodomos. (_Fig._ 143.) The pronaos,
whether with or without columns, was closed, if at all, only by a light
bronze grating; from it a wide portal, occupying almost the entire
division wall, opened into the naos. Its upper part was fixed, but
entrance was afforded through its lower part by folding wings. The
grooves worn by the doors are still visible upon the Parthenon floor.
The interior was disproportionately narrow, a result of the peripteral
enclosure and of the limitations imposed by the gable, which would have
become too high and heavy if the front had been greatly widened in favor
of the interior breadth; moreover, the horizontal ceiling was
unfavorable to width, which was limited to the natural span of the
beams.
The possibility of admitting much light had been given up with the
change in the position of the entablature and metopes. Notwithstanding
the size of the door, sufficient daylight could not enter through this;
it was itself in the shadow of the pteroma, and generally, also, of a
pronaos. But little illumination was required for the small chapel when
this served solely as a receptacle for the sacred image. A dim and
mystical twilight was easily obtained by the use of one or more
perpetually burning lamps, which could only have been favorable to the
artistically unpretentious interior. It was otherwise with the larger
and more important temples, opened for festive assemblages. Their
interiors were divided by architectural members, and contained manifold
works of art and objects of value--a varied richness, which called for
an increased splendor of light, possible only by artificial
illumination.[G]
In the desire to increase the available space of the temple interior,
the enclosing walls were advanced more closely to the columns of the
peripteros, thus decreasing the width of the pteroma; while the hall was
divided by two rows of inner shafts into three aisles, the outer two of
which, considerably narrower than the middle, were partitioned into two
stories by the introduction of galleries, accessible by staircases at
either side of the chief portal.
We now turn from this general consideration of the Doric style to a
review of the principal monuments remaining, dividing them, as well as
possible, into groups representative of certain ages and periods of
development. The oldest peripteral temples known are not situated in
Greece proper, but in the early colonies upon the coasts of Magna Græcia
and Sicily. They are distinguishable from later buildings by a naïve
freedom of form and the lack of any strictly systematical
development--any canonical type. The carving of details is as careful as
the coarse and porous limestone permits. The columns stand so far apart
that the low and heavy proportion of the whole is not altered by the
comparatively high stylobate. The great distance of the shafts from the
wall reduces the naos to a corridor-like narrowness, the more noticeable
as the whole temple plan is very long. (_Fig._ 143.) The columns
themselves are low, never having a height greater than five lower
diameters. The monolithic shaft is much diminished, and has an excessive
entasis; it is provided with twenty, or in rare instances sixteen,
channels of segmental outline. The incisions beneath the capital block,
bordering the hypotrachelion, are generally multiplied, often being
three in number. The necking upon the columns of Sicilian temples is not
merely the straight commencement of the channellings, but often forms,
under the rings, a slight scotia--the apophyge--which weakly detaches
the echinos from the shaft by interrupting its organic connection. The
echinos has too great a projection; its outline is soft, and the small
rings are placed too high. The entire capital appears powerless and
flat: on this account the thickness of the entablature has not been
increased; the outer and inner surfaces of the epistyle do not project
beyond the upper diameter of the shaft. The members of the entablature
are exceedingly high and heavy, as are the details, down to the trunnels
and cyma. The frieze alone is low, and the metopes consequently small,
being framed by massive triglyphs, the chamferings of which have
circular or lanceolate endings. The mutules above the triglyphs have the
same great breadth; in one instance there remains above the metope only
space for half a mutule. (_Fig._ 136.) The polychromy is, in general,
sombre--yellow-brown and black, with little red, being the colors
chiefly employed; the patterns of the ornaments are distinctly of
Oriental origin.
[Illustration: Fig. 144.--Northern Temple upon the Acropolis of
Selinous.]
[Illustration: Fig. 145.--Middle Temple upon the Acropolis of Selinous.]
[Illustration: Fig. 146.--Temple of Assos.]
The most prominent monuments of this class are at Selinous, upon the
western extremity of Sicily. That city was founded in 628 B.C.: its
acropolis appears to have been early occupied by temples; at least the
northernmost of these buildings, with the widest intercolumniations, of
two and two thirds lower diameter, and the most spacious pteroma, dates
from the commencement of the sixth century B.C. The middle temple of the
acropolis appears scarcely fifty years younger; it is celebrated for the
primitive reliefs of its metopes, which will be considered in the
section upon Greek sculpture. A corner of the building is given above,
_Fig._ 136; its capital is _Fig._ 145. A third example of this earliest
period of development--which is designated by Semper as the laxly
archaic style--is known under the name Tavola dei Palladini, and stands
among the ruins of the Elian colony, Metapontion, a city founded as
early as 768 B.C., but entirely rebuilt in 586 B.C., after its
destruction by the original inhabitants of Lower Italy. The fifteen
columns at present upright probably date from the sixth century B.C. The
intercolumniations are wide, the shafts excessively diminished, and the
curve of the echinos too pronounced. It is difficult to decide whether
to this class may belong the remains of the temple at Cadacchio upon
Corfu (Corkyra), and of that built of lava at Assos, in the Troad.
(_Fig._ 146.) The former has been greatly disfigured by a late
restoration, and it is not at present possible to determine the date of
the latter, known only by insufficient publications.
The next advances of temple architecture consist in placing the higher
columns more nearly together and in heightening and narrowing the
triglyphs. The elegance of proportion and detail was thus considerably
increased. Ionic elements were first introduced in this period, greatly
to the advantage of the style, which is designated as the archaic. An
example is the middle temple upon the eastern plateau of Selinous, where
the columns are cut with Ionic flutes. It is also important in the
history of sculpture from the remains of metopes carved with scenes of
the gigantomachia. (_Fig._ 147.) Of similar character is the great
uncompleted Temple of Zeus upon the same plateau, 110 m. long and 50 m.
broad, with three aisles and galleries in the interior (_Fig._ 148); and
also the so-called Chiesa di Sansone at Metapontion, of which small
temple there are only few and scattered remains. A third Doric temple of
this site, discovered during the last few months, is as yet inedited. It
is uncertain whether the Temple of Artemis upon the island of Syracuse
(Ortygia) should be reckoned with this group.
[Illustration: Fig. 147.--Middle Temple upon the Eastern Plateau of
Selinous.]
[Illustration: Fig. 148.--Temple of Zeus upon the Eastern Plateau of
Selinous.]
[Illustration: Fig. 149.--So-called Temple of Heracles, Acragas.]
One example of the epoch exists in Greece proper--the Temple of Corinth.
Its columns were once heavily primed with stucco, and are now so
weathered that it is impossible to draw any definite conclusions from
them. The outline of the capital is primitive, though not in the degree
formerly supposed, when this ruin was thought to be the oldest monument
of the Doric style. The two last-mentioned remains and the Temple of
Athene upon the island Ortygia have the heaviest and lowest proportions,
the lower diameter of the columns comparing to the height as 1 to 4.27
(Athene), 1 to 4.29 (Artemis), and 1 to 4.32 (Corinth).
[Illustration: Fig. 150.--So-called Temple of Theseus, Athens.]
[Illustration: Fig. 151.--Porticus of Philip, Delos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 152.--So-called Temple of Demeter, Pæstum.]
[Illustration: Fig. 153.--Plan of the Great Temple of Pœstum.]
[Illustration: Fig. 154.--Plan, Section, and Elevation of the Temple of
Olympian Zeus at Acragas.]