Doric style, the leaves, which, at least in one instance, had been
painted upon it, being here carved, and an astragal taking the place of
the necking rings. This echinos is almost entirely covered by a spiral
roll, which gives to the style its most striking characteristic. With
the discovery of the helix upon the capitals of Assyrian reliefs, all
the labored explanations of the significance and derivation of this
member have fallen to the ground. It is impossible to believe, with
Vitruvius, that the Ionic column was considered as the representative of
the fair sex: that the locks of hair were indicated by the spiral line
of the capital, the folds of the wide garments and draperies by the
flutes and fillets, and the sandals by the base. Nor are the theories
more satisfactory which seek for such natural motives as spiral shells
or twisted ram’s horns, assumed to have been primitive ornaments of the
sanctuaries. And it is still worse to regard the peculiar form of the
capital as decided by the conception of an elastic cushion, which,
displaced by the weight of the entablature, curls again at either side
of the echinos. The Ionic helix was a form of capital imported from the
East, where it had been used by barbaric designers as a mere ornament
upon upright legs of furniture (_Fig._ 81), or upon Persian columns
(_Fig._ 80)--a form developed by the Greeks into an architectural member
of the first importance. The Assyrians, by doubling the volutes, had
formed with this motive a capital not particularly well adapted to the
functions of a transitional member between vertical support and
horizontal burden. The Hellenic architect perceived that a more decided
projection was necessary, and therefore placed an echinos beneath the
volute, leaving the roll as the medium between the circular shaft and
oblong entablature, which, in the Doric style, had been formed by the
abacus. The horizontal lines of the abacus, thus supplanted, were
represented upon the Ionic column only by a narrow moulding, curved to
the profile of a cyma and sculptured with a leaved ornament. In the
Greek capital the spirals became an elegantly curved roll, of greater
length than breadth, with tightly curled ends, which were bound
together, upon either side of the echinos, by a band. The capital thus
shows its true profile, the helices upon front and back, and upon the
subordinate sides rolls of their thickness. (_Fig._ 161.) This
difference between face and side resulted in one great difficulty upon
the corners, which, like the irregularity of the division of the Doric
frieze of triglyphs and metopes in the same place, proves that the Ionic
style also did not originate upon the peripteral plan, but was adapted
to it from a temple in antis. It was natural that the more ornamental
side of the column should face the entrance front, and thus the capitals
upon the longer sides of the building were forced to show their rolls,
the _partie honteuse_, unless the corner capital assumed an unnatural
deformation to present the helices upon two adjoining, instead of two
opposite, faces. (_Figs._ 162 and 163.) The corner capital thus became a
miserable hybrid, which, because of the impossibility of its execution
in a natural manner, from the intersection of the outer volutes when
these proceeded in a straight line parallel to the epistyle, lost not
only all constructive significance and harmony with those next to it,
but also its individual beauty. There was no other expedient than to
bend the faces of the corner volutes outward in the line of the
diagonal--a malformation visible at every standpoint. A further
difficulty was presented by the corners of the spirals over the echinos,
which required to be masked by floral decorations. Upon the narrow
abacus moulding rested the entablature, remarkable for the Oriental
character of the details, and notably for reminiscences of primitive
wooden construction, which are almost as evident in the Ionic as in the
Doric style. The epistyle, formed in the latter by a single plane block,
was here triply stepped to agree with the multiplied beams required by
the nature of Oriental timber--generally provided by the various species
of palms. According to the description of Vitruvius, the motive was also
employed for the wooden epistyle beams of Etruscan temples. Each face
projected slightly beyond the one beneath it, as previously customary in
Asia, and shown by the ruins of the palace of Darius (_Fig._ 84) and the
rock-cut façade of that monarch’s tomb (_Fig._ 83). The epistyle is
terminated by a Lesbian cyma and an astragal, the latter being, in some
instances, repeated upon every light step from beam to beam beneath. The
frieze, known in this style as the zophoros, the bearer of figures, is
an original Hellenic creation, the Oriental entablature consisting of
only two members as representative of only two constructive features:
the epistyle that connected the columns, and the ceiling and roof,
which, in the rainless countries of the East, appear as one and the same
member. In Greece the inclined roof was separated fundamentally from the
horizontal ceiling, and the entablature consequently expressed a triple
character. The naïve and truthful manner of this expression, peculiar to
the Doric style, was not followed by the Ionic. The second member of the
entablature, the frieze, should represent the ceiling, but the symbols
of that constructive feature, the dentils, were crowded up among the
details of the cornice, while the zophoros itself, perhaps as a result
of the relief sculpture employed upon the Doric metopes, became a
continuous decoration of carving. The dentils, as significant of the
ends of the small ceiling-beams, were in their proper place, touching
the epistyle, upon the monuments of Persia (_Fig._ 83), and also upon
the tombs of Lycia (_Figs._ 110 and 111), so closely allied to the
Mesopotamian tradition; they were there of far greater size than in the
Greek Ionic, where their position and diminutive dimensions reduced them
to a mere ornament. The members of the cornice stand in no such relation
to the interior construction of beams and rafters as did the mutules and
trunnels of the Doric temples. The curved gutter, however, is ornamented
with lion’s-heads and anthemions, which seem in both styles to have
been derived from western Asia. The stone beams of the pteroma ceiling
rest directly upon the epistyle, and are consequently as far below their
exterior representatives, the cornice dentils, as, in the Doric, they
were above the triglyphs. Between them are the rich cofferings, not with
small lacunæ, calculated to produce an effect mainly by color, but in
broad surfaces, frequently stepped, with carved cyma-mouldings in the
angles. (_Fig._ 164.) The plan of the cella differed but slightly from
that of Doric temples. The doors are usually provided with parotides,
the doubly-spiral brackets which have remained a popular ornament
beneath the coronations of door and window openings until the present
day.
[Illustration: Fig. 164.--Ceiling from the Peripteros of the Mausoleum
of Halicarnassos. Restoration.]
[Illustration: Fig. 165.--Base and Capital from Bassæ.]
The historical development of the Ionic temple is not illustrated by as
many examples as was that of the Doric style, and, indeed, there was no
such marked and regular advance as that observable in the temples of
Selinous, Olympia, and Athens. A great number of Ionic monuments stand
in a district not as yet thoroughly examined: the southern coasts of
Asia Minor. Towards the border of Lycia traces of an archaic or
proto-Ionic style have been observed, more closely allied to Eastern
motives than were the developed temples of Greece. The capitals of
Lycian tombs (_Fig._ 110) have no echinos, by the addition of which so
great an advance was subsequently made; the formation of the rolls upon
the sides was also primitive, they being at times perfectly straight, at
times disproportionately curved. The difficult transition from the end
of the shaft to the volutes was evaded, and masked by anthemions or
other ornaments. The only example of such an imperfect formation in
European Greece existed in the interior of the Temple of Apollo at Bassæ
(_Fig._ 159); the date of its erection, however, shows this example not
to have been archaic, but rather archaistic,--that is to say,
intentionally and affectedly imitated from primitive peculiarities of
form. (_Fig._ 165.) The columns, engaged to transverse walls, have bases
of excessive projection, the thin and feeble tore being out of
proportion to the high member beneath it. The lower end of the shaft
itself forms a second projection, which greatly exceeds the usual
_congé_ and fillet of the bottom drum. The shallow flutings are
continued up to the very top of the shaft, there being concluded by an
almost straight line. The capital itself is most strikingly archaistic,
presenting the helices upon each of its three exposed faces; it is an
applied decoration which has given up all semblance of constructive
unity or function, leaving the prismatic kernel, without an abacus
moulding, to project above the curves and support the imposed
entablature. The narrow space remaining between the two large spirals of
each side is almost entirely filled by a decoration of anthemions, and
the introduction of an echinos is thus rendered unnecessary. The
sculptured zophoros of the interior entablature, now one of the chief
treasures of the British Museum, betrays in its figures the greatest
freedom from convention, in marked contrast to the affectedly antique
character of the architectural forms.
[Illustration: Fig. 166.--From the Heraion upon Samos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 167.--From the Temple of Apollo Didymæos, Miletos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 168.--From the Temple of Athene at Priene.]
[Illustration: Fig. 169.--From the Propylæa of Cnidos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 170.--From the Temple of Wingless Victory, Athens.]
[Illustration: Fig. 171.--Temple Ruin at Aphrodisias.]
The northern coast of Asia Minor, as far as it is at present known,
offers few Ionic remains of the archaic period. The original Temple of
Artemis, at Ephesos, according to Pliny the most ancient peripteros of
the style, has been totally obliterated by frequent reconstructions and
the famed conflagration of Herostratos. A second fane of national
importance, the Temple of Hera, at Samos, is at present known only by
one unfluted column, 1.6 m. in lower diameter, and by horizontally
fluted tores and plinths. These two buildings were of such interest that
their architects saw fit to celebrate their constructive peculiarities
in monographs, as had been done for the Doric Parthenon. The writings of
Chersiphron and of the Cretan Metagenes upon the Artemision at Ephesos,
and of Theodoros, the son of the Samian Illecles, upon the Heraion of
that island, are mentioned as late as the time of the Roman emperors.
These peripteral temples, built about the middle of the sixth century
B.C., were of very considerable dimensions, but were far surpassed in
size by a third national shrine of the Ionians, the Temple of Apollo
Didymæos, rebuilt by Paionios of Ephesos and Daphnis of Miletos almost a
century later than the former monuments, 470 B.C., upon the site of an
ancient structure destroyed by the Persians. The temple was a dipteros
decastylos, that is, had a double row of outstanding columns around the
cella, with ten upon the front; it measured 91 m. in length and 49 m. in
breadth. The columns were proportionately tall, 19 m. in height, which
equals nine and a half lower diameters, and were placed closely
together, the intercolumniations being only one and a half diameters
wide. The scotia of the base was divided by a projecting moulding and
elevated upon a square plinth; the tore had no horizontal flutings.
(_Fig._ 167.) The capital had a straight connection between the spirals,
and the epistyle was stepped but twice. The interior of the temple was
provided with pilasters, the capitals of which are of an Oriental
character, richly decorated with floral motives. A Corinthian capital
also occurs upon the building (_Fig._ 177), which will be referred to
below. The enormous temple of which there are fragmentary remains at
Sardis, supposed to be that of Cybele, appears to have been erected
during this period, and resembles the shrine of Apollo Didymæos at
Miletos. The Temple of Athene Polias at Priene, the work of the
architect Pythios, who celebrated its completion in a monograph, dates
from the middle of the fourth century B.C., as it was dedicated by
Alexander the Great. It was a hexastyle peripteros, of normal
dimensions, 35 m. long and 19 m. broad. The plans of Ionic temples
differed in proportion from those of the Doric style, their length
being less than twice their width. The base of the temple at Priene
(_Fig._ 168) is peculiar, in that the horizontal flutings of the tore,
entirely lacking in the Didymaion, were restricted to its lower half;
this can hardly be taken to prove that the building was never completed,
but is rather explained by the consideration that no escape was possible
for the rain-water which dripped into the upper grooves. The connection
between the spirals of the capital face is curved downward; the
ornaments of the entablature are more florid, and the gutter is almost
overladen with floral motives. The tetrastyle Ionic Propylæa of the same
place appear to be of more recent date; the capitals of the inner
pilasters are decorated similarly to those within the Didymaion. Another
structure of this kind at Cnidos is of more beautiful detail, the base
(_Fig._ 169) being particularly graceful in outline and proportions; the
increased curve of its tore obviated the trouble of water standing in
the horizontal flutings. There are but few remains of the temples of
Artemis Leucophryne at Magnesia, and of Dionysos at Teos, built towards
the end of the fourth century B.C., and celebrated in monographs by the
architect Hermogenes. The first of these was, according to Strabo, the
third largest fane of Asia Minor, measuring 64 m. in length and 29 m. in
breadth. The influence of Attic architecture is evident in the bases and
in the rich decoration of the capital rolls. The building is thought to
be the first example of a pseudodipteros, that is, of a peripteros
having a pteroma equal to the breadth of that upon a temple with two
ranges of outstanding columns, a dipteros. Resembling this, though
smaller, was the hexastyle peripteros of Teos, at first intended to have
been of the Doric style, the plan being altered to Ionic after all the
material had been provided. Traces of decline in the art prove the
octastyle peripteros of Apollo at Claros, near Colophon, and the temple
at Pessinus, in Galatia, to have been more recent. The Temple of
Panhellenic Zeus and the Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias (_Fig._
171) are referred to the beginning of the Christian era. The excessive
attenuation of the columns of the latter, which have a height equal to
ten lower diameters, the extension of the floral ornaments even to the
channels of the shaft and the connection of the capital spirals, the
so-called egg-and-dart moulding in the cyma, the diminutive dentils and
the introduction of consoles above them, all betray the tasteless
magnificence of the Roman imperial period.
[Illustration: Fig. 172.--Temple upon the Ilissos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 173.--Plan of the Erechtheion. (Boetticher.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 174.--Northwestern View of the Erechtheion.]
[Illustration: Fig. 175.--From the Eastern Pronaos of the Erechtheion.]
The Ionic style in Attica developed in a peculiar manner, being there
superior, both as regards breadth of form and beauty of detail, to the
works of Asia Minor. The Doric had been perfected in Athens, and the
most noble Ionic monument, the Erechtheion, stood beside the Parthenon;
the Athenian acropolis presented the noblest examples in both methods of
building, standing unrivalled at the head of the Hellenic world in
architectural, as in political and intellectual respects. Characteristic
of the Attic Ionic are the so-called Attic base and the entablature
without dentils. The former consists of a second tore beneath the
concave plinth of the usual base; by this addition its symmetry was
increased, and a rhythmical profile of great beauty was gained: two
convex and two concave members of harmonious proportion alternating
from the upper slip to the commencement of the fluting. The Attic
architect evidently did not accept the significance of the dentils as
representatives of the ceiling-joists, and preferred to cut a decided
drip upon the lower surface of the corona, which had so marked a slant
in the more familiar Doric cornice. In the place of the dentils, a
transition was provided by a cyma and astragal, which mouldings received
in Athens their typical perfection. The few Ionic ruins of European
Greece do not illustrate the historical development of the Attic Ionic
style. The interior columns of the Temple of Apollo at Bassæ (_Figs._
159 and 165) cannot be considered in this connection; their archaistic
details by no means express the influence of Athens, notwithstanding
that the work is attributed to the architect Ictinos. The peculiarities
of Attic Ionic architecture are well exemplified by the small
amphiprostyle temple upon the Ilissos, near Athens, which, though now
entirely destroyed, was in existence up to the end of the last century,
and was measured and drawn by Stuart and Revett. (_Fig._ 172.) The lower
tore of the base is here small and weak, as if a hesitating attempt to
improve the usual outline. The shaft was short, perhaps from the
influence of the Doric examples; the epistyle, from the same
consideration, was without the characteristic steps. Similar to this is
another tetrastyle amphiprostylos, the Temple of Wingless Victory before
the Propylæa of the acropolis, which, as if to compensate for the loss
of the temple upon the Ilissos, was rebuilt in 1835, with overthrown
fragments rescued from a Turkish bastion, and has become one of the
chief ornaments of the ascent. (_Fig._ 158.) The entire crepidoma is so
small--8 m. long and 5.5 broad--that the cella, after the deduction of
the front and rear porticos, is even broader than it is deep. The
architectural details are of exceeding delicacy and perfection (_Fig._
170); the sculptures of the zophoros and of the balustrade will be
considered in the following section. The inner columns of the Athenian
Propylæa show the lower tore fully developed, and the base-mouldings
isolated by a plinth of slightly concave profile, elsewhere adopted
only at Eleusis, in imitation of this building. The highest perfection
of the Ionic style was, as before said, attained in the second national
sanctuary of the Athenians--the world-renowned Temple of Athene Polias
upon the acropolis, the Erechtheion. The construction of the edifice
seems to have been undertaken immediately after the burning of the
ancient building by the Persians, in 480 B.C., but, in consequence of
the miseries of the Peloponnesian war, its completion was delayed until
eighty years after that date. It was a combination of several shrines
which, necessarily constructed upon different levels, rendered a perfect
symmetry of plan impossible. Other double temples, like those of Leto
and Asclepios, and of Aphrodite and Ares at Mantinea, or of Apollo
Carneios and of Hypnos at Sikyon, were not, upon the exterior,
distinguishable from the common type, as, with an equal division of the
cella, entrances could be allowed upon either front. In the Erechtheion
this simple arrangement was not practicable, because of the complicated
nature of the combined sanctuaries and the irregularity of the ground;
yet this did not prove a disadvantage: to the architectural perfection
of the monument was thus added a charm of picturesque composition
usually foreign to the temple buildings of Greek antiquity. The plan
given (_Fig._ 173) is according to Boetticher’s restoration, but the
mooted question of the interior division of the building is still far
from being decided. Upon the principal eastern front was a hexastyle
portico, _a_, through which entrance was given to the naos of Athene
Polias, _b_, occupying nearly one half of the cella. Access to the other
division was obtained through the tetrastyle hall, _c_, upon the
northwestern corner, opening directly into the narrow sanctuary of
Pandrosos, _d_, from which four portals led to as many chambers: the
first, _g_, to the Chapel of Boutes; the second, _h_, by means of a
short staircase, to the Crypt of Poseidon, _e_; from the third, _i_, was
a descent to a corridor leading to a space under the Naos of Athene
Polias; while the last, opposite the hall, led to the Porch of the
Caryatides, _f_. This complicated disposition was, as has been said,
dependent upon the peculiar natural position of the ancient national
shrines: the tomb of Cecrops and the memorials of the contest between
Poseidon and Athene for the possession of Athens,--the impression of the
trident with which Poseidon smote the cliff, leaving a spring of salt
water, and the olive-tree which, at the command of Athene, sprang from
the same rock. Of the interior of the building there are almost no
vestiges; but the form of the exterior is, in the main, clear. (_Fig._
174.) The capitals upon the columns of the eastern portico (_Fig._ 175),
and upon the pilasters of the western wall, which was pierced by
windows, are of almost excessive magnificence. The outlines of the
spirals are doubled, the side-rolls are grooved, and ornamented with
astragals; there is a band carved with a woven ornament above the
egg-and-dart moulding of the echinos, and an entirely new feature has
been added to the capital--a broad and rich necking of carved
anthemions. The effect of this band was particularly favorable because
the decoration upon it could be repeated beneath the capitals of the
pilasters, and a greater harmony of the corresponding members thus
secured. The columns of the northwestern porch are larger and even
richer in detail, especially the bases, the upper tore being ornamented
with a woven motive in place of the customary horizontal grooving. The
entablature, from which the dentils are missing, is of the utmost
elegance of proportion, the carving of its cyma-mouldings being the most
delicate work of architectural carving known. The reliefs upon the
zophoros were not cut from its substance, but were merely attached to
its plane surface; few fragments have, consequently, been preserved. One
of the most beautiful features of the building is the Porch of the
Caryatides in the southwestern corner (F). In place of columns, the
figures of virgins support the horizontal marble ceiling, which is of no
great weight. The model for these was doubtless taken from the
basket-bearing maidens of the Panathenaic procession, the Canephoræ. The
origin of the term _caryatides_ is not known. Both geographical and
historical proofs are wanting to make probable the account given by
Vitruvius,--that the motive for these figures was derived from the women
of the Peloponnesian town Carya, who were condemned to slavery for
treachery during the Persian war. From the baskets of the Canephoræ has
been developed a capital member, like an echinos, decorated with the
egg-and-dart moulding and an astragal, and provided with an abacus. The
frieze is lacking from the entablature, in recognition of the fact that
roof and ceiling are here one and the same member. The dentils appear in
the cornice, it being possible for them to take their true position upon
the epistyle. The faultless beauty of the decorative carving is
particularly evident upon the casings of the portals.
Monuments of the Ionic style, not numerous in Attica, are rare in the
Peloponnesos, and exceptional farther west, where the Doric element of
the population predominated. When Ionic ruins are found in the latter
districts, they generally betray the influence of the Attic school,
which is perceptible even in the Ionic order of Rome. It is not strange
that, after the acquaintance of the Romans with Hellenic lands, this
method of building should, in their universal eclecticism, have been
frequently adopted. It will be seen in the following section how Italy,
the heir of the decaying civilization of the East, reduced the forms of
Ionic architecture to a facile and commonplace scheme.
[Illustration: Fig. 176.--From Bassæ.]
[Illustration: Fig. 177.--From the Temple of Apollo, near Miletos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 178.--From the Tower of the Winds, Athens.]