Fig. 301.—Temple on the Ilissus; Greek Ionic.
The Greek Ionic order in its capital and ornaments is quite distinct from the Doric, and has more mouldings. The general plan of the temple is the same as in the Doric, but the proportions of the various parts are more slender. It has been generally thought that the Ionic volute was a development of the volutes from the Persian capital at Persepolis, but it is more likely, as before stated (on page 87), that their prototype is found on capitals derived from the Egyptian lotus. The architrave is sometimes plain and sometimes divided into three facias. The frieze was usually occupied with sculpture, and the base of the column was composed of a double torus, with a hollow between; the lower torus was plain, and the upper one fluted (Fig. 301).
The Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Erectheum, and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus were among the finest examples of the Ionic order.
The Corinthian order was more Roman than Greek, though of Greek invention, and was a rich type of architecture that suited the growing vanity for love of display with the Romans, who eagerly appropriated it in the second century B.C., and erected many fine buildings in this order; but often enriching the mouldings and all plain spaces almost beyond recognition.
The most perfect and truly beautiful example of the Greek Corinthian is the small Choragic monument of Lysikrates at Athens (Frontispiece). Its praises and merits have been spoken and written of by almost every architect of eminence; it may be said of it and of the Parthenon that for proportion, and for marvellous unity of parts, and also for the perfect marriage of sculpture with architecture, no buildings have ever been erected to equal them.
The bell of the Corinthian capital, as in the Lysikrates monument, is surrounded at the base by a row of water-plant leaves; acanthus leaves spring from these, and out of the latter spring volutes (cauliculi), the larger ones of which meet at the upper corners; the four smaller ones meet in the middle, and from the junction of the upper middle ones an upright palmate appears; rosettes are placed between each of the eight acanthus leaves. The abacus is moulded and curved in plan. The capital, as a whole, is designed in a masterly way, so as to give the utmost variety and contrast of beautiful forms (Fig. 302). The frieze is sculptured with figures which illustrate the story of Dionysus and the Tyrrhenian pirates ([Frontispiece]).
Fig. 302.—Capital of the Lysikrates Monument; Greek Corinthian.
The Etruscans were a race of people who settled in the west of Italy, between the Arno and the Tiber, at a very early date. Their origin is uncertain, but they are supposed to have come from Asia Minor. They were known as great builders, and were well skilled in all the arts. In their larger works of fortifications and great walls they used stones of an enormous size (Cyclopean). Many places in Italy still attest to the presence of the Etruscans by the remains of these Cyclopean walls.
