DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4324#0090
50 DIDYME.
PLATE IV.
ELEVATION OF THE FRONT OF THE TEMPLE.
The reader is here presented with the front of this stupendous edifice restored, as far as the
authorities accessible on the spot permitted. No part of the cornice could be discovered, nor any
circumstances conclusive, as to the inclination of the pediment. The columns are more than
nine diameters and a half in height, a very unusual excess in the proportion of columns of Ionic
buildings. The great extent of a decastyle front was probably the motive which determined the
projector of the edifice to increase the proportion generally observed in the length of the shaft.
It is dangerous to deduce principles from individual examples. The proportions observed in
the shafts of the columns, might have led to the inference, that a greater number of columns in the
front, whilst it demanded a proportionate reduction in the intervals in order to contract the extent,
which would otherwise be too great, seemed to require the elongation of the shaft, as a collateral
expedient, to bring the height and width to due proportion. In the present instance this object
does not appear to have been contemplated, or it might have been effected, by increasing the
depth of the epistylia and zophorus, or frieze, both of which are made considerably less than was
customary in the best times of Grecian architecture. The apparent weakness of the epistylia is one
of the great defects of this building, and is scarcely to be reconciled to the exquisite finish of all
the parts, considering this as amongst the true tests of architectural perfection.
PLATE V.
THE ORDER OF THE COLUMNS.
Fig. 1. The uppermost step, base, and lower part of the shaft of the columns belonging to the
outer peristyle.
The step, together with the scotiae, astragals, and fillets, are formed out of one block of marble,
The torus is worked in the lower frustum of the shaft.
Fig. 2. The capital of the columns, with the upper part of the shaft, and the epistylia.
The hem, or border, in the front of the volutes of the capitals of the exterior peristyle is left
square ; but that of the internal peristyle is wrought circularly. The flowers resting on the echinus
of the former have only three petals, but those of the latter have four.
PLATE IV.
ELEVATION OF THE FRONT OF THE TEMPLE.
The reader is here presented with the front of this stupendous edifice restored, as far as the
authorities accessible on the spot permitted. No part of the cornice could be discovered, nor any
circumstances conclusive, as to the inclination of the pediment. The columns are more than
nine diameters and a half in height, a very unusual excess in the proportion of columns of Ionic
buildings. The great extent of a decastyle front was probably the motive which determined the
projector of the edifice to increase the proportion generally observed in the length of the shaft.
It is dangerous to deduce principles from individual examples. The proportions observed in
the shafts of the columns, might have led to the inference, that a greater number of columns in the
front, whilst it demanded a proportionate reduction in the intervals in order to contract the extent,
which would otherwise be too great, seemed to require the elongation of the shaft, as a collateral
expedient, to bring the height and width to due proportion. In the present instance this object
does not appear to have been contemplated, or it might have been effected, by increasing the
depth of the epistylia and zophorus, or frieze, both of which are made considerably less than was
customary in the best times of Grecian architecture. The apparent weakness of the epistylia is one
of the great defects of this building, and is scarcely to be reconciled to the exquisite finish of all
the parts, considering this as amongst the true tests of architectural perfection.
PLATE V.
THE ORDER OF THE COLUMNS.
Fig. 1. The uppermost step, base, and lower part of the shaft of the columns belonging to the
outer peristyle.
The step, together with the scotiae, astragals, and fillets, are formed out of one block of marble,
The torus is worked in the lower frustum of the shaft.
Fig. 2. The capital of the columns, with the upper part of the shaft, and the epistylia.
The hem, or border, in the front of the volutes of the capitals of the exterior peristyle is left
square ; but that of the internal peristyle is wrought circularly. The flowers resting on the echinus
of the former have only three petals, but those of the latter have four.