DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0345
Bk. IV. Ch. III.
OBDEES.
309
that the three should be reduced to something like harmony. This
was accordingly done, but at the expense of the Doric order, which,
except when thus usecl in combination, must be confessed to have
very little claim to our admiration.
Ionic.
The Romans were much more unfortunate in their modifications
of the Ionic order than in those which they introduced into the Doric.
They never seem to have either liked or understood it, nor to have
employed it except as a mezzo termine between the other two. In
its own native East this order had originally only been used in
porticoes between piers or cmtce, where
of course only one face was shown, and
there were no angles to be turned.
When the Greeks adopted it they used
it in temples of Doric form, and in
consequence were obliged to introduce a
capital at each angle, with two voluted
faces in juxtaposition at right angles to
one another. In some instances—inter-
nally at least—as at Bassac (Woodcut
Ho. 142) they used a capital with four
faces. The R,omans, impatient of control,
eagerly seized on this modification, but
never quite got over the extreme difficulty
of its employment. With them the
angular volutes became mere horns, and
even in the best examples the capital
Avants harmony and meaning.
When used as a three-quarter column these alterations were not
required, and then the order resembled more its original form ; but
even in this state it was never equal to the (Ireek examples, and
gradually deteriorated to the corrupt application of it in the Temple
of Concord in the Eorum, which is the most degenerate example of
the order now to be found in Roman remains.
CORINTHIAN.
The fate of this order in the hands of the Romans was different
from that of the other two. The Doric and Ionic orders had reached
their acme of perfection in the hands of the Grecian artists, and seem
to have become incapable of further improvement. The Corinthian,
OBDEES.
309
that the three should be reduced to something like harmony. This
was accordingly done, but at the expense of the Doric order, which,
except when thus usecl in combination, must be confessed to have
very little claim to our admiration.
Ionic.
The Romans were much more unfortunate in their modifications
of the Ionic order than in those which they introduced into the Doric.
They never seem to have either liked or understood it, nor to have
employed it except as a mezzo termine between the other two. In
its own native East this order had originally only been used in
porticoes between piers or cmtce, where
of course only one face was shown, and
there were no angles to be turned.
When the Greeks adopted it they used
it in temples of Doric form, and in
consequence were obliged to introduce a
capital at each angle, with two voluted
faces in juxtaposition at right angles to
one another. In some instances—inter-
nally at least—as at Bassac (Woodcut
Ho. 142) they used a capital with four
faces. The R,omans, impatient of control,
eagerly seized on this modification, but
never quite got over the extreme difficulty
of its employment. With them the
angular volutes became mere horns, and
even in the best examples the capital
Avants harmony and meaning.
When used as a three-quarter column these alterations were not
required, and then the order resembled more its original form ; but
even in this state it was never equal to the (Ireek examples, and
gradually deteriorated to the corrupt application of it in the Temple
of Concord in the Eorum, which is the most degenerate example of
the order now to be found in Roman remains.
CORINTHIAN.
The fate of this order in the hands of the Romans was different
from that of the other two. The Doric and Ionic orders had reached
their acme of perfection in the hands of the Grecian artists, and seem
to have become incapable of further improvement. The Corinthian,