DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0268
XVII
ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION
IN the concluding chapter of this book I shall try to give an outline of those
features of archaic temple-decoration which can be ascribed with certainty,
or with some degree of probability, to Corinth. The subject is a particularly
difficult one, especially for those who, like myself, can claim no specialized
knowledge of architecture and little first-hand acquaintance with the existing
remains; and it is obscured by fortuitous circumstances—by the scantiness of
the material, and still more by the lack of adequate descriptions and publica-
tions. The greater part of what follows is based upon the information con-
tained in Koch's invaluable article in Romische Mitteilungen, 1915, and Mrs.
Van Buren's book, Greek Fictile Revetments in the Archaic Period (Murray
1926), though one quite recent find throws much light on the subject as
a whole, and particularly on the earlier part of our period, while a certain
amount of evidence which has not, so far as I am aware, been utilized can be
adduced from the decoration of Corinthian vases.
In a thorough treatment, the decoration of the archaic temple would have to
be considered not merely from an archaeological, but also from an architec-
tural point of view. I can make no attempt to do this, nor can I, in most cases,
undertake the important task of deciding which revetments are Corinthian
and which are local copies, or adaptations, of Corinthian designs. Any one
who would do this must subject the material from Corinth and the inscribed
pieces to a minute examination from a technical point of view, and that is a
task which I have not been able to set myself. I can, none the less, attempt to
describe the several sorts of architectural revetment which may reasonably
be connected with Corinth in one sense or another.
It would, I suppose, generally be admitted that, when divided into the
necessary chronological groups, the remains of architectural decoration on the
Greek mainland show a remarkable degree of uniformity. This uniformity
goes far beyond that which the general testimony of archaic art, and the con-
stitution of the country in the archaic period, would lead us to expect, and
contrasts sharply with the diversity of local forms and styles which we find
in the arts of vase-painting and metal-work. This is all the more signi-
ficant because the problem of decorating the roof of a stone or wooden
building might have been expected to produce a great variety of solutions
among peoples of such different interests and capacities as the mainland
Greeks of the seventh and sixth centuries. In so far as the clay revetment was
merely protective we should, it is true, expect it to be fairly homogeneous
throughout; but in important buildings such as temples, with which we are
principally concerned, it rarely stopped short at that point: it was decorative
as well, and in its decorative aspect we might naturally look for something of
ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION
IN the concluding chapter of this book I shall try to give an outline of those
features of archaic temple-decoration which can be ascribed with certainty,
or with some degree of probability, to Corinth. The subject is a particularly
difficult one, especially for those who, like myself, can claim no specialized
knowledge of architecture and little first-hand acquaintance with the existing
remains; and it is obscured by fortuitous circumstances—by the scantiness of
the material, and still more by the lack of adequate descriptions and publica-
tions. The greater part of what follows is based upon the information con-
tained in Koch's invaluable article in Romische Mitteilungen, 1915, and Mrs.
Van Buren's book, Greek Fictile Revetments in the Archaic Period (Murray
1926), though one quite recent find throws much light on the subject as
a whole, and particularly on the earlier part of our period, while a certain
amount of evidence which has not, so far as I am aware, been utilized can be
adduced from the decoration of Corinthian vases.
In a thorough treatment, the decoration of the archaic temple would have to
be considered not merely from an archaeological, but also from an architec-
tural point of view. I can make no attempt to do this, nor can I, in most cases,
undertake the important task of deciding which revetments are Corinthian
and which are local copies, or adaptations, of Corinthian designs. Any one
who would do this must subject the material from Corinth and the inscribed
pieces to a minute examination from a technical point of view, and that is a
task which I have not been able to set myself. I can, none the less, attempt to
describe the several sorts of architectural revetment which may reasonably
be connected with Corinth in one sense or another.
It would, I suppose, generally be admitted that, when divided into the
necessary chronological groups, the remains of architectural decoration on the
Greek mainland show a remarkable degree of uniformity. This uniformity
goes far beyond that which the general testimony of archaic art, and the con-
stitution of the country in the archaic period, would lead us to expect, and
contrasts sharply with the diversity of local forms and styles which we find
in the arts of vase-painting and metal-work. This is all the more signi-
ficant because the problem of decorating the roof of a stone or wooden
building might have been expected to produce a great variety of solutions
among peoples of such different interests and capacities as the mainland
Greeks of the seventh and sixth centuries. In so far as the clay revetment was
merely protective we should, it is true, expect it to be fairly homogeneous
throughout; but in important buildings such as temples, with which we are
principally concerned, it rarely stopped short at that point: it was decorative
as well, and in its decorative aspect we might naturally look for something of