DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0269
ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION 249
the variety which we find in other decorative arts. Variety of course there is,
both in the protective and in the decorative aspect, but for the most part it is
variation from a given type; the majority of the existing remains, at any rate
of those that have been published, explain themselves in relation to the
several phases of a single tradition, which dominated the decoration of the
temple throughout the Greek mainland in the archaic period.
It is no secret that Corinth was probably the centre in which the principal
designs originated and from which they spread to other parts of Greece; we
may be certain that in the latter part of the seventh century and in the sixth
there was a considerable export of architectural revetments, which were made
at Corinth for particular buildings in course of construction or reconstruction
in other parts of Greece, and that Corinthian decorators travelled about the
country to execute commissions on the spot. We have remains in plenty
which can be ascribed to one or other of these classes. There is a third and
very numerous class of remains which is, of necessity, less well defined—that
of spontaneous local copies and adaptations of Corinthian types. If one
subtracts these three classes from the existing archaic remains there is rela-
tively little of importance left. In the seventh century there is one fairly large
group which was made in the Peloponnese, but probably not at Corinth
—the so-called Heraeum class. A certain amount of evidence points to
a Laconian origin for these.1 Apart from this group, the residue of non-
Corinthian and non-Corinthianizing work does not form a whole of any great
importance. After the disappearance of the Heraeum type—an event which
must be placed before the end of the seventh century—the various phases of
the Corinthian style were certainly the dominant influence.
The evidence on which many of these systems are connected with Corinth
is already well known. Literary tradition gives us a hint of the importance of
Corinth at a very early period in the story of the Sicyonian Butades who
worked at Corinth and invented a particular type of antefix, decorated with
a human head; very early antefixes of this kind have been found at Corfu and
at Thermon, and these earliest examples are all more or less Corinthian in
style (see p. 234). In certain cases the technique is distinctively Corinthian;
in others there is a strong series of examples from Corinth or from Corinthian
colonies; on two sites, Thermon and Calydon (where we had no a priori
reason to expect either any particular connexion with Corinth, or a degree of
civilization which demanded elaborately decorated architecture) revetments
have been found inscribed in the Corinthian alphabet. The revetment
from Calydon, discovered but a few years ago, has a series of 'instructions
to builder', which were incised on the inner surface of the blocks before
1 This was implicitly suggested by Dorpfeld (a.m. technique are of course derived from late Proto-
1883,162); Koch proposed Sicyon owing to the con- corinthian.
nexion with late Protocorinthian vases. Style and
3575 k k
the variety which we find in other decorative arts. Variety of course there is,
both in the protective and in the decorative aspect, but for the most part it is
variation from a given type; the majority of the existing remains, at any rate
of those that have been published, explain themselves in relation to the
several phases of a single tradition, which dominated the decoration of the
temple throughout the Greek mainland in the archaic period.
It is no secret that Corinth was probably the centre in which the principal
designs originated and from which they spread to other parts of Greece; we
may be certain that in the latter part of the seventh century and in the sixth
there was a considerable export of architectural revetments, which were made
at Corinth for particular buildings in course of construction or reconstruction
in other parts of Greece, and that Corinthian decorators travelled about the
country to execute commissions on the spot. We have remains in plenty
which can be ascribed to one or other of these classes. There is a third and
very numerous class of remains which is, of necessity, less well defined—that
of spontaneous local copies and adaptations of Corinthian types. If one
subtracts these three classes from the existing archaic remains there is rela-
tively little of importance left. In the seventh century there is one fairly large
group which was made in the Peloponnese, but probably not at Corinth
—the so-called Heraeum class. A certain amount of evidence points to
a Laconian origin for these.1 Apart from this group, the residue of non-
Corinthian and non-Corinthianizing work does not form a whole of any great
importance. After the disappearance of the Heraeum type—an event which
must be placed before the end of the seventh century—the various phases of
the Corinthian style were certainly the dominant influence.
The evidence on which many of these systems are connected with Corinth
is already well known. Literary tradition gives us a hint of the importance of
Corinth at a very early period in the story of the Sicyonian Butades who
worked at Corinth and invented a particular type of antefix, decorated with
a human head; very early antefixes of this kind have been found at Corfu and
at Thermon, and these earliest examples are all more or less Corinthian in
style (see p. 234). In certain cases the technique is distinctively Corinthian;
in others there is a strong series of examples from Corinth or from Corinthian
colonies; on two sites, Thermon and Calydon (where we had no a priori
reason to expect either any particular connexion with Corinth, or a degree of
civilization which demanded elaborately decorated architecture) revetments
have been found inscribed in the Corinthian alphabet. The revetment
from Calydon, discovered but a few years ago, has a series of 'instructions
to builder', which were incised on the inner surface of the blocks before
1 This was implicitly suggested by Dorpfeld (a.m. technique are of course derived from late Proto-
1883,162); Koch proposed Sicyon owing to the con- corinthian.
nexion with late Protocorinthian vases. Style and
3575 k k