DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.572#0087
PART II. ORIGIN OF VOLUTES. 59
number, at each of the tiers, till they reach the fifth,
or uppermost one; which last consists of four, and
the lowest of thirty-two cusps. It is whimsical, and
totally devoid of beauty, but its numerous volute-
ornaments give it a singular effect.* The volutes,
however, are not, as has been supposed, a Greek
innovation; nor are they borrowed from the Ionic
column; they were a very early invention in Egypt,
and were used there for ornament, in some of the
oldest monuments. Their origin is evidently the
water-plant, symbolical of the upper country ;f
which often forms the capitals of columns, support-
ing the canopy over a king's throne.J And there,
too, the very same round appendage to the volute
of this column may be traced, in the pendant device,
that seems to issue from it.§ In vain, therefore,
has that moulding, in Ionic columns, been derived
from rams' horns, and other things,[| to which it
bears little resemblance; the water-plant of Southern
Egypt is the parent of the volute; and it was not
only adopted by the Greeks, but was introduced,
even at the latest periods of the Roman empire,
upon monuments in the neighbourhood of Car-
thage ; where I have seen pilasters, with volutes
very similar to those on the canopies of the Pha-
raohs. The volute, or scroll, was also a favourite
device of the Phoenicians, and appended to the
figures of deities, particularly at the feet of Astarte;
* Plate xii, fig. 3.
t Opposed to fig. 7, c. Plate i, the symbol of Lower Egypt, and the
origin of the capital of the 4th order.
% Vide Plate i, fig. 8, a, b, c, fig. 9. § Plate i, fig. 9.
II Curls of hair: rolls, or folds, of drapery; dress o( the goddess Isis, etc.
number, at each of the tiers, till they reach the fifth,
or uppermost one; which last consists of four, and
the lowest of thirty-two cusps. It is whimsical, and
totally devoid of beauty, but its numerous volute-
ornaments give it a singular effect.* The volutes,
however, are not, as has been supposed, a Greek
innovation; nor are they borrowed from the Ionic
column; they were a very early invention in Egypt,
and were used there for ornament, in some of the
oldest monuments. Their origin is evidently the
water-plant, symbolical of the upper country ;f
which often forms the capitals of columns, support-
ing the canopy over a king's throne.J And there,
too, the very same round appendage to the volute
of this column may be traced, in the pendant device,
that seems to issue from it.§ In vain, therefore,
has that moulding, in Ionic columns, been derived
from rams' horns, and other things,[| to which it
bears little resemblance; the water-plant of Southern
Egypt is the parent of the volute; and it was not
only adopted by the Greeks, but was introduced,
even at the latest periods of the Roman empire,
upon monuments in the neighbourhood of Car-
thage ; where I have seen pilasters, with volutes
very similar to those on the canopies of the Pha-
raohs. The volute, or scroll, was also a favourite
device of the Phoenicians, and appended to the
figures of deities, particularly at the feet of Astarte;
* Plate xii, fig. 3.
t Opposed to fig. 7, c. Plate i, the symbol of Lower Egypt, and the
origin of the capital of the 4th order.
% Vide Plate i, fig. 8, a, b, c, fig. 9. § Plate i, fig. 9.
II Curls of hair: rolls, or folds, of drapery; dress o( the goddess Isis, etc.