COR
201
COR
*°n of n ~~ . --—---
Wo «ld is not very readily accounted for; one
°f th e o • tl r a ^y suppose this name was assigned on account^ 0r >nth '“"I " ie style. ° r the prevalence of examples inCa 8e. In° r ii ltS ne ’gliliourhood, but such is by no means thet° that i ,® rst place, the origin has never been attributedw e . oca hty by any author except Vitruvius , and even°1glit Jo I e . cre dit to his account, the merit of the first ideat^e stor ,llr ness to be given to the Athenians ; but at best^ OUl 'datio^ t0 ^ ^ this author rests on a very insecure? r iter h n ’ aS 1ve s hall presently attempt to show : No othertVi n th aS ^tlhu'lesd to any buildings of this order as existing atIi °' v not* an ^ ^ the style ever did prevail in that city, we haveVit ru . Sln gle example remaining to testify to the fact.
s ! J cc ount of the invention of the capital, is astor nb 0 f~~^allimachus, an Athenian sculptor, passing ther ° ,Jr >d t] le V oun S lady, observed an acanthus growing?Pon the ( - Sl< es °h a basket, covered with a tile, and placed®*>t do\vn° m ^’ and seeing that the tops of the leaves weref . hie, he War< ^ S ’ ' n '' ie form of volutes, by the resistance of.?'’ u ted ( .„ e . to °h the hint, and executed some columns withf hiose "r S ’ near C° r >nth, of a more slender proportion^irgj tl3 01 the Ionic , imitative of the figure and delicacy
^ t h°ugh bearing no marks of improbability in
of
ft
Otle
> hs ci'p,]jk- t )° m P are, l with facts, loses a considerable amount^'oifuf t • 1 'ty, and stands upon the same level as the othern ° f ‘ . es "elated by the same author. As regards the
'at
ftior
'he '^'ediately before us, it need only be remarked,
ear 1‘ V ^ lb viuj ut, iomma&u,
. -ueat • ^ specimens of this order have but little injL r< ‘ s ent(,(} if Vl ^v! 'he idea which one would suppose to haves ar| oes relati to 'h e mind of an artist under the circum-hi Mil l v , ’ " le foliage of what seems to be the earliestjj. 1 ' °f What j. aa h does n °t consist of acanthus leaves at all,tli' 3 ’ n the Tj 178 ^ 10m their shape been termed water-leaves;th! J^ket jm,i >rn!ln examples we see the best illustration of
I th,
! ^ esa the* 111 ^ acant hus ; in short, the earlier the example,"[hole s) . resein hhmce, a fact which throws discredit upon
and would lead us to believe that the latter
or q -ei no . SQ “ ls reason to doubt of the antiquity of the
*" n ach ^ rea ' as Vitruvius would have us believe ,PaiJ* before U8dour ' s hed about the 60th Olympiad, or 540at >ias, .. Christian sera. We are informed by(;<lifj 8a:; t , j n ‘ "hi., that the ancient temple of Minerva,
m a '"' 1 tliat
iti„ '"as ere f~: cad l a > having been destroyed, a seconditi't]" 1 s l 1 hirn] 0 Cte< ’ un der the direction of Scopas , far exceed-0r(] e le J > elop 0n Ur and Magnificence every building of the kindc °loh S VVer e nesas- dl1 this structure, all the three Grecianof ^P’oyed ; the outside was embellished withform* 0 .' ""as 8II * Ioni ® order; and the liypsethral area of thebf' - a
ail <li" °y theari, l is i 01 "?
q. ^*V1 y UUU V liv UJ 1 jjtv 1111 14.1 Ul vll VI lUv
ie ■ r . 0u ! lded with porticos and galleries above,
? f <l e ;\ the fir,
^oric and
-er v, V arst i ^ ac ? d in the fourth century before Christ,It ^ e ' a g j n . a ' y hich a distinct account of the Corinthian ., ri °t in ° duce d in any regular building, is to be found.' e emni eneral re quest till the third age of Rome ,
*0
tii e at- e h'ut f * ’’ Phe examples which are to be found ina nd some of them seem of a date posterior^osf ternn] 6 ^ >n3ana getting possession of that country;rtl0 ^ern J* • ^ u piter Olympius at Athens ,n ’ HltiT as ^Vent r !i ters are opinion that the Corinthian
^ 1 'uin?’ J fh Manvh!in he E gyP tians > and with g° od reason;
v ? Ut >fui ° E»v»t , ' lo rmed capitals are to be found amongJStej foi'in an’,; 16 taste > the delicacy of the foliage, theh'fio ) , ' v itU th e elegance of the leaves, caulicoli, andfe 8u Perior m ? etrical and easy disposition of the10r to anything yet discovered among3 p
the Egyptian ruins ; and even in the present day, thiscapital exhibits the utmost elegance, beauty, and richness,that have ever been attained in architectural composition,though many attempts have been made to exceed it.
Some writers suppose that the Corinthian arose naturallyout of the Doric order, and cite in favour of their hypothesis,the absence of bases, the simple capital, and tiie squareabacus, in the Tower of the Winds , the use of mutules in theshape of modilions, and such like; but we think those whomaintain its Egyptian origin, have the better evidence ontheir side.
The Corinthian order, like the other two, after beingintroduced, continued to be the fashionable order in Greece ,Italy, and Asia ; and was the only order well understood,and happily executed, by the Romans. Among the superbruins of Balbec and Palmyra, excepting the lower Ionic order in the circular temple, and a Doric column at theformer place, it is, we believe, the only order to be found.
Vitruvius says, the shafts of Corinthian columns have thesame symmetry as the Ionic , and that the difference betweenthe entire columns arises only from that of the heights oftheir capitals; the Ionic being one-third, and the Corinthian the whole diameter of the shaft, which, therefore, makes theheight of the Corinthian two-thirds of a diameter more thanthat of the Ionic: hence, as he has allowed the Ionic to beeight diameters, the Corinthian will be eight and two-thirds.
The average height of the column, inclusive of capital andbase, taking a mean proportional between those of the Pan-theon and of the temple of Jupiter Stator, is ten diameters,the shaft containing eight, and the remainder made up in thecapital and base.
The shaft in the ancient examples was almost invariablyfluted, and the flutes occasionally filled to about one-third oftheir height with cabling; the number of the flutes is generallytwenty-four, the same number as in the Ionic order, andarranged in the same manner, having a fillet between everytwo channels. The only ancient examples in which theflutes were omitted, were cases in which the shafts werecomposed of polished granite or some variegated marble, inwhich there was sufficient richness and play of colour, with-out further decoration.
The capital is separated from the shaft by an astragal andcincture, or fillet, and is in the shape of an inverted hell, theornamentation of which may be described as follows : Im-mediately above the astragal,,are two rows of acanthus orolive leaves one above the other, each row consisting of eightleaves; the upper row is arranged in such a manner as tohave one leaf immediately in the centre of each side of andbeneath the abacus, and one other under each corner of theabacus, which altogether, one in the centre of each side, andone at each angle of the capital, will make up the eight leaves.The leaves of the lower range are disposed so as to alternatewith those of the upper; that is to say, the spaces left betweenthe lower leaves are occupied by the lower portions or stalksof the upper leaves, or, in other words, the upper leaves risebetween the divisions of the lower ones. Between every twoof the leaves of the upper or second series, rises a stalk, out ofwhich springs a bunch of foliage, consisting of two leaves,one of which branches towards the centre of the abacus, andthe other towards the angle. We have therefore eight ofthese stalks, termed caulicoles, each giving out two branchesor leaves, of which therefore there are sixteen, and if weconsider their direction as above described, we shall find thatwe have two of them tending to meet at each angle, one fromeach contiguous side of the capital, and two likewise tendingtowards the centre of each side above the central leaf of thesecond range. Out of each of the leaves at the angles,