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292

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of such a mark as this the capital would have appeared stuntedand heavy, but, as it js the shadow produced by the sinking,marks to the eye a distinct division, and, in appearance atleast, increases, at the same time, the length and comparativelightness of the capital.

Above the hypotrachelium, the shaft, with its fluting, iscontinued for a short distance, and meets the annulets of thecapital in a curve or apothesis; this portion forming, accord-ing to our notion, the necking of the capital. The annuletscome next, and form the lower portion of wlmt may be termedthe capital-proper, about which there exists no difference ofopinion. The following particulars of the number and form of an-nulets, in different examples, are furnished by a contributor to“The Builder,”,to whose valuable writings, on this subject, weshall have occasion to advert more than once in this article:—

“ The annulets, in Grecian Doric columns, vary as well intheir profile as in their number. Some examples may beinteresting, to show the exhaustless genius of the Greeks,even in details the most minute, and that although the generalprinciples of art in the Doric order are the same, yet thatthey could produce great variety in their details. In theParthenon , that best and purest of all examples, we find,under the echinus of the capitals in the porticos, five rings,placed on a slope, continued, as it were, from the lower linkof the echinus, and in the columns of the pronaos of the sameedifice, there are but three rings. In the temple of Theseus ,the profile of the annulets is somewhat similar to that of theParthenon ; the rings are four in number, and the under sideof the lower arris of each ring is slightly undercut. In theexample from the portico at Athens , presumed to belong tothe Agora, or market-place, we see how widely the artistdeparted from the graceful and flowing outline of earlier pat-terns ; this, of the age of Augustus , is one of the latest knownexamples of Grecian-Doric , yet in many points it cannot besafely recommended for modern imitation. In the temple ofApollo Epicurius, at Bass®, a building of the pure ageof Greek art, the annulets are four in number, resembling intheir contour those in the Parthenon , excepting that thesecond and third rings recede a little from a line drawn fromthe first to the fourth. At Rhamnus, where are two temples,at Sunium, and in the Dodecastyle portico of Ceres at Eleusis ,the rings are three in number, profiled like the best examplesat Athens ; at Egesta and Selinus , they are three in number;at the temple of Jupiter Olympius, at Agrigentum , ofApollo in the isle of Delos, and in the portico of Philipat the same place, at Corinth (where the annulets have agreat projection, and are very deeply undercut), in theHypmthral temple at Pmstum, in the temple of Diana, inthe Propylma at Eleusis, in the Propytea at Athens (anexcellent example) and at Thoricus, the rings are four innumber. At the latter place the annulets are remarkable,and probably singular in their way. In the capital from thePseudodipteral temple at Passtum, in which many pecu-liarities are observable ; the immense size and projection ofthe abacus seem to crush the echinus, which has beneath ittwo rings, under which the flutings curl in the form of leaves.At Selinus, Mr. Woods noticed some remarkable features inthe capitals :—‘ The shape of these capitals is very peculiar;I have seen nothing like them in Greece , except a fragmenton a very small scale which I noticed at Corfu . The commonGrecian-Doric capitals in the best examples form a sort ofogee, and we find this curve at the third temple, but in thegreat temple, and in two of the three smaller ones, a deephollow interrupts the flow of the lines.’ These capitals wereeach cut out of a block of stone thirteen feet square.”

The next member of the capital is the echinus, which issimilar to an ovolo, or quarter-round moulding, and which,

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spreading out from above the annulets, serves to sU I’P ye rfoverhanging abacus. In the best examples it is usU ? ^ er tedflat in profile, being little more than a frustum of an j^gd, 8 scone, having its base rounded off at its edge, and q ul y a feit were, where it meets the abacus. Its use seem 8 ^ th®originated from an imitation of the cushion-cap 1 ) 8 Q reC \oflEgyptians, the lower portion only being reserved m e qualbuildings. The diameter of the top of the echinus i ^ t y 0to, or somewhat greater than, the lower diameter ^column. We refer again to the writer above allud® 0 t“ In those buildings which belong to the ^ eS rc ],fteC tSlGrecian art—the days of Pericles , and his chiet a g un j U ifliCallicrates and Ictinus—as seen at Athens , Bass®, ,j g,idThoricus, Eleusis , Rhamnus, and elsewhere, vve 8 ^ rVe J,that the echinus has its lower part either very slign 1 / T d»te,or else perfectly straight; whilst, in buildings or a ear jy i' e 'and of equivocal taste, we find that the moulding n^ ^gor asembles an elongated or ovate quarter-round, as m p ona ld'at Athens , and in a building at Cadachio. Profe ss 8 )I ) ( y reC te<'son has drawn notice to the general principle . a j g

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the Greeks in the composition of their Doric cap ltai '‘^ fthe necking to the abacus, the outline is that of a cy* a ^ g ty.having a projection that varied according to the ® ia ’ xan ipl ^of art peculiar to the country ; the existing Att ' c e ^ acU3 o'being but slightly projecting, while the immense gj C ;ly,the orders now remaining at Corinth, Passtum, and ’ ^

gives a bolder profile to the capital.” Sortie ' ® _- te r, yformed of the vast proportions of the temple or c ^ u ini' 13Agrigentum, when we find that the echinus of eacformed of two stones, each weighing 21% tons, he ^ v vln c *by plugs or dowels by the centre stone of the abac ’ g. r eeis in three pieces. In the capitals of the ant® ^ ^ fof ,aexamples the echinus is generally undercut, so ® b' r ^ 3 ,

that remarkable moulding called the hawk’s-bea a b» cl13beak moulding. The proportionate depth of me; b a )and echinus to each other, is not always the na eru^ e _as a general rule, it may be held, that the f° r ® t ye i' e,ashould have the greatest depth. In the Partheno ^j^tion, in this respect, is as 11 to 9 ; at Sunium a" tg g.

as 7 to 6 ; at Thoricus, as 6 to 5 ; at Eleusis , 8S ,_ a s, '

the best examples with which we are acquam ^ n as J 1instance, in the Parthenon and Theseum—yth enearly the same projection as the abacus (A 1 ■. . ai® j t

same in the temple of Apollo Epicurius, at Bassshall find, that the sharper is its outline—-that is,^ ^ e \a ^

is remote from the quarter-round—the more <estimation ; and that, as it approaches the ovo^ gneit may be traced to belong to a declining P erI ) ’ r j e r. y r3 tto the time of the Roman use of the Doric r ded tl 10 . flegrant for a moment, that timber construction am> ^gjn o ^hints for architectural composition, and that 11 ^ of* t ye

abacus may be traced to the intervention ol a e ^between the column and its entablature; ^ t y e ech' a u ti'advocates of this system find the prototype 0 „ t jj|g b e ‘ ( yeTo the Greeks we must look for the adopt' 01 ’ rnil nn er, . t yeful moulding, which connects, in such a hapPl^y m'ffj tosquare abacus with the circular shaft; an c0 rop e ^ thesaid to be their own invention, even if w6 y UIJ d ana 0 ^ 0 iradmit, that some slight hint for it is t0 ^ e , • „ has ' f,e .yin?'heavy capitals of Egypt . Professor Hosk' c y of n° , jtserved: “Greek architecture is disting; ^[c,more than for the grace and beauty of ’ ts ® ar e ecC ® c $a'be remarked of them generally, that 1 s y r \>e

™ Ua drawn, , ,

may be remarked ot tnem generally, •*•--- IO i -

and not regular curves. They must be “ ra d®/

not be described, or struckso that, tho a , y pi. „ a i/lnm that tu j

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called circular, or elliptical, it is seldom tna>so ; not but that they may be; but if they a >

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