levers to stir the tenons in the mortice-holes, it is common to introduce a further member either at right angles to the verticals, like the cross-piece C, or laid diagonally across Ε A B FIG. 23.-Diagram of timber-construction. the corner as at D, or filling in the corner with a solid These additional pieces act in triangular block like E. resisting lateral movement and keep all firm. In wood-construction accordingly we may expect to find long extended lines corresponding to the shape of planks or beams; the principal members of the framework will cross each other at right angles, and the corners may be filled in by a diagonal member securing lateral rigidity. The ordinary construction of our household furniture will serve for illustration. CHAP. I The Doric Temple 241 § 147. These characteristics appear in the forms of the Greek Temple. Now the columned façade of the Greek temple (see Fig. 8, p. 35) exhibits exactly this same system of structure petrified, with certain modifications due to an apt sense of the characteristics of the substituted material. In actual timber construction, where long beams are easily to be had and where the material is extremely tough and resisting, the supports are placed far apart, and are joined by lengthy horizontals; and some early temple porticoes in Greece, such as the Heræum at Olympia, preserve this arrangement. In employing stone, however, the Greeks soon came to realise the characteristics of the material, and altered the proportions of the parts in the direction of far greater massiveness, endeavouring hereby to secure that monumental aspect the tradition of which civilised architecture had inherited from the primeval past. Accordingly, in the fully developed Doric style, the columns are made extremely sturdy, and are placed so close together that the space between them is less than twice their lower diameter. The object is that they shall not only support the weight above, but proclaim that they are doing so with a superabundance of power, and this is carried so far that according to Boetticher all known Doric columns are thicker by at least one-fourth than they need have been to do the work required.1 In their form they carry out the same artistic intention. The question of the origin of the fluting of the shaft is an extremely puzzling one, but there is no doubt that its artistic use is to emphasise the upright character of the column by accentuating through repetition its outline (compare § 125). The entasis of the column has also been 1 Die Tektonik der Hellenen, 2te Aufl., Berlin, 1874, i. p. 10. much discussed, but it is sufficient for our purpose to note that the slight outward swell of the tapering lines which bound the shaft (recalling perhaps the rounded forms of organised living creatures) conveys an impression of the fulness of life and energy highly conducive to the effect desired. The thinning of the shaft above hints at a fixed limit of height, which no mere cylinder would suggest, and when we have arrived at this we are prepared for the transition to the horizontal members above. The square slab or abacus on the top of the column, with its projecting surface, is evidently destined to embrace and receive the superincumbent weight, but between it and the shaft occurs the rounded form of the echinus. This is again a fertile theme of controversy, but it may be suitably regarded as an example of a diagonal form filling up the corner between the upright and the horizontal according to the common construction of woodwork (Fig. 23, p. 240). This explanation is borne out by the appearance throughout the building of such transitional forms wherever there is a meeting of vertical with horizontal planes. The corner is everywhere occupied by a moulding with curved profile, that may have had constructive significance in woodwork, but has none in stone, and is used in stone partly as a reminiscence, partly for artistic reasons to soften the sharp transition from one plane to another, or from support to weight. Above the abacus we find the horizontal beams of the architrave. These in strict logic complete the scheme of construction, and in the Egyptian portico are followed immediately by the slabs of the ceiling and the cornice. To the Greek eye however there was a want of due proportion between the lofty and massive supports and the shallow architrave, and to restore the balance an additional story, so to say, was added, lifting the cornice to a higher level and forming an entablature correspondent to CHAP. I Analysis of Doric Forms 243 the mass of the supports. This extra story is the frieze, in the Doric order formed of triglyphs, or short upright pillars, fluted or rather grooved in a way that reminds us of the column-shaft below. These pillars carry the cornice, just as the columns below carry the architrave, the intermediate spaces, called 'metopes,' being filled in with slabs (see Fig. 8, p. 35). The curious forms of the regula below the string course, with their 'drops' or nail-heads, which obviously originated in wood construction, are now employed in connection with the triglyphs, to prepare the eye for them before it passes the dividing line between architecture and frieze, and so to prevent the too absolute separation of the two divisions of the entablature. Above the frieze comes the boldly projecting cornice reminding us of the eaves of a timber roof. The entablature presents however other features of more special interest to our purpose. These are the moulded string - courses— projecting strips of stonework running the whole length of the elevation, marking off the architrave from the frieze, the frieze from the cornice, and dividing the latter in the direction of its length. The string-course may be quite plain, square on section as is the band between the architrave and frieze on the Doric entablature; or the profile of it may be inoulded, so that part projects and catches the light, part is worked into a hollow the concavity of which produces a line of shadow. This indispensable feature in the artistic effect of the elevation is again one of the debts that stone architecture owes to wood. It is essentially a carpenter's form and developed naturally from the use of material that extends to great length in one direction. So easily are mouldings made out of wood, that miles of them profiled in every conceivable manner, are issued every day out of the planing-mills for use in interior fittings. The long continuous line is not in accordance with the natural genius of stonework, which expresses itself rather in 'bossy' treatment of single blocks, as in the so-called rustic work. § 148. Significance of the fact thus established. The foregoing will justify, it is believed, the view enunciated earlier in this chapter, that the beauty of architecture is based on construction, but is by no means in a slavish relation thereto. The forms used by the Doric builders are in some cases mainly constructive, in others mainly artistic, or they have equal significance from either point of view. The classical façade is a standard for architects of all time because all the parts have a reason, and are in an organic relation each to each. They all possess what Boetticher in his Tektonik happily terms a 'work-form' and an art-form,' the former consisting in a general shape and body of material adequate for the work to be performed; the latter in a studied contour, in details, and in ornament, which are not only pleasing to the eye but are significant of the function and interdependence of the forms so treated. The 'work-form' of the column is just so many cubic feet of stone in the shape of a support, the 'art-form' comprises the increase of mass, the tapering, entasis, fluting of the shaft, by which it becomes so expressive of its use; and the echinus and abacus of the capital by which is emphasised the all-important relation of the support to the weight which rests above. § 149. Use of the forms thus established, as conventions, in later Architecture, as in Roman and neo-classic work; The forms thus constituted became standard forms in ancient, and later on also in modern, architecture, and |