GREEK MOULDINGS The various divisions of an Order are adorned with mouldings projecting beyond the face of the parts to which they are applied. They vary somewhat in shape, ornamentation, and number, in the different Orders. There is more difference in this particular between the Doric and Ionic Orders, than between the Ionic and Corinthian.
The principal Greek mouldings are illustrated in Fig. 46, and will now be described. The fillet or listel, a narrow flat moulding (A), is seldom used alone, and generally with a larger moulding. When the fillet broadens out, it becomes a fascia, a name more prop erly applied to the several plain faces comprising the architrave (I).
The astragal (C) is the name of a small moulding whose outline is a half-circle. A large astragal is called a torus (0). In ordinary use the heavy moulding at the base of an Ionic or Corinthian column is a torus, while the light moulding separating the shaft from the neck ing of the capital is called the astragal.
Echinus (E) is the namenf a moulding whose outline is somewhat like the segment of an ellipse. In Roman work the echinus is debased to a quarter-round (K) in section, drawn with an exact quarter-circle.
The cove (D) is a concave moulding whose profile is the arc of a circle or of an ellipse.
The scotia (L) is a concave moulding whose outline is a cove. This moulding is generally used between two toruses at the base of the column.
The cyma (F) has an outline composed of a ccncave above and a convex below; it may be considered as compounded of a cove and a quarter-round.
The ogee (B) is the reverse of the cyma,- convex above and concave below—or, as it were, a quarter-round above a cove.
The corona (G) is the term applied to the upper projecting part of a cornice, between the crowning moulding or cyma and the lower edge or soffit of the projection; its principal purpose is to shed' rain water beyond the face of the wall. The underside of a corona is termed the soffit (II).
A characteristic Greek section is that shown at M—the beak moulding so-called—where the member is deeply undercut for the purpose of forming a drip.
Mutules and triglyphs, distinctive parts of the Doric Order only, will be defined more thoroughly later on when discussing that Order.
All these mouldings may be indefinitely varied to suit their location and purpose. They may have more or less sharpness of outline, more
or less projection, and invariably derive their effect solely from the play of light and shade upon their surfaces. Their architectural character is determined even more by the refinement, than by the sharpness or flatness, of their outline. By combination in different groups, we obtain a body of mouldings whose outline will have a character depending on the greater or less projection of the different members used in the composition. Sharp outlines result from marked projections; blunt outlines, from slight projections; and "limp" out lines are the result of a composition in which all the mouldings are of equal importance. Accordingly, in architectural design, the study of profile with regard to the action of light and shade across its surface is of the utmost importance; and the use of mouldings is further corn plicated by their decoration with carving, or, as was done by the Greek artists, even with painting.
The use and proportions of these mouldings should also be studied in the plates devoted to the illustration of Greek architecture and the Greek Orders, and in Plate XXXIX, in which some of the most characteristic sections are shown at one-sixth their actual size. In this plate, the mouldings numbered 1, 2, and 3 are sections taken from capitals of the Parthenon, showing the echinus moulding and the channelings beneath it. Mouldings 4 and 5 are from capitals of the Propylaea at Athens; and moulding 6, from the Theseum. Mouldings 7, 8, and 9 indicate the method of determining the flutings on the shafts of the various Doric columns used in the Parthenon. Moulding 10 is a section through a portion of a cornice at the Parthenon. Moulding 11 is from the Propylaea; moulding 12, from the Erechtheum; and moulding 13, from the Theseum—all at Athens. A base moulding from the Theseum is shown at 14, while at 15 the cap of an anta from the same temple is illustrated. Moulding 16 is taken through the base of the column of the Monument of Lysicrates, and extends to the face of the course upon which it sets. Mouldings 17 and 18 are bases from the north porch of the Erechtheum, one taken from the base of the column, and the other from the accompanying anta.