It must be noticed that the sections of Greek mouldings are totally different from those afterward developed by the Romans. The members or mouldings composing the Greek entablatures and used throughout their buildings and Orders, are very strongly characterized ; and were designed with a sole regard to their effect in gathering shadow and forming a drip to throw off the water running over them, and so protect the face of the stonework below. These mouldings were cut quite without any regard for the expenditure of time or labor, and for that reason they are very difficult to reproduce under modern con ditions.
In any use of Greek motives, or in any place where the Greek effect of purity is desired to be obtained, particular care should be taken to use the characteristic mouldings which the Greeks them selves developed to such a wonderful degree of refinement and per fection; and we should acknowledge, by copying these sections as exactly as possible, the fact that they are indisputably more perfect and distinctive than any variation that we are likely to invent to-day.
These mouldings are of a fineness that requires their execution in the finest materials, in which alone they can be cut with any degree of refinement and truth. This cutting, too, requires a skill and care on the part of the workman that may be attained to-day only under the most exceptional conditions and at great proportional expense. Each bit of detail or moulding should be produced with the utmost exacti tude from some careful study of the original Greek form. The least hesitation in touch or carelessness in handling must result in a definite blemish. • Decoration of Mouldings. It will always be noted that certain mouldings bespeak certain definite and characteristic carved or painted ornaments. In Plate XL are shown some Greek mouldings with the proper accompanying ornaments which the Greek sculptors devised to enrich and increase the effect of the different moulding sections.
The fitness of the ornament to emphasize in all cases the contour of the moulding section, should be especially noticed. It does not confuse and hide the member as a whole at the expense of the shadow effect which its contour is designed to produce, as is often the case in later Roman work; but in each instance the placing of shadow on the carved member helps to accent and increase, for the spectator, the outline effect of the cofnplete moulding.
At K, L and N are shown various modifications of the well-known Greek fret, or band ornament. This ornament is used in a great variety of forms, and, as employed by the Greeks upon plain surfaces, must be considered the most perfect decoration that has ever been evolved from the use of a geometrical figure composed solely of right angled lines.
The guilloche, or woven-band moulding, shown at 0, as well as the simpler form at DI, also embodies a distinctive Greek method of enriching a flat or slightly curved band, while the same design is fre quently employed on the torus moulding (C).
The so-called running dog or Vitruvian wave moulding shown over the guilloche at M, is also a typical Greek decorative ornament, and is used in much the same maner as is the fret. At P and Q are shown two portions of the palmette or honeysuckle and akroter ornament, consisting of two alternating plant forms connected by scrolls. These examples are taken from the pilaster and column friezes of the Erechtheum at Athens. This design is frequently used on a crowning cyma moulding of large size (B).
The egg-and-dart moulding (I) is a succession of repetition:: of forms derived from the egg and the arrow, and is a characteristic decoration of the echinus or quarter-round.
Beads, or reels and beads alternating singly or in groups, are the characteristic ornament of the astragal (A, C, D).
The leaf-and-dart (G, J,—water plant and arrows) is applied to the ogee.