67) with the Temple of Minerva Polias, which had its entrance or portico at the side towards the north. To this porch belongs the doorway that is separately de scribed. Opposite this portico, on the south side of the building and facing towards the Parthe non, is the Tribune or Porch of the Caryatides, (Fig. 80) or the Temple of Pandrosus. The cary atides are placed on a very high stylobate, or basement, beautifully moulded and carved. It will be seen that the main body of the building itself, leaving out these north and south porches, follows the same simple plan whose de velopment we have already traced; and it is only in viewing the ex terior of the building (Fig. 68), that any confusion on this point might arise.
There are no less than three different sets of columns of the Ionic Order employed on this building. The principal one is at the east end or front, with a subsidiary column of almost the same height on the porch of Minerva Polias, while the west or rear wall of the building is decorated with four attached Ionic columns of the same order in antis, these being of a still smaller size and having windows placed in the spaces between them. This building may be considered as the most pretentious and highly enriched example of Greek temple architecture; combining, as it does, the use of the graceful Ionic Order in what was to the Greeks its most ornamented and highest developed form, with the addition of the beautiful and unique Porch of the Caryatides. The combination in one group of these three temples was evidently consid ered by their creators as a tour de force; while the way in which the portico to the Temple of Minerva Polias is arranged—so as to place its center on the axis of the door to this temple and still tie it in to the whole composition, even though it projects beyond the end of the body of the building—is a naive and most successfully natural solution of the problem.
We have already seen that this building, the Erechtheum, fur nishes two, or more properly three, uses of the column of this Order. On the four-columned North Porch of the Temple of Minerva Polias (Fig. 68) and on the six-columned main entrance to the Temple of the Erechtheum at the east, very gimilar forms of the capital are employed. These two different columns, the first a little over twenty-five and the second a little over twenty-one feet in height, are placed under the same entablature, and should be accepted as the highest development of the ornamented Greek Ionic form. Besides this, a smaller column of the same type is used at the west end between the window openings, but attached to the wall behind it.
The entablature used with the decorated Ionic capital on the Erechtheum is shown in Plate XLV, where the beautiful proportions of its various horizontal parts and mouldings may be studied carefully. The use of carved or ornamented members in this cornice is especially notable, from the restraint employed in placing them at the exact points where this enriched line demarks most plainly the main horizon tal divisions of the entablature and strengthens the more important shadows cast by the moulded sections. The carved bed-mould of the cornice, and the ornamented member of the crowning part of the architrave, are shown at a large size in A and B; while at C are given the carved members of the ants used with the column, the base of which is shown at D, opposite the enlarged section of the Attic base of the Erechtheum columns at E. This plate will indicate the great refinement and purity of the best type of ornamental Greek carved mouldings, and will also show how closely the character of the carving follows and emphasizes the contour of the moulded section itself.
Various Examples of the Ionic Order. There are many types of the Ionic Order where the capitals are of different characters, and a short description of each will be found necessary in order to compre hend, in even a rapid fashion, the character which is given to these designs and details, and the different elements that compose the most beautiful examples. At Athens, and particularly in the Temple of the Wingless Victory (Plate XLII), the mouldings forming the roll of the volute are divided and bent towards the axis of the capital. At Phigalia (Fig. 64), the volutes, being larger and simpler and with much projection, are rejoined to each other about the axis. In Asia Minor, the volutes are in general relieved by absolutely horizontal mouldings (Fig. 65). These three general types will show the variety of the different capitals used in the Greek Ionic Order. In the old examples the volutes were given more projection, and afterwards apparently reduced on account of exigencies of construction. They are also more developed or refined in treatment in later Orders, and the eye of the volute is ordinarily placed in plane with the line of the shaft. It is not very late in Italy when the eyes of the volutes are placed still nearer each other, and we find them coming even inside of this line.