Within the frame, instead of a leaf surface, there is a deeply cut bunch of acanthus foliage, or a little flower. In general, it must be remembered that many mouldings which to-day are undec orated, were painted in Greek, Romanesque and Gothic work.
The historical use of mould ings in the Western world seems to have developed from two, and perhaps three sources : Egyptian, Hittite and possibly Doric or Hellenic. In Mesopotamia, where the chief building material was brick, mouldings were rare or absent in architecture, although they probably occurred in wooden furniture. In Egypt, on the other hand, where first reeds and mud, and later stone were the most common materials, the use of a cornice consisting of a cavetto above with a small torus below was universal. The torus was usually painted to represent a bunch of reeds tied together, and the cavetto with a series of vertical forms, as though to repre sent the tops of reeds used as walling. Many remains of stone bases, in Hittite sites, show that moulding was a common form of Hittite decoration, and Hittite influence may account for simi lar forms in Assyrian art and the Persian interest in mouldings on their columns. In Aegean art, on the contrary, mouldings are of little importance, except in the one case of the echinus (q.v.), or ovolo used as the capital of a column, as in the stair hall of the palace at Cnossus (c. 1500 B.c.), and the door of the tholos of Atreus at Mycenae (c. 1200 B C.). The latter is noteworthy in that the echinus is carved, and that below it' is an apophyge decorated with little, vertical leaves, a form of ornament that also appears on certain early Doric capitals.
Hellenic Influx into Eastern Mediterranean.—This brought a new interest in mouldings, perhaps from an origin in common with the Hittite interest. At first this was tentative only, especially in Greece proper, and the Doric order makes but little use of mouldings except fillets, a small bird beak as a drip at the top of the cornice, and a cymatium on the sloping cornice of a pediment. The most important use of moulding is that in the echinus of the Doric capital, which is probably a de velopment of earlier Aegean forms, and in the delicate mouldings which form the echinus of the anta (q.v.) capital. In the ovolo
of the echinus there is a continual development from broad, flat, elliptical, much projecting profiles in the early work, through greater and greater refinement, until in such late work as the gate of the Agora at Athens, its sections is almost a straight line.
The greatest development of Greek moulding came through the Ionians of Asia Minor, and the adoption, throughout the Greek world, of the Ionic order, which originated in Asia. In this order, the rectangularity of the Doric yielded to the greatest possible graciousness of moulded surface, and the profiles of the cyma recta of the cymatium, the ovolo and cyma reversa of the bed mould, and the torus and scotia of the base represented, in many cases, the supreme refinement and perfection of curve to which such mouldings can attain. It is characteristic that these mould ings were almost all quirked (having the convex portion brought sharply in at the top to emphasize shadow, and in the cyma reversa, the concave portion also similarly brought out). Fur thermore, Greek moulding profiles are always characterized by a constantly changing radius of curvature, and their decorations cut with the most exquisite delicacy.
Mouldings are generally larger, bolder and more obvious, with sections in monumental work usu ally approximating circular curves, and the units of decoration more widely spaced and thicker, in order to count more strongly at their usually greater distance from the eye than in the smaller Greek examples. In the effort to obtain decorative richness, the Romans also experimented with various new moulding ornaments such as fish scales or imbrications, spiral rope mouldings, rows of flat, vertical leaves, etc. The results, while usually well com posed and gorgeous in effect, often lacked the delicacy of Greek examples. In buildings of a smaller scale, such as the houses at Pompeii, all types and characters of mouldings were used; elliptical sections and quirks were common, as well as bevels, in clined planes and sharp, deep hollows.