Of the Doric Order.
This is the most ancient of the three orders, (set Plate CLVIII.) and, while employed by the Greeks, was without a base ; the surface of its shaft is usually found worked into twenty very flat flutes, meeting each other at an edge, which is sometimes a little rounded; the upper member of the capital is a square abacus or thin plinth, under which is a large and elegantly formed oyolo, with a great projection ; immediately under the ovolo, there are three fillets or which project from the continued line of the under part of the ovolo, and have equally recessed spaces betwixt thcm; the flut ings of the column are terminated by the under side of the last of these fillets, and either partly or entirely in a plain surface at right angles with the axis of the column.
The architrave is composed of one vertical face, with a band or fillet at its upper edge; to the under side of this band are suspended a small fillet and conical drops or guttae, which, for their position, are dependent upon the ordnance of the frieze.
The frieze consists of rectangular projections and re cesses placed alternately. The height of each projection or tablet is rather more than its breadth. The recesses are either perfectly or nearly square. The tablets arc each cut vertically into two angular channels, with two half ones on the extreme edges ; each channel is formed by two planes meeting at its bottom at a right angle, and each forming an angle of 135 degrees with the face of the tablet. The upper ends of the channels are terminated in various forms ; the tablets are, from their channellings named Triglyphs; in a direction immediately under each triglyph, and equal to its breadth, a small fillet is attach ed to the lower side of the architrave crowning band, and from it depend six guttx or drops, which are generally the frusta of cones with their basis downwards, though they are sometimes of a cylindrical shape. The square spaces in the frieze between the triglyphs, are named Metopes, and arc frequently decorated with sculptures.
The cornice is strongly marked by a corona of great projection, forming a very distinct separation between its upper and lower parts; and by having, below the corona, and immediately over the triglyphs, blocks named Mu tides, which also project considerably, and have the plane of their sollits with an inclination from their roofs towards the horizon, and these have likewise guttx or drops de pending from their soffits.
That the proportion which the different members of the Doric order bore to each other were practised by the Greeks with considerable latitude, will be evident from the following Tables, which exhibit the dimensions of the principal parts of this order in all the ancient Greek edifices which have been examined with accuracy. The dimensions here put down are in feet, inches, and deci mal parts. _ .
In the temples of Jupiter PaneHet this at iEgina, Theseus at Athens, Minerva at Sunium, Jupiter Nemeus between Argos and Corinth, the cornice has lost the ovolo or crowning member, the dimensions in the table are there fore taken without it ; the temple of Minerva Parthenon at Athens is the only ancient Greek edifice in which this member exists, and in this instance the lower extremity is recessed within the fillet which is immediately under it. Those parts marked with a star in the table are to
tally gone. The crowning member of the cornice of the portico of Philip King of Macedon is a eima-recta, hav ing its lower extremity also recessed within the fillet which is below it. The cornice of the hexastyle temple of Pestum is crowned with a cavetto. Being a singular circumstance in the Greek Doric, it leads to a suspicion that it may have been added in some subsequent repair.
From consulting these Tables, it will be seen, that in the best examples, the height of the architrave and frieze arc nearly equal; in the temple of Sunium they are pre cisely so. The only exception of consequence is in the temple of Juno Lucina at Agrigentum, where the ar chitrave exceeds the frieze 9i inches: in no other in stance is the difference at all material, and any that does exist has most probably arisen from the impracticability of procuring so many marbles of the same dimensions. In comparing the tabular dimensions, it is to be observed, that the band or capital of the triglyph is included in the height of that member. in Stuart's ilthens and the Ionian 4ntiguities, projects only in front, but never re turns upon the flanks but at the external angle of the edifice. With the exception of the Doric portico and the temple of Jupiter Nemeus, where the heads of the glyphs are terminated by planes parallel with thc hori zon, the middle part of the heads, in all the purest ex amples, is a horizontal plane, and the surface of the sides cylindrical, so as to form a tangent with the inter mediate plane, and likewise the arc on the face a tangent with the intersection of each vertical plane of the glyph. Each semi-glyph is terminated by two semi-cylindrical surfaces, the axis of each cylinder being perpendicular to each return of the glyph, and thereby forming a semi cylindric groin, and a pendent with each angle above the send-glyph. The general height of the epistyle or archi trave is equal to the superior diameter of the column, though in some cases a little more or less; the height of the zophorus or frieze is equal to that of the epistyle; the mean breadth of the triglyph tablet is equal to half the inferior diameter of the column; the mean height of the cornice is half the diameter ; so that the architrave, frieze, and cornice, arc respectively to each other as the numbers 3, 3, and 2. If the whole entablature is divided into 8, the breadth of the triglyph is two of these pants.