Plate 92. The Doorway of the Erectheum at Athens

This beautiful example of a Grecian doorway, executed in Pentelic marble, is found under the four-columned portico of the Temple of Minerva Polias which we considered at Plates 30 and 33. As the spaces between the columns of the portico, in which was located this doorway, were at Stuart's time, about the middle of the former century, walled up, and this and neighboring parts occupied by the wives of the Turkish Pasha, Stuart and Revett could not gain access to the doorway and consequently no description of it was left by them. The English architect Donaldson took notice of it and described it in his valuable work (London, 1833), from which the representation on our plate is taken.

The scale has been reduced to modules and parts in order to simplify the comparison with the doorways on the following plate: The width of the opening at the top is taken as six modules.

Fig. 1 is an elevation of the entire doorway. The upper member of the cornice is a considerable distance from the ceiling of the portico, and the doorway is thus of normal size and in more proper keeping with the spacing of the columns of the portico than is the case with the examples on the next plate, the cornices of which reach to the level of the architrave of the entablatures, and in consequence of such a great height, the openings are necessarily wider than the column spaces of the prostyles. On the example under consideration the width of the door opening and the space between the columns are the same.

Fig. 2 shows part of the ornament at larger scale, and thereunder is a section of the trim which here consists of architrave and frieze, the latter far projecting and with ornamental rosettes. The width of this trim is one module nine parts and is the same width all around. According to Donaldson the console is also the same width at the top as at the bottom, but a cast of the same actually shows it a little wider at the top.

Fig. 3 is the vertical section of the lintel or cornice. It consists of one piece from the soffit of the jamb to the underside of the crown mould or cyma. Fig. 4 is the side view of the console and cyma, and Figs. 5 and 6 are sections of the former. The flower ornament springing out from the lower volute is pierced through. The leaf under is in a great part restored.

On Plate 36, at Figs. 1 to 4, the ornamentation of the members at a larger scale and the profiles are given. When these ornaments in their relative size are compared with one another on our plate there appears a variation in the scale of the same. The egg mould is very large and the pointed leaves on the cymatium of the architrave are too small and too much ornamented. It is also noticeable that the principal parts of the cornice are not so logically composed as on other monuments of the Periclean age. The corona as dominating member of the cornice is here in comparison with the other members too insignificant, low and little projecting, and hangs carelessly between the heavy consoles instead of resting upon them. For this reason the corona is entirely missing in the side view. The beautifully ornamented cyma is much too large, and, strictly speaking, is here entirely without constructive motive, for a cornice behind which there is no roof does not require a gutter, particularly in this case, as the whole is already under a roof. The conditions lead us to think that this doorway was not originated at the same time as the portico; also the pointed leaves in the architrave indicate a somewhat later period, and it is probable that the entire doorway was first executed after that time when this interesting building was restored (on account of a fire) shortly after 409 B. C.