Plate 54. The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates: the Order

With the Greeks, the capital alone forms the characteristic distinction of the Corinthian style, and only in deference to them can we consider this as a third order, for all the other parts were borrowed from the Ionic. The Romans were the first to individualize the different divisions of the Corinthian order.

The Greeks evolved two styles of the Corinthian capital in both of which the high basket or bell and the flat cover always formed the basis. In the plainer example the lower part of the basket is encircled with one or two rows of eight acanthus leaves each, behind which is a row of slender smooth leaves or palmettos covering the upper part of the rim. The cover has four straight fronts. On the second richly decorated capital, two rows of leaves also covered the lower part and behind or between the leaves of the upper row were stems from which sprung scrolls, part of which developed into spirals, or volutes in pairs, under the projecting corners of the cover, and a part clung to the middle of the front of the basket and was crowned with palmettos. The cover had concave fronts and pointed or truncated corners. The first style often occurs on small monuments of later times; for instance on the Temple of Apollo at Miletus, Plate 59; on the Tower of the Winds, Plate 60, on the Tomb of Mylasa, and at other places. The second style we find mostly on rich ornamental structures of earliest and later times and at different scales; as the Temple at Bassæ, Plate 59; the Temple of Apollo at Miletus, Plate 58; and on the monument of Lysicrates on Plate 54, to be now considered. There are in addition several variations, the most noteworthy of which will be taken up later.

The purpose of choragic monuments has been already given in our description of Plate 17. The monument to Lysicrates was a small tower-like structure, erected about 334 B. C., entirely of Pentelic marble, in the most elegant Grecian Corinthian style, and is still standing, considerably damaged, on its original site at the foot of the eastern side of the hill of the Acropolis. It is composed of the following parts: at the bottom is a postament-like structure 12 feet 8 inches high; on this stands a round six-columned Pseudo-Peripteral, the order and plan of which are shown on the preceding plate; and over the round entablature of the order vaults a flat cupola or dome, on which arises the magnificent finial which once supported the tripod.

Plate 54 gives the details of the columns and entablature. Each column, including base and capital, was in one piece, and the spaces between them were filled with thin slabs, so that only 13 flutes and 14 fillets were visible from the outside. The upper endings of the channels of the shaft are shown as plain leaves, and between them and the capital is a sinkage, which was presumably intended for a string of pearls. On the Normandian plate the capital is copied from Stuart, who represents it rather indistinctly and with a peculiar restoration, and because of this it has received unfavorable criticism. By means of a cast of the entire monument, which the art-loving Count Choiseul Gouffier had made at Athens, between the eighties and nineties of the former century, and had sent to Paris, further casts were constructed, from which we are better informed. From such a model we have drawn the capital as shown on Plate 53, as also the parts shown on the following Plates 55, 56, and 57, and can assure the student that the character of the leaves or foliage on the capital is very similar to that on the upper part of the finial shown on Plate 57, in fact that it belongs to the best class of Grecian ornament.

The architrave and frieze consist of a circular stone, the reliefs representing the victory of Bacchus over the sea robbers. The plate shows the central group, Bacchus feeding a panther. The drawing of the cornice on the Normandian plate is, like that of Stuart, incorrect, inasmuch as the face of the corona and the cresting are not perpendicular, but actually lean forward as given on our Plate 55, whereby a better relation with the roof behind is obtained, and at the same time an excellent optical effect is brought out. The several members on this order show delicate relations and elastic profiles which harmonize with the larger curves of the whole.