An encyclopaedia of domestic economy ... / by Thomas Webster ; assisted by the late Mrs. Parkes.

Webster, Thomas, 1773-1844

Date:: 1861

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An encyclopaedia of domestic economy ... / by Thomas Webster ; assisted by the late Mrs. Parkes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

29/1282 (page 7)

Fig. 3. is an example of the Greek Ionic, from the “ Antiquities of Ionia;” it is remarkable for the beauty of the large volutes in the capital. Fig- 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 4. is the Ionic order as executed by the Romans, and as used by the moderns previous to their knowledge of the Greek Ionic. The capitals have smaller volutes. Fig. 5. Fig. 6 Fig. 5. is the Greek Corinthian order, as it is seen in the Choragic monument at Athens. Fig. 6. is the Corinthian order as executed by the Romans, and as it is generally adopted by the moderns. The capitals are decorated with the sculptured leaves of the acanthus. Two other orders have been added, but these are not Greek. Of the Tuscan order we have no antique example ; and what has been given by modern writers and architects (fig. 7.) is founded merely upon the description of Vitru- vius. The other, called the Composite (fig. 8.), is altogether a Roman invention, formed by placing the Ionic volutes on the leaves of the Corinthian capital. Fig. 9. is the front of a Greek temple, which has served as the prototype to so many modern porticoes, 28. What was the earliest style of architecture employed in Rome is not known ; but it appears that on their conquest of Greece the Romans borrowed from that country much of the style of architectural decoration : they did not, however, copy the Greek manner entirely, but altered it, probably to adapt it to their own taste, and for other reasons with which we are not well acquainted. Suffice it here to notice, that the style observed in the ruins of antique Roman buildings is very different from what is to be seen in the ancient remains of Greece, as may be observed in the examples we have given above.