Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/180

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1 64 THESEUM, ERECHTHEUM, AND OTHER WORKS. Although the cornice of this door is certainly part of a re- storation, the resemblance to this original fragment goes to prove that the original decoration was recopied on it. The same is, i think, true of the consoles, for we know from the building inscrip- tion that the east door at least had consoles. A detailed examination of this doorway was published by Mr Schultz in the Hellenic Journal, vol. xii. (i 901), in which he proved that the present lintel was a restoration. (Fig. 165.) Even the holes where the work was " needled up " remain above the cymatium. From this account, and a further note by Mr Barnsley, we gather that the jambs are original, and held in position by I- clamps of metal fixed with the walling. The eyes of the rosettes on these jamb stones are deeply drilled out, and contain remains of wooden plugs, to the ends of which were probably attached little bronze caps, one of which is figured by Inwood.* Certain door slabs, 8 X 2^ feet, of marble inlaid with black, which are mentioned in the inscription, were probably the doors to the openings, 5 feet wide, between the west passage and the cella.f On this it may be observed that a fragment of a sixth century (B.C.) stone door at Argos has recently been described, and a similar door of about the second century (B.C.) is in the Louvre. In the. East, marble doors continued long in use. At the Leeds Museum there are two or three fragments of marble doors. At the east end is the "hexastyle portico." It was com- paratively perfect when Stuart made the beautiful view now in the library of the Institute of Architects (engraved in Stuart and Revett). Of this we have in the Museum the entire right-hand column, the anta capital behind it, and parts of the carved band in continuation. This band becomes richer at the anta, where it resembles the ornamentation under the capitals of the columns. This is a point against Choisy's contention that this eastern portico is of later work than the northern one. It is the bringing of the anta band on to the column which makes "the . chief singularity of the Erechtheum capitals, and allies them with the Corinthian. The resemblance of this band of vertical foliage, of which acanthus is already a part, to the lower part of a Corinthian capital, makes it, I suggest, a step towards Corinthian.

  • R. W. .Schultz. + S. Barnsley.