the width of the block. In the Greek Corinthian Order it was
first introduced into the Choragic monument of Lysicrates. It
was constantly employed by the Romans in their temples of
the Ionic and Corinthian Orders, the finest example being in the
bedmould of the temple of Castor in Rome, where it is twice the
height of the other mouldings.
Fig. 11.Fig. 12.Fig. 13.
In the Romanesque style the mouldings consist almost entirely of rounds and hollows, the former known as the bowtel, and in England, France, Spain and Germany employed to decorate or soften the angle of an arch mould. As the Romanesque arch frequently consisted of two or more rings of arches, projecting one in front of the other, to which rings the term “order” is sometimes given, the repetition of this simple moulding constituted an ample decoration by itself, but in the Norman work in England and the north of France there is found the constant recurrence of mouldings broken into zigzag lines and other decorations coming under the head of ornamental mouldings described below. The simple bowtel (fig. 12) was retained in France far into the Gothic period, but in the Early English style the mouldings (fig. 13) became lighter, being more boldly cut than in the Romanesque styles. Here again, as in the earlier style, each ring or order is enriched with a succession of alternate rounds and hollows, the latter Very deeply cut, and a few small fillets. The bowtel also is brought out to an angle which is sometimes emphasized by a small fillet; this is sometimes called the keel moulding from its resemblance in section to the bottom of a ship. Sometimes the angle of the ring is splayed, and the mouldings are worked on the splay, and this is very often found in the mouldings of the ribs of a vault (fig. 13a), giving greater lightness to the rib. The mouldings of the Decorated period (fig. 14) are more diversified than those of the Early English, and the hollows towards the end of the period become shallower and broader, ogees being frequently employed. One of the chief characteristics of the Perpendicular period (fig. 15) is the prevalence of large shallow hollows and the employment of two ogees in close contact with the convex sides next each other.
Fig. 13a.Fig. 14.Fig. 15.
The French mouldings of the Gothic period in Normandy and adjacent parts follow very much on the same lines as those in England, but in the south of France and in Germany they are very much simpler, and one rarely finds the deep hollow which forms the chief characteristic of English mouldings. In French flamboyant and late German Gothic work the mouldings run through, penetrating one another; these in Germany were sometimes cut off, having the appearance of the smaller stems of a tree from which some of the boughs have been lopped.
Ornamental Mouldings.—Although the mouldings in Greek and Roman architectural works are in general form much the same, they vary materially in their profiles and also in the refinement of their enrichment with carving. It is probable that the earliest decoration of mouldings was confined to the painting only of their surfaces, and in one or two of the more archaic examples traces of painting only are found on them. The desire to accentuate the ornament would seem to have led the Greeks at a very early date to incise or raise in relief the decorative designs which originally were painted only; at first this was done very sparingly, and in the earlier buildings but few mouldings were employed; in course of time they increased in number, and in the Augustan period in Rome the carving extended to the flat surfaces of the corona, and the fascia and soffits of the architrave.
The four principal Classic mouldings, so far as their enrichment with carving is concerned, were the cyma-recta or cymatium; the cyma-reversa or ogee; the echinus or ovolo; and the torus. The cymatium was almost always decorated with a conventional treatment of the flower of the acanthus plant, known generally as the anthemion and sometimes as the honeysuckle; the finest example is that which is found in the cornice of the north doorway of the Erechtheum (fig. 16). Although in some cases the flower of the acanthus is repeated in the Roman cymatium, the rigidity of the other lines does not seem to have appealed to the Roman sculptor, who preferred more foliage, such as is shown in the cymatium of the Forum of Nerva (fig. 17), there being endless variety of design in Roman examples.
| Fig. 16. | Fig. 17. |
The ogee-moulding in Greek work was always carved (fig. 18) with the Lesbian leaf (Fr. rais-de-cœur; Ger. Herzlaub), which in Roman work received a peculiar interpretation of the original design; not understanding, the modelling of the leaf and requiring a deeper shadow, the Roman drilled holes in it and evolved another composition of two leaves, so that the outer edge of the Lesbian leaf formed a trefoil cusp (Fr. talon trèflé), constituting a new description of border, as shown in fig. 19, from the temple of Castor at Rome.
Fig. 18.Fig. 19.
The ovolo moulding, whether employed in the bedmould of a cornice, on the capital of an anta, or in the Ionic capital, was always carved (fig. 20) with the egg and dart enrichment (Fr. ove et dard; Ger. Eierstab), which was spread out wider by the Roman carver, while holes pierced on each side of the tongue changed its design into that of the egg and tongue (fig. 21).
Fig. 20.Fig. 21.
In both the enriched ogee and the carved ovolo the design was never complete without the bead and reel underneath (figs. 20 and 21), there being always two beads and four reels to each leaf or egg. When employed as the crowning moulding of an architrave, the ogee is always capped by a fillet; and the same applies to the cymatium of the cornice. When the ogee moulding was of small size and employed in a subordinate position, as is constantly done in Roman work, crowning the modillion
