Corinthian capital an unbroken series of
foliated capitals can be traced down to our own day; almost the only
new ornamented type ever devised since being that which takes its
origin in the Romanesque block capital, known to us in England as the
early Norman cushion capital: this was certainly the parent of a
distinct series, though even these owe not a little to Greek
originals.

We have alluded to the Ionic base. It was derived from a very tall one
in use at Persepolis, and we meet with it first in the rich but clumsy
forms of the bases in the Asia Minor examples. In them we find the
height of the feature as used in Persia compressed, while great, and
to our eyes eccentric, elaboration marked the mouldings: these the
refinement of Attic taste afterwards simplified, till the profile of
the well-known Attic base was produced--a base which has had as wide
and lasting an influence as either of the original forms of capital.

The Corinthian order, as has been above remarked, is the natural
sequel of the Ionic. Had Greek architecture continued till it fell
into decadence, this order would have been the badge of it. As it was,
the decadence of Greek art was Roman art, and the Corinthian order was
the favourite order of the Romans; in fact all the important examples
of it which remain are Roman work.

If we remember how invariably use was made of one or other of the two
great types of the Greek order in all the buildings of the best Greek
time, with the addition towards its close of the Corinthian order, and
that these orders, a little more subdivided and a good deal modified,
have formed the substratum of Roman architecture and of that in use
during the last three centuries; and if we also bear in mind that
nearly all the columnar architecture of Early Christian, Byzantine,
Saracenic, and Gothic times, owes its forms to the same great source,
we may well admit that the invention and perfecting of the orders of
Greek architecture has been--with one exception--the most important
event in the architectural history of the world. That exception is, of
course, the introduction of the Arch.

_The Ornaments._

Greek Ornaments have exerted the same wide influence over the whole
course of Western art as Greek columns; and in their origin they are
equally interesting as specimens of Greek skill in adapting existing
types, and of Greek invention where no existing types would serve.

Few of the mouldings of Greek architecture ar