es, less use was made of painted decorations.

_Architectural Character._

Observations which have been made during the course of this and the
previous chapters will have gone far to point out the characteristics
of Greek art. An archaic and almost forbidding severity, with heavy
proportions and more strength than grace, marks the earliest Greek
buildings of which we have any fragments remaining. Dignity, sobriety,
refinement, and beauty are the qualities of the works of the best
period. The latest buildings were more rich, more ornate, and more
slender in their proportions and to a certain extent less severe.

[Illustration: FIG. 86.--METOPE FROM THE PARTHENON. CONFLICT BETWEEN
A CENTAUR AND ONE OF THE LAPITHAE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 87.--MOSAIC FROM THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS, OLYMPIA.]

Most carefully studied proportions prevailed, and were wrought out to
a pitch of completeness and refinement which is truly astounding.
Symmetry was the all but invariable law of composition. Yet in certain
respects--as, for example, the spacing and position of the columns--a
degree of freedom was enjoyed which Roman architecture did not
possess. Repetition ruled to the almost entire suppression of variety.
Disclosure of the arrangement and construction of the building was
almost complete, and hardly a trace of concealment can be detected.
Simplicity reigns in the earliest examples; the elaboration of even
the most ornamental is very chaste and graceful; and the whole effect
of Greek architecture is one of harmony, unity, and refined power.

[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF GREEK ORNAMENT

IN THE NORTHERN PORTICO OF THE ERECHTHEIUM--SHOWING THE
ORNAMENTATION OF THE CEILING.

FIG. 88.--SECTION OF THE PORTICO OF THE ERECHTHEIUM.

FIG. 89.--PLAN OF THE PORTICO--LOOKING UP.]

A general principle seldom pointed out which governs the application
of enrichments to mouldings in Greek architecture may be cited as a
good instance of the subtle yet admirable concord which existed
between the different features: it is as follows. _The outline of each
enrichment in relief was ordinarily described by the same line as the
profile of the moulding to which it was applied._ The egg enrichment
(Fig. 91) on the ovolo, the water-leaf on the cyma reversa (Figs. 92
and 97), the honeysuckle on the cyma recta (Fig. 94), and the
guilloche (Fig. 100) on the torus, are examples of the application of
this rule,--one which obviou