{"id":982,"date":"2019-12-09T04:58:42","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T04:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/curiosi\/?p=982"},"modified":"2020-01-11T14:16:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T14:16:10","slug":"allen-seaby-leon-of-massalia-chapter-12-the-stonemasons-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/curiosi\/allen-seaby-leon-of-massalia-chapter-12-the-stonemasons-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"Allen Seaby, Leon of Massalia, Chapter 12: The Stonemasons\u2019 Yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026\u2026 column\u2019s carven cap.
\nEuripides, Orestes<\/em><\/p>\n

Diokles had talked about the masonry being prepared in the yards below the Akropolis and invited Leon to come and look round. He called a few days later.<\/p>\n

There was much going on there. The tap of hammers, the hiss of long saws cutting through great slabs of stone, men pulling and tugging at blocks or using levers and crowbars. \u201cStand back!\u201d someone shouted in his ear, and Leon skipped aside as two men trundled a great block of marble weighing more than a ton. He marvelled at the clever way of moving the stone: wide hoops of wood had been fastened round it, so that it rolled easily.<\/p>\n

Just then Diokles came up and greeted Leon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are busy here as you see. Those fellows over there are \u201ctrueing\u201d the blocks with mallet and chisel. The stone has already been roughly dressed in the quarry. The masons here chisel the block to just outside the required measurements. If they take off too much there\u2019s trouble coming to them. The surface exposed on the building is left rough. You saw that being removed the other day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you like to see first?\u201d To my mind the most interesting is the way we prepare the blocks so that they can be moved and hoisted without damaging their surface. We\u2019ve got beyond the Egyptians\u2019 plan of setting up inclined ramps of earth and hauling the blocks up them. Of course they had plenty of haulers to do the work. However, we have no difficulty in moving our comparatively small blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wondering\u201d, said Leon, \u201cwhat the holes in the blocks were for. Almost every block seems to have one or more holes cut in it. There were no holes to be seen in the walling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u201d, laughed Diokles. \u201cNone of the holes are on exposed surfaces, but if you pulled the temple down you\u2019d see plenty. Look at this block near us: on either end, as you note, curved grooves are sunk. Cords can be fitted into the channels and connected with a hook at the end of a rope.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another part of the yard several capitals were being roughed out. On the plain face of one, a man was tracing the subtly curved volutes, using a template of thin bronze. In a corner men were working on bases and Leon noticed that gauges were used to obtain standard sizes.
\n\u201cAnd here you see lengths of moulding carved roughly,\u201d said Diokles. \u201cWe Greeks pride ourselves on our mouldings. The Egyptians used a great hollow moulding above their doorways and a roll beneath the hollow, but that\u2019s as far as they got. We know how the effect of our marble buildings is enhanced by good, well decorated mouldings. We avoid the use of the circle when we can, especially for mouldings. The geometricians have helped us. If you look at the curve of the capital on the Parthenon, you will see one of the most subtle curves ever drawn.\u201d Diokles took a piece of chalk and sketched it on a flat slab of stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere is the contour of the Parthenon capital. The curve continually flattens until by look or touch you cannot distinguish it from a flat surface. Our scientists call such a curve hyperbola. I regard the Parthenon capital as one of the triumphs of Greek art.\u201d
\nThe talk turned to the marble of which the temples had been built. Diokles beckoned Leon into the open and pointed to Mount Pentelikos, in the distance, from where all the marble used on the Parthenon came.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe temple now glows with its gold, blue and red. But, when I saw it newly completed as a small lad \u2013 gleaming white against our blue skies \u2013 I regretted that there had to be more work done on it. Pentelic marble darkens after exposure to the weather, however, and in the course of time the white of the marble sinks to a wine-coloured hue. Colour is therefore useful, to hide this change.
\nLeon remarked he would like to visit the quarries where the marble was obtained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can do that and soon\u201d, said Diokles. \u201cTomorrow I have to go to Mount Pentelikos to confer with the overseer there. We will walk and make a long day of it. Agreed? I will meet you a little before sunrise outside your lodging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

To read chapter thirteen click on this picture.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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