autiful
cushion-shaped member with its two spirally marked volutes. This,
though a less rational and expressive form for its particular office
than is the echinus of the Doric cap, is a far more perfect symbol of
the feminine element in nature. There is an essential identity between
the Ionic cap and the classic console before referred to--although
superficially the two do not resemble each other--for a straight line
and a double spiral are elements common to both (Illustration 10).
The Corinthian capital consists of an ordered mass of delicately
sculptured leaf and scroll forms sustaining an abacus which though
relatively masculine is yet more curved and feminine than that of any
other style. In the caulicole of a Corinthian cap In and Yo are again
contrasted. In the unique and exquisite capital from the Tower of the
Winds at Athens, the two are well suggested in the simple, erect, and
pointed leaf forms of the upper part, contrasted with the complex,
deliquescent, rounded ones from which they spring. The essential
identity of principle subsisting between this cap and the Renaissance
baluster by San Gallo is easily seen (Illustration 13).
[Illustration 11]
[Illustration 12]
This law of sex-expressiveness is of such universality that it can
be made the basis of an analysis of the architectural ornament of any
style or period. It is more than mere opposition and contrast. The egg
and tongue motif, which has persisted throughout so many centuries and
survived so many styles, exhibits an alternation of forms resembling
phallic emblems. Yo and In are well suggested in the channeled
triglyphs and the sculptured metopes of a Doric frieze, in the
straight and vertical mullions and the flowing tracery of Gothic
windows, in the banded torus, the bead and reel, and other familiar
ornamented mouldings (Illustrations 14, 15, 16).
There are indications that at some time during the development
of Gothic architecture in France, this sex-distinction became a
recognized principle, moulding and modifying the design of a cathedral
in much the same way that sex modifies bodily structure. The masonic
guilds of the Middle Ages were custodians of the esoteric--which is
the theosophic--side of the Christian faith, and every student of
esotericism knows how fundamental and how far-reaching is this idea of
sex.
[Illustration 13: CAPITAL FROM THE TOWER OF THE WINDS, ATHENS;
CORINTHIAN CAP FROM HADRIAN BUILDINGS, ATHENS; ROSETTE FROM T
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