2-981-766 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Origin of the Corinthian Capital" - by P. Leyendecker, from the exhibition in the French Gallery, Pall-Mall, 1876. 'On the death of a young maid...her lover gathered the ornaments she had most valued...and placed them in a wicker basket, covered by a tile, upon her grave...an acanthus had taken root, and its graceful leaves shooting forth...twined round the basket and reverted beneath the tile in the form of volutes. Attracted by the beauty of the acanthus growth...Callimachus, the sculptor, and reputed inventor of the Corinthian order, made it the basis, or "motif," for the capital...the tile forming the abacus, the foliage the volutes, and the whole forming the summit of the elegant column which is the chief characteristic of the final development of Greek architecture...Unfortunately for the romantic story, there were Corinthian capitals previous to the time of Callimachus - i.e., about 540 B.C.'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.