In Retrospective Columns, Samuel Holzman examines an eccentric case of decorative creativity: Ionic capitals that combine one face with concave volutes and one face with convex volutes. Holzman terms them “bilingual capitals,” bringing them into conversation with other categories of material culture, including incuse coins and vases that combined red- and black-figure scenes on opposite sides. The book’s central argument is that these bilingual capitals were “retrospective”—that the contrast between the concave and convex volutes referenced contemporary and archaistic Ionic styles. Holzman introduces this idea with reference to the 4th-century BCE temple of Athena at Ephesos, built after the destruction of the famous Artemision (supposedly the first temple to use the Ionic order) in 356 BCE. The Ionic capitals of the Athena temple combined outward-facing concave volutes, as was the contemporary style of the Ionic order, with inward-facing convex volutes, as was the case in the 6th-century phase of the temple of Artemis. Holzman describes how an ancient visitor to the temple of Athena at Ephesos may have felt like they were stepping back in time. They would have entered through the façade decorated with the contemporary style and stepped into the interior, whose architectural sculpture was reminiscent of the Archaic phase. In this example, the capitals, and the architectural program they were a part of, served to reference the building’s, and the site’s, historical and mythical past.
Holzman’s book covers the nine identified monuments with bilingual columns capitals, from which approximately 30 capitals in total have been identified, which are dated from the mid-6th to mid-3rd centuries BCE. The monuments, and the architecture Holzman discusses more generally, are primarily found around the Aegean, the Ionian coast, and mainland Greece, though he extends his treatment as far as Sicily. Holzman collects this dataset into a single publication in order to integrate them into the larger history and development of the Ionic order, using the bilingual capitals to demonstrate the heterogeneity inherent in Ionic architecture. More broadly, Holzman uses the capitals as a starting point for a wide-ranging discussion of topics in ancient Greek architectural history, including stone carving processes, visibility of decoration, the interplay of light and shadow, and polychromy.
Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of variability within Greek architectural orders, particularly in cases where the decoration is heterogenous by circumstance, such as when construction took long enough that multiple decorative schemes are present. Holzman uses such examples to distinguish them from bilingual capitals, which he argues are heterogenous by design. He also discusses “distributed agency” in the design and construction of a building and specifically its capitals. Agents included at a minimum architects, patrons, and stone masons. By centering the builders and decision-makers, Holzman argues that bilingual Ionic capitals offer a window into how architectural decoration shaped and was shaped by the shifting religious, civic, and ethnic identities of the communities by which the buildings were constructed.
The second chapter treats the propylon of the Sanctuary of Apollo on Delos, constructed at the end of the 6th century BCE. This building incorporated the first fully formed bilingual Ionic column capitals. Holzman reconstructs the propylon, contextualizing the architectural decoration and its neighboring buildings, arguing that the bilingual capitals served as a connecting point for these related architectural elements and structures. Having established the context in which the bilingual capitals were situated, Holzman embarks on a discussion of the conditions of the capitals’ visibility. He pushes back on the assumption that the concave faces normally faced outward to receive direct light and that the convex faces were only seen in the darker interior space of the building, and states instead that the corner capital of the porch had its convex faces on the exterior for maximum visibility. Although this discussion relates specifically to the reconstruction and reception of the propylon, Holzman’s observation has broader implication for our understanding of the visibility of architectural decoration.
Chapter 3 focuses on a single bilingual Ionic capital from a freestanding monument near Oropos (dated ca. 550 BCE), possibly serving as the base of a votive offering. The capital combines Ionic and Aeolic elements with slight convex and concave volutes on each side. Holzman takes this opportunity to offer a detailed description of the process of carving a capital such as this, including the steps and tools involved. In response to a traditional argument that convex volutes were produced because they took less time to carve, Holzman carved a portion of both a convex and concave volute himself. He found that although carving a concave volute required the removal of more material from the face of the capital, the difference in carving time is negligible since the helix of convex volutes necessitates greater care to carve. Holzman returns to the issue of visibility conditions, examining the interplay of light and shadow on bilingual columns and in Greek architecture more broadly, and concludes that bilingual capitals created similar chiaroscuro effects to the column fluting and convex and concave moldings.
Holzman focuses on two temples in the northern Aegean in chapter 4: the temple of Parthenos in Neapolis (modern Kavala) (ca. 480 BCE), and an unattributed temple in modern Thessaloniki, probably originally built in Therme around 500 BCE and moved in the Roman period. Holzman relates the duality inherent in the bilingual capitals of the temple in Neapolis to the syncretism between the Greek goddess Artemis and the Thracian goddess Bendis, and the tension between the local identity of the city and the colonial connections to the metropolis of Thasos. In the case of the itinerant temple in Thessaloniki, a secure identification of the patron deity is more difficult, but the two main candidates, Dionysos Thermaios and Aphrodite Aeneias, are also both products of local and colonial syncretism. The archaicizing architectural elements, including the bilingual capitals, were salvaged to imbue the newly constructed temple with a sense of antiquity.
Chapter 5 explores the transition from the Archaic to the Classical period and the Doric to the Ionic style in Attica, using two monuments from Eretria and the Attic deme of Pallene as examples. The Eretrian capital, dated to the decades preceding 490 BCE, came from an unknown monument whose materials were spoliated for the construction of a Christian-period house. Likewise, the capitals from Pallene were found reused in two nearby churches and were originally created for an Ionic temple. Holzman offers an overview of polychromy in Doric and Ionic architectural decoration, and of the development of the Attic Ionic style which preferred smooth surfaces on which to paint the detail that was carved in the earlier version of the Ionic order. In the case of the bilingual capitals from these two structures, the side with a convex volute was paired with sculpturally detailed molding, whereas the side with the concave volute was left with plain surfaces on which to apply painted decoration. Holzman demonstrates that there is wide variation both in the type of painted decoration and range of colors used for these capitals, though certain patterns are observable. In his survey of Ionic capitals that preserve traces of paint, the canalis of the volute is always left unpainted, which would have emphasized rather than obscured the bilingual nature. As architects and sculptors developed the Attic Ionic style with its emphasis on smooth surfaces for receiving painted decoration, the creators of bilingual capitals juxtaposed the new Attic mode of concave volutes with the sculpted style of earlier Ionic convex volutes.
In chapter 6, Holzman looks at monuments dated to the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods in Ephesos, Selinous, and Delphi. In each case, the retrospective nature of the monuments referenced the long history of Ionic building projects at the sites. Patrons were able to distinguish themselves through associating their buildings with the architectural history of their cities. Holzman uses the monument of Aristaineta in Delphi, reconstructing its placement and visibility within the sanctuary of Apollo, to show how a passerby walking up the slope of the sanctuary would have been offered many different vantage points to take in the convex and concave faces with their archaizing and atticizing attributes. In these examples, the high-relief concave sides were placed in direct sunlight to emphasize the contrast, which differs from earlier bilingual capitals.
The book ends with a brief conclusion in which Holzman summarizes his chapters and argument. He returns to the retrospective element laid out at the start and describes how patrons and architects used bilingual capitals to assert a connection with the cults of the Ionian mother cities like Ephesos, Samos, and Didyma. which were all eclectic in their own right. The conclusion presents his central argument, incorporating each of the monuments together, which is helpful because at times in the intervening chapters, the discussion can feel far-ranging enough that the retrospective aspect falls out of focus for a more general discussion of the variegation in Ionic architectural decoration and development. Holzman’s retrospective argument is convincing, but his contribution feels more focused on highlighting these bilingual column capitals, collecting them into a single publication, and integrating them into the larger history of the Ionic order. He employs them as an important example for understanding the inherent heterogeneity of the Ionic architectural decoration, and the ways in which ancient viewers expected variety in the carving and painting of Ionic column capitals.
Even though the dataset is limited to approximately 30 column capitals, Holzman’s discussion spans multiple centuries and connects much of the eastern Mediterranean. Holzman shows how even particular, idiosyncratic architectural elements were part of a larger narrative of architectural development, knowledge transmission, and expression of civic identity in the ancient world. There are many excellent color and black and white images that illustrate his arguments throughout. The appendix includes clear diagrams of the terminology used to describe elements of an Ionic capital and its decoration. Even the cover embossed with a convex and concave Ionic capital face offers a tactile representation of the differences in the two sides of a bilingual capital. In conclusion, Holzman’s well-documented and compelling monograph makes a relatively niche aspect of Greek architecture accessible to a wide audience. His thorough study of bilingual capitals highlights variability within the Ionic architectural orders and demonstrates the value of a detailed study of a particular idiosyncrasy.