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There are five orders of classic
architecture, three Greek and two Roman. The column includes the capital and the shaft. The first columns were probably tall trees in Crete that were trimmed and placed upside down to hold up a roof. Then the Greeks really got busy and decided to make columns that were more ornate. Mathematics and proportion determine size and shape of the columns, with the Doric column's diameter-to-height ratio based on the relationship between foot length and height in a man and the slenderer Ionic column diameter-to-height ratio based on the foot length-to-height ratio in a woman. |
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DoricNamed for Dorian invaders, the Doric column is martial, simple, and
severe. Generally massive, it is short and thick, fluted with 20 channels,
but has no base. The capital on top is as high as the radius of the
bottom of the column, but is small or almost absent . The capital is
composed of an abacus on top, an echinus (a convex molding
with gently swelling curve), and annulets (or rings) next to the
column.
The shaft either diminishes sharply from top to bottom or has an entasis (swelling) in the middle. The top is cut by 1 to 3 grooved rings. The frieze is divided by alternate triglyphs (projecting tablets with three perpendicular projecting narrow bands-glyphs) and metopes (flat panels). The metopes are often decorated with carving or sculpture. (See illustration below.) The Roman Doric is 8 diameters high, and sometimes placed on a plinth. In the capital an ovolo is used instead of the echinus, the annulets are replaced by astragals (miniature tori) and an ogee molding (molding having the profile of an S-shaped curve) is added to the abacus. |
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Ionic
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The Ionic column is more ornate, with swirls on the
capital that are called volutes. and project past the shaft. The base is composed of a torus (A large convex molding, semicircular in cross section, located at the base of a classical column.) and two scotiae (hollow concave moldings at or near the base.) separated by many smaller moldings. The frieze is continuous and decorated with foliage or sculpture. Intercolumniation is wide. Roman Ionic is heavy, the capital being especially ornamental. The Ionic column was much used in the seventeenth century and also in the eighteenth, when it was often topped by a Corinthian entablature. |
| Whatever sits on top of a column, such as a roof or pediment (a triangular structure), is called the entablature, which consists of the cornice right under the roof, the frieze, which is decorated here with metopes and triglyphs, and the architrave or epistyle, just above the column. |
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Corinthian
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The intricate Corinthian column's capitals are in the shape of acanthus
weed leaves. Most had 20 flutes, but some only 12 to protect the marble
from erosion, and still others had none. The column is slender, usually
diminished and fluted. The Attic base is made with three tori and three scotiae divided by fillets (thin flat molding used as separation between ornamentation for larger moldings; a ridge between the indentations of a fluted column) and stands on a square plinth. The entablature is elaborate, with a decorated architrave, a continuous frieze (plain or ornamented with foliage and sculpture), and a complicated projecting cornice, the lower part often composed of dentils, which look like teeth. The Corinthian Order was greatly esteemed in Renaissance times. It reached its fullest development in the mid-4th century B.C., but was comparatively little used. |
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Tuscan column is reminiscent of the Doric, and its
shaft is plain, cylindrical, or diminished.
The base rests on a square plinth and has a torus molding. The capital is composed of an astragal, a smooth neck, and an ovolo, and the abacus is cut with an upward slant and often has a projecting fillet beneath the architrave. It has a lower and upper smooth fascia divided by a fillet, a projecting tessera molding forming the base of the wide, continuous frieze; the cornice is generally composed of a cavetto, ovolo, corona, cyma recta, and fillet.
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Tuscan or Rustic
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Composite |
The
Composite Order is generally a combination of the Ionic and Corinthian. It
has the same proportions as the Corinthian and the same capital, except
that the caulicoli (8 stalks with two leaves from which rise
the helices or spiral scrolls of the Corinthian capital to support the
abacus) are replaced by the Ionic volute, one at
each angle, and the echinus (convex molding just below the
abacus of a Doric capital).
This very ornate Order was much favored during the Renaissance, particularly because it was so often associated with the arch. The arch is one of the distinguishing marks of Roman from Greek architecture. In Renaissance and Neo-Classic architecture the use of different Orders for succeeding storeys was frequent. Interior columns in the Parthenon are both Ionic and Doric. |
 But
that's not all, folks. The Egyptians used columns, too. |
 And
the East Indians. |
 And
the Orientals, including the Japanese. |
 And
even the Mayans. |
