Remember the classical columns and theirs capitals that at school, during art or technical drawing lessons, we were taught to belong to Doric style, ionic And Corinthian? In reality we should speak more correctly of “orders“, that is, architectural elements composed of several parts: there is a vertical support part, i.e. the column actual (composed of base, shaft and capital) and a horizontal one, i.e. the entablature (with architrave, frieze and cornice). These orders – regulated by mathematical relationships that establish the shape and size of each element and its proportional relationship with the others – were precisely mainly three in ancient Greece: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, recognized by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Let’s see their characteristics and differences.
The Doric order
Among the characteristics of the Doric order, the simplest and most ancient, there is certainly the fact that the column base is missing – and therefore the trunk rests directly on the last of the steps that form the platform of the building – which the stem is grooved (the grooves are sharp-edged); and that the capitalthat is, the upper element of the column (with a decorative and connecting function) is made up of two elements called abacus and echinus: the first has a parallelepiped shape and the second often has a flattened and swollen appearance. The frieze, then, that is, the intermediate part between the architrave and the frame, presents the so-called metopesthat is, panels engraved with often mythological themes: this is the case of Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. The Doric order, like the Ionic one which we will see shortly, is already used in some stone constructions of the 6th century BC.
The Ionic order
Among the characteristics of the Ionic order, which reworks some motifs of oriental origin, we have the fact that the base is present: even if it is different depending on the place and period, the best known is the “Attic” one (which has an element called a torus, resting on the trochile). You then notice the stem grooved with the grooves separated by strips (and therefore different from those of the Doric style); the typical Ionic capital on which the scroll stands out; the architrave divided into bands and crowned with mouldings; and finally the continuous frieze. A famous Ionic building is the Artemision Temple of Syracuse.
The Corinthian order
In the Corinthian order it always is the base is present; then there is a grooved shaft just like in the Ionic order; the Corinthian capital is instead very particular, decorated with le acanthus leaves; while the architrave, the cornice and the continuous frieze resemble the Ionic order. The first example of a Corinthian capital dates back to 4th century BC in the temple of Apollo at Bassae.
The Tuscan and Composite orders
This first draft of the architectural orders is contained in the treaty De architectura of the Roman architect Vitruviusand then taken up by other scholars over the centuries. To these three orders Vitruvius added, with less precise characteristics, the Tuscan order which was considered an Italian variant of Doric.
There were, over the centuries, reflections and speculations on the architectural orders of antiquity, and from the 16th century architectural theorists defined five orders in classical architecturethus adding to those 3+1 also the so-called composite order. This is a Roman creation from the Augustan era that mixed Ionic and Corinthian styles (with present base and fluted shaft).