A refined canonic version of the Orders engraved for the Encyclopédie, vol. 18

Table of architecture, Cyclopaedia, 1728

A classical order is one of the ancient styles of building design in the Classical tradition, distinguished by their proportions and their characteristic profiles and details, but most quickly recognizable by the type of column and capital employed. Each style also has its proper entablature, consisting of architrave, frieze and cornice. From the sixteenth century onwards, theorists recognized five orders. Download high resolution version (853x1342, 216 KB)Encyclopedie: Classical Orders, engraving from the Encyclopédie vol. ... Download high resolution version (853x1342, 216 KB)Encyclopedie: Classical Orders, engraving from the Encyclopédie vol. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2529x2708, 2983 KB)Table of architecture, Cyclopaedia, 1728, volume 1 http://digicoll. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2529x2708, 2983 KB)Table of architecture, Cyclopaedia, 1728, volume 1 http://digicoll. ... 1913 advertisement for Encyclopædia Britannica. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... Deconstructing a Roman pillar. ... A capital of the Composite order In Western architecture, the capital (from the Latin caput, head) forms the crowning member of the column, which projects on each side as it rises, in order to support the abacus and unite the square form of the latter with the circular shaft. ... An entablature is a classical architectural element, the superstructure which lies horizontally above the columns, resting on their capitals. ... The architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. ... Frieze of the Tower of the Winds. ... Example of cornice laden roof line In classical architecture the cornice is the set of projecting moldings that crown an entablature. ...

Ranged in the engraving (illustration, right), from the stockiest and most primitive to the richest and most slender, they are: Tuscan (Roman) and Doric (Greek and Roman, illustrated here in its Roman version); Ionic (Greek version) and Ionic (Roman version); Corinthian (Greek and Roman) and composite (Roman). The ancient and original orders of architecture are no more than three, the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, which were invented by the Greeks. To these the Romans added two, the Tuscan, which they made plainer than the Doric, and the Composite, which was more ornamental, if not more beautiful, than the Corinthian. The first three orders alone, however, show invention and particular character, and essentially differ from each other; the two others have nothing but that which is borrowed, and differing only accidentally. The Tuscan is the Doric in its earliest state, and the Composite is the Corinthian, enriched with the Ionic. We are therefore indebted to the Greeks for what is great, judicious, and distinct in classical architecture. The Tuscan order in Andrea Palladio, Quattro Libri di Architettura, 1570 Among the classical orders of architecture, the Tuscan order is the newcomer, a stocky simplified variant of the Doric order that was introduced into the canon of classical architecture by Italian architectural theorists of the 16th century. ... The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonic orders being the Ionic and the Corinthian. ... Architects first real look at the Greek Ionic order: Julien David LeRoy, Les ruines plus beaux des monuments de la Grèce Paris, 1758 (Plate XX) The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and... The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ... A capital of the Composite order The composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order with the leaves of the Corinthian order. ...

The order of a classical building is like the mode or key of classical music. It is established by certain modules like the intervals of music, and it raises certain expectations in an audience attuned to its language. The orders are like the grammar or rhetoric of a written composition.

Parts of a column

A column is divided into a shaft, its base and its capital. In classical buildings the horizontal structure that is supported on the columns like a beam is called an entablature. The entablature is commonly divided into the architrave, the frieze and the cornice. To distinguish between the different Classical orders, the capital is used, having the most distinct characteristics.

A complete column and entablature consist of a number of distinct parts. The stylobate is the flat pavement on which the columns are placed. Standing upon the stylobate is the plinth, a square block – sometimes circular – which forms the lowest part of the base. The remainder of the base may be given one or many moldings with profiles. Common examples are the convex torus and the concave scotia, separated by fillets or bands. Cavetto molding and resulting shadow pattern Ovolo molding and resulting shadow pattern Cyma molding and resulting shadow pattern Ogee molding and resulting shadow pattern Molding (USA) or moulding (AUS, UK) is a strip of material with various cross sections used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. ... In geometry, a torus (pl. ...

On top of the base, the shaft is placed vertically. The shaft is cylindrical in shape and both long and narrow. The shaft is sometimes articulated with vertical hollow grooves or fluting. The shaft is wider at the bottom than at the top, because its entasis, beginning a third of the way up, imperceptibly makes the column slightly more slender at the top. schema of a Corinthian column In architecture, entasis is a design technique used to counteract a certain optical illusion. ...

The capital rests on the shaft. It has a load-bearing function, which concentrates the weight of the entablature on the supportive column, but it primarily serves an aesthetic purpose. The simplest form of the capital is the Doric, consisting of three parts. The necking is the continuation of the shaft, but is visually separated by one or many grooves. The echinus lies atop the necking. It is a circular block that bulges outwards towards the top in order to support the abacus, which is a square or shaped block that in turn supports the entablature. Cavetto molding and resulting shadow pattern Ovolo molding and resulting shadow pattern Cyma molding and resulting shadow pattern Ogee molding and resulting shadow pattern Molding (USA) or moulding (AUS, UK) is a strip of material with various cross sections used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. ... In architecture, an abacus (from the Greek abax, a slab; or French abaque, tailloir) is a flat slab that sits upon the capital of a column, forming its uppermost member. ...

The entablature consists of three horizontal layers, all of which are visually separated from each other using moldings or bands. The three layers of the entablature have distinct names: the architrave comes at the bottom, the frieze is in the middle and the molded cornice lies on the top. In Roman and post-Renaissance work, the entablature may be carried from column to column in the form of an arch that springs from the column that bears its weight, retaining its divisions and sculptural enrichment, if any. It has been suggested that Voussoir, Keystone (architecture) be merged into this article or section. ...

Measurement

The height of a column is measured in terms of a ratio between the diameter of the shaft at its base compared to the height of the column. A Doric column can be described as seven diameters high, an Ionic column as eight diameters high and a Corinthian column nine diameters high. Sometimes this is given as seven lower diameters high, in order to make sure which part of the shaft has been measured.

Greek orders

There are two distinct orders in ancient Greek architecture: Doric and Ionic. These two were adopted by the Romans, as was the Corinthian order. The Corinthian capital, however, was modified by the Romans. The adaptation of the Greek orders took place in the first century BC. The three ancient Greek orders have since been consistently used in neo-classical Western architecture.

Sometimes the Doric order is considered the earlier order, but there is no evidence to support this. Rather, the orders seem to have appeared at around the same time, the Ionic order in eastern Greece and the Doric order in the west and mainland.

Both the Doric and the Ionic order appear to have originated in wood. The Temple of Hera in Olympia is the oldest well-preserved temple of Doric architecture. It was built just after 600 BC. The Doric order later spread across Greece and into Sicily where it was the chief order for monumental architecture for 800 years. The remains of the Temple of Hera, Olympia The Heraeum, or Temple of Hera at Olympia, is thought to be the oldest known example of Doric architecture. ... Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 650s BC 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC - 600s BC - 590s BC 580s BC 570s BC 560s BC 550s BC Events and Trends Fall of the Assyrian Empire and Rise of Babylon 609 BC _ King Josiah... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ...

Doric order

Main article: Doric order.

The Doric order of the Parthenon

The Doric order originated on the mainland and western Greece. It is the simplest of the orders, characterized by short, faceted, heavy columns with plain, round capitals (tops) and no base. With only four to eight diameters in height, the columns are the most squat of all orders. The shaft of the Doric order is channeled with 20 flutes. The capital consists of a necking which is of a simple form. The echinus is convex and the abacus is square. The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonic orders being the Ionic and the Corinthian. ... Doric order of the Parthenon, engraving from A. Rosengarten, A Handbook of Architectural Styles, NY, 1898 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100... Doric order of the Parthenon, engraving from A. Rosengarten, A Handbook of Architectural Styles, NY, 1898 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A capital of the Composite order In Western architecture, the capital (from the Latin caput, head) forms the crowning member of the column, which projects on each side as it rises, in order to support the abacus and unite the square form of the latter with the circular shaft. ...

Above the capital is a square abacus connecting the capital to the entablature. The Entablature is divided into two horizontal registers, the lower part of which is either smooth or divided by horizontal lines. The upper half is distinctive for the Doric order. The frieze of the Doric entablature is divided into triglyphs and metopes. A triglyph is a unit consisting of three vertical bands which are separated by grooves. Metopes are plain or carved reliefs. For the finite element analysis software, see ABAQUS. An abacus (plurals abacuses or abaci) is a calculating tool, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. ... Triglyph centered over the last column in the Doric order of the Ancient Romans Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze, so called because of the angular channels in them, two perfect and one divided, the two chamfered angles or hemiglyphs being reckoned... In classical architecture, a metope is the rectangular blank spaces on the surface between two triglyphs on a Doric frieze which were often decorated with carvings. ...

The Greek forms of the Doric order come without an individual base. They instead are placed directly on the stylobate. Later forms, however, came with the conventional base consisting of a plinth and a torus. The Roman versions of the Doric order have smaller proportions. As a result they appear lighter than the Greek orders.

Ionic order

Main article: Ionic order.

Architects first real look at the Greek Ionic order: Julien David LeRoy, Les ruines plus beaux des monuments de la Grèce Paris, 1758 (Plate XX) The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and... Ionic capital, from Nordisk familjebok. ...

The Ionic order came from eastern Greece, where its origins are entwined with the similar but little known Aeolic order. It is distinguished by slender, fluted pillars with a large base and two opposed volutes (also called scrolls) in the echinus of the capital. The echinus itself is decorated with an egg-and-dart motif. The Ionic shaft comes with four more flutes than the Doric counterpart (totalling 24). The Ionic base has two convex moldings called tori which are separated by a scotia. The Aeolic order was an early order of Classical architecture. ... Deconstructing a Roman pillar. ... Egg-and-dart motif from Meyers Ornament Egg-and-dart is an ornamental device often carved in wood or stone quarter-round ovolo mouldings, consisting of an egg-shaped object alternating with an element shaped like an arrow, anchor or dart. ... Look up motif in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The Ionic order is also marked by an entasis, a curved tapering in the column shaft. A column of the ionic order is nine or lower diameters. The shaft itself is eight diameters high. The architrave of the entablature commonly consists of three stepped bands (fasciae). The frieze comes without the Doric triglyph and metope. The frieze sometimes comes with a continuous ornament such as carved figures. It is also noteworthy to contemplate the use of the compass in the design of this order.

Corinthian order

Main article: Corinthian order.

The Corinthian order is the most ornate of the Greek orders, characterized by a slender fluted column having an ornate capital decorated with two rows of acanthus leaves and four scrolls. It is commonly regarded as the most elegant of the five orders. The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ...

The shaft of the Corinthian order has 24 flutes. The column is commonly ten diameters high.

Designed by Callimachus, a Greek sculptor of the 5th century BC. The oldest known building to be built according to the Corinthian order is the monument of Lysicrates in Athens. It was built in 335 to 334 BC. The Corinthian order was raised to rank by the writings of the Roman writer Vitruvius in the 1st century BC. This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional object, which for the purposes of this article is man-made and selected for special recognition as art. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 5th century BC started on January 1, 500 BC and ended on December 31, 401 BC. // The Parthenon of Athens seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα - Athína) is the largest city and capital of Greece, located in the Attica periphery of central Greece. ... Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. ...

Roman orders

The Romans adapted all the Greek orders and also developed two orders of their own, basically modification of Greek orders. The Romans also invented the superimposed order. A superimposed order is when successive stories of a building have different orders. The heaviest orders were at the bottom, whilst the lightest came at the top. This means that the Doric order was the order of the ground floor, the Ionic order was used for the middle storey, while the Corinthian or the Composite order was used for the top storey.

The Colossal order was invented by architects in the Renaissance. The Colossal order is characterized by columns that extend the height of two or more stories. In Classical architecture, a giant order is an order whose columns or pilasters span two (or more) stories. ... Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502, by Bramante. ...

Tuscan order

Main article: Tuscan order

The Tuscan order in Andrea Palladio, Quattro Libri di Architettura, 1570

The Tuscan order has a very plain design, with a plain shaft, and a simple capital, base, and frieze. It is a simplified adaptation of the Doric order by the Romans. The Tuscan order is characterized by an unfluted shaft and a capital that only consist of an echinus and an abacus. In proportions it is similar to the Doric order, but overall it is significantly plainer. The column is normally seven diameters high. Compared to the other orders, the Tuscan order looks the most solid. The Tuscan order in Andrea Palladio, Quattro Libri di Architettura, 1570 Among the classical orders of architecture, the Tuscan order is the newcomer, a stocky simplified variant of the Doric order that was introduced into the canon of classical architecture by Italian architectural theorists of the 16th century. ... Andrea Palladio, Quattro Libri di Architettura The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Andrea Palladio, Quattro Libri di Architettura The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Andrea Palladio (November 30, 1508 – August 19, 1580), was an Italian architect, widely considered the most influential person in the history of Western architecture. ...

Composite order

Main article: Composite order

A capital of the Composite order The composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order with the leaves of the Corinthian order. ... Composite capital, from Nordisk familjebok. ...

The Composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic with the leaves of the Corinthian order. Until the Renaissance it was not ranked as a separate order. Instead it was considered as a late Roman form of the Corinthian order. The column of the Composite order is ten diameters high. The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ...

Nonce orders

Several orders, usually based upon the Composite order and only varying in the design of the capitals, have been invented under the inspiration of specific occasions, but have not been used again. Thus they may be termed "nonce orders" on the analogy of nonce words. Robert Adam's brother James was in Rome in 1762, drawing antiquities under the direction of Clérisseau; he invented a British Order, of which his ink-and-wash rendering with red highlighting, is at the Avery Library, Columbia University. Adam published an engraving of it. In its capital the heraldic lion and unicorn take the place of the Composite's volutes, a Byzantine/Romanesque conception, but expressed in terms of neoclassical realism. In 1789 George Dance invented an Ammonite Order, a variant of Ionic substituting volutes in the form of fossil ammonites for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, London. A nonce word is a word used only for the nonce—to meet a need that is not expected to recur. ... Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 1728 - 3 March 1792) was a Scottish architect, interior designer and furniture designer, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. ... James Adam (21 July 1732 – 20 October 1794) was a Scottish architect and furniture designer, but was often overshadowed by his older brother and business partner, Robert Adam. ... Falls of the Aniene at Tivoli, gouache, 1769 (Victoria and Albert Museum) Charles-Louis Clérisseau (August 28, 1721–January 9, 1820), the French architectural draughtsman, antiquary, and artist, occupies a unique position in the genesis of neoclassical architecture during the second half of the 18th century. ... Columbia University is a private research university in the United States. ... George Dance the Elder (1695 – 8 February 1768) was an English architect of the 18th century. ... The Ammonite Order is an architectural order that features fluted columns and capitals with volutes shaped to resemble fossil ammonites. ... FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under DOS. FOSSIL is an acronym for Fido Opus Seadog Standard Interface Layer. ... For other uses, see Ammonite (disambiguation). ... John Boydell (1719 - December, 1804) was an English publisher, noted for his reproductions of engravings. ... Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London. ...

Corn capital at the Litchfield Villa designed by architect A.J. Davis, located in Prospect Park (Brooklyn)

In the United States Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of the Capitol building in Washington DC, designed a series of botanically American orders. Most famous is the order substituting corncobs and their husks, which was executed by Giuseppe Franzoni and employed in the small domed Vestibule of the Supreme Court. Only the Supreme Court survived the fire of August 24, 1814, nearly intact. With peace restored, Latrobe designed an American order that substituted for the acanthus tobacco leaves, of which he sent a sketch to Thomas Jefferson in a letter, November 5, 1816. He was encouraged to send a model of it, which remains at Monticello. In the 1830s Alexander Jackson Davis admired it enough to make a drawing of it. In 1809 Latrobe invented a second American order, employing magnolia flowers contrained within the profile of classical mouldings, as his drawing demonstrates. It was intended for "the Upper Columns in the Gallery of the Entrance of the Chamber of the Senate" (United States Capitol exhibit). Image File history File links Corn-capital-litchfield. ... Image File history File links Corn-capital-litchfield. ... An architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... A.J. Davis is a American football Cornerback for the Detroit Lions. ... Prospect Park is a 585[1] acre (2. ... Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 - September 3, 1820) was a British-born American architect best known for his design of the United States Capitol. ... The West Front of the United States Capitol. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ... Monticello, located near Charlottesville, Virginia, was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, the third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia. ... The Federal Customs House (now Federal Hall, New York City, with Ithiel Town, 1833 – 42 Alexander Jackson Davis (A.J. Davis) (New York City July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892) was the most successful and influential American architect of his generation. ... Species See text Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Magnolia Magnolia is a large genus of about 210[1] flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. ...

These nonce orders all express the "speaking architecture" (architecture parlante) that was taught in the Paris courses, most explicitly by Étienne-Louis Boullée, in which sculptural details of classical architecture could be enlisted to speak symbolically, the better to express the purpose of the structure and enrich its visual meaning with specific appropriateness. This idea was taken up strongly in the training of Beaux-Arts architecture, ca 1875-1915: see architecture parlante. Étienne-Louis Boullée (February 12, 1728 - February 6, 1799) was a French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects and is still influential today. ... Beaux-Arts architecture[1] denotes the academic classical architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. ... The phrase architecture parlante (“speaking architecture”) refers to the concept of buildings that explain their own function or identity. ...

Original writings

The handbook De Architectura of Vitruvius is the only architectural writing that survived from Antiquity. After it was rediscovered in the 15th century, Vitruvius was instantly hailed as the authority on classical orders and architecture in general. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. ... Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. ...

Architects of the Renaissance and the Baroque period in Italy based their rules on Vitruvius' writings. What was added was rules for superimposing the classical orders and the exact proportions of the orders down to the most minute detail. Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ...

Modern approaches

Later the rules of the Renaissance and the Baroque period were disregarded and the original use of the orders was revived, often hailed as the 'correct' use of the orders. Many architects, however, used the Classical orders at their freedom.

In America, "The American Builder's Companion" (ISBN 0-486-22236-5), written in the early 1800s by the architect Asher Benjamin, influenced many builders in the eastern states, particularly those who developed what become known as the Federalist style. The Dover edition is based on the 1827 6th edition of the work, and contains 70 plates with many details of columns, capitals, pilasters, plinths, bases, mouldings, architraves, and so on, with numerous instructions regarding proportion as well.

In 20th century modernist architecture the orders have often become ornaments and regarded as superfluous. Instead columns of steel and reinforced concrete are used. In late 20th century postmodernist architecture, however, elements of the traditional orders have sometimes been reintroduced.

See also: Temple (Roman), Temple (Greek) The numbers and architecture of Roman temples reflect the citys receptivity to all the religions of the world. ... The Greeks began to build monumental temples in the first half of the eighth century BC. The temples of Hera at Samos and of Poseidon at Isthmia were among the first erected. ...

Further reading

• Barletta, Barbara A., The Origins of the Greek Architectural Orders (Cambridge University Press) 2001
• Curl, James Stevens, Classical Architecture: An Introduction to Its Vocabulary and Essentials, with a Select Glossary of Terms 2003. ISBN 0-393-73119-7
• Summerson, Sir John, The Classical Language of Architecture MIT Press, 1966. ISBN 0-262-69012-8 (developed from a set of BBC radio talks).
• Tzonis, Alexander, Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order 1986 ISBN 0-262-70031-X

Sir John Newenham Summerson (1904-1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. ...