There are many separate elements
that make up a complete column and entablature. “At the bottom of the column is
the stylobate which is a continuous flat pavement on which a row of columns is
supported” (Kuiper). Rising out of the stylobate is the plinth, a square or
circular block that is the lowest part of the base. At the top the plinth and
forming the remainder of the base are one or more circular moldings that have
varying profiles which include a torus, a scotia, and one or more fillets, or
narrow bands. “The shaft, which rests upon the base, is a long, narrow, vertical
cylinder that in some orders is articulated with fluting” (Kuiper). The shaft
may also taper inward slightly so that it is wider at the bottom than at the
top. At the top the shaft is the capital, which serves to concentrate the
weight of the entablature on the shaft and also acts as an aesthetic transition
between those two elements. “In its simplest form, the capital consists of
three parts; the necking, which is a continuation of the shaft but which is set
off from it visually by one or more narrow grooves; the echinus, a circular
block that bulges outward at its uppermost portion in order to better support
the abacus; and the abacus itself, a square block that directly supports the
entablature above and transmits its weight to the rest of the column below”
(Kuiper). The entablature is composed of three horizontal sections that are
visually separated from each other by moldings and bands. The three parts of
the entablature are called the architrave, frieze, and cornice. The unit used
in the measurement of columns is the diameter of the shaft at the base so a
column may be described as being eight diameters high. “Ancient Greek
architecture developed two distinct orders, the Doric and the Ionic, together
with a third capital, which, with modifications, were adopted by the Romans in
the 1st century B.C. and have been used ever since in Western architecture”
(Kuiper). This is how these columns were constructed and what the purpose of
each part is.
The temple of Zeus at Athens was
perhaps the most notable of the Corinthian temples. The Greek Corinthian, aside
from its distinctive capital, is similar to the Ionic, but the column is
somewhat more slender. “The capital, which may have been especially devised for
circular structures, is of uncertain origin” (Curl). Callimachus is the
legendary originator of the design. The delicate foliated details make
plausible an original in metalwork. The Romans used the Corinthian order in
numerous monumental works of imperial architecture. They gave it a special
base, made carved additions to the cornice, and created numerous capital
variations, utilizing florid leafage and sometimes human and animal figures. “The
prevailing form of Roman Corinthian is seen in the Pantheon and the Maison
Carrée, and it was embodied in the order as later systematized by the Italian
writers of the Renaissance” (Curl). The capital joined acanthus leaves and
volutes, scroll-shaped forms, in an intricate combination, and Renaissance
sculptors and metalworkers, especially in Italy, France, and Spain, found in its
complexity a medium for their full virtuosity. The volutes either became mere light scrolls
or were replaced by birds, rams' heads, or grotesque figures. “The Composite
order, so named by the 16th-century codifiers, is actually only a variation of
the Corinthian, devised by the Romans as early as the 1st cent. A.D. by forming
a capital in which were combined both Corinthian foliage and the volutes and
echinus, or rounded molding, of the four-cornered type of Ionic. For the other
Greek orders see Doric order and Ionic order” (Curl).
The Greeks as well as the Romans
regarded the Corinthian as only a variant capital to be substituted for the
Ionic. “The first known use of a Corinthian capital on the outside of a
building is that of the choragic Monument of Lysicrates” (Kuiper). The
Corinthian was raised to the rank of an order by the 1st-century-bc Roman writer
and architect Vitruvius. The Romans adopted the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
orders and modified them to produce the Tuscan order, which is a simplified
form of the Doric, and the Composite order, which is a combination of the Ionic
and Corinthian orders. “Another Roman innovation was the superposed order; when
columns adorned several successive stories of a building, they were normally of
different orders, in an ascending sequence from heaviest to most slender”
(Kuiper). Thus columns of the Doric order were assigned to the ground floor of
a building, Ionic ones to the middle story, and Corinthian or Composite ones to
the top story. To avoid the complications of separate orders for each story,
the architects of the Renaissance invented the Colossal order, which is
composed of columns extending the height of two or more stories of a building.
There were many different variations
of the Corinthian order that both the Greeks and the Romans used. These columns
are part of architectural history and they played an important role in how we
use columns today.
Although those columns may not be used anymore it is still important to know how they were developed and what roles they played in Greek and Roman history. We also have a chance to appreciate the beauty of all the detail that was put into them and we can enjoy still seeing these columns in some buildings today.
The
Columbia Encyclopedia, "Corinthian Order." (2013): Credo Reference
Collections. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Curl,
James Stevens, and Susan Wilson. Corinthian Order. n.p.: Oxford University
Press, 2015. Oxford Reference. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
"Corinthian
Order." Britannica Online (n.d.): Britannica Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Kuiper,
Kathleen. "Log in." Britannica Academic. N.p., 9 Apr. 2009. Web. 15
Nov. 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment