COLUMN. 



COLUMN. 



order of the Temple of Vesta at Rome, which very much resembles the 

 order of the Temple at Jackly, was most probably copied from it. 

 Among other peculiarities, it has the same defect of the leaves pro- 

 jecting beyond the line of the shaft, and is the only building of the 

 Corinthian order in Rome which has a Greek character. Some Greek 

 Corinthian capitals have only one row of acanthus leaves, and are 

 without the horns under the abacus, the bell being decorated with 

 flat leaves called water-leaves, as in the Tower of the Winds at 

 Athens. 



The Ionic column is characterised by the two large spirals or volutes 

 on two of its faces, connected under the abacus. The other sides con- 

 nect these faces at right angles by a kind of baluster placed horizontally. 

 Beneath this baluster and the astragal surmounting the top of the 



[Ilalf the Ionic capital of the 

 order employed in the cclla of 

 the Temple of Apollo at Baxto.] 



[Half of the capital of the 

 Erecthcum.] 



shaft of the column is the neck of the capital, which in some Greek 

 examples is richly decorated ; the baluster is also occasionally enriched. 

 In soiui. [unic capitals all the faces of the volutes are conjoined at the 

 lities, the faces being curved inwards as in the Temple of Apollo 

 at Baggie. Ionic columns placed at the angles of porticos have some- 

 times the volute ingeniously formed at the angle, so as to present a 

 voluted face either ranging with the volutes of the portico, or with the 

 volutes of the column at the side of the portico. The angle column 

 of St. Pancras Church, London, has the angular faces curved. The 

 angular volutes in some Roman examples are formed of two half 

 i placed at right angles to each other. The bases ',of the Ionic 

 varv piTlmjw more than any other order. In Roman examples the 

 Attic base is employed. 



The Composite column, as its name implies, is a compound. It is 

 formed of the Corinthian and Ionic, but partakes more of the Corinthian 

 character and proportions. 



The Roman Doric and Tuscan columns are shafts with moulded 

 capitals and bases, the Doric only having a slight decoration of rosettes 

 ami li. Is in the neck of the capital, and some trifling additional 

 moulding. The Grecian Doric differs from the Roman both in pro- 

 11 and in tin; mouldings of the capital, in the flutings being 

 without fillets, and in its being almost always without a base. 



An order include* the column with the whole of the entablature, or 

 the superstructure raised on it, which is divided into architrave, frieze, 

 and cornice. 



All the great architects of the cinque cento, and after them those of 

 the later Julian and French schools, have differed in the proportions 

 and details of the orders, but for the most part in a trifling degree. 

 The proportions of the five Roman orders which we have adopted here 

 as our rule are those laid down in Sir William Chambcrs's ' Archi- 

 tecture,' and which are generally employed by the English architects 

 of the present day. The proportions of the orders used by the Greeks 

 are from the authority of Stuart. The measure by which the pro- 

 portions of the orders are determined, is the diameter of the base of 

 tin- shaft of the column, which is divided into two parts called modules, 

 and each module is divided into 30 parts called minutes. This scale is 

 in general use in all countries which derive their architecture from the 

 Greeks and Romans. 



Thus the height of the shaft of the Tuscan order, from the upper 

 line of tffe fillet of the base to the upper line of the astragal of the neck 

 column, is 12 modules or semidiameters high ; the base, including 

 the plinth, is 30 minutes ; the capital, 30 minutes ; the architrave, 314 

 minutes ; the frieze, 314 minutes ; the cornice, including the bed-mould 

 or ogee, 42 minutes ; and the projection of the cornice, 42 minutes. 

 The shaft of the Doric order is 13 modules 28 minutes; the base, 

 30 minutes ; the capital, 32 minutes ; the architrave, 30 minutes ; the 

 frieze, 45 minutes ; and the cornice, 45 minutes. The projection of 

 the cornice is 57 minutes. The shaft of the Ionic order contains 

 16 modules 9 minutes ; the base, 30 minutes ; the capital, from the 

 up|..-r lin.- of the astragal, 21 minutes; the architrave, 404 minutes ; 

 the fri&e, 404 minutes ; and the cornice, 54 minutes. The projection 

 of IK.' lonii.. is 51 minutes. The Corinthian order has the shaft 

 16 modul'-s 1!" minutes ; the base, 30 minutes; the capital, 70 minutes ; 



AUTS ASI) SCI. DIV. VOL. III. 



the architrave, 45 minutes ; the frieze, 45 minutes ; the cornice, 60 

 minutes ; and the projection, 58 minutes. The Composite order is 

 similar in its general proportions to the Corinthian ; and the columns 

 of the Roman orders diminish in diameter about one-sixth ; that is, are 

 50 minutes at the upper diameter of the shaft. But by a reference to 

 the proportions of some of the columns of ancient edifices at the end of 

 this article, some variations from this proportion will appear. 



The Greek Doric varies very much in its proportions. The Doric of 

 the Parthenon has the shaft and capital 10 modules 8 minutes high, 

 and the entablature 3 modules 15 minutes. For a scale of the pro- 

 portions of the leading features of some of the best known examples of 

 antiquity, see the end of this article. 



The Tuscan order, which is simple in its design, has a base formed 

 of a plinth or squared piece of stone as a foundation, and a torus above 

 it, surmounted with a fillet. The shaft ia terminated with a fillet and 

 an astragal, on which the capital is set, consisting of a necking (a pro- 

 longation of the shaft) and an ovolo moulding supporting the squared 

 abacus, which is surmounted with a fillet. The architrave is a plain 

 face with a broad fillet. The frieze also is a plain face. The cornice 

 consists of an ogee, a fillet, an ovolo forming the bed-mould of the 

 cornice, which consists also of the corona and fillet, surmounted with 

 a cymatium. ^ 



The Roman Doric, resembling in some particulars the Tuscan, is 

 however very much richer. The Doric base consists of a plinth, a 

 torus, a hollow moulding with a fillet above and below it ; on the 

 upper fillet is another torus and fillet, from which rises the shaft, 

 curved where it springs from the fillet : the lower diameter of the shaft 

 of a column is always measured from the point where this curve ends, 

 and is joined to the straight line of the shaft. This is the Attic base, 

 which is most commonly used in all the orders except the Tuscan. 

 The shaft of the Doric is terminated like the Tuscan, and from the 

 summit springs the capital with a neck enriched with rosettes and buds. 

 Above the necking are three flat annular rings or fillets, then an ovolo 

 moulding surmounted with the abacus, which is finished with a small 

 ogee moulding and fillet. The architrave is a plain face, with a flat 

 band (tccnia) and a fillet under the triglyph, with six gutta; or dropj 

 under the fillet. The frieze is divided into compartments with a triglyph 

 over each column and one or more between, according to the width of 

 the intercolumniation. The triglyphs which project slightly from the 

 face of the frieze are channelled with angular channels and two h;ilf 

 channels at the sides of the triglyph. The metope, or space between 

 two triglyphs, is square or nearly so ; this, however, depends on the 

 intercolumns. The triglyphs are bound together by a facia, sur- 

 mounted by a small fillet under the bed-mould of the cornice, which 

 is an ovolo moulding or an ogee. Over this is the mutule band with 

 the mutules, square in form, projecting over the triglyphs ; an ogee 

 surmounts the mutules and the mutule band. The mutules support 

 the cornice, consisting of the corona, an ogee and fillet, and a cavetto 

 or hollow moulding. The soffit or under-side of the cornice is some- 

 times enriched with pannels, ami gutUe are placed under the mutules. 

 The Doric of the theatre of Marcellus at Rome has dentils with an 

 ogee bed-mould in the cornice in lieu of the mutules ; and the basilica 

 by Palladio at Vicenza is without either mutules or dentils, having 

 instead of them a bold ogee and ovolo moulding, and the architrave 

 divided into two facisc. 



The Greek Doric differs considerably from the Roman, being almost 

 always executed without a base. The flutings of the shaft are twenty 

 in number without fillets ; some examples are fluted only at the upper 

 and lower extremities. The capital consists of a solid-looking abacus 



7 



[Half the capital of the Parthenon at Athens.] 



without any moulding above it, but supported by a very elegantly - 

 curved echinus-moulding, which swells gradually out of the line of the 

 shaft, being bound round by three annulets or rings near the top of 

 the shaft, and on the under extremity of the echinus. A part of the 

 shaft is also cut off by a sinking, or channel, cut into the shaft, forming 

 the necking of the capital. The features of the entablature are very 

 simple. [GKKEK AHCIIITECTURK.] The triglyphs are not very dis- 

 similar in the Roman and Greek Doric, except in the setting them 

 off on the frieze. In the Roman they are invariably set over the centre 

 line of each column, the angle of a building being terminated by a 

 portion of a metope. In the Greek the triglyph is invariably com- 



