F. B. Tarbell, A History of Ancient Greek Art

Greek Architecture

The Ionic order

The Ionic order was of a much more luxuriant character than the Doric. Our typical example is taken from the Temple of Priene in Asia Minor – a temple erected about 340-30 B. C. The column has a base consisting of a plain square plinth, two trochili with moldings, and a torus fluted horizontally. The Ionic shaft is much slenderer than the Doric, the height of the column (including base and capital) being in different examples from eight to ten times the lower diameter of the shaft. The diminution of the shaft is naturally less than in the Doric, and the entasis, where any has been detected, is exceedingly slight. The flutes, twenty-four in number, are deeper than in the Doric shaft, being in fact nearly or quite semicircular, and they are separated from one another by flat bands or fillets. For the form of the capital it will be better to refer to Fig. 62, taken from an Attic building of the latter half of the fifth century. The principal parts are an ovolo and a spiral roll (the latter name not in general use). The ovolo has a convex profile, and is sometimes called a quarter-round; it is enriched with an egg-and-dart ornament The spiral roll may be conceived as a long cushion, whose ends are rolled under to form the volutes. The part connecting the volutes is slightly hollowed, and the channel thus formed is continued into the volutes. As seen from the side, the end of the spiral roll is called a bolster; it has the appearance of being drawn together by a number of encircling bands. On the front, the angles formed by the spiral roll are filled by a conventionalized floral ornament (the so-called palmette). Above the spiral roll is a low abacus, oblong or square in plan. In Fig. 62 the profile of the abacus is an ovolo on which the egg-and-dart ornament was painted (cf. Fig. 66, where the ornament is sculptured). In Fig. 61, as in Fig. 71, the profile is a complex curve called a cyma reversa, convex above and concave below, enriched with a sculptured leaf-and-dart ornament.[1] Finally, attention may be called to the astragal or pearl-beading just under the ovolo in Figs. 61, 71. This might be described as a string of beads and buttons, two buttons alternating with a single bead.

[1] The egg-and-dart is found only on the ovolo, the leaf-and-dart only on the cyma reversa or the cyma recta (concave above and convex below) Both ornaments are in origin leaf-patterns one row of leaves showing their points behind another row.

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