The ORDERS- Legacy of the Greek Architectural Canon

"But Athens the Mother of elegance and politeness, whose magnificence scarce yielded to that of Rome,
and who for the beauties of a correct style must be allowed to surpass her; has been almost entirely
neglected. So that unless exact copies of them be speedily made, all her beauteous Fabrics, her Temples,
her Palaces, now in ruins, will drop into Oblivion; and Posterity will have to reproach us…”

Proposals for publishing an accurate description of the Antiquities of Athens (1748)

"Without symmetry and proportion there can be no principles in the design of any
temple." Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architecture (III.1.1)

Srishti Dokras
Bachelor of Architecture( Institute for Design Education & Architecture Studies)
Visiting Architect, Australia, Dubai & USA
Consultant Design & Architecture- Gorewada Zoo-Largest Zoo Project in Asia

Dr. UDAY DOKRAS,

B.Sc., B.A. (Managerial Economics), LL.B., Nagpur Uni. India
Certificat' en Droit, Queens University, Canada,
MBA (CALSTATE,USA)
PhD Stockholm University, SWEDEN
Consultant –HR and Admin. The Gorewada Zoo

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ABCs of Greek Architecture

“ Order,Order,Order”- my teacher in Architectural School used to shout when we became noisy

during classes. We all giggled because, being Architects, we knew what order meant. However,
today if you say the words "Greek architecture," the image most people conjure up is that of a
temple, and a Doric one at that. Though no city in classical times (500-355 BC) was deemed
complete without its agora (or city center), its defensible acropolis (acro = high; polis = city), its
theater, gymnasium, and stadium, the temple of the city's patron god or goddess was commonly
given the dominant position and the greatest honor. The chief temple, in Greek times, often stood
at the highest point of the acropolis, the nucleus around which the city grew in safety, itself
enclosed by fortification. Order, also called order of architecture, any of several styles of
classical or Neoclassical architecture that are defined by the particular type
of column and entablature they use as a basic unit. A column consists of a shaft together with its
base and its capital. The column supports a section of an entablature, which constitutes the upper
horizontal part of a classical building and is itself composed of (from bottom to top) an
architrave, frieze, and cornice. The form of the capital is the most distinguishing characteristic of
a particular order.Let’s face it, Greeks were no builders of great Palaces like their Indian
counterparts, or majestic temples or mighty forts, theirs was a simple lifestyle; philosophic- one
may say?

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Pre-Classical Beginnings

In Mycenaean Greece, 1,000 years before the classical period, the chief building of a citadel was
the king's palace, as seen at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos. In these palace complexes the central
feature is the megaron -- a large rectangular room with the long walls extended to form the sides
of an open porch, the roof of which is supported by columns. A single large doorway gives
access to the megaron. In the center is a large hearth, the focus of the room: around it, in a square
plan, are four columns supporting the roof; in the right is a raised platform for the royal throne.
There are forecourts to these megara, as well as pillared gateways -- copied from the Minoan
palaces of Crete and replicated throughout Greek history. The Propylaea of the Acropolis at
Athens (and of 20 other sites) derives from the Minoan gateway.

Clustered around the megaron and its forecourt are archive rooms, offices, oil-press rooms,
workshops, potteries, shrines, corridors, armories, and storerooms for wine and oil and wheat --
the whole forming an irregular complex of buildings quite unlike the precise, clear-cut
arrangement that is later the hallmark of building in the classical period. This irregularity,
characteristic of the Minoan palaces at Knossos, Mallia, and Phaistos on Crete, was one of the
influences of that earlier and foreign culture on the Mycenaeans of the mainland. But the
megaron is Greek. The king's megaron, indeed a "great room," was essentially only the ordinary
man's house built large; in some ordinary houses, as at Priene, the same megaron is found.

When the shrine ceased to be a mere house-chapel in a corner of the palace complex, as at
Knossos, and the god was given a house of his own, his temple had the ground plan of that
porched megaron. In its full development there is a porch, or maybe a room, also at the rear, and
around it all runs a peristyle of columns. Thus the Greek temple is literally the god's house,
intended not for the assembly of worshipers but as a great room to contain the statue of the god.

How it all began1: James "Athenian" Stuart (1713 – 2 February 1788) a Scottish archaeologist,
architect and artist is best known for their central role in pioneering Neoclassicism. On a trip
to Naples to study the ancient ruins and, from there through the Balkans to Greece, he made
accurate measurements and drawings of the ancient ruins returning to London in 1755 to publish
the work, The Antiquities of Athens and Other Monuments of Greece, in 1762 which later helped

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fuel the Greek Revival in European architecture. Another architect this time French-Julien David
Le Roy was engaged in a rivalry with James Stuart over who would publish the first
professional description of the Acropolis of Athens since an early 1682 work by Antoine
Desgodetz. Le Roy succeeded in printing his Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of
Greece four years ahead of Stuart.1

Recognized as the first accurate survey of classical Greek architecture, two books, one by
Julien-David Le Roy and the other by James Stuart had a profound influence on the Greek
revival in England. In the nineteenth century especially, it served architects and designers as a
principal source book for the Greek orders and decorative motifs. The canonical Greek
architectural orders have exerted influence on architects and their imaginations for thousands of
years. While Greek architecture played a key role in inspiring the Romans, its legacy also
stretches far beyond antiquity. When James “Athenian” Stuart and Nicholas Revett visited
Greece during the period from 1748 to 1755 and subsequently published The Antiquities of
Athens and Other Monuments of Greece, 1762, in London, the neoclassical revolution was
underway.

At the heart of ancient Greek architecture according to them were the Classical 'orders'.
Three styles of architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) that determined the style of columns,
the form of structure and the decoration that followed on from them. The styles developed one
after another, but each stemmed, initially, from a different part of Greece. There are two other
Roman orders - Composite and Tuscan. The three types of columns used in
these styles were developments of the ancient Egyptian columns, which symbolized bunches of
reeds tied together. Like the Egyptian columns, the capitals of Greek columns were
representations of natural forms, as in the rams' horns of the Ionic style or the stylized acanthus
leave of the Corinthian style. The three ancient Greek orders have since been consistently used in
European Neoclassical architecture.

Captivated by Stuart and Revett’s measured drawings and engravings, Europe suddenly
demanded Greek forms. Architects like Robert Adam drove the Neoclassical movement, creating
buildings such as Kedleston Hall, an English country house in Kedleston, Derbyshire.
Neoclassicism even jumped the Atlantic Ocean to North America, spreading the rich heritage of
Classical architecture even further—and making the Greek architectural orders not only

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extremely influential, but eternal. Understanding a classical building begins with an awareness of
the different classical orders of architecture. In the historical records of architecture, the first
account of the orders was written by Vitruvius:
"[...] The orders came to provide a range of architectural expressions, ranging from
roughness and firmness to slenderness and delicacy. In true classical design, order choice is a
vital issue—it is the choice of tone”

An architectural order describes a style of building. In Classical architecture, each order is

readily identifiable by means of its proportions and profiles as well as by various aesthetic
details. The style of column employed serves as a useful index of the style itself, so identifying
the order of the column will then, in turn, situate the order employed in the structure as a whole.
The classical orders—described by the labels Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—do not merely serve
as descriptors for the remains of ancient buildings but as an index to the architectural and
aesthetic development of Greek architecture itself.

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According to John Summerson, author of The Classical Language of Architecture, a classic
building is one whose decorative elements derive directly or indirectly from the architectural
vocabulary of the ancient world—the 'classical' world. These elements are easily recognizable,
such as, for example, the five standard types of columns that are used in a standardized way, the
standard treatments of openings and pediments, or, still, the standardized series of ornaments that

are employed in classical buildings." 2

An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established

proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform. Coming down to the present
from Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civilization, the architectural orders are the styles
of classical architecture, each distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and
details, and most readily recognizable by the type of column employed. The three orders of
architecture—the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—originated in Greece. To these the Romans
added, in practice if not in name, the Tuscan, which they made simpler than Doric, and
the Composite, which was more ornamental than the Corinthian. The architectural order of a
classical building is akin to the mode or key of classical music; the grammar or rhetoric of a
written composition. It is established by certain modules like the intervals of music, and it raises
certain expectations in an audience attuned to its language. The differentiation of each
nomenclature is shown in the composition and/or capital ornamentation—the upper end of the
column, responsible for transferring the efforts of the entablature to the shaft and unloading them
on the basis. Alongside the capital, there are other constituent elements of the classical orders—
cornice, frieze, pediment, architrave, shaft, podium, and pedestal.

Whereas the orders were essentially structural in Ancient Greek architecture, which made little
use of the arch until its late period, in Roman architecture where the arch was often dominant,
the orders became increasingly decorative elements except in porticos and similar uses. Columns
shrank into half-columns emerging from walls or turned into pilasters. This treatment continued
after the conscious and "correct" use of the orders, initially following exclusively Roman
models, returned in the Italian Renaissance. Greek Revival architecture, inspired by increasing
knowledge of Greek originals, returned to more authentic models, including ones from relatively
early periods.

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Each style has distinctive capitals at the top of columns and horizontal entablatures which it
supports, while the rest of the building does not in itself vary between the orders. The column
shaft and base also varies with the order, and is sometimes articulated with vertical hollow
grooves known as 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, although some Doric columns, especially early Greek ones, are visibly "flared", with straight
profiles that narrow going up the shaft.

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 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 to support
the abacus, which is a square or shaped block that in turn supports the entablature. The
entablature consists of three horizontal layers, all of which are visually separated from each other
using moldings or bands. 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. There are names for all the many parts
of the orders.

Measurement: The heights of columns are calculated in terms of a ratio between the diameter of
the shaft at its base and 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, although the actual ratios used vary considerably in both ancient and revived examples, but
keeping to the trend of increasing slimness between the orders. Sometimes this is phrased as
"lower diameters high", to establish which part of the shaft has been measured.

Sometimes the Doric order is considered the earliest order, but there is no evidence to support
this. Rather, the Doric and Ionic orders seem to have appeared at around the same time, the Ionic
in eastern Greece and the Doric 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. Early Greeks were no doubt aware of the use of stone

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columns with bases and capitals in ancient Egyptian architecture, and that of other Near Eastern
cultures, although there they were mostly used in interiors, rather than as a dominant feature of
all or part of exteriors, in the Greek style.

There are many separate elements that make up a complete column and entablature. At the
bottom of the column is the stylobate; this is a continuous flat pavement on which a row of
columns is supported. Rising out of the stylobate is the plinth, a square or circular block that is
the lowest part of the base. Atop the plinth and forming the remainder of the base are one or
more circular moldings that have varying profiles; these may include a torus (a
convex molding that is semicircular in profile), a scotia (with a concave profile), and one or
more fillets, or narrow bands.

The five orders Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The shaft, which rests upon the base, is a long, narrow, vertical cylinder that in some orders
is articulated with fluting (vertical grooves). The shaft may also taper inward slightly so that it is
wider at the bottom than at the top.
Atop 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
Doric), the capital consists (in ascending order) 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

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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.

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 (in ascending order) are called
the architrave, frieze, and cornice.The unit used in the measurement of columns is the diameter
of the shaft at the base; thus, a column may be described as being eight (lower) diameters high.

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 The Doric order of the Parthenon …..Ionic order and the Corinthian order

Alongside the capital, there are other constituent elements of the classical orders—cornice,
frieze, pediment, architrave, shaft, podium, and pedestal.

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Order and harmony: To the ancient Greeks and Romans, the orders represented, in their
proportioning of elements, the perfect expression of beauty and harmony. The
basic unit of dimension was the diameter of the column. From this module were derived
the dimensions of the shaft, the capital, the pedestal below and the entablature above, down to

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 the smallest detail. Intercolumniation - the system of spacing between columns - was also based
on the diameter of the column.

Because the sizes of columns varied according to the extent of the building, the orders were not
based on a fixed unit of measurement. Rather, the intention was to ensure that all parts of
any building were proportionate and in harmony with one another.

The Roman architect Vitruvius, in the time of Augustus, studied examples of the orders and
presented his 'ideal' proportions for each in his treatise, De Architectura (English:
On architecture, published as Ten Books on Architecture). Sixteenth century
Italian architect Giacomo Barozzi de Vignola, recodified these rules for the Italian Renaissance
and his forms of orders are probably the best known to this day.

Elements: Greek architecture followed a highly structured system of proportions that related
individual architectural components to the whole building. This system was developed according
to three styles, or orders.
Each order consists of an upright support called a column that extends from a base at the bottom
to a shaft in the middle and a capital at the top - much like the feet, body and head of the human
figure. The capital was often a stylized representation of natural forms, such as animal horns
or plant leaves. It, in turn, supports a horizontal element called the entablature, which is divided
further into three parts:
▪ The architrave (lowest part)
▪ The frieze (middle part)
▪ The cornice (top part)

These elements were further elaborated with decorative moulding and ornamentation.
Each component of a classical order was sized and arranged according to an overall
proportioning system based on the height and diameter of the columns.
The Greeks first constructed their order with wood and then transferred them to stone using the
same forms. The ends of the wooden beams holding up the roof, for example, were translated
into stone as a decorative element, called a triglyph ("three grooves"), in the entablature above
the column capital.

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The Greeks began by using only one order per building, but after a few hundred years
of development, they became more creative and sometimes used one order for the exterior and
another for the interior. The proportions of the orders also became lighter and more refined.

Doric order: The early temple builders found that sun-baked brick strengthened by horizontal
and vertical timbers, if set on a stone footing, was a suitable material even for large buildings.
This construction is seen at Knossos (circa 1900 BC) and at the Temple of Hera at Olympia
1,000 years later. The columns of the early temples were made of wood, and, later, when marble
began to be used, constructional features appropriate to the use of timber were copied as
decoration in the new material.

The Doric order is the earliest and simplest of the three Classical orders of architecture and
represents an important moment in Mediterranean architecture when monumental construction
made the transition from impermanent materials—like wood—to permanent materials, namely
stone. It is also the most massive of the three Greek orders which was applied to temples
beginning in the seventh century BC. It originated on the mainland and western Greece. Historic
tradition has it that, in about 1,000 B.C., the Dorians, a tribe from the region to the north of the
Gulf of Corinth, invaded and conquered southern Greece. The Dorian’s, then being the dominant
race, gave their name to the style of architecture.

The Doric order is characterized by a plain, unadorned column capital and a column that rests
directly on the stylobate of the temple without a base. The Doric entablature includes a frieze
composed of trigylphs—vertical plaques with three divisions—and metopes—square spaces for
either painted or sculpted decoration. The columns are fluted and are of sturdy, if not stocky,
proportions. The Doric order emerged on the Greek mainland during the course of the late
seventh century BCE and remained the predominant order for Greek temple construction through
the early fifth century BCE, although notable buildings built later in the Classical period—
especially the canonical Parthenon in Athens—still employed it. By 575 BCE, the order may be
properly identified, with some of the earliest surviving elements being the metope plaques from
the Temple of Apollo at Thermon. Other early, but fragmentary, examples include the sanctuary
of Hera at Argos, votive capitals from the island of Aegina, as well as early Doric capitals that

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were a part of the Temple of Athena Pronaia at Delphi in central Greece. The Doric order finds
perhaps its fullest expression in the Parthenon, c. 447-432 BCE, at Athens designed by Iktinos
and

Sanctuary of Hera at Argos

It is characterized by short, organized, heavy columns with plain, round capitals (tops) and no
base. With a height that is only four to eight times its diameter, 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 or annulet, which is a simple ring. The echinus is convex, or circular cushion like stone
and the abacus is square slab of stone.

Above the capital is a square abacus connecting the capital to the entablature. The entablature is
divided into three 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 the plain or carved reliefs between two
triglyphs.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.

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 Roman Doric

The columns are placed close together and are often without bases. Their shafts are sculpted
with concave curves called flutes. The capitals are plain with a rounded section at the bottom,
known as the echinus, and a square at the top, called the abacus.

The entablature has a distinctive frieze decorated with vertical channels, or triglyphs. In
between the triglyphs are spaces, called metopes, which were commonly sculpted with figures
and ornamentation.

The frieze is separated from the architrave by a narrow band called the regula. Together,
these elements formed a rectangular structure surrounded by a double row of columns that
conveyed a bold unity. Some argue that the Doric order reached its pinnacle of perfection in
the Parthenon (Athens) built between 447-432 BC, by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates

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Ionic order

Ionic order
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 (totaling 24). The Ionic base has two convex moldings called tori, which are
separated by a scotia. It is said to have been formed after the model of an agreeable young
woman, of an elegant shape, dressed in her hair; as a contrast to the Doric order which was
formed after that of a strong, robust man.
The Ionic order is also marked by an entasis, a curved tapering in the column shaft. A column of
the Ionic order is nine times its lower diameter. 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 instead. With light, fluid organic lines, this order alludes to the
lines of the female body, characterized by "feminine slenderness," [6] as Vitruvius points out. In
the capital composition, oriental influences are seen, such as carvings of palm leaves, papyrus
and vegetable leaves, possibly inspired by Egyptian architecture. The columns are about nine
times as tall as they are wide—a width larger than the Doric order. For Vitruvius, they should be
used in temples dedicated to "quiet saints—neither too strong nor too soft—and for men with
know-how." In composition, this order presents a broader base, allowing to receive greater load;
a slender shaft which widens slightly as it reaches the base; and capitals with scrolls (volutes). It

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is worth mentioning that in some works, capitals of this order are replaced by caryatids—female
figures carved into the stone, supporting the entablature. It bears a kind of a mean proportion
between the most solid and delicate orders. Its column is nine diameters high; its capital is
adorned with volutes, and its cornice has denticles. There is both delicacy and ingenuity
displayed in this pillar; the invention of which is attributed to the Ionians, as the famous Temple
of Diana at Ephesus was of this order.

As its names suggests, the Ionic order originated in Ionia, a coastal region of central Anatolia—
today Turkey—where a number of ancient Greek settlements were located. Volutes, scroll-like
ornaments, characterize the Ionic capital, and a base supports the column, unlike the Doric order.
The Ionic order developed in Ionia during the mid-sixth century BCE and had been transmitted
to mainland Greece by the fifth century BCE. Among the earliest examples of the Ionic capital is
the inscribed votive column from Naxos, dating to the end of the seventh century BCE.
The monumental temple dedicated to Hera on the island of Samos, built by the architect Rhoikos
c. 570-560 BCE, was the first of the great Ionic buildings, although it was destroyed by
earthquake in short order. The sixth century BCE Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, a wonder of the
ancient world, was also an Ionic design. In Athens, the Ionic order influenced some elements of
the Parthenon, 447-432 BCE, notably the Ionic frieze that encircles the cella of the temple. Ionic
columns are also employed in the interior of the monumental gateway to the Acropolis, known as
the Propylaia, c. 437-432 BCE. The Ionic was promoted to an exterior order in the construction
of the Erechtheion, c. 421-405 BCE, on the Athenian Acropolis, image below.

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North porch of the Erechtheion, 421-407 B.C.E., marble, Acropolis, Athens
The Ionic order is notable for its graceful proportions, which produce a more slender and elegant
profile than the Doric order. The ancient Roman architect Vitruvius compared the Doric module
to a sturdy, male body, while the Ionic was possessed of more graceful, feminine proportions.
The Ionic order incorporates a running frieze of continuous sculptural relief, as opposed to the
Doric frieze composed of triglyphs and metopes.

Corinthian order

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As the most refined style of the three models based on Greek design, this order presents a series
of details and designs highly thought out and elaborated to imitate the "thin figure of a girl," as
Vitruvius explains it. Sprouts and leaves of acanthus characterize the three-dimensional drawing
of sculptural stone. It is ten times as tall as it is wide, the thinnest of the three columns. 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 three orders. The shaft of the Corinthian order has
24 flutes. The column is commonly ten diameters high.

The Corinthian order is both the latest and the most elaborate of the Classical orders of
architecture. This order was employed in both Greek and Roman architecture with minor
variations and gave rise, in turn, to the Composite order. As the name suggests, the origins of the
order were connected in antiquity with the Greek city-state of Corinth, where, according to the
architectural writer Vitruvius, the sculptor Callimachus drew a set of acanthus leaves
surrounding a votive basket (Vitr. 4.1.9-10). In archaeological terms, the earliest known
Corinthian capital comes from the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae and dates to c. 427
BCE. The defining element of the Corinthian order is its elaborate, carved capital, which
incorporates even more vegetal elements than the Ionic order does. The stylized, carved leaves of
an acanthus plant grow around the capital, generally terminating just below the abacus. The
Romans favored the Corinthian order, perhaps due to its slender properties. The order is
employed in numerous notable Roman architectural monuments, including the Temple of Mars
Ultor, the Pantheon in Rome, and the Maison Carrée in Nîmes.

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The Roman writer Vitruvius credited the invention of the Corinthian order to Callimachus, a
Greek sculptor of the 5th century BC. The oldest known building built according to this order is
the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, constructed from 335 to 334 BC. The
Corinthian order was raised to rank by the writings of Vitruvius in the 1st century BC.

Legend has it that Callimachus took the hint of the capital of this pillar from the following
remarkable circumstance:
“A freeborn maiden of Corinth was attacked by an illness and died. After her burial, her
nurse collected a few things which used to give the girl pleasure while she was alive, put them
into a basket and placed it on her grave, covering the basket with a roof- tile for protection .It
happened that the basket was placed over the root of an acanthus. When the plant grew, the stalks
and leaves curled gracefully around the basket, until reaching the tile they were forced to bend
downwards into volutes. Callimachus, a sculptor and a worker in Corinthian bronze, passed by the
grave and observed the basket with the leaves growing round it. Delighted with the novel style
and form, he set about imitating the figure and built for the Corinthians some columns with
capitals designed after that pattern, and determined the proportions to be allowed in finished
works of the Corinthian Order. The vase of the capital he made to represent the basket; the

abacus, the tile; and the volute, the bending leaves”3

Roman Order;

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

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The Romans adapted all the Greek orders and also developed two orders of their own, basically
modifications of Greek orders. However, it was not until the Renaissance that these were named
and formalized as the Tuscan and Composite, respectively the plainest and most ornate of the
orders. The Romans also invented the Superposed order. A superposed 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 story, while the Corinthian or the Composite order was used
for the top story.

The Giant order was invented by architects in the Renaissance. The Giant order is characterized
by columns that extend the height of two or more stories. In classical architecture, a giant order,
also known as colossal order, is an order whose columns or pilasters span two (or more) storeys.
At the same time, smaller orders may feature in arcades or window and door framings within the
storeys that are embraced by the giant order.
The giant order as such was unknown to antiquity, although most ancient buildings using formal
orders lacked upper storeys. To an extent buildings with giant orders resemble a Roman
temple adapted for post-classical use, as many were (the survivors have now usually been
stripped of later filling-in).

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Renaissance:

Facade of Sant'Andrea, Mantua

One of the earliest uses of this feature in the was at the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua,
designed by Leon Battista Alberti and begun in 1472; this adapted the Roman triumphal arch to a
church facade. From designs by Raphael for his own palazzo in Rome on an island block it
seems that all facades were to have a giant order of pilasters rising at least two stories to the full
height of the piano nobile, "a grandiloquent feature unprecedented in private palace design". He
appears to have made these in the two years before his death in 1520, which left the building
unstarted. It was further developed by Michelangelo at the Palaces on the Capitoline
Hill in Rome (1564-68), where he combined giant pilasters of Corinthian order with
small Ionic columns that framed the windows of the upper story and flanked the loggia openings
below.

The giant order became a major feature of later 16th century Mannerist architecture,
and Baroque architecture. Its use by Andrea Palladio justified its use in the seventeenth century
in the movement known as neo-Palladian architecture. It continued to be used in Beaux-Arts
architecture of 1880–1920 as, for example, in New York's James A. Farley Building, which
claims the largest giant order Corinthian colonnade in the world.

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Historical Development: The Renaissance period saw renewed interest in the literary sources of
the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, and the fertile development of a new architecture based
on classical principles. The treatise De architectura by Roman theoretician, architect and
engineer Vitruvius, is the only architectural writing that survived from Antiquity. Rediscovered
in the 15th century, Vitruvius was instantly hailed as the authority on architecture. However, in
his text the word order is not to be found. To describe the four species of columns (he only
mentions: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) he uses, in fact, various words such
as: genus (gender), mos (habit, fashion, manner), opera (work).

Tuscan order

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 Greeks. The Tuscan order is
characterized by an unfluted shaft and a capital that only consists 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. Developed from the union of the classical Ionic and Corinthian orders, this order is the
most elaborate of the five architectural orders. With Ionic scrolls and Corinthian sprouts and
acanthus leaves, this order features an overlap of ornament. The column is typically ten column-
widths in height.

Composite order

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
typically ten diameters high.

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The St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church in Paris presents columns of the three orders: Doric at
the ground floor, Ionic at the second floor, Corinthian at the third floor

The term order, as well as the idea of redefining the canon started circulating in Rome, at the
beginning of the 16th century, probably during the studies of Vitruvius' text conducted and
shared by Peruzzi, Raphael, and Sangallo. Ever since, the definition of the canon has been a
collective endeavor that involved several generations of European architects, from Renaissance
and Baroque periods, basing their theories both on the study of Vitruvius' writings and the
observation of Roman ruins (the Greek ruins became available only after Greek Independence,
1821–23). What was added were rules for the use of the Architectural Orders, and the exact
proportions of them down to the minutest detail. Commentary on the appropriateness of the
orders for temples devoted to particular deities (Vitruvius I.2.5) were elaborated by Renaissance
theorists, with Doric characterized as bold and manly, Ionic as matronly, and Corinthian as
maidenly.

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It seems likely that the triglyph, the three-part stone slab set above the column and also above the
space between columns in the Doric order, originates from a decorative wood slab that protected
the beam ends of the ceiling from rain and rot. The six stone guttae always fixed below it seem
to represent the six wood tre-nails, or pegs, that kept the slab in position. In addition, the fluting
of the Doric column is reminiscent of the grooves that the long strokes of the adze would make
as the woodworker cut away the bark of a tree trunk before erecting it as the column.

If the origins of the Doric order are a matter of guesswork, this much is clear: that the Greeks
used an elementary formula of vertical and horizontal lines of stone, so refined with skill and
taste, with strict rules of proportion, that the total effect is one of balance, symmetry, and power.
At the highest development, they added a series of optical corrections to ensure that the human
eye, easily misled by the effect of light and shade in alternation, saw the whole as an apparent
pattern of truly horizontal and vertical lines. In fact, with the application of these optical
corrections, the entire building is made up of subtly curving or inclined surfaces. These
refinements called for mathematical ability of a high order in the design and for extreme skill on
the part of the masons.

In the Parthenon (5th century BC), the slight swell (entasis) and inward slant of the columns
make them seem straight-sided and vertical (which they are not); actual straightness would cause
the eye to see them as waisted, and if vertical they would seem to be inclining outward. Also,
without its slight upward curve, the steps of the platform (stylobate) would seem to sag under the

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line of standing columns. In short, the Greek mind took the simple idea of the upright and the
crossbar, the child's building-block technique, and, in developing it to its zenith in the Parthenon,
produced a masterpiece that still informs the viewer about those ingredients in a building that
make for serenity combined with power, repose with majesty.

Marble was the perfect material for buildings in which sharp edges, clear-cut outline, precision,
and the beauty of uncluttered wall surfaces were desired, so that each part, functional and
decorative (the sculptured metopes and pediment), might do its work, and the horizontal
members could lie without stress or mortar upon the supporting verticals.

The Doric order continued in use in Hellenistic (350-215 BC) and Roman times, but it is easy to
distinguish Greek from Roman Dorica. The later architects dared a wider space, enough for three
triglyphs, between columns; they used a base for their columns, whereas a Greek Doric column
rests directly on the stylobate; they economized often by omitting the fluting in the lower part of
a column (where damage most often occurred); and they reduced the size of the capital most
meanly. All these Hellenistic and Roman "improvements" are seen in Delos.

Ionic

The Ionic order came to mainland Greece almost certainly from Asia Minor and the islands,
when the Doric order was well established both there and in the colonies of Magna Graecia
(southern Italy). Ionic columns have bases; the flutes have no sharp edges to them but are
separated by a substantial fillet; the columns are taller and more slender; the capitals with their
beautiful spiral volutes are decorative; the architrave has lost its alternating triglyphs and
metopes and, in Greece proper, has a frieze of plain or sculptured stone, in Asia Minor a string of
dentils to suggest the beam ends of the ceiling. If the feeling of the heavier, more austere Doric
order can be described as masculine, then the Ionic is certainly feminine (and very lovely),
especially suitable for such smaller buildings as the Erectheum and the Temple of Nike on the
Acropolis of Athens.

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Corinthian

The Corinthian order came later. Its first appearances were in the temple at Bassae (circa 430
BC) and in the circular building (tholos) at Epidauros (360 BC), where one of the perfectly
preserved capitals can be seen in the museum. It is decorative and graceful, and one may contrast
the simplicity of its sculptured acanthus leaves and their slender tendrils with the complications
bestowed on the Corinthian capital by later Hellenistic and Roman architects, in their constant
striving for magnificence.

Guy Pentreath says that the classical Greeks rarely departed from the straight line and the
rectangular plan; only a few circular buildings have survived -- for instance, the Tholos at
Delphi, the "folly" of the family of Philip of Macedon at Olympia, a temple at Samothrace built
by Queen Arsinoe, and in the Agora at Athens, the building where the executive of the day lived.

That is the difference between Greek and Roman columns

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Columns

• Both cultures used three different columns in temple building. The Doric is thick and
with very little decoration. The Ionic is a thinner slightly more ornate column. The
Corinthian style is a highly ornate column that is decorated at both the top and bottom
with intricate designs and artwork.
Column Preferences

• The Greeks tended to favor the less ornate Doric column in many of its temples. The
Parthenon dedicated to the Goddess Athena is an example of the Doric columns.
Roman architecture preferred the Corinthian column and can be seen in the Pantheon.

Illusionary: The ancient Greeks continued to strive for perfection in the appearance of
their buildings. To make their columns look straight, they bowed them slightly outward to
compensate for the optical illusion that makes vertical lines look curved from a distance. They
named this effect entasis which means 'to strain' in Greek.

The relationships between columns, windows, doorways, and other elements were constantly
analysed to find pleasing dimensions that were in harmony with nature and the human body.
Symmetry and the unity of parts to the whole were important to Greek architecture, as
these elements reflected the democratic city-state pioneered by the Greek civilisation.4

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 REFERENCES

1.The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece, Julien-David Le Roy, Google books

Antiquities of Athens: Measured and Delineated by James Stuart, Nicholas Revett, Institute of
Classical Architecture and Classical America, Google books

2. Greek architectural orders, Dr. Jeffrey A. Becker,

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/greek-art/beginners-guide-
greece/a/greek-architectural-orders

3 Dr. Khaled Mohamed Dewidar, Professor of Architecture, Ain Shams University, Vice
Dean for teaching and Learning, British University in Egypt

4. for a detailed discussion of the Greek Orders visit

Order in architecture, a study of architectural production and design theory, Arch.
Mohamed Abd Elkader -Graduate studies-May, 2008University of Alexandria Faculty of Engineering
Department of Architectural Engineering, Special Studies in History and Theory Architecture
Fn 3 is also comprehensive

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