Classical order

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.[1] 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 Illustrations of the Classical orders (from left to
audience attuned to its language.[2] right): Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite, made in 1728, from Cyclopædia
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.[3] Greek
Revival architecture, inspired by increasing knowledge of Greek originals, returned to more authentic
models, including ones from relatively early periods.

Elements
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 concave 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

Greek orders with full height

The heights of columns are calculated in terms of a ratio An illustration of the Five Architectural
between the diameter of the shaft at its base and the height of Orders engraved for the Encyclopédie, vol.
the column. A Doric column can be described as seven 18, showing the Tuscan and Doric orders
diameters high, an Ionic column as eight diameters high, and (top row); two versions of the Ionic order
a Corinthian column nine diameters high, although the actual (center row); Corinthian and Composite
ratios used vary considerably in both ancient and revived orders (bottom row)
examples, but still 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.

Greek orders
There are three distinct orders in Ancient Greek architecture: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These three
were adopted by the Romans, who modified their capitals. The Roman adoption of the Greek orders took
place in the 1st century BC. The three ancient Greek orders have since been consistently used in European
Neoclassical architecture.

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 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.

Doric order

The Doric order originated on the mainland and western Greece. It is the
simplest of the orders, 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 Doric capital of the Parthenon
capital consists of a necking or annulet, which is a simple ring. The from Athens
echinus is convex, or circular cushion like stone, and the abacus is a
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.

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 Ionic capital from the Queen
more flutes than the Doric counterpart (totalling 24). The Ionic base has Elizabeth II Great Court of the
two convex moldings called tori, which are separated by a scotia. British Museum (London)

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 more tall than 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.

Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is the most elaborated of the Greek orders, characterized by a slender fluted column
having an ornate capital decorated with two rows of acanthus leaves and four scrolls. The shaft of the
Corinthian order has 24 flutes. The column is commonly ten diameters high.
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.

Roman orders
Tuscan capital and
entablature, illustration from
the 18th century
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 Corinthian capital of a column
Composite, respectively the plainest and from the interior of the
most ornate of the orders. The Romans Pantheon in Rome
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.

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 Greeks' Doric order. The Tuscan order is characterized by an unfluted shaft and
a capital that consists of only 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.

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.

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).

Composite capital in the

former Palace of Justice
(Budapest, Hungary)

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.[4] Ever since, the definition of The Tower of The Five Orders at the Bodleian
the canon has been a collective endeavor that involved Library at the University of Oxford, completed in
several generations of European architects, from 1619, includes Tuscan through Composite
Renaissance and Baroque periods, basing their theories orders.
both on the study of Vitruvius' writings and the
observation of Roman ruins (the Greek ruins became
available only after Greek Independence, 1821–1823). What was added were rules for the use of the
Architectural Orders, and the exact proportions of them in minute 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.[5]

Vignola defining the concept of "order"

Following the examples of Vitruvius and the five books of the Regole generali di architettura sopra le
cinque maniere de gli edifici by Sebastiano Serlio published from 1537 onwards, Giacomo Barozzi da
Vignola produced an architecture rule book that was not only more practical than the previous two treatises,
but also was systematically and consistently adopting, for the first time, the term 'order' to define each of the
five different species of columns inherited from antiquity. A first publication of the various plates, as
separate sheets, appeared in Rome in 1562, with the title: Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura ("Canon
of the Five Orders of Architecture").[6] As David Watkin has pointed out, Vignola's book "was to have an
astonishing publishing history of over 500 editions in 400 years in ten languages, Italian, Dutch, English,
Flemish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, during which it became perhaps the
most influential book of all times".[7]
The book consisted simply of an introduction followed
by 32 annotated plates, highlighting the proportional
system with all the minute details of the Five
Architectural Orders. According to Christof Thoenes,
the main expert of Renaissance architectural treatises, "in
accordance with Vitruvius's example, Vignola chose a
"module" equal to a half-diameter which is the base of
the system. All the other measurements are expressed in
fractions or in multiples of this module. The result is an
arithmetical model, and with its help each order,
harmoniously proportioned, can easily be adapted to any
given height, of a façade or an interior. From this point
of view, Vignola's Regola is a remarkable intellectual
achievement".[8]

In America, The American Builder's Companion,[9]

written in the early 19th century by the architect Asher
Benjamin, influenced many builders in the eastern states,
particularly those who developed what became known
as the Federal style. The last American re-interpretation
The St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church in Paris
of Vignola's Regola, was edited in 1904 by William
presents columns of the three orders: Doric at
Robert Ware.[10]
the ground floor, Ionic at the second floor,
Corinthian at the third floor.
The break from the classical mode came first with the
Gothic Revival architecture, then the development of
modernism during the 19th century. The Bauhaus
promoted pure functionalism, stripped of superfluous ornament, and that has become one of the defining
characteristics of modern architecture. There are some exceptions. Postmodernism introduced an ironic use
of the orders as a cultural reference, divorced from the strict rules of composition. On the other hand, a
number of practitioners such as Quinlan Terry in England, and Michael Dwyer, Richard Sammons, and
Duncan Stroik in the United States, continue the classical tradition, and use the classical orders in their
work.

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. They are termed
"nonce orders" by analogy to nonce words; several examples follow below.

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, c. 1875–1915.

French order
The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles contains pilasters with bronze capitals in the "French order".
Designed by Charles Le Brun, the capitals display the national emblems of the Kingdom of France: the
royal sun between two Gallic roosters above a fleur-de-lis.[11]

British orders

Robert Adam's brother James was in Rome in 1762, drawing antiquities under the direction of Clérisseau;
he invented a "British order" and published an engraving of it. Its capital the heraldic lion and unicorn take
the place of the Composite's volutes, a Byzantine or Romanesque conception, but expressed in terms of
neoclassical realism. Adam's ink-and-wash rendering with red highlighting is at the Avery Library,
Columbia University.

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.[12]

An adaptation of the Corinthian order by William Donthorne that used turnip leaves and mangelwurzel is
termed the Agricultural order.[13][14]

Sir Edwin Lutyens, who from 1912 laid out New Delhi as the new seat of government for the British
Empire in India,[15] designed a Delhi order having a capital displaying a band of vertical ridges, and with
bells hanging at each corner as a replacement for volutes.[16] His design for the new city's central palace,
Viceroy's House, now the Presidential residence Rashtrapati Bhavan, was a thorough integration of
elements of Indian architecture into a building of classical forms and proportions,[17] and made use of the
order throughout.[16] The Delhi Order reappears in some later Lutyens buildings including Campion Hall,
Oxford.[18]

External video
American orders
The Classical orders (https://ww
In the United States Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of the w.khanacademy.org/humanities/anc
Capitol building in Washington, DC, designed a series of ient-art-civilizations/greek-art/begin
botanical American orders. Most famous is the Corinthian order ners-guide-greece/v/the-classical-or
substituting ears of corn and their husks for the acanthus leaves, ders) – a Smarthistory video.
which was executed by Giuseppe Franzoni and used in the small
domed vestibule of the Senate. Only this vestibule survived the
Burning of Washington in 1814, nearly intact.[19]

With peace restored, Latrobe designed an American order that

substituted tobacco leaves for the acanthus, of which he sent a
sketch to Thomas Jefferson in a letter, 5 November 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 constrained within the profile of
classical mouldings, as his drawing demonstrates. It was intended Corn capital at the Litchfield Villa
for "the Upper Columns in the Gallery of the Entrance of the Prospect Park (Brooklyn) (A.J.
Chamber of the Senate" ("United States Capitol exhibit" (https://we Davis, architect)
b.archive.org/web/20170715102824/https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/us.capitol/s4.html). Library of Congress.
Archived from the original (https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/us.capitol/s4.html) on 2017-07-15. Retrieved
2017-12-29.).

See also
Temple (Greek)
Temple (Roman)

Notes
1. Gwilt, Joseph (1842). An Encyclopædia of Architecture: Historical, Theoretical, and Practical
(https://archive.org/details/anencyclopdiaar00gwilgoog). London: Longman, Brown, Green,
and Longmans. pp. 680 (https://archive.org/details/anencyclopdiaar00gwilgoog/page/n695).
"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."
2. Summerson, pp. 7–15
3. Summerson, pp. 19–21
4. H. Burns and H. Gunthers, 24éme Colloque International d'Etude Humanistes, Tours 1981
5. Small, Julian. "Classical Orders" (http://sites.scran.ac.uk/ada/documents/general/orders/clas
sical_orders.htm). sites.scran.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
6. The most recent English translation is the one, with an introduction and commentary by
Branko Mitrovic, New York. 1999
7. David Watkin, Introduction to the Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture, translated by
John Leeke, reprint of the 1699 edition, New York, 2011
8. "Architectura – Les livres d'Architecture" (http://architectura.cesr.univ-tours.fr/traite/Notice/EN
SBA_LES64.asp?param=en).
9. Benjamin, Asher (1827). The American Builder's Companion: Or, a System of Architecture
Particularly Adapted to the Present Style of Building. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-
22236-3.
10. Ware, William R. (1994). The American Vignola: a guide to the making of classical
architecture (https://books.google.com/books?id=nV3eiQFnwyAC). Courier Dover
Publications. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-486-28310-4.
11. Fouin, Christophe, et al. (2016). Le Château de Versailles. Vu par ses photographes. Paris:
Albin Michel. p. 83. ISBN 9782226321428.
12. Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (2016). Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford
University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-19-967499-2.
13. Curl, p. 238
14. Curl, p. 11
15. Gradidge, Roderick (1981). Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate. London, UK: George Allen
and Unwin. p. 69. ISBN 0-04-720023-5.
16. Gradidge, Roderick (1981). Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate. London: George Allen and
Unwin. p. 151. ISBN 0-04-720023-5.
17. Wilhide, Elizabeth (2012). Sir Edwin Lutyens: Designing in the English tradition. London:
National Trust Books. pp. 41–42. ISBN 9781907892271.
18. Gradidge, Roderick (1981). Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate. London: George Allen and
Unwin. p. 161. ISBN 0-04-720023-5.
19. "The 1814 burning of Washington, D.C." (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-1814-burning-
of-washington-d-c/) www.cbsnews.com. 31 August 2014. Retrieved 2022-12-21.

References
Summerson, John, The Classical Language of Architecture, 1980 edition, Thames and
Hudson World of Art series, ISBN 0500201773
Frédérique Lemerle et Yves Pauwels (dir.), Histoires d’ordres: le langage européen de
l’architecture, Turhout, Brepols, 2021

Further reading
Barletta, Barbara A., The Origins of the Greek Architectural Orders (Cambridge University
Press) 2001
Barozzi da Vignola, Giacomo, Canon of the Five Orders, Translated into English, with an
introduction and commentary by Branko Mitrovic, Acanthus Press, New York, 1999
Barozzi da Vignola, Giacomo, Canon of the Five Orders, Translated by John Leeke (1669),
with an introduction by David Watkin, Dover Publications, New York, 2011
Chitham, Robert (2005). The Classical Orders Of Architecture (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=YWCnUT0-5xwC). Elsevier/Architectural Press. ISBN 978-0-7506-6124-9.
James Stevens Curl (2003). Classical Architecture: An Introduction to Its Vocabulary and
Essentials, With a Select Glossary of Terms. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-
73119-4.
John Newenham Summerson (1963). The Classical Language of Architecture. The MIT
Press. ISBN 978-0-262-69012-6.
Tzonis, Alexander; Lefaivre, Liane (1986). Classical architecture: the poetics of order (https://
archive.org/details/classicalarchite00tzon_0). The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-70031-3.
Gromort, Georges (2001). The Elements of Classical Architecture (http://www.books-by-isbn.
com/0-393/0393730514-The-Elements-of-Classical-Architecture-Georges-Gromort-Henry-H
ope-Reed-0-393-73051-4.html). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-73051-7.
Classical orders and elements (http://www.institute-of-traditional-architecture.org/self-study/c
lassical-elements/)

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