TheCorinthian order (Greek:Κορινθιακὸς ῥυθμός,Korinthiakós rythmós;Latin:Ordo Corinthius) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principalclassical orders ofAncient Greek architecture andRoman architecture. The other two are theDoric order, which was the earliest, followed by theIonic order. In Ancient Greek architecture, the Corinthian order follows the Ionic in almost all respects, other than the capitals of the columns, though this changed in Roman architecture.[1]
A Corinthian capital may be seen as an enriched development of the Ionic capital, though one may have to look closely at a Corinthian capital to see the Ionicvolutes ("helices"), at the corners, perhaps reduced in size and importance, scrolling out above the two ranks ofstylized acanthus leaves and stalks ("cauliculi" orcaulicoles), eight in all, and to notice that smaller volutes scroll inwards to meet each other on each side. The leaves may be quite stiff, schematic and dry, or they may be extravagantly drilled and undercut, naturalistic and spiky. The flatabacus at the top of the capital has a concave curve on each face, and usually a single flower ("rosette") projecting from the leaves below overlaps it on each face.
Frieze and capitals of theChoragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens, unknown architect, 330s BC, one of the earliest surviving examples
The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state ofCorinth, to which it was connected in the period. However, according to the architectural historianVitruvius, the column was created by the sculptorCallimachus, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket of toys, with a slab on top, on the grave of a Corinthian girl.[3]
Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period (430–323 BC). The earliest Corinthian capitals, already in fragments and now lost, were found inBassae in 1811–12; they are dated around 420 BC, and are in a temple of Apollo otherwise using the Ionic. There were three of them, carrying the frieze across the far end of the cella, which was open to theadytum. The Corinthian was probably devised to solve the awkwardness the Ionic capital created at corners by having clear and distinct front or back and side-on faces,[4] a problem only finally solved byVincenzo Scamozzi in the 16th century.
A simplified late version of the Greek Corinthian capital is often known as the "Tower of the Winds Corinthian" after its use on the porches of theTower of the Winds in Athens (about 50 BC). There is a single row ofacanthus leaves at the bottom of the capital, with a row of "tall, narrow leaves" behind.[5] These cling tightly to the swelling shaft, and are sometimes described as "lotus" leaves, as well as the vague "water-leaves" and palm leaves; their similarity to leaf forms on many ancient Egyptian capitals has been remarked on.[6] The form is usually found in smaller columns, both ancient and modern.
Proportion is a defining characteristic of the Corinthian order: the "coherent integration of dimensions and ratios in accordance with the principles ofsymmetria" are noted by Mark Wilson Jones, who finds that the ratio of total column height to column-shaft height is in a 6:5 ratio, so that, secondarily, the full height of column with capital is often a multiple of 6Roman feet while the column height itself is a multiple of 5. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to theIonic column, though it is more slender, and stands apart by its distinctive carved capital.[9]
Theabacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the RomanColosseum, holding up the least weight, and also having the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Their height to width ratio is about 10:1.[9]
One variant is the Tivoli order, found at the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli. The Tivoli order's Corinthian capital has two rows of acanthus leaves and its abacus is decorated with oversizefleurons in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops. The frieze exhibits fruitfestoons suspended betweenbucrania. Above each festoon has arosette over its center. The cornice does not havemodillions.
The classical design was often adapted, usually taking a more elongated form, and sometimes being combined with scrolls, generally within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples. Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of theBuddha orBodhisattvas, usually as central figures surrounded, and often in the shade, of the luxurious foliage of Corinthian designs.
Though the term "Corinthian" is reserved for columns and capitals that adhere fairly closely to one of the classical versions, vegetal decoration to capitals continued to be extremely common inByzantine architecture and the various styles of the EuropeanMiddle Ages, fromCarolingian architecture toRomanesque architecture andGothic architecture. There was considerable freedom in the details and the relationship between column (generally not fluted) and capital. Many types of plant were represented, sometimes realistically, as in the capitals in thechapter house atSouthwell Minster in England.
During the first flush of theItalian Renaissance, the Florentine architectural theoristFrancesco di Giorgio expressed the human analogies that writers who followed Vitruvius often associated with the human form, in squared drawings he made of the Corinthian capital overlaid with human heads, to show the proportions common to both.[10]
The Corinthianarchitrave is divided in two or three sections, which may be equal, or may bear interesting proportional relationships, to one with another. Above the plain, unadorned architrave lies thefrieze, which may be richly carved with a continuous design or left plain, as at the U.S. Capitol extension. At the Capitol the proportions of architrave to frieze are exactly 1:1. Above that, the profiles of thecornice mouldings are like those of the Ionic order. If the cornice is very deep, it may be supported by brackets or modillions, which are ornamental brackets used in a series under a cornice.
The Corinthian column is almost always fluted, and the flutes of a Corinthian column may be enriched. They may be filleted, with rods nestled within the hollow flutes, or stop-fluted, with the rods rising a third of the way, to where theentasis begins. In French, these are calledchandelles and sometimes terminate in carved wisps of flame, or with bellflowers. Alternatively, beading or chains of husks may take the place of the fillets in the fluting, Corinthian being the most flexible of the orders, with more opportunities for variation.
Elaborating upon an offhand remark when Vitruvius accounted for the origin of its acanthus capital, it became a commonplace to identify the Corinthian column with the slender figure of a young girl; in this mode the classifying French painterNicolas Poussin wrote to his friendFréart de Chantelou in 1642:
The beautiful girls whom you will have seen inNîmes will not, I am sure, have delighted your spirit any less than the beautiful columns of Maison Carrée for the one is no more than an old copy of the other.[11]
Sir William Chambers expressed the conventional comparison with the Doric order:
The proportions of the orders were by the ancients formed on those of the human body, and consequently, it could not be their intention to make a Corinthian column, which, as Vitruvius observes, is to represent the delicacy of a young girl, as thick and much taller than a Doric one, which is designed to represent the bulk and vigour of a muscular full grown man.[12]
The oldest known example of a Corinthian column is in the Temple ofApollo Epicurius atBassae in Arcadia, c. 450–420 BC. It is not part of the order of the temple itself, which has a Doriccolonnade surrounding the temple and an Ionic order within thecella enclosure. A single Corinthian column stands free, centered within the cella. This is a mysterious feature, and archaeologists debate what this shows: some state that it is simply an example of avotive column. A few examples of Corinthian columns in Greece during the next century are all usedinside temples. A more famous example, and the first documented use of the Corinthian order on the exterior of a structure, is the circular Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, erected c. 334 BC.
A Corinthian capital carefully buried in antiquity in the foundations of the circulartholos atEpidaurus was recovered during modern archaeological campaigns. Its enigmatic presence and preservation have been explained as a sculptor's model for stonemasons to follow[13] in erecting the temple dedicated toAsclepius. The architectural design of the building was credited in antiquity to the sculptorPolykleitos the Younger, son of the Classical Greek sculptorPolykleitos the Elder.
The temple was erected in the 4th century BC. These capitals, in one of the most-visited sacred sites of Greece, influenced later Hellenistic and Roman designs for the Corinthian order. The concave sides of the abacus meet at a sharp keel edge, easily damaged, which in later and post-Renaissance practice has generally been replaced by a canted corner. Behind the scrolls the spreading cylindrical form of the central shaft is plainly visible.
Much later, the Roman writerVitruvius (c. 75 BC – c. 15 BC) related that the Corinthian order had been invented byCallimachus, a Greek architect and sculptor who was inspired by the sight of a votive basket that had been left on the grave of a young girl. A few of her toys were in it, and a square tile had been placed over the basket, to protect them from the weather. Anacanthus plant had grown through the woven basket, mixing its spiny, deeply cut leaves with the weave of the basket.[14]
The origin of the Corinthian order, illustrated inClaude Perrault's translation of the ten books of Vitruvius, 1684
Claude Perrault incorporated a vignette epitomizing the Callimachus tale in his illustration of the Corinthian order for his translation of Vitruvius, published in Paris, 1684. Perrault demonstrates in his engraving how the proportions of the carved capital could be adjusted according to demands of the design, without offending. The texture and outline of Perrault's leaves is dry and tight compared to their 19th-century naturalism at the U.S. Capitol.
In Late Antique and Byzantine practice, the leaves may be blown sideways, as if by the wind of Faith. Unlike the Doric and Ionic column capitals, a Corinthian capital has no neck beneath it, just a ring-likeastragal molding or a banding that forms the base of the capital, recalling the base of the legendary basket.
Most buildings (and most clients) are satisfied with just two orders. When orders are superposed one above another, as they are at theColosseum, the natural progression is from sturdiest and plainest (Doric) at the bottom, to slenderest and richest (Corinthian) at the top. The Colosseum's topmost tier has an unusual order that came to be known as theComposite order during the 16th century. The mid-16th-century Italians, especiallySebastiano Serlio andJacopo Barozzi da Vignola, who established acanonic version of the orders, thought they detected a "Composite order", combining the volutes of the Ionic with the foliage of the Corinthian, but in Roman practice volutes were almost always present.
InRomanesque andGothic architecture, where the Classical system had been replaced by a new aesthetic composed of arched vaults springing from columns, the Corinthian capital was still retained. It might be severely plain, as in the typicalCistercian architecture, which encouraged no distraction from liturgy and ascetic contemplation, or in other contexts it could be treated to numerous fanciful variations, even on the capitals of a series of columns orcolonettes within the same system.
During the 16th century, a sequence of engravings of the orders in architectural treatises helped standardize their details within rigid limits: Sebastiano Serlio; theRegola delli cinque ordini ofGiacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–1573);I quattro libri dell'architettura ofAndrea Palladio, and Vincenzo Scamozzi'sL'idea dell'architettura universale, were followed in the 17th century by French treatises with further refined engraved models, such as Perrault's.
Roman Corinthian capital of theTemple of Vesta,Tivoli, Italy, with an oversizedfleuron (flower) on theabacus, probably a stylized hibiscus blossom with spiralpistil, compressed acanthus rows, and flutes squared at the top, rather than rounded as on a standard Corinthian column, 1st century BC
Roman Corinthian capital withgorgoneia from the Colosseum,Rome, 70–80 BC
Rococo reinterpretations of the Corinthian order in an altar design, with asymmetric capitals and more sinuous S-shaped acanthuses, by Franz Xaver Habermann, 1740–1745, etching on paper, Rijksmuseum
Greek Revival pilaster capitals on the facade of the Austrian Parliament Building
Pair of pedestals that reinterpret the Corinthian order (not just the capital, also the shaft), from the drawing room of theWilliam H. Vanderbilt House, 1879–1882, Egyptianalabaster, gilt brass, and red glass jewels,Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Greek Revival Corinthian columns of theBowling Green Offices Building, New York City, a mix of those of the Tower of the Winds and those of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, byW. & G. Audsley, 1895–1898[28]
Beaux-Arts reinterpretation of the Corinthian order at the Rotunda of thePalace of Fine Arts,San Francisco, US, with a full figure on the capital,egg-and-dart on theastragal that is just under the capital, and two extra smaller volutes and a handle-like element on the canonic volutes of the capital corner, byBernard Maybeck, 1913–1915
^Francesco di Giorgio's sheet with the drawings, from the Turin codex Saluzziano of hisTrattati di architettura ingegneria e arte militare, c. 1480–1500, is illustrated byRudolf Wittkower,Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1962) 1965, pl. ic
^Quoted bySir Kenneth Clark,The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form, 1956, p. 45.
^Chambers,A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (Joseph Gwilt ed, 1825:pp 159–61).
^Alison Burford (The Greek Temple Builders at Epidauros, Liverpool, 1969, p. 65) suggests instead that it was spoilt in the carving, one volute being incorrectly detached from its field; Hugh Plommer, reviewing it forThe Classical Review (New Series,21.2 [June 1971], pp 269–272), remarks that the error involved an excess of work and remains convinced that the capital was a model.