Architects' first real look at the Greek Ionic order: Julien David LeRoy,Les ruines plus beaux des monuments de la Grèce Paris, 1758 (Plate XX)
TheIonic order is one of the three canonicorders ofclassical architecture, the other two being theDoric and theCorinthian. There are two other orders, developed by the Romans: theTuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called thecomposite order. Of the three classical canonic orders, the Corinthian order has the narrowest columns, followed by the Ionic order, with the Doric order having the widest columns.
The Ionic capital is characterized by the use ofvolutes. Ioniccolumns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from thestylobate or platform while the cap is usually enriched withegg-and-dart.
The ancient architect and architectural historianVitruvius associates the Ionic with feminine proportions (the Doric representing the masculine).[1]
The major features of the Ionic order are thevolutes of itscapital, which have been the subject of much theoretical and practical discourse, based on a brief and obscure passage inVitruvius.[2] The only tools required to design these features were a straight-edge, a right angle, string (to establish half-lengths) and a compass. Below the volutes, the Ionic column may have a wide collar or banding separating the capital from thefluted shaft (as in, for example, theneoclassical mansionCastle Coole), or a swag of fruit and flowers may swing from the clefts or "neck" formed by the volutes.
Originally, the volutes lay in a single plane (illustration at right); then it was seen that they could be angled out on the corners. This feature of the Ionic order made it more pliant and satisfactory than the Doric to critical eyes in the 4th century BC: angling the volutes on the corner columns ensured that they "read" equally when seen from either front or side facade. However, some classical artists viewed this as unsatisfactory, feeling that the placement of Ionic columns at building corners required a distortion at the expense of the capital's structural logic; theCorinthian order would solve this by reading equally well from all angles.[3] The 16th-century Renaissance architect and theoristVincenzo Scamozzi designed a version of such a perfectly four-sided Ionic capital that it became standard; when a Greek Ionic order was eventually reintroduced in the later 18th centuryGreek Revival, it conveyed an air of archaic freshness and primitive, perhaps even republican, vitality.[4]
The Ioniccolumn is always more slender than the Doric; therefore, it always has a base:[5] Ionic columns are eight and nine column-diameters tall, and even more in theAntebellum colonnades of late American Greek Revival plantation houses.[citation needed]
Ionic columns are most oftenfluted. After a little early experimentation, the number of hollow flutes in the shaft settled at 24. This standardization kept the fluting in a familiar proportion to the diameter of the column at any scale, even when the height of the column was exaggerated. Unlike Greek Doric fluting, which runs out to anarris or sharp edge, that was easily damaged by people brushing it as they passed by, Ionic fluting leaves a little flat-seeming surface of the column surface between each hollow (in fact it is a small segment of a circle around the column).[6]
In some instances, the fluting has been omitted. English architectInigo Jones introduced a note of sobriety with plain Ionic columns on hisBanqueting House, Whitehall, London, and when Beaux-Arts architectJohn Russell Pope wanted to convey the manly stamina combined with intellect ofTheodore Roosevelt, he left colossal Ionic columns unfluted on the Roosevelt memorial at theAmerican Museum of Natural History, New York City, for an unusual impression of strength and stature. Wabash Railroad architect R.E. Mohr included eight unfluted Ionic frontal columns on his 1928 design for the railroad'sDelmar Boulevard station in St. Louis.
Left image: Characteristic design of the Ionicanta capital (essentially flat layout with straight horizontalmoldings). Right image: A Ionicanta capital, with extensive bands of floral patterns in prolongation of adjoiningfriezes at theErechtheion (circa 410 BC).
Theentablature resting on the columns has three parts: a plainarchitrave divided into two, or more generally three, bands, with afrieze resting on it that may be richly sculptural, and acornice built up withdentils (like the closely spaced ends of joists), with a corona ("crown") and cyma ("ogee")molding to support the projecting roof. Pictorial, often narrative,bas-relief frieze carving provides a characteristic feature of the Ionic order, in the area where the Doric order is articulated withtriglyphs. Roman and Renaissance practice condensed the height of the entablature by reducing the proportions of the architrave, which made the frieze more prominent.
The Ionic anta capital is the Ionic version of theanta capital, the crowning portion of ananta, which is the front edge of a supporting wall inGreek temple architecture. The anta is generally crowned by a stone block designed to spread the load from superstructure (entablature) it supports, called an "anta capital" when it is structural, or sometimes "pilaster capital" if it is only decorative as often during the Roman period.
In order not to protrude unduly from the wall, these anta capitals usually display a rather flat surface, so that the capital has more or less a rectangular-shaped structure overall. The Ionic anta capital, in contrast to the regular column capitals, is highly decorated and generally includes bands of alternatinglotuses andflame palmettes, and bands ofeggs and darts andbeads and reels patterns, in order to maintain continuity with the decorative frieze lining the top of the walls. This difference with the column capitals disappeared with Roman times when anta or pilaster capitals have designs very similar to those of the column capitals.[7][8] The Ionic anta capitals as can be seen in the Ionic order temple of theErechtheion (circa 410 BCE), are characteristically rectangular Ionic anta capitals, with extensive bands of floral patterns in prolongation of adjoining friezes.
The Ionic order originated in the mid-6th century BC inIonia (broadly equivalent to modern dayİzmir Province), as well as the southwestern coastland and islands ofAsia Minor settled byIonians, whereIonic Greek was spoken. The Ionic order column was being practiced in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC. It was most popular in theArchaic Period (750–480 BC) in Ionia. The first of the great Ionic temples was theTemple of Hera onSamos, built about 570–560 BC by the architectRhoikos. It stood for only a decade before it was leveled by an earthquake. A longer-lasting 6th century Ionic temple was theTemple of Artemis atEphesus, one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World. TheParthenon, although it conforms mainly to the Doric order, also has some Ionic elements. A more purely Ionic mode to be seen on theAthenian Acropolis is exemplified in theErechtheum.
Following the conquests ofAlexander the Great in the east, a few examples of the Ionic order can be found as far asPakistan with theJandial temple nearTaxila. Several examples of capitals displaying Ionic influences can be seen as far away asPatna,India, especially with thePataliputra capital, dated to the 3rd century BC, and seemingly derived from the design of the Ionic anta capital,[9][10] or theSarnath capital, which has been described as "Perso-Ionic",[11] or "quasi-Ionic".[12][13][14]
Vitruvius, a practicing architect who worked in the time ofAugustus, reports that the Doric column had its initial basis in the proportions of the male body, while Ionic columns took on a "slenderness" inspired by the female body.[15] Though he does not name his source for such a self-conscious and "literary" approach, it must be in traditions passed on fromHellenistic architects, such asHermogenes of Priene, the architect of a famed temple of Artemis atMagnesia on the Meander in Lydia (now Türkiye).
Renaissance architectural theorists took his hints to interpret the Ionic order as matronly in comparison to the Doric order, though not as wholly feminine as the Corinthian order. The Ionic is a natural order for post-Renaissance libraries and courts of justice, learned and civilized. Because no treatises on classical architecture survive earlier than that of Vitruvius, identification of such "meaning" in architectural elements as it was understood in the 5th and 4th centuries BC remains tenuous, though during the Renaissance it became part of the conventional "speech" of classicism.[16]
From the 17th century onwards, a much admired and copied version of Ionic was that which could be seen in theTemple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome, first clearly presented in a detailed engraving inAntoine Desgodetz,Les edifices antiques de Rome (Paris 1682).
Roman Ionic corner capital from theTemple of Portunus, Rome, with two sides with volutes, and one for the corner of the facade projecting at a 45° angle, unknown architect, early 4th century BC
Roman Ionic columns of acolonnade of the oval plaza inJerash,Jordan, unknown architect, 2nd-3rd centuries AD[21]
Roman Ionic columns of theTemple of Saturn, Rome, with diagonal volutes, unknown architect, 3rd of 4th centuries[22]
Greek Revival Ionic columns of the Branch Bank of the United States, now in the Charles Engelhard Court of theMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, inspired by those of the Temple of Artemis Agrotera in Athens, byMartin E. Thompson, 1824
Greek Revival Ionic columns of the main building of theAcademy of Athens, inspired by those of the Erechtheum in Athens, byTheophilus Hansen, 1859-1885
Art Deco reinterpretations of the Ionic column and pilaster of an unidentified house in the Quartier Lescure,Bordeaux, France, unknown architect,c.1925
Stalinist Ionic columns of the Colonels' Quarter (Șoseaua Panduri no. 60-62), Bucharest, 1950–1960, by I.Novițchi, C.Ionescu, C.Hacker and A.Șerbescu[36]
Postmodern reinterpretation of the Ionic column as the Capitello seating, designed byStudio 65 and produced byGufram, differentiated-densitypolyurethane foam coated with latex rubber, 1972, unknown location[37]
^The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson, p.47 "Anta" entry[1]
^"These flat, splaying members with cavetto sides, have a long history in Greek architecture as anta capitals, and the rolls at upper and lower sides are also seen" John Boardman, "The Origins of Indian Stone Architecture", p.19 : "An interesting flat capital which, though differing from the classic forms, bears a distinct resemblance to the capitals of the pilasters of the Temple of Apollo Didymaeos at Miletos"[2]
^A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture by Deborah S. Hutton, John Wiley & Sons, 2015, p.438[3]
^Vitruvius (1914) [ca. 30–15 BC].The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated byMorgan, Morris H. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 104.Thus in the invention of the two different kinds of columns, they borrowed manly beauty, naked and unadorned, for the one, and for the other the delicacy, adornment, and proportions characteristic of women.
^Mariana Celac, Octavian Carabela and Marius Marcu-Lapadat (2017).Bucharest Architecture - an annotated guide. Ordinul Arhitecților din România. p. 181.ISBN978-973-0-23884-6.
^Gura, Judith (2017).Postmodern Design Complete. Thames & Hudson. p. 466.ISBN978-0-500-51914-1.
^Gura, Judith (2017).Postmodern Design Complete. Thames & Hudson. p. 335.ISBN978-0-500-51914-1.
^Gura, Judith (2017).Postmodern Design Complete. Thames & Hudson. p. 65.ISBN978-0-500-51914-1.