Columns: the Natural Order

There were three orders of columns and capitals established in Ancient Greece. The story of their creation is far more interesting, mathematic, and artistic than one might expect.

The first order of column was the Doric order.

In deriving the design for this column, experts of masonry, architecture, and even engineering in its earliest forms, looked to nature and to the gods. With the belief that man was made in the image of the gods, and that the ideal human body is divine and perfect, a male specimen was procured and measurements were taken. The column needed to be not only strong, but also beautiful, like an athlete. Upon finding the human foot to be at a fixed proportion to the height of male body to which it is attached (the length of a man's foot is approximately 1/6 of his full height) they applied this proportion to their column, making the height of the column (from the ground to the top of the capital) just six times the width at the base. In this way they created a column with both the strength and beauty of man.

The second order of column that they devised was the Ionic Order.

The Ionic Order was to embody the grace and beauty of the female form, as opposed to the strength and beauty of man expressed in the Doric Order.

The thickness of the Ionic column was designed to be 1/8 of its full height. Thus making it a more slender and feminine design element. 

Decorative volutes (the curled part on either side of the capital) were added in place of the comparatively Spartan design given to the Doric capital. 

Instead of the simple fluting separated by sharp arrises along the length of the Doric shaft, the fluting on the Ionic shaft is separated by fillets, in which aspect it resembles the triglyph pattern that so often accompanied the Doric column.

The third order established was the Corinthian Order. This was the most decorative order and is said to have been an attempt to capture the youthful and springy nature of a maiden. Another legend that follows the Corinthian capital is that a 

nursemaid bringing a basket of treasured belongings to the tomb of a princess set the basket down upon a dormant Acanthus root, and then placed a heavy tile upon the top to stay the basket. In the spring the Acanthus root pushed up from under the basket and its leaves grew to spring up all around and alongside it. 

Passing by the tomb, Callimachus chanced to see the plant and basket arrangement, and from this he drew the inspiration for the Corinthian capital and column.

All three of these columns can be found in contemporary examples of classical architecture:

Corinthian or perhaps composite (most likely an amalgamation of Corinthian and Ionic style) columns on an old bank building in Sydney, Australia.

Doric Columns on the National Register Nomination:  Old Dominion Bank Building, Alexandria

Beautiful Corinthian capitals on columns in the auditorium of a library:

Ionic capitals employed on a federal building in Seminole Heights

Images Cited:

(1) http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Temples/DoricOrder.html

(2) http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Temples/IonicOrder.html

(3)+(4) http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Temples/CorinthianOrder.html

(5) http://www.sydneyarchitecture.com/images/uni-bank2.jpg

(6) http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/ registers/Cities/Alexandria.jpg

(7) http://www.booktruck.files.wordpress.com/.../ library1

(8) http://www.seminoleheights.blogspot.com/ 2006_03_01_archive