Glossary · I
Ionic
The Greek order of Asia Minor and the islands, slender and graceful, with a capital of two spiral volutes and usually dentils in the cornice.
See also: Volute
Rules that use the word
The door from the height of the room. Divide the height from floor to ceiling into three and a half parts and give two and a half to the opening; make a Doric door five and a half twelfths as wide as it is high (an Ionic one two-fifths), and narrow it slightly at the top.
Column heights in modules. Make the Tuscan column 14 modules high, the Doric 16, the Ionic 18, and the Corinthian and Composite 20, the module being half the lower diameter.
The five orders as a series. Rank the orders in a sequence from the plainest and strongest to the richest and most slender (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite), each one diameter taller than the last.
Palladio’s orders. Make the Tuscan column 7 diameters high, the Doric 8 with its base, the Ionic 9, the Corinthian 9½ and the Composite 10; give Tuscan and Doric an entablature of about a quarter of the column, the richer orders a fifth.
Scamozzi’s hierarchy. Grade the orders by slenderness (Tuscan 7½ diameters, Doric 8½, Ionic 8¾, Composite 9¾ and Corinthian 10), placing the Composite, the “Roman” order, below the Corinthian.
Stronger below, lighter above. When orders are placed one above another, put the stronger below and the more delicate above (Doric under Ionic under Corinthian), and make each upper column a quarter shorter than the one beneath.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters What Is Architecture?, Walls and Openings, The Anatomy of an Order, The Ionic Order, The Corinthian Order, The Composite Order, The Authorities Compared, Columns in Company.
A feature of Ancient Greek, Neoclassical architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Intercolumniation · Interior street · International Style · Intrados · Irimoya · Isodomum · Iwan · Jagati