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.
Tuscan 7 D · Doric 8 D · Ionic 9 D · Corinthian 10 D · Composite 10 D
The laboratory of the orders
Build a Column
Choose an order and an authority. Each moulding is placed by the proportions that author gives, measured in diameters of the column at its foot: the module from which the whole order is set out.
Order
After
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Ionic
Slender and graceful; recognised by the paired spiral volutes of its capital and by dentils in the cornice.
- Origin
- The Ionian cities of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands, 6th century BC.
- Character
- Vitruvius: matronly, the volutes like curled locks of hair, the flutes like the folds of a robe.
- Drawn after
- Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Regola delli cinque ordini (1562)
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.
6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 D
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.
7 · 8 · 9 · 9½ · 10 D; entablature ≈ ¼ → ⅕
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.
The Ionic according to each authority
| Column height | 9 D | 9 D | 9 D | 8 D | 8¾ D | 9.3 D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestal | 3 D | 2⅗ D | — | 2⅖ D | 2.7 D | — |
| Entablature | 2¼ D (¼ of column) | 1⅘ D (⅕ of column) | 1.55 D (⅙ of column) | 1⅗ D (⅕ of column) | 1.9 D (0.22 of column) | 1½ D (⅙ of column) |
| Architrave · frieze · cornice | ⅝ · ¾ · ⅞ | ⅗ · ½ · 0.7 | 0.55 · 0.45 · 0.55 | 0.55 · 0.45 · ⅗ | ⅗ · 0.55 · ¾ | ⅗ · 0.55 · 0.35 |
| Base | ½ D, attic | ½ D, attic | ½ D, ionic | ½ D, attic | ½ D, attic | ½ D, attic |
| Capital | ⅓ D | ⅓ D | ⅓ D | ⅓ D | ⅓ D | 0.36 D |
| Upper diameter | ⅚ D | ⅚ D | ⅚ D | ⅚ D | ⅚ D | ⅚ D |
| Flutes | 24, with fillets | 24, with fillets | 24, with fillets | 24, with fillets | 24, with fillets | 24, with fillets |
D = lower diameter of the column. Values are rounded from the treatises; where an author is silent the figure is an editorial interpolation, noted beside the model.