Plate 76. Corinthian Order by Serlio and Alberti

Both of these orders are practically the same in their principal parts. Their columns and entablatures are lower than all of the examples before considered; even lower than with Vitruvius, and with a certain refinement which is not to be condemned. Only the capitals follow the usual proportions as to height. Serlio has borrowed from the Ionic, his entablature, the cornice of which here projects too far, and is of unpleasing profile.

Alberti, who has applied his modillions at the cost of the corona, has authority for it in some antique, though not exemplary, examples. The wide modillions with no cymatium seem as if they were only pasted under the continuous ogee moulding above. Withal, his very low entablature does not altogether express the ability of those masters from whom it was copied.

One will notice that the capitals of the later masters have an entirely different appearance from the antique Corinthian, because they followed Vitruvius, who divided the space between the astragal and the abacus into three equal parts, whereof the two first were for the two rows of leaves and the third was for the volutes and flower stems. With the antique capitals no rule of this kind is found; the division for the second row is almost always shorter than for the first. The same difference is also found with the composite orders now following.