Divide the inside of a dome into coffers that shrink in step with the meridians as they rise, so that their perspective deepens the dome and draws the eye to the light of the lantern.
The Composite capital: Ionic volutes on Corinthian leaves
Compose the Roman or Composite capital from two rows of Corinthian leaves round the bell with a full Ionic capital (echinus and four diagonal volutes) above them.
Mauch finds the type on the arches of Titus and of Septimius Severus and in the Baths of Diocletian; the Arch of Titus, he thinks, has the first and still the best of them. The Renaissance masters made it a fifth order, and Vignola’s version, whose entablature follows the Severan arch, was preferred by the others.
He criticises the masters for following Vitruvius in dividing the bell into three equal heights for two rows of leaves and the volutes, whereas the ancient capitals make the second row of leaves shorter than the first.
Related rules
Edge the beds before the portico with box, clip box into figures of animals set facing one another, and in the garden beyond cut it into many shapes, even into the letters of the owner’s name.
Give the villa garden porticoes for sun and for shade, grottoes made in imitation of nature with tufa and shells, evergreens planted in straight rows at equal distances, and hedges of box; set vines on columns over the walks.
Lay the ideal garden out on a circular plan in concentric rings, woods outside, then meadows and orchards, then gardens of knots and clipped evergreens divided by walks, with water and the fountain of the goddess at the centre.
Set a triglyph over the axis of every column and over the middle of every intercolumniation (or two, in a wider bay); make the metopes between them as wide as they are high.
axis spacing = n × (triglyph + metope) = n × 2½ M
The Corinthian capital is as high as the column is thick; its abacus is one seventh of that height, and the rest is divided in three: the lower leaves, the upper leaves, and the stalks from which the volutes spring.
capital = 1 D; abacus = ⅐; leaves : leaves : volutes = 1 : 1 : 1; abacus diagonal = 2 D
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The Composite capital: Ionic volutes on Corinthian leaves”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/mauch-composite-capital. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.