Flutings. Next to its proportions, the distinguishing feature of the shaft of this Order is the radically different character of fluting which is invariably used whenever the column of this Order is so orna mented. While in the examples of the Greek Doric work it is found that the later columns are almost invariably fluted, and it is only the earlier examples which were occasionally left smooth and plain, with the introduction of the Ionic column the question of fluting the shaft seems to have been left rr.ore or less to the discretion of the designer. There are late instances where this column has been left plain and unornamented, quite as often as early ones in which the fluting first peculiar to this Order is used. There are generally twenty-four chan nels or flutes—four more than in the Doric Order; and their section is as shown in Fig. 56, much deeper and approaching a half-circle in outline, while the channels are separated from each other by a ridge or "fillet," a part of the surface of the column shaft itself. We have already traced the probable growth and derivation of these channels in Fig. 49.
Bases, Ionic and Attic. The Ionic and Corinthian columns, being lighter, more elaborate in treatment, more refined in prin ciple, and giving less of an effect of stability, seemed, unlike the earlier Doric, to require a base in order to give some apparent strength to the column as a sup porting member. Otherwise the wide spacing of these columns, and, the thinness of their shafts, would not satisfy the eye of the beholder. The base, besides ful filling its purpose as an ornamental member, renders it apparent that a larger bearing surface is given the column, and that the weight it carries is thus distributed over a larger area of support.
A base of the height of one module, or one half-diameter, is there fore always used with this column. There are two sorts of bases, easily distinguished by the form of their mouldings: The lonic ,base is composed of a plinth supporting two astragals, and two scotias accompanying these two astragals, with fillets and a torus moulding. In Asia Minor, this base is subjected to considerable modifications.
The Attic base is more simple, and is composed of a torus moulding, a scoria with two fillets, and a large torus, the latter resting directly on the platform or steps around the temple, without the intervening square plinth (A, Fig. 57).
The base which usually appears with this order is of the Attic variety, circular in plan, and without a square plinth as in later Roman usage, with the exception of one type, that in the Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene. In Fig. 57 are shown the most typical variations of Greek Ionic column bases. That at A, taken from the Erechtheum at Athens, is generally termed the "Attic base", from the fact that it was most highly developed in Athens and the neighboring portions of the state of Attica. This base is sometimes varied by making the lower torus very small in height, and flattening the scotia, as in Plate XLII; but it still retains the characteristics of the Attic base. The
base at B, Fig. 57, is the only instance in Greek work where they have employed with this Order a plinth. square in plan and rectangular in elevation. The example shown at C, Fig. 57, is taken from a column at Samos, and is a somewhat unusual form. At Ephesus there is an example of the use of the Ionic Order where the base of the column is encircled by a dado carved with figures of considerable relief. The base shown at D is from the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Phigalia.
This type, as well as the accompanying form of capital, Fig. 64, is somewhat exceptional in Greek work.
The Volutes. The strongest characteristic of the column is the volutes which ornament the capital.
Various theories have been suggested as to the derivation of the decoration of the "volute" face or roll, a distinguishing feature of the Ionic capital. It is indu bitable that the series of lines enrolling themselves into a spiral form, which ap pear upon the principal faces of the cap ital and make up the end of the rolls, was for a long time a favorite motive with early peoples, and that many exam ples are found in the works of Mycenaean art; that the face of the volute very nearly reproduces the natural form of certain seashells; and that the same spiral mo tive was known and employed by al most all primitive civilizations.
The Assyrians, in their decorative embellishment of the short cross-bar or wooden cap that they placed upon their columns, succeeded in producing a rolled up decorative member that may have very readily formed the suggestion for the Greek Ionic capital. (See Fig. 58.) The more ancient examples of the Ionic capital show the volute projected in such an extreme degree that it seems most unlikely that this decorative Order could have been developed , from anything else than a wooden prototype, as such a form, executed in stone or marble, would seemingly be bound to split off under the load of the entablature. The sketch in Fig: 59 shows how this form of cap may possibly have been suggested by the Etruscan custom of placing a wooden cross-bar over the wood column, not only to tie it together and prevent it from splitting, but also to assist in reducing the width of the span between supports, as well as to increase the bearing area of the column—just as the horizontal mouldings of the base suggest a double structural purpose in binding together the bottom of the delicate support, and broadening its bearing area. The projecting parts of this short beam would naturally be treated in some decorative manner, and so the general form of the Ionic volute might have been easily produced. But we must again allow that in its introduction to Greece, the form of the Ionic capital was so materially modified that it has little close affinity with the earlier Mycenæan, Assyrian, or Phoenician motives.