THE ROMAN ORDERS The Roman Order is prop erly composed of three parts— the Column, the Entablature, and the Pedestal, as shown in Fig. 105. The pedestal is often omitted in modern work; and the term Order, as has already been stated, may be applied as well to the column and entabla ture when used together, as to the complete Order.
Each of the three main divi sions of the Order is also divided into three parts. The central portion of the column is known as the shaft; the lower portion is called the base; and the upper portion, the capital or cap.
The entablature, which is that portion of the Order ring over the column, is composed of the architrave or plate-band, which rests upon the column and which is itself divided into several bands or fascias; the frieze or plain portion, just above, sometimes decorated with sculpture; and the cornice or projecting part, formed of two main divisions—the bed-mould and the cymalium or cap, the latter the crowning member intended to throw off the rain-water and partially protect the sides of the building from the weather.
The pedestal is composed, like the other main divisions, of three parts—the central plain portion known as the die or dada; the low er projecting part, called the base; and the upper projecting part, called the cap or cymatium. Most of these main parts are again sub divided into many others called mouldings or members, which are further described in detail in each of the plates.
The Tuscan Order. There are five Roman Orders, one of which —known as the Tuscan (Fig. 6, Part I)—should be placed before the Doric, and is of much less importance than any of the others, although it was occasionally used in the lower or basement story of a building. This Order may possibly have been a combination of the Greek Doric with some characteristics taken from the Etruscan Orders, although, as it is now composed, it is probably most largely a creation of the Renaissance, founded upon some of the cruder remains and experiments by the Romans in the use of the Doric Order.
This Tuscan Order may be largely disregarded in the present treatise, as its possibilities for use in modern work are very limited. It has seldom been used since Roman times, although a few good ex amples are found among the works of the Italian and the English Renaissance. It may be mentioned that its one invariable character istic is in regard to the shaft of the column itself, which is always plain and never fluted. In fact, simplicity is the chief intention of the Tuscan Order. The mouldings are themselves so few, so simple, and so large in size that the effect is even almost inclined to be one of crudity rather than simplicity.
The Composite Order. The Romans also invented an Order termed the Composite, drawn out more in detail in Plates LV and LVI, in which an interesting method of proportioning the various parts of this Order is shown. Just as the Tuscan column may be considered as merely a simplified form of the Doric, so the Com posite Order is a more elaborate form of the Corinthian, and was used only for purposes of extreme display and ornamentation. The general proportions of this Order are almost exactly the same as those of the Corinthian; and its minor details, while similar, are even more elaborately ornamented. The capital is an evident com bination of the principal Ionic and Corinthian features, and the en tablature is most richly moulded and carved.
These various Orders each resulted from the caprice of the all conquering Romans, whose desire was that Rome should make an apparent advance over the civilizations which she had absorbed.
Vignola. Inasmuch as it is from the Roman use of the Orders that we inherit—through the medium, principally, of Vignola—our present Classical forms, it will be interesting to consider for one moment the reliability of this authority, in order to determine how much dependence we should place upon his versions.
The generally accepted standards in Classical Roman work are the Orders as given by Vignola. His study of Classical architecture was made about the middle of the sixteenth century from careful measurements of then-existing Roman work; and since that time "The Orders of Architecture, according to Giacomo Barozzio da Vignola," in both Europe and America, has been accepted as the standard authority. The first edition of this book was published in Rome in 1563, and was followed by other similar publications arranged by such men as Palladio, Scamozzi, Alberti, Normand, James Gibbs, Sir William Chambers, and others. Each of these authorities, while founding his version of the Orders upon that of Vignola, has also made some modifications in type and detail, adapting the Orders, in part unconsciously, to the custom and habit of his time, as well as incorporating changes which his own experience and practice had sug gested. It is therefore rather to be expected that the various type forms advocated by these masters and used by them in their own prac tice are in reality Renaissance Orders rather than Roman ones; but, inasmuch as they follow the Roman rather than the Greek type, the former title is still broadly applicable to them, while the true Roman work may better be termed, for purposes of distinction, Classic Roman architecture.