The column is nine diameters high. The base is of the type known as an Attic base (q.v.) with a plinth carrying two toruses, separated by a scotia or hollow moulding. The capital is characterized by the volutes (q.v.) or spiral scrolls that are the ends of a band (usually consisting of a hollow portion called a canalis, and a raised fillet) represented as passing horizontally across the top of the echinus, and winding up on either side in a volute or helix. The capital is thus rectangular, and the volutes of the two faces of the capital are connected by a generally cylin drical form known as a cushion. This sometimes takes the form of two vases, end to end, and is sometimes decorated with leaves. The echinus, of ovolo profile, is carved with the egg and dart. (q.v.), and where, as it follows the curve of the column, it dis appears behind the rolls of the volutes, a little half anthemion (q.v.) or radiating petalled form hides the intersection. The entablature has an architrave decorated with either two or three bands, each wider and projecting farther than the one below it, and a taenia ornamented with mouldings. The frieze is plain, and the cornice has a bed-mould of three parts—a dentil band separat ing two mouldings, the lower one a cyma reversa, the upper one an ovolo. The cymatium is a cyma recta with a smaller cyma reversa below it.
The column is ten diameters in height, and the base resembles the Attic base of the Ionic order, with the excep tion that in the centre of the scotia there is a third, small torus, with fillets above and below. The capital is much deeper than in the Doric and Ionic orders, and consists of a generally bell-shaped core, carrying a moulded abacus whose sides are concave, so that the corners project. At the bottom of the bell of the capital is an astragal, and the surface of the bell is surrounded by a char acteristic decoration of acanthus leaves and scrolls. The lower two-thirds has 16 acanthus leaves in two rows of eight each, the centres of the upper leaves being placed between the joints of the lower leaves. Between the leaves of the upper row are cup shaped leaf ornaments known as cauliculi (q.v.), which grow on stalks, and out of each cauliculus grow two stalks, one large and one small, so arranged that the voluted ends of the two adjacent large scrolls meet under each projecting corner of the abacus, while the two adjacent smaller stalks come together under the centre of each concave abacus space; above their juncture is a large rosette. The architrave of the entablature, like that of the Ionic, has three bands and a moulded taenia, but additional richness is given by tiny mouldings between the bands. The frieze is plain, though sometimes pulvinated, or given a profile of convex curve. The cornice resembles that of the Ionic order with the addition of the band of modillions (q.v.). These are small scrolled brackets under the soffit of the corona, and are usually decorated on the sides with S-scrolls and on the bottom and front face with acanthus leaves. They are crowned by a little cyma reversa moulding. The soffit of the corona is panelled between the modillions, and in each panel there is a rosette.
This is, in reality, merely a varied form of the Co rinthian order and, like it, the column is fluted and ten diameters high. A special base is given to it by doubling the small torus in the centre of the scotia between the two large toruses. The capital, its main distinguishing feature, consists of a bell surrounded with 16 acanthus leaves, in two rows, arranged similarly to those of the Corinthian capital. But above them, instead of the scrolls and
cauliculi, there are volutes, like those of the Ionic order, except that they are on the four sides of the capital and brought out at an angle at the corners. In the bed-mould of the cornice, large rectangular blocks take the place of the modillions, and in some codifications a part of the bed-mould as well.
In addition to the five orders listed above, certain authorities have given a variant of the Ionic order, known as the Scamozzi Ionic after the Italian architect (Vincenzo Scamozzi, 1552-1616), who first codified it. Its chief difference from the ordinary Ionic order is in the fact that its capital is four sided, the volutes occurring on all four faces, and at the corners brought out in an angle, so that the abacus above is concave-sided, like the Corinthian. Moreover, the bands forming the volutes are not connected on each face by a horizontal line, but curve over and down into the top of the echinus ; in the empty space thus left in the centre of each face there is a rosette. At times garlands connect the centres of the volutes.
The object of each codification of the orders is to furnish exact proportionate dimensions for every small feature, so that given the diameter of the column, the entire order may be constructed mechanically. The rules of all these attempted codifi cations vary slightly. The orders shown on the plate are con structed from the simplified scheme devised by the late William R. Ware, 1832-1915 (The American Vignola, 191o).
The origin of the earliest of the orders, the Doric, was, at least partially, in wooden construction and seems to be a purely Dorian, or at least Hellenic, development, as far as the entablature is concerned. The question of the column is, how ever, more complex. In the Aegean culture, columns were com mon and their capitals consisted of a square abacus with a convex echinus below. The resemblance of this type, shown not only in wall paintings, but also in certain remains of the stair hall of the palace at Cnossus (c. i5oo B.c.), the column on the Lion Gate and those of the tholos of Atreus, both at Mycenae (both c. 1200 B.C.) to primitive Greek Doric capitals, is too close to be mere coincidence. On the other hand, Aegean columns universally tapered downward, were principally of wood and sometimes ex tremely slender in proportion, those at the tholos of Atreus being almost I I diameters high, while those of the primitive Doric have an extreme taper upward and are short and stumpy. Moreover, the Aegean entablature, as shown in wall paintings, is entirely different from the Greek Doric, its chief features being round, projecting beam ends, close together, supported on a simple girder. The Greek Doric entablature has forms which seem to indicate a wooden origin, but one based on a different system of construction from that employed by the Aegean peoples. The architrave represents the original wooden beam running from post to post ; the taenia, a board above this, to give a perfect bearing for the cross beams. The triglyphs are the ends of these cross beams, held in place by pegs through the taenia board, represented by the guttae. The metopes are merely closing boards between the beams. The mutules, or sloping blocks on the under side of the projecting cornice corona, represent the under sides of slanting roof rafters, supported on a timber or plate, above the cross beams, and perhaps decorated on the under side by flat boards or wooden pegs whose heads become the guttae in the stone version.