In all the examples in Stuart's ?/theng, this order has an attic base ; the upper fillet of the t•ochilus or scotia projects as far as the upper torus. In the monument of Lysicrates, the upper fillet of the base projects farther than the upper torus, which is an int erted ovolo.
Vitruvius observes, that the shaft has the same pro portions as the Ionic, except the difference which arose from the greater height of the capital, it being a whole diameter, whereas the Ionic is only two-thirds of it. But this column, including the base and capital, has, by the moderns, been increased to ten diameters in height. If the entablature is enriched, the shaft should be fluted. The number of flutes and fillets are generally 21 ; and frequently the lower one-third of the height has cables or reeds, husks, spirally twisted ribbands, or sonic: sort of flowers inserted on them.
The great distinguishing feature of this order is its ca pital, (see Plate CIA.) which has for two thousand years been acknowledged the greatest ornament of school of architecture. The height is one diameter of the column, to which the moderi s hat e added one-sixth more. The body, en nucleus, is in the shape of a bell, bas ket, or vase, crowned with a quadrilateral abacus, with concave sides, each diagonal of which is equal to two diameters of the column. The lower part of the capital consists of two rows of leaves, eight in each row ; one of the upper leaves fronting each side of the abacus. The height of each row is one-seventh, and that of the aba cus one-eighth of the whole height of the capital. The space which remains between the upper leaves and the abacus is occupied by little stalks, or slender caulicolm, which spring from between every two leaves in the upper row, and proceed to the corners, and also to the middle of the abacus, where they are formed into delicate volutes. The sides of the abacus are moulded, as in the Stoa, or portico, and arch of Adrian at Athens, and also the ruin at Salonica : the curves of the sides are continued un til they meet in a sharp horn or point. In the attic ca pital, the small divisions of the leaves were pointed in imitation of the acanthus. In Italy they most generally resembled the olive.
The best specimens are the monument of the Stoa, and arch of Adrian at Athens ; and the pan theon of Agrippa, and the three columns of the Campo Vaccino at Rome. In the monument of Lysicrates, the
lower part of the capital consists of two rows of leaves ; the lower row is plain, and the upper one raffled ; and the latter is nearly twice the height of the former. The number of leaves in the upper row i3 eight, in the lower sixteen. In the upper row, the sides of the middle leaf, upon each front of the capital, is covered by the flank leaves ; and the whole of the leaves appear as if fastened to the body, or bell part, by a rose-headed pin, on each side of the flank leaves. Each of the helices, or stalks, proceeds from the sides of the middle leaf at the top of each row, as if they sprung from one common vertical stalk ; then rising upwards, they take a direction towards the left, in a line of contrary curvature, and terminating in foliage. The volutes in the middle of the capital are quadruple, each one of each pair of one side, meeting each one of the other pair upon that side. And as each pair of volutes spring from the same trunk, and begin at the same horizontal position of the curve, each one of each pair is turned outward, and varies in size, the lesser being above, and the greater below. The four volutes form a curvilinear quadrilateral figure, by having their convex sides presented to each other. The upper or lesser pair support the honeysuckle which covers the middle part of the abacus. The corners of the abacus are cut off; and the hollow or lower member forms an inverted Scotia, which is nearly four times the height of the crowning ovolo.
It may be observed, generally, in the Greek Corinthian, that the volutes terminate in a point in the natural spi ral, without either coiling round a circular eye, or bend ing backwards in a serpentine form, as in most of the Boman specimens.
This order seems never to have been much employed in Greece before the time of the Roman conquest ; but this powerful people employed it almost exclusively in every part of their extensive empire ; and it is according ly in edifices constructed under their influence that the most perfect specimens are found.