Sir William Chambers has observed, that the Corin thian order is proper for all buildings, where elegance, gaiety, and magnificence, arc required. The ancients employed it in temples dedicated to Venus, Flora, Pro serpinc, and the nymphs of fountains ; because the flow ers, foliage, and volutes, with which it is adorned, seem ed well adapted to the delicacy and elegance of such dei ties." This theory, however plausible, is unsuppoi ted, or rather contradicted, by facts. The Romans, wl.o ap pear, as already hinted, to have adopted the Corinthian order in preference to the others, employed it indiscri minately, and erected Corinthian temples to Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune, to whom the Greeks dedicated tem ples of the Doric order. The temples of Minerva at Athens and at Sunium are Doric ; that of Minerva Polias, at Priene, is Ionic. The temple of Jupiter Olympus at Elis was Doric ; that at Athens, built by Adrian, is Co rinthian. The numerous temples of the Grecian colo nists in Sicily and Italy, arc uniformly Doric, marked by the most severe and massive simplicity. The cities of Ionia present the best examples of a chaste and elegant Ionic : and the magnificent structures of Balbec and Pal myra are wholly of the Corinthian order, and in the most florid style of ornament. NVhence we may conclude, that the choice of the orders of architecture was rather go verned by national taste, than by any ideas of identity between the character of the style, and that of the object to whom the building was to be devoted.
In the following Table will be found the proportions of some of the principal examples of the Corinthian or der ; in examining which, it is to be recollected, that the several members are measured by the lower diameter of the shafts, which is divided into 60 parts, Projection of the Corinthian capital. (See Plate CLXXXV. Fig. 1.) No. 1. the plan, No. 2. the eleva tion. No. 1. the semi-plan, is divided into eight equal parts, which, being carried up perpendicularly to the elevation, gives the centres of the leaves of which the projections arc formed by those upon the plan. The length of the diagonal of the abacus is two diameters ; the centre of each side is determined by the vertex of an equilateral triangle. The elevation shews the general outlines of the leaves before the foliage is cut.
No. 2. shews the general form and manner of raffling .he leaves.
No. 3. slims the front of the leaf according to the three columns in the Campo Vaccino.
No. 4. is a modillion. No. I. being the side, and No. 2. the profile.
Practical example : (Plate CLX.) Referring to the manner of explanation of the Doric and Ionic, the ratio of the parts of the Corinthian will be sufficiently evident, from consulting the before mentioned Plate. This ex ample is imitated chiefly from the Pantheon of Agrippa at Rome, it being a chaste and elegant specimen. Others,
still richer, may be seen in the works of Sir W. Cham bers, and Mr P. Nicholson.
Roman Orders.
Besides the three Greek orders, two others were in troduced in ancient Italy viz. the Tuscan and Composite. In their general character they arc governed by the ca nons of the Greek school, and have indeed very little claim to be separately classed : Our notice of them will therefore be proportionally confined.
The title of the first leads us to assign its origin to Tuscany, and this conjecture is strengthened by that people being admitted as the offspring of Dorians. No ancient remains of this order having been discovered with entablatures, it is only from the accounts given by Vitru rius, that the form and ratio of its members can be de termined; he allows seven diameters for the height of the columns, and diminishes the upper part one fourth half of the diameter ; the base is half a diameter in height, one of which is given to a circular plinth, and the other to a torus; the capital is also half a diameter in height, and one in breadth upon the abacus; the height is divided into three parts, one of which is given to the abacus, one to the eschinus, and the third to the hypotrachelian and apophygis; the architrave has two faces, with an aper ture between them of about 1 inch for the admission of air to preserve the beams ; the lower face is vertical up on the edge of the top of the column ; the frieze is plain and flat ; the mutules of the cornice project over the beams and walls, equal to one fourth of the height of the column.
The columns of Trajan and Antonine are specimens of the Tuscan, though being eight diameters high, they ex ceed, by one diameter, what is generally assigned to this order. St Paul's church, Covent Garden, in London, is the best modern example.
In the ConOositc order the upper part of the capital is that sort of Ionic w hich presents a similar face on each of the four sides. The lower part consists of two rows of acan thus leaves, as in the Attic Corinthian. The column of the Roman edifices, with composite capitals, have, in general, Corinthian entablatures ; the arches of Septimius Scverus, and the Goldsmiths at Rome, have Ionic enta blatures.
Modern architects have generally adopted the entabla ture of the frontispiece of Nero, or introduced adventi tious members of other orders, as the denticulate(' band of the Ionic with its cymatium, between the modillions and cymatium of the frieze of the Corinthian. The modillions employed in the composite order differ from those of the Corinthian in being more massive, composed of two faces, and having a cymatium like an architrave. Indeed the capital being much bolder than the Corinthi an, all the other members should be made of suitable mag nitude.