Rudimentary Architecture for the Use of Beginners / The Orders and Their Æsthetic Principles

by W. H. Leeds

Of the Roman and the modern varieties of this Order we shall treat much more briefly, because our remarks may be confined to comparison and the notice of differences. Certain it is that the original character of the Order was gradually lost sight of more and more, till at length it was converted into something quite different from its Greek type. The few circumstances in which Modern Doric, as we may call it, resembles the original one, are little more than the mode of fluting with arrises instead of fillets,—the general form of capital composed of echinus and abacus, and the triglyphs upon the frieze. The differences are, if not greater, far more numerous. The column becomes greatly elongated, being increased from six to eight diameters. The sunk annulets beneath the capital were omitted or converted into fillets; the capital was increased in depth by a distinct necking being given to it, divided from the shaft by a projecting moulding, which in that situation is called an astragal. The abacus, too, is made shallower, and has mouldings added to it. One of the greatest changes of all, as far as the column is concerned, is the addition of a base to it, which is partly both consequence and cause of the greater slenderness of the shaft; for were the shaft not reduced in diameter,—which is the same as being made more diameters in height,—the base added to it would enlarge the foot of the column: so again, on the other hand, were only the shaft decreased in thickness, without any mouldings for a base being added to it, that end of the column would be as much too small. The base best adapted to the Order, as being the most simple, though not uniformly made use of, is that which consists of merely a torus, or large circular and convex-sided block, and two shallow fillets above it. It may here further be noticed, that besides the base itself, or the base proper, the moderns have, for all the Orders alike, adopted an additional member, namely, a rather deep and square block, which, when so applied, is termed a plinth; and beneath this is frequently placed another and deeper one, called a sub-plinth. Contrary as this is to the practice of the Greeks, it is by no means an unwarrantable license, for had no greater liberty been taken with the Orders and the modes of applying them, they would have remained comparatively quite pure. In apology for the plinth beneath a base, it may be said to produce a pleasing agreement between both extremities of the column,—in the Doric Order at least, where the square plinth beneath the circular torus of the base answers to the square abacus (which is itself another plinth, though differently named) placed upon the circular echinus of the capital.

Passing over several particulars which our confined limits will not permit us to notice, we may remark, that if greatly altered, not to say corrupted, from its primitive character, the Doric Order, as treated by the moderns, has been assimilated to the other Orders,—so much so as, though still differing from them in its details, to belong to the same general style. One advantage, if no other, of which is, that it may, should occasion require, be used along with the other Orders; whereas the original or Grecian Doric is so obstinately inflexible that it cannot be made to combine with any thing else, or to bend to modern purposes. So long as a mere portico or colonnade, and nothing more, is required, backed by a wall unperforated by windows, its character and characteristic system of intercolumniation can be kept up, but no longer; or if it is to be done, it is more than has yet been accomplished. Nothing could be more preposterous, or show greater want of proper æsthetic feeling, or greater disregard of æsthetic principles, than the attempt to combine, as was done by Nash in the Park façade of Buckingham Palace, a Grecian Doric Order with a Corinthian one. So totally irreconcileable are the two styles, that it was like placing Tudor or florid Perpendicular Gothic upon the early Lancet style. Besides, in that instance, the Doric, though affecting to be Greek, was depravated most offensively, as may still be seen in what is now left in the two low wings, the architrave and frieze being thrown together into one blank surface.

TUSCAN ORDER.

This, as already stated, is not entitled to rank as a distinct Order, being, in fact, nothing more than a simplified, if not a spurious and debased variety of the Doric. No authentic examples of it exist: it is known only from what Vitruvius says of it, following whose imperfect account, modern writers and architects have endeavoured to make out something answering to it. Yet what has been so produced is to all intents and purposes Doric,—though not Grecian Doric,—excepting that the shafts are unfluted and the frieze quite plain; which last circumstance, and much more, as has just above been intimated, is a mere trifling discrepancy, since not the triglyphs merely, but the frieze may, it seems, be omitted without thereby forfeiting the character of Doric for the Order. Though the Tuscan is spoken of, it is not practised. Almost the only example of what is called by that name in this country is Inigo Jones’s portico of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, which, though not devoid of character and effect, is remarkable chiefly for the great width of the intercolumns, and the great projection of its very shallow, and therefore too shelf-like cornice, which, if no other part, must be admitted to differ widely from the comparatively slightly projecting and massive Doric cornice. The Tuscan has, however, been treated differently by different Architects, and some of them have given it what is merely a modification of the Doric cornice without its mutules. Their Tuscan becomes, in fact, very little more than a plainer sort of their own Doric, distinguished from it chiefly, and that only negatively, by the omission of triglyphs on the frieze. One thing which the Moderns have done, both in their Doric and their Tuscan, is to assimilate pilasters to columns, giving to the former precisely the same bases and capitals as the others have, and also generally diminishing their shafts in the same manner. Still all the differences here pointed out, together with many minor ones besides, do not constitute different Orders, unless they are to be multiplied by being subdivided into almost as many distinct Orders as there are varieties of one and the same class. All the Dorics and the Tuscan agree in having the echino-abacus capital. Therefore, if we want a quite different and distinct Order, we must turn, as we now do, to the voluted-capital class of columns, or that which bears the name of the

IONIC ORDER.

How this Order originated,—what first led to the adoption of volutes as a suitable decoration for the capital,—whether they were mere decoration, or were at first intended to express some meaning,—whether they were intentionally devised for the latter purpose, or grew out of some accidental hint,—must now be entirely matter of conjecture. Of one thing we may be quite certain, that the Order as we now find it in the best and best known examples, was not struck out all at once, but must have passed through several stages till it was ultimately matured into perfection.

Although the capital is the indicial mark of the Order,—that by which the eye immediately recognizes and distinguishes it,—the entire column is of quite a different character from the Doric. Besides having the addition of a base, the shaft is of more slender or taller proportions, and consequently made much less visibly tapering; for if it diminished in the same degree as the Doric shaft does,—the Ionic being about two diameters longer,—the upper one would, in consequence of such tapering, become much too small; and a further consequence would be that the foot and base of the column would appear much too large,—perhaps clumsily so. Not knowing expressly to the contrary, we are at liberty to suppose that it was the altered form and character of the capital itself which first led to the formation of a base or series of mouldings at the bottom of the shaft, in order to produce such degree of finish below as would correspond with and balance the richness and flow of outline given to the capital. And it must be allowed that the swelling contours of the base are admirably in keeping, and harmonize with the play of curves in the volutes; whereas, were the shaft to stand immediately upon the floor or pavement without any base, as in the Doric Order, although such treatment is in perfect correspondence with the character of that echino-abacus Order, it would be just the reverse in the voluted one. There would be a harshness and abruptness below, in grating discord with the graceful flow of lines in the capital above. This feeling dictated the necessity for a corresponding base, which, although generally spoken of as an addition to the shaft, may with far greater propriety be said to have been taken out of it. Any actual addition to the foot of the shaft would have been the same as an enlargement of it, producing disproportion, and therefore deformity. The most rational explanation therefore is, that the original diameter for the foot of the shaft was retained, but the foot itself shaped into mouldings, and the portion immediately above it pared away or reduced, so that the column became more diameters in height than before. That being done, and a distinct base so obtained, it was found necessary to make a further change, for the sharp arrises of the Doric mode of fluting occasioned a degree of harshness quite at variance with the greater delicacy aimed at in other respects. Those arrises were accordingly converted into fillets, which are not actual members, but merely spaces left between the channels or flutes themselves, which last are consequently narrower than in the Doric column; and their comparative narrowness is further increased by their being augmented in number, from that of twenty to twenty-four. Thus the change from the Doric to the Ionic column may be accounted for, rationally at least, and æsthetically, if not historically. We do not, indeed, profess to know and determine the actual origin of the volutes of the capital, and therefore leave those who put faith in Vitruvius to believe, if they can, that they were derived from the imitation of the curls in a lady’s head-dress; or, as others will have it, that the idea was borrowed either from rams’ horns, or the slender and flexile twigs of trees placed upon the capital for ornament! We also leave those who are not satisfied with our way of accounting for the base given to the Ionic column to fancy that this member was intended to imitate the ancient chaussure or sandals.

The Ionic capital is far more complex than that of the Doric, and not only more complex, but more irregular also: instead of showing, like the other, four equal sides, it exhibits two faces or fronts parallel to the architrave above it, and two narrower baluster sides, as they are termed, beneath the architrave. Some consider this irregularity a defect, which, if such it be, is to be got over only by either turning the volutes diagonally, as in some Roman and modern examples, or by curving concavely the faces of the capital, instead of making them planes, so as to obtain four equal faces or sides, as is done in the capitals of the inner Order of the Temple of Apollo at Bassæ. At least that method, and the other one of turning the volutes diagonally, are the only methods that have been practised for giving perfect regularity to the Ionic capital by means of four equal faces; for, though difficult, it is possible to accomplish the same purpose differently, by making the abacus quite square, as in the Doric Order, and letting the volutes grow out of it on each side or face, their curvature commencing not on the upper horizontal edge, but descending from the vertical edges of the abacus. In fact, the volutes might be fancied to have originated in a prolonged abacus, first falling down on each side beneath the architrave, and then coiled up on the back and front of the column for the two faces, which thus became greater in width; after which a smaller ornamental abacus was introduced as a crowning member, immediately beneath the architrave. As it is now treated, the great extent of the two flat voluted faces prevents the capital from being square. Let us endeavour to explain this: as average measurement, we may put down 50 minutes, or 10 less than the lower diameter, for that of the upper diameter of the shaft; 65 for the sides of the abacus; from 56 to 60 for the soffit of the architrave, which last accordingly overhangs the upper part of the shaft; and 90 minutes, that is, three modules, or a diameter and a half, for the faces of the capital, measured across the volutes. Now, were the capital square—as deep from back to front as it is wide in front—its bulk would be excessive, and out of proportion with the column and other parts of the Order, and inconsistent with the delicacy aimed at in all respects. The mere lateral expansion of the capital, on the contrary, as viewed in front, does not occasion any appearance of heaviness,—rather that of richness; more especially as the bulk is greatly diminished by the following ingenious expedient. Instead of the baluster side being made cylindrical by being kept of the same diameter throughout, and equal to the face of the volute, it is gradually diminished from each face; so that the side of the capital thus becomes in a manner hollowed out; and not only that, but great play of form is imparted to it, and its curvature both contrasts and harmonizes with the curves of the volutes themselves.