Illustrated Architecture Dictionary........................ Greek Revival Style

Ionic order


Palladio's Drawings of the Five Classical Orders


Click on drawing for larger size

Four drawings reprinted from Dover Pictorial Archive Service

  
Palladio's Drawing of the Ionic Frieze


Block modillions support overhanging eaves  ...  Egg-and-dart molding  ...  Leaf-and-dart moldin ...  Bead-and reel molding  ...  Ionic capitals  ...  Fluted shafts

Palladio's Drawing of the Ionic Capital


Leaf-and-dart moldin ... Scrolling acanthus leaves  ...  Pair of volutes flank  egg-and-dart molding  above beads  ...  Fluted shafts
Palladio's Drawing of the Ionic Baluster


Greek Ionic Order:

The Greek Ionic order is composed of the following:

Ionic entablature: Three major parts include cornice, frieze, and architrave.

Ionic column: The slenderest and most ornate of the three classical Greek columns, including tallest base of the three classical Greek orders

Ionic capital: The capital of the Ionic column has characteristic paired scrolling volutes. The major features of the Ionic order are the volutes of its capital.

Ionic shaft: Slender fluted shaft (24 flutes)

Ionic base: Unlike the Greek Doric order column, Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform.

Engaged column: also employed Orders

Ionic pilasters: also employed Orders


Roman Ionic Order: The main difference is that Romans used smooth - as opposed to fluted - shafts. The Romans used the Ionic order much more than did the Greeks.

In General

The Orders of classical architecture were formalized by the Greeks and applied to the design and proportion of buildings used the post-and-lintel, or column and entablature construction

The Ionic order column originated in the mid-6th century BC in Ionia, the southwestern coastland and islands of Asia Minor settled by Ionian Greeks, where an Ionian dialect was spoken. The Ionic order column was being practiced in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC

The other two classical Greek orders were the Doric and the Ionic (which also features volutes, although proportionately larger). The Ionic column is always more slender than the Doric.

A pure Ionic mode seen on the Athenian Acropolis is the Erechtheum

From the sixteenth century onwards, theorists recognized five orders, including the three Greek orders plus the Roman Tuscan and Composite orders.

See also: Vitruvius Pollio on Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Orders  (The Greeks were first to declare that architecture was based on the proportions and form of the human body.


Examples from Buffalo:

Other examples:


Photos and their arrangement © 2008 Chuck LaChiusa
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