Corinthian order
The Corinthian order (
A Corinthian capital may be seen as an enriched development of the Ionic capital, though one may have to look closely at a Corinthian capital to see the Ionic volutes ("helices"), at the corners, perhaps reduced in size and importance, scrolling out above the two ranks of stylized acanthus leaves and stalks ("cauliculi" or caulicoles), eight in all, and to notice that smaller volutes scroll inwards to meet each other on each side. The leaves may be quite stiff, schematic and dry, or they may be extravagantly drilled and undercut, naturalistic and spiky. The flat abacus at the top of the capital has a concave curve on each face, and usually a single flower ("rosette") projecting from the leaves below overlaps it on each face.
When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon: the Tuscan order and the Composite order, known in Roman times, but regarded as a grand imperial variant of the Corinthian. The Corinthian has fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. There are many variations.[2]
The name Corinthian is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth, although it was probably invented in Athens.[3]
Description
Greek Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of Corinth, to which it was connected in the period. However, according to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor Callimachus, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket of toys, with a slab on top, on the grave of a Corinthian girl.[3]
Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period (430–323 BC). The earliest Corinthian capitals, already in fragments and now lost, were found in
A simplified late version of the Greek Corinthian capital is often known as the "Tower of the Winds Corinthian" after its use on the porches of the Tower of the Winds in Athens (about 50 BC). There is a single row of acanthus leaves at the bottom of the capital, with a row of "tall, narrow leaves" behind.[5] These cling tightly to the swelling shaft, and are sometimes described as "lotus" leaves, as well as the vague "water-leaves" and palm leaves; their similarity to leaf forms on many ancient Egyptian capitals has been remarked on.[6] The form is usually found in smaller columns, both ancient and modern.
Roman Corinthian order
The style developed its own model in Roman practice, following precedents set by the
Proportion is a defining characteristic of the Corinthian order: the "coherent integration of dimensions and ratios in accordance with the principles of symmetria" are noted by Mark Wilson Jones, who finds that the ratio of total column height to column-shaft height is in a 6:5 ratio, so that, secondarily, the full height of column with capital is often a multiple of 6
The abacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman Colosseum, holding up the least weight, and also having the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Their height to width ratio is about 10:1.[9]
One variant is the Tivoli order, found at the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli. The Tivoli order's Corinthian capital has two rows of acanthus leaves and its abacus is decorated with oversize
Gandharan capitals
The classical design was often adapted, usually taking a more elongated form, and sometimes being combined with scrolls, generally within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples. Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of the
Byzantine Empire and Medieval Europe
Though the term "Corinthian" is reserved for columns and capitals that adhere fairly closely to one of the classical versions, vegetal decoration to capitals continued to be extremely common in Byzantine architecture and the various styles of the European Middle Ages, from Carolingian architecture to Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture. There was considerable freedom in the details and the relationship between column (generally not fluted) and capital. Many types of plant were represented, sometimes realistically, as in the capitals in the chapter house at Southwell Minster in England.
Renaissance Corinthian order
During the first flush of the
The Corinthian
The Corinthian column is almost always fluted, and the flutes of a Corinthian column may be enriched. They may be filleted, with rods nestled within the hollow flutes, or stop-fluted, with the rods rising a third of the way, to where the entasis begins. In French, these are called chandelles and sometimes terminate in carved wisps of flame, or with bellflowers. Alternatively, beading or chains of husks may take the place of the fillets in the fluting, Corinthian being the most flexible of the orders, with more opportunities for variation.
Elaborating upon an offhand remark when Vitruvius accounted for the origin of its acanthus capital, it became a commonplace to identify the Corinthian column with the slender figure of a young girl; in this mode the classifying French painter Nicolas Poussin wrote to his friend Fréart de Chantelou in 1642:
The beautiful girls whom you will have seen in Nîmes will not, I am sure, have delighted your spirit any less than the beautiful columns of Maison Carrée for the one is no more than an old copy of the other.[11]
The proportions of the orders were by the ancients formed on those of the human body, and consequently, it could not be their intention to make a Corithian column, which, as Vitruvius observes, is to represent the delicacy of a young girl, as thick and much taller than a Doric one, which is designed to represent the bulk and vigour of a muscular full grown man.[12]
History
The oldest known example of a Corinthian column is in the Temple of
A Corinthian capital carefully buried in antiquity in the foundations of the circular tholos at Epidaurus was recovered during modern archaeological campaigns. Its enigmatic presence and preservation have been explained as a sculptor's model for stonemasons to follow[13] in erecting the temple dedicated to Asclepius. The architectural design of the building was credited in antiquity to the sculptor Polykleitos the Younger, son of the Classical Greek sculptor Polykleitos the Elder.
The temple was erected in the 4th century BC. These capitals, in one of the most-visited sacred sites of Greece, influenced later Hellenistic and Roman designs for the Corinthian order. The concave sides of the abacus meet at a sharp keel edge, easily damaged, which in later and post-Renaissance practice has generally been replaced by a canted corner. Behind the scrolls the spreading cylindrical form of the central shaft is plainly visible.
Much later, the Roman writer
Claude Perrault incorporated a vignette epitomizing the Callimachus tale in his illustration of the Corinthian order for his translation of Vitruvius, published in Paris, 1684. Perrault demonstrates in his engraving how the proportions of the carved capital could be adjusted according to demands of the design, without offending. The texture and outline of Perrault's leaves is dry and tight compared to their 19th-century naturalism at the U.S. Capitol.
In Late Antique and Byzantine practice, the leaves may be blown sideways, as if by the wind of Faith. Unlike the Doric and Ionic column capitals, a Corinthian capital has no neck beneath it, just a ring-like astragal molding or a banding that forms the base of the capital, recalling the base of the legendary basket.
Most buildings (and most clients) are satisfied with just two orders. When orders are superposed one above another, as they are at the
In
During the 16th century, a sequence of engravings of the orders in architectural treatises helped standardize their details within rigid limits: Sebastiano Serlio; the Regola delli cinque ordini of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–1573); I quattro libri dell'architettura of Andrea Palladio, and Vincenzo Scamozzi's L'idea dell'architettura universale, were followed in the 17th century by French treatises with further refined engraved models, such as Perrault's.
Notable examples
- Argentina
- Bangladesh
- Tajhat Palace, Rangpur
- France
- Nimes
- The July Column, Paris
- Germany
- Palatine Chapel, Aachen
- The Reichstag, Berlin
- Greece
- Israel
- Seat of the Universal House of Justice, Haifa
- Italy
- Jordan
- Philippines
- St. La Salle Hall
- Don Enrique T. Yuchengco Hall
- Enrique M. Razon Sports Center
- Portugal
- Templo de Diana, Évora
- Column of Pedro IV, Lisbon
- Romania
- Russia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Syria
- Ukraine
- Great Lavra Belltower(fourth tier – 8 columns)
- Independence Monument
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- United States Capitol[2]
- United States Supreme Court Building
- City Hall-County Building (Chicago)
- The Rotunda, University of Virginia
- New York Stock Exchange
Gallery
-
Reconstructed Corinthian capital, with original colours
-
Temple of Apollo at Bassae, Bassae, Greece, illustration by Charles Robert Cockerell, unknown architect, c.429-400 BC[15]
-
Ancient Greek Corinthian order of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens, c.335 BC
-
Ancient Greek Corinthian capital from thePolyclitus the Younger, c.350 BC[16]
-
Ancient Greek Corinthian order of the Tower of the Winds, Athens, probably c.50 BC
-
Roman Corinthian capitals in the Temple of Hercules Victor, Rome, later 2nd century BC
-
Roman Corinthian capital of thepistil, compressed acanthus rows, and flutes squared at the top, rather than rounded as on a standard Corinthian column, 1st century BC
-
The variant known as "Tower of the Winds Corinthian" after the monument in Athens, c.50 BC
-
Roman Corinthian capital of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, Rome, with intertwining central stems, 1st century
-
Roman Corinthian columns and pilasters of the Arch of Hadrian, Athens, 131 or 132 AD
-
The Constantinian basilica of Santa Sabina interior, with spolia Corinthian columns from the Temple of Juno Regina
-
Byzantine quasi-Corinthian capital in Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy, 6th century
-
Romanesque quasi-Corinthian columns in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, 8th century, restored in the 19th century with original polychromy
-
Romanesque quasi-Corinthian capital, Church of St. Philibert, Tournus, France, c.1008 to mid-11th century[18]
-
Renaissance Corinthian pilasters of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua, Italy, Leon Battista Alberti, begun in c.1450[19]
-
Baroque Corinthian column capitals in the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, by Francesco Borromini, 1638–1677
-
Baroque Corinthian columns in the Chapel of the Palace of Versailles, 1696–1710[20]
-
Stylized Baroque Corinthian columns in the Austrian National Library, Hofburg, Vienna, Austria, designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in c.1716–1720, built in 1723–1726[21]
-
, unknown architect, 1724
-
Rococo reinterpretations of the Corinthian order in the Pilgrimage Church of Wies, Steingaden, Germany, by Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann, 1746-1754[22]
-
Rococo reinterpretations of the Corinthian order at the high altar in the abbey church of Ottobeuren, Germany, by Johann Michael Fischer, 1748-1754[23]
-
Neoclassical Corinthian pilaster in the Salon des dames d'honneur, Château de Compiègne, Compiègne, France, unknown architect, c.1810
-
Neoclassical Corinthian capitals of theUK, inspired by those of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome, by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, 1834
-
Greek Revival Corinthian columns of the Sturdivant Hall, Selma, Alabama, US, inspired by those of the Tower of the Winds, by Thomas Helm Lee, 1852-1856
-
The Neoclassical Corinthian order as used in extending the United States Capitol in 1854: the column's shaft has been omitted
-
Neoclassical reinterpretation of the Corinthian capital at the Grave ofClaude Bonnefond, Loyasse Cemetery, Lyon, France, designed by Antoine-Marie Chenavard and sculpted by Guillaume Bonnet, c.1860
-
Beaux Arts Corinthian columns on the facade of the Palais Garnier, Paris, by Charles Garnier, 1861–1874[24]
-
Neoclassical Corinthian capital of the Temple de la Sibylle, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris, heavily inspired by those of the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, by Gabriel Davioud, 1866
-
Theophil von Hansen, 1873–1883[25]
-
Greek Revival pilaster capitals on the facade of the Austrian Parliament Building
-
Postmodern Corinthian columns of the Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans, US, by Charles Moore, 1978–1979[26]
-
Postmodern neon Corinthian capital in South Bay Galleria, Redondo Beach, California, US, by RTKL Associates and Theo Kondos Associates, 1985
-
Reinterpreted Postmodern Corinthian columns of the Pumping Station, Isle of Dogs, London, John Outram, 1988[27]
-
New Classical Greek Revival Corinthian column in the Gonville and Caius College Hall, Cambridge, UK, inspired by the one from the Temple of Apollo at Bassaem by John Simpson, 1998
See also
- Giant order
- Superposed order
- Chapelle Sainte Radegonde (Chinon)
Notes
- ^ Lawrence, 85; Summerson, 124, 176
- ^ a b "Corinthian Columns". Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
- ^ a b Summerson, 124
- ^ Lawrence, 179 (Plate 80)
- ^ Lawrence, 237
- ^ Brown, 232; Fergusson, James, The Illustrated Handbook of Architecture, Vol 2, p. 273, 1855, John Murray, google books
- ^ Mark Wilson Jones, "Designing the Roman Corinthian order", Journal of Roman Archaeology 2:35-69 (1989).
- ^ Jones 1989.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-307-49107-7.
- ^ Francesco di Giorgio's sheet with the drawings, from the Turin codex Saluzziano of his Trattati di architettura ingegneria e arte militare, c. 1480–1500, is illustrated by Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1962) 1965, pl. ic
- ^ Quoted by Sir Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form, 1956, p. 45.
- ^ Chambers, A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (Joseph Gwilt ed, 1825:pp 159–61).
- ^ Alison Burford (The Greek Temple Builders at Epidauros, Liverpool, 1969, p. 65) suggests instead that it was spoilt in the carving, one volute being incorrectly detached from its field; Hugh Plommer, reviewing it for The Classical Review (New Series, 21.2 [June 1971], pp 269–272), remarks that the error involved an excess of work and remains convinced that the capital was a model.
- ^ Vitr. 4.1.9-10
- ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ISBN 978-1-85669-584-8.
- ISBN 978-1-85669-584-8.
- ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ^ Martin, Henry (1927). Le Style Louis XIV (in French). Flammarion. p. 39.
- ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ^ J. Philippe, Minguet (1973). Estetica Rococoului (in Romanian). Meridiane.
- ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ISBN 978-0-500-02236-8.
- ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ISBN 978-1-85669-584-8.
- ISBN 978-0-500-51914-1.
References
- Brown, Frank C., Study of the Orders, 2002 digital edn. (1st edn 1906), Digital Scanning Incorporated, ISBN 9781582187334, google books
- Lawrence, A. W., Greek Architecture, 1957, Penguin, Pelican history of art
- ISBN 0500201773