DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0185
ARCHITECTURE TN LANDSCAPE.
171
The proportions of the Corinthian order are very delicate. It is divided into a great variety
of parts, and enriched with a profusion of ornaments.
The most perfect models of this order are commonly allowed to be the three columns in the
Forum ox Campo Vaccino of Rome, which belonged, it is supposed, to the temple of Jupiter
St a tor.
The Corinthian column should be twenty modules high, and the entablature five; when the en-
tablature is enriched the shaft ought to be fluted.
The beautiful capital of the Corinthian order is said to have had its origin from the following
circumstance :
A young girl of Corinth died : her nurse brought her play-things in a basket and placed it on
the ground beside the tomb : the basket by accident stood on a plant of Acanthus or bear's-foot,
and was covered with a flat tile. The leaves of the plant springing up round the basket, and
meeting with the tile, were turned down at the extremities. The sculptor CaUimachus passing
by, observed with the eye of taste the graceful appearance of this group, and soon after intro-
duced it to ornament the capital of a column.
The divisions of the entablature bear the same proportion to each other as in the Tuscan Ionic
and Composite orders.
The Composite order is, to speak strictly, only a species of the Corinthian; and therefore pos-
sesses in a great measure the same character.
From what now remains of ancient architecture it does not appear that any particular entab-
lature was appropriated to this order. Sometimes the cornice is entirely plain, at others it is en-
riched with dentils nearly resembling those of the Ionic. In the arch of Titus at Rome the
cornice is ornamented with both dentils and modillions: the whole form of the parts,, or the profile
being the same with the Corinthian as it appears on ancient monuments.
This order being considered as a variety rather than properly a separate order, architects have
given scope to their fane}'' and taste in using it more than in any other.
The volutes which first appeared in the Ionic order form a characteristic feature of the
Composite.
Besides columns properly so called pilasters form a very essential part of architecture. Their
chief use is to support great weights, in particular arches: for although columns are frequently
introduced with arclres thrown from the one to the other; yet as columns gradually decrease in
diameter and consequently in strength, from the base to the capital, they have an appearance of
weakness, and therefore ought never to be employed to bear an arch. On the other hand pilas-
ters being square, and not round like columns, although many architects have diminished them
in the same proportion as columns, have both in reality and in appearance, a considerable supe*
riority in point of strength.
Pilasters are applicable to the inside as well as the outside of buildings; for as they are gene-
rally made to project only about one-fourth of their diameter from the walls to which thev are
applied, they occupy but little room. In other respects pilasters are commonly made to resemble,
in profile and ornaments, the columns of the same order.
Both columns and pilasters are often raised on pedestals, a construction which certainly has
its propriety, according to the destination of the edifice; as for instance in a modern Protestant
Church., where a part of the shaft and all the base would be concealed by the pews.
Pedestals.,
171
The proportions of the Corinthian order are very delicate. It is divided into a great variety
of parts, and enriched with a profusion of ornaments.
The most perfect models of this order are commonly allowed to be the three columns in the
Forum ox Campo Vaccino of Rome, which belonged, it is supposed, to the temple of Jupiter
St a tor.
The Corinthian column should be twenty modules high, and the entablature five; when the en-
tablature is enriched the shaft ought to be fluted.
The beautiful capital of the Corinthian order is said to have had its origin from the following
circumstance :
A young girl of Corinth died : her nurse brought her play-things in a basket and placed it on
the ground beside the tomb : the basket by accident stood on a plant of Acanthus or bear's-foot,
and was covered with a flat tile. The leaves of the plant springing up round the basket, and
meeting with the tile, were turned down at the extremities. The sculptor CaUimachus passing
by, observed with the eye of taste the graceful appearance of this group, and soon after intro-
duced it to ornament the capital of a column.
The divisions of the entablature bear the same proportion to each other as in the Tuscan Ionic
and Composite orders.
The Composite order is, to speak strictly, only a species of the Corinthian; and therefore pos-
sesses in a great measure the same character.
From what now remains of ancient architecture it does not appear that any particular entab-
lature was appropriated to this order. Sometimes the cornice is entirely plain, at others it is en-
riched with dentils nearly resembling those of the Ionic. In the arch of Titus at Rome the
cornice is ornamented with both dentils and modillions: the whole form of the parts,, or the profile
being the same with the Corinthian as it appears on ancient monuments.
This order being considered as a variety rather than properly a separate order, architects have
given scope to their fane}'' and taste in using it more than in any other.
The volutes which first appeared in the Ionic order form a characteristic feature of the
Composite.
Besides columns properly so called pilasters form a very essential part of architecture. Their
chief use is to support great weights, in particular arches: for although columns are frequently
introduced with arclres thrown from the one to the other; yet as columns gradually decrease in
diameter and consequently in strength, from the base to the capital, they have an appearance of
weakness, and therefore ought never to be employed to bear an arch. On the other hand pilas-
ters being square, and not round like columns, although many architects have diminished them
in the same proportion as columns, have both in reality and in appearance, a considerable supe*
riority in point of strength.
Pilasters are applicable to the inside as well as the outside of buildings; for as they are gene-
rally made to project only about one-fourth of their diameter from the walls to which thev are
applied, they occupy but little room. In other respects pilasters are commonly made to resemble,
in profile and ornaments, the columns of the same order.
Both columns and pilasters are often raised on pedestals, a construction which certainly has
its propriety, according to the destination of the edifice; as for instance in a modern Protestant
Church., where a part of the shaft and all the base would be concealed by the pews.
Pedestals.,