DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.572#0065
PART II. ORIGIN OF FLUTED COLUMNS. 3/
columns, the abacus arid base (or plinth) are not
included; the latter, from its projecting so far
beyond the shaft, has no claim to be comprehended
within the height of the column ;* and the abacus
is kept distinct by the flutes; while in some of the
other orders, as the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, it is
entirely concealed by the projection of the capital.
The invention of polygonal, and circular,' fluted
'columns, appears to have been owing to the four
corners of the square pillar having been cut off, for
convenience; and the transition may be thus ex-
plained. The four angles having been removed,
the pillar was converted into an octagonal column;
and in course of time the number of sides was in-
creased to twelve, sixteen, twenty, and thirty-two.
The facettes were then hollowed into grooves; and
the only trace of the original unfluted column was
the central facette of the front, which remained
ungrooved, to receive the usual line of hiero-
glyphics of the square, and eight-sided, columns.
This was the origin, and the gradual formation, of
the fluted column.f
It is evident, that the round column owed its
form to the necessity of removing the obstacle of
the corners, in the square pillar; which in crowded
spaces were inconvenient, as they prevented per-
* At Beni Hassan, the diameter of the shaft, in this order, is 3 feet
7 1^ inches, and that of the plinth 6 feet 5 inches. Vide Plate ii.
t Vide Plate i, fig. 5, a, b, c, d. The notion of the flutes, in the Doric
column, having heen devised for supporting spears is as extravagant as
Vitruvius' origin of the Ionic, in the folds of woman's drapery.—Vit. lib.
iv, c. 1. In his views of Greek architecture he was principally guided by
the works of Ionian architects, and he was far better acquainted with the
Ionic, than the Doric, order.
columns, the abacus arid base (or plinth) are not
included; the latter, from its projecting so far
beyond the shaft, has no claim to be comprehended
within the height of the column ;* and the abacus
is kept distinct by the flutes; while in some of the
other orders, as the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, it is
entirely concealed by the projection of the capital.
The invention of polygonal, and circular,' fluted
'columns, appears to have been owing to the four
corners of the square pillar having been cut off, for
convenience; and the transition may be thus ex-
plained. The four angles having been removed,
the pillar was converted into an octagonal column;
and in course of time the number of sides was in-
creased to twelve, sixteen, twenty, and thirty-two.
The facettes were then hollowed into grooves; and
the only trace of the original unfluted column was
the central facette of the front, which remained
ungrooved, to receive the usual line of hiero-
glyphics of the square, and eight-sided, columns.
This was the origin, and the gradual formation, of
the fluted column.f
It is evident, that the round column owed its
form to the necessity of removing the obstacle of
the corners, in the square pillar; which in crowded
spaces were inconvenient, as they prevented per-
* At Beni Hassan, the diameter of the shaft, in this order, is 3 feet
7 1^ inches, and that of the plinth 6 feet 5 inches. Vide Plate ii.
t Vide Plate i, fig. 5, a, b, c, d. The notion of the flutes, in the Doric
column, having heen devised for supporting spears is as extravagant as
Vitruvius' origin of the Ionic, in the folds of woman's drapery.—Vit. lib.
iv, c. 1. In his views of Greek architecture he was principally guided by
the works of Ionian architects, and he was far better acquainted with the
Ionic, than the Doric, order.