Ionic order and its description

Ionic order is one of the three oldest Greek warrants. So, it differs from the Doric, which arose earlier than the ionic, greater freedom in the choice of proportions, as well as the absence of parts that would not have been decorated. The architects of ancient Greece loved the Ionic warrant and considered it "feminine" because of their sophistication and a large number of ornaments.

The main distinguishing feature of the Ionic architectural order is the specific design of the capital. The capital consists of two symmetrical volutes (volutes - a curl in the form of a spiral with a small circle in the center).

The exact time and place of occurrence of the ionic construction of the columns is unknown, but it is assumed that this is the middle of the sixth century BC and the northern coast of Asia Minor, respectively. The very first large building, which used ionic columns, was a temple on the island of Samos, built by Roicos and dedicated to the goddess Gera. Unfortunately, after a while the temple was destroyed by the earthquake.

And the temple of Artemis of Ephesus, in which there is also an ionic warrant, as you know, was recognized as one of the wonders of the world. However, he did not live to the present day.

Ionic order has two hypostases: Attic and Asia Minor. The Asia Minor variant, in which there is no frieze, is considered to be the original, but at the same time it is considered not an individual option, but only a modification, a modification of the Asia Minor.

The column, according to the principles of building an Ionic order, is divided into three parts: a capital, a trunk and a foundation. The base, as a rule, rests on a square plate called the plinth. Half-shafts (a semi-shaft called a convex base element) are decorated with ornament and horizontal grooves. As a rule, concave cuttings are left smooth.

As already mentioned, the main distinguishing feature of the Ionic order - two volutes on the capital. From the facade, volutes are curls; on the sides, volutes are joined by so-called balusters, which are very similar to scrolls. If at first the volutes were only in one plane, then they were made in all four, which, by the way, saved the ionic warrant from criticism, according to which the top of the column should look the same from all directions - it was originally in the Doric, but did not appear immediately Ionic order.

The cutting was usually decorated with ovami (from the Greek and Latin words meaning "egg"). These are egg-shaped decorative elements, and on the column they alternate with different arrows and leaves. The number of flutes (flute - the vertical trough on the column of the column) in the Ionic order was constantly changing, but eventually stopped at 24. This value was taken for a reason: this number of flutes made it easy to maintain the proportion of the diameter of the column and flute, even if The height of the column was for some reason overstated.

If you see two columns, Ionic and Doric, you immediately notice that the Ionic order looks more elegant. Its construction is based on the basic rule: the height of the column should be at least eight or nine of its diameters. That's why this type of order is so beautiful.