The Ionic Order

Altar, Heraion of Samos

The name Ionic applied to this Classical Order of architecture derives both from the ancient territory of Ionia, its people and culture who dominated the greater region. The Ionian League thus came to refer to the first alliance of culturally Greek city-states coalescing in the 7th century B.C.E. as Greece was moving from its Archaic towards its Classic period. The league included ancient Ionia, Lydia, Aeolia and a number of islands off the coast of Asia Minor, constituting essentially the whole of Western Anatolia, modern day Turkey.

Although there are numerous examples of the Ionic Order throughout Classical Greece, the oldest examples of monumental Ionic stone temples are to be found in Anatolia of Archaical Greece and undoubtedly the pre-existing aesthetic influences on its development appear to come from further East and South.

Column Capital, Persepolis

The most conspicuous feature of the fully developed Classical Ionic Order is unquestionably the large spiral volutes of the column capitals. These certainly find precedent in the architecture of the Persian Empire, both adversary and trading partner of the Ionian Greeks. Likewise the Aeolians, prior to joining the league, had adapted their own Aeolic Order featuring prominent volutes that were taken more or less directly from their vital trading partners, the ancient Phoenicians.

Aeolic Column Capital

Although there are indications that the Ionic Order may have its tectonic origins in an earlier timber construction, archeologically it first appears more or less as a fully developed monolithic stone temple architecture by the 6th century B.C.E. Certainly refinements were to come; however, the stylobate, the surrounding peripteral colonnade, fluted columns as well as the details of the column capital such as the egg & dart, honeysuckle and swagged canalis of the joined volutes were already well articulated.

Column Capital at the Heraion of Samos, 6th century B.C.E.

Form Follows Femininity?

Erechtheion Ionic Capital

Greek temples built according to the Ionic Order certainly do have a different look and feel than those of the Doric Order. The proportions of the Ionic Order are more attenuated, the ornament loses the geometric character of the Doric Order in favour of more naturalistic and curvilinear forms. Marcus Pollio Vitruvius, 1st Century B.C.E. architectural theorist, claimed an anthropomorphic model as the Greek origin for the Ionic Order:

"Just so afterwards, when they desired to construct a temple to Diana (Greek Artemis) in a new style of beauty, they translated these footprints into terms characteristic of the slenderness of women, and thus first made a column the thickness of which was only one eighth of its height, so that it might have a taller look. At the foot they substituted the base in place of a shoe; in the capital they placed the volutes, hanging down at the right and left like curly ringlets, and ornamented its front with cymatia and with festoons of fruit arranged in place of hair, while they brought the flutes down the whole shaft, falling like the folds in the robes worn by matrons."

It is true that many of the Greek temples built according to the Ionic Order were dedicated to goddesses such as Hera and Artemis. The most splendid example of which, the Erechtheion, was dedicated to yet another goddess, Athena. The porch of the Erechtheion makes a compelling case for the anthropomorphic origin story, as the matronly Caryatids act as substitutes for the columns of what is clearly an Ionic Order elevation. Admittedly, the Greeks also erected temples in the Ionic Order dedicated to the gods Apollo and Dionysos, although it could be claimed these two were the most effeminate of the major male deities. Whatever truth there is or otherwise to the anthropomorphic attribution, it certainly does weave an entertaining narrative and serves as an useful memory aid in distinguishing some of the various Classical Orders principal features.

The Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion

As a System of Proportion

Elevation of the Five Orders of Architecture
Giacomo da Vignola, 1562

Another way of thinking about the Ionic Order is as a system of proportion. We already saw Vitruvius describe the proportional relationship of the Greek Ionic column as, "the thickness of which was only one eighth of its height." Interestingly, Vitruvius departs from this, personally promoting an even more attenuated version having a 1:9 ratio. One characteristic of all of the Renaissance treatises that followed was to continue presenting the Orders as highly rationalised systems whose fundamental unit of measurement was derived from the base radius or diametre (the module) of the given column. The elevations of the column, entablature, optional pedestal etc., as well as intercolumniation were all  proportional relationships derived from this base module.

Italian architectural theorist Giacomo da Vignola leaned heavily upon the Roman architectural treatise of Vitruvius, maintainng his 1:9, base diametre:height ratio. Others drew their justification on more archeological grounds either from what they considered an archetypal exemplar or a weighted average of various examples. As the territory of Ancient Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Turks during the Renaissance, the theorists were left with only Roman examples to draw from. What they generally concluded was that the orders progressed proportionally in attenuation from the rather solid Tuscan to the comparatively slender Composite with the Ionic right in the middle.

Comparative Ionic Orders. Robert Chitham, 1985

Elements and Enrichment

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Although not typically as ornamentally enriched as the Corinthian or Composite, the Ionic Order is hardly sparse. The projecting cornice of the entablature of the cornice is usually though not universally denticulated, that is to say supported by a row of dental blocks acting as an allusion to rafter tails in timber construction. The frieze is often ornamented and occasionally pulvinated or given a convex shape.

The capitals typically have a row of egg & dart as well as honeysuckle emanating from the volutes although there are exceptions for every rule and radical variations are possible and potentially quite interesting. Of course, the most visibly identifying feature of the Order are the large spiral volutes of the column capitals. There are many methods for laying these spirals out although two figure prominently in Renaissance and later treatises. Furthermore, the small details concerning the breadth of the fillets, depth of the canales, the spring and alignment of the spiral make for near infinite variety.

Well, we've already seem some hints of it in some of the images. In my followup to this essay we'll consider a particular variation of the Ionic Order, the Angular or sometimes commonly referred to as Scamozzi version of the Ionic.


Contributed by Patrick Webb