The classical orders

For many centuries in Ancient Greece temples were the most important form of architecture. They were, after all, houses built for the gods. Gradually the temple form of a square central space surrounded by columns came to predominate. Even the most fa­mous Greek temple, the Parthenon on the Acropolis, follows this model.

When the Parthenon was built in the fifth century B.C., Athens was the political and economic center of Greece and this temple, dedi­cated to the goddess protector of the city, Athena, took on a suitably monumental form. We can only imagine today how the Temple of Athena was richly decorated with architectural sculpture, and how sculptures and relief friezes adorned its facades. The cult image, a huge statue of Athena, was located in the central space, the cella. The roof of the temple -was supported by a whole row of columns, and the entire temple was made of white marble. Eight stone columns adorned the west-facing front of the structure, with seventeen pillars on each of the long sides. On these massive columns lay horizontal beams and, in turn, on top of these was the temple's pediment. A central aim of the architect was to create a harmonious relationship between the vertical lines of the columns and the horizontal lines of the entablature above.

As in the Parthenon, columns in Greek architecture were used as supports for a horizontal entablature. They were also used not only as an architectural element, a use that refers back ultimately to the tree-trunk that was used as a support, but they were also used for their own qualities, to lend order to architecture. To do this the Greeks developed three different types of column that can be distinguished by their three sections: the base, the shaft, and most clearly by the capital that finishes the column at the top. Another element was the beams that were placed horizontally on top of the columns and that led to the pediment. The appearance of these architectural elements and what their relative proportions should be determined the classical orders as they developed in Ancient Greece. With the establishment of these three architectural forms the Greeks created an architectural principle that architects followed until well into the nineteenth century. The plainest of the three orders is the Doric, named for the Ancient Greek tribe, the Dorians. This order was used in the building of the Parthenon. Its power­ful columns have no base of their own, but stand directly on the floor of the temple. The shaft of the column tapers towards the top and is articulated with vertical grooves, called fluting. At the top the shaft bulges out to be finished off with a covering slab, the abacus. Above the abacus are decorated lintels, and finally the pediment. The Ionic order originated in Asia Minor. Here the column has its own base, above which a series of bulges and grooves lead to a similarly fluted shaft. The top end of the column, the capital, is rolled up on both sides into the shape of snail-shells. These volutes give the Ionic column its characteristic of ostentation. The Ionic entablature is more lightly and delicately decorated than the Doric. The last of the three classical orders is the Corin­thian. The base, shaft, and also the entablature are similar to the Ionic order, except that the capital is an individual development: it grows out of a garland of leaves that then turn into volutes. This Corinthian variant of the capital, adorned with leaves and buds, re-appeared in Gothic architecture. Before that, however, the columns of the Corinthian order were adopted by Ancient Rome in particular.

The Romans adopted the classical orders as defined by the Greek architects. In the first century B.C. the Roman author Vitruvius set out their principles in writing in his ten-volume architectural work, De architectura. Here he describes Greek temples and establishes the proportions that relate column to entablature in each case. Roman temples demon­strate how the architects of Ancient Rome appro­priated the Greek formal language. Unlike Greek architecture, however, the columns built by Roman architects supported arches, not horizontal beams. The Colosseum, which was begun in 72 A.D., shows how the ancient classical orders persisted into the Roman period: from the outside the stories of the amphitheater are not only horizontal, but articul­ated in axes.

Arches supported by columns extend around the facade of the building. The three lower stories are built following the traditions of the classical orders most closely. On the ground floor plain Doric capitals top off the shafts of the columns, while, above them, Ionic capitals are used, character­ized by their rolled-up corners. On the third story Corinthian capitals created using plant forms are employed. While developments in the different orders took place even during the Greek period, it was, however, the Romans who were the first to create hybrid forms. They combined the Ionic with the Corinthian variations and thus added another form to the scheme: the Composite order. In the same way, it is only in Roman architecture that we find examples of the Tuscan order: here the shaft of the column is usually left smooth, but in all other respects the column is similar to the Doric variation.

With the rediscovery of the cultural riches of Anti­quity during the Renaissance, the classical orders too reappeared. Still extant buildings from the Roman period, such as the Colosseum, for example, made the study of the orders possible. At the same time Re­naissance architects started to look once again at the writings of Vitruvius. Architectural theorists were the first to pay them any attention. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72), the embodiment of the Renais­sance idea of the universal man not only as a theo-retician but also as an architect, sculptor and poet, drew extensively on the architecture of Antiquity. Alberti studied the buildings of Rome and Vitruvius's treatise on architecture, bringing the ideas of art into Antiquity to his own era. In his 1452 work, De re aedificatoria [On the Art of Building in Ten Books] he produced his own definition of the three classical orders, which led to a great deal of interest. The architect Donate Bramante (1444-1514) was the first to try to realize his ideas. The Tempietto of S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome, which Bramante built in 1500 boasted a thorough-going Doric order.

The round temple is enclosed by a peristyle supporting a balustrade, and the center of the building is surmounted by a dome. In building this little temple Bramante drew on models from Antiquity, thus promoting a concept of architecture which had enormous influence on his contemporaries both within the architectural world and beyond. Bramante himself included the three orders in his numerous sketches for churches in Rome, not the least of which was the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, for which he chose the Corinthian order. This reversion to Antiquity became the accepted thing, and in the sixteenth century whole hosts of architects applied the classical orders to churches, villas, and palaces. Even the villa architect of the sixteenth century, Andrea Palladio (1508-80), frequently referred back to the classical orders in his buildings. Palladio created the entrance to his Villa Rotonda, which he built near Vicenza in 1566, as a temple frontage from Antiquity with six Ionic columns and a triangular pediment.

In the second of his Four Books of Architecture Palladio explained his use of this element: " In all the buildings for farms and also for some of those in the city I have built a tympanum [frontespicio] on the front facade..., because tympanums accentuate the entrance of the house and contribute greatly to the grandeur and magnificence of the building, thus making the front part more imposing than the others….”

Up until the era of Classicism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the classical orders set the tone of the architectural canon in Europe. The Greek orders appeared once more in the context of city architecture with the Brandenburg Gate.

Berlin's last city gate, which has latterly become a symbol of German reunification, was created by Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1808) in the late eighteenth cen­tury. The architect made no secret of his passion for Greece, and in his sketch for the Brandenburg Gate he made reference to the design of the Propylaeum in Athens, the monumental gate on the Acropolis. In the Berlin version six Doric columns support the entablature, as well as the quadriga - Victoria, Roman goddess of victory, in her chariot pulled by four horses. In France too, classical architecture, and with it the classical orders, were very popular. In Paris, for example, Napoleon undertook to complete the unfinished Church of the Madeleine.

Now the building was conceived no longer as a church, but as a monument to the French army. Thus the temple form was chosen, which architect Pierre-Alexandre Vignon (1763-1828) carried out beginning in 1807. By the time the project was finished in 1842 the building had been returned to its original purpose, and the Church of the Madeleine became Napoleon's most important contribution to sacred architecture. The exterior is like a temple frontage from Antiquity with a continuous peristyle running around the entire building formed of richly decorated columns in the Corinthian order.

Notes:

Peristyle - Перисти́ ль — открытое пространство, как правило, двор, сад или площадь, окружённое с четырёх сторон крытой колоннадой.

Vitruvius Марк Витру́ вий Поллио́ н — римский архитектор и механик, учёный-энциклопедист (I в. до н.э.).

Leon Battista Alberti Леон Баттиста Альбе́ рти (1404 – 1472)— итальянский ученый, гуманист, писатель, один из зачинателей новой европейской архитектуры и ведущий теоретик искусства эпохи Возрождения. Альберти первым связно изложил математические основы учения о перспективе..

Donate Bramante Донато Браманте (1444-1514) — основоположник и крупнейший представитель архитектуры Высокого Возрождения. Его самой известной работой является главный храм западного христианства — базилика Святого Петра в Ватикане

Andrea Palladio Андреа Палладио (1508 – 1580), настоящее имя — Андреа ди Пьетро — великий итальянский архитектор позднего Возрождения (XVI в.). Основоположник палладианства и классицизма. Вероятно, самый влиятельный архитектор в истории.

Carl Gotthard Langhans Карл Готтгард Лангганс (1732 – 1808) — прусский архитектор и строитель. Зодчество изучил, читая труды Витрувия.

Pierre-Alexandre Vignon Пьер-Александр Виньон (1763 -1828) – французский архитектор, работавший в стиле неоклассицизм.