850

PRACTICE
OF AUCIllTECTL'RE.
Book 111.
CHARACTEliS
OF THE OllDFKS.
25r?8. Ill the Eirst Book of tliis work, Sect. XI. (1.33,
ct seq.) we have considered the
history of the five orders of arcliitecture;
we shall here offer some general observations
upon them before proceeding to the detail of each separately. The orders and their several
characters and qualities do not merely appear in the five species of columns into which they
have been subdivided, but are distributed throughout the edifices to which they are applied,
the column
itself being the regulator of the whole composition. It is on this account the
name of orders has been apiilied to the differently formed and ornamented supports, as
columns, which have received the names of the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and
Comi)osite
orders, whereof the three first are of Grecian origin, and the two last, it is sup-
])osed, of Italian or Roman origin. Each of these, by the nature of its proportions, and
the character resulting from them, produces a leading quality, to which its dimensions,
form, and ornaments
correspond. But neither of the orders is so limited as to be confined
within the expression of any single quality. Thus the strength indicated in the Doric order
is callable
of being modified into many shades and degrees of that quality. We may satisfy
ourselves of thisin an instant by reference to the early compared with the later Doric
column of the Greeks. Thus the columns of the temple at Corinth are only four diameters
high, while those of the portico of Rh.ilip are six and a half.
^2539. As the Doric seems the expression of strength, simplicity, and their various modes,
so the Ionic, by the rise in height of its shaft and by the slenderness of its mass, as well
as by the elegance of its capital, indicates a quality intermediate between the grave solidity
of the Doric and the elegant delicacy of the Corinthian. Bounded on one side by strength,
and by elegance on the other, in the two orders just named, the excess of elegance in the
Corinthian order ends in luxury and richness, whereof the character is imprinted on it.
2540. We cannot here refrain from giving, in the words of the excellent Sir Henry
Motton, a quaint and homely, but most admirable description of these five orders, from his
Elements
of
Architectvre.
"
First, the I'uscan is a
plain massive rural pillar, resembling
some sturdy, welllimbed labourer, homely clad, in which kind of coinparisons, Vitruvius
himself seemeth to take i)leasure." (Lib. iv. cap. 1.
)
. . .
'
The Z^or/^'^e o/r/er is the gravest
that hath been received into civil use, preserving, in comparison of those tliat follow, a more
masculine aspect and little trimmer than the Tuscan that went before, save a sober garnish-
ment now and then of lions' heads in the cornice, and of trit/h/plis and metopes always in the
frize."
..." To discern him will be a piece rather of good heraJdry then of architecture,
for he is knowne by his place when he is in company,
and by the peculiar ornament of his
frize, before mentioned, when he is alone."
..." The lonique order doth represent a kind
of feminine slendernesse
;
yet, saith Vitruvius, not like a light housewife, but, in a decent
dressing, hath much of the matrone."
..." Best known by his trimmings, for the bodie
of this columne is perpetually chantled, like a
thick-pleighted gowne. The capital! dressed
on each side, not much unlike women's wires, in a spiral wreathing, which they call the
Ionian voluta."
..." The Corint/iian is a columne lasciviously decked like a courtezan,
and therefore in much participating (as all inventions do) of the place where they were
first born, Corinth having beene, without controversie, one of the wantonest towns in the
world."
..." In short, as plainness did characterise the Tuscan, so, much delicaeie and
varietie the Corinthian pillar, besides the height of his rank." . . .
"
The last is the cow-
pounded order, his name being a briefe of his nature : for this pillar is nothing in effect but
a mellic, or an amasse of all the precedent ornaments, making a new klnde by stealth, and
though tiie most richly tricked, yet the poorest in this, that he is a borrower of his beantie."
Each of the orders, says De Quincy, is, then, in the building to wliich it is applied, the
governing principle of the forms, taste, and character of that system of moral order met
with in Grecian architecture which alone seems to have suited the physical order of pro-
portions with each part, so that what is agreeable, ornate, and rich is equally foun<l in the
whole as in the parts.
2541. On the two Latin orders we do not think it recessary to say more than that they
will be fully described in following pages. The invention of new orders must arise out of
other expressions of those (lualitles which are already sufficiently well and beautifully
expressed
;
hence we consider, with De Quincy, to attempt such a thing would be vain.
Chambers thus expresses himself on this subject, without the philosophy of De Quincy,
yet with the feelings of a learned and experienced architect :
"
The ingenuity of man has,
hitherto, not been able to produce a sixth order, though large premiums have been offered,
and numerous attempts been made, by men of first-rate talents to accomplish it. Such is
the fettered human imagination, such the scanty store of its ideas, that Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian have ever floated uppermost, and all that has ever been producetl amounts to
nothing more than different arrangements and combinations of their parts, with some
trifiing deviations, scarcely deserving notice
;
the whole tending generally more to diminish
than to Increase th.e beauty of t!ie ancient orders." .\gain :
" The suppression of parts ol