Editing Corinthian order (section)

==Description==
===Greek Corinthian order===
[[File:The frieze of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates on January 21, 2021.jpg|thumb|Frieze and capitals of the [[Choragic Monument of Lysicrates]], Athens, unknown architect, 330s BC, one of the earliest surviving examples]]
The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of [[Corinth]], to which it was connected in the period. However, according to the architectural historian [[Vitruvius]], the column was created by the sculptor [[Callimachus (sculptor)|Callimachus]], probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket of toys, with a slab on top, on the grave of a Corinthian girl.<ref name="Summerson, 124"/>

Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period (430–323 BC). The earliest Corinthian capitals, already in fragments and now lost, were found in [[Bassae]] in 1811–12; they are dated around 420 BC, and are in a temple of Apollo otherwise using the Ionic.  There were three of them, carrying the frieze across the far end of the cella, which was open to the [[adytum]].  The Corinthian was probably devised to solve the awkwardness the Ionic capital created at corners by having clear and distinct front or back and side-on faces,<ref>Lawrence, 179 (Plate 80)</ref> a problem only finally solved by [[Vincenzo Scamozzi]] in the 16th century.

A simplified late version of the Greek Corinthian capital is often known as the "Tower of the Winds Corinthian" after its use on the porches of the [[Tower of the Winds]] in Athens (about 50 BC).  There is a single row of [[Acanthus (ornament)|acanthus]] leaves at the bottom of the capital, with a row of "tall, narrow leaves" behind.<ref>Lawrence, 237</ref>  These cling tightly to the swelling shaft, and are sometimes described as "lotus" leaves, as well as the vague "water-leaves" and palm leaves; their similarity to leaf forms on many ancient Egyptian capitals has been remarked on.<ref>Brown, 232; [[James Fergusson (architect)|Fergusson, James]], ''The Illustrated Handbook of Architecture'', Vol 2, p. 273, 1855, John Murray, [https://books.google.com/books?id=pswUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA273 google books]</ref>  The form is usually found in smaller columns, both ancient and modern.

===Roman Corinthian order===
[[File:Temple of Vesta, built in the early 1st century BC on the acropolis of Tibur, Tivoli (14920855626).jpg|thumb|[[Bucrania]] with [[festoons]] decorating the [[Temple of Vesta, Tivoli|Temple of Vesta]] from [[Hadrian's Villa]], Tivoli]]
[[File:Arco di Settimio Severo Roma 09feb08.jpg|thumb|Corinthian columns of the [[Arch of Septimius Severus]], in the [[Forum Romanum]]]]
[[File:Leptis Magna, Libya - panoramio - Jan Hazevoet (1).jpg|thumb|Corinthian columns of the [[Arch of Septimius Severus (Leptis Magna)|Arch of Septimius Severus]] in [[Leptis Magna]]]]

The style developed its own model in Roman practice, following precedents set by the [[Temple of Mars Ultor]] in the [[Forum of Augustus]] ({{circa|2 AD}}).<ref>Mark Wilson Jones, "Designing the Roman Corinthian order", ''Journal of Roman Archaeology'' 2:35-69 (1989).</ref> It was employed in southern Gaul at the [[Maison Carrée]], Nîmes and at the comparable [[Temple of Augustus and Livia]] at [[Vienne, Isère|Vienne]]. Other prime examples noted by [[Mark Wilson Jones]] are the lower order of the [[Basilica Ulpia]] and the [[Arch of Trajan (Ancona)|Arch of Trajan]] at [[Ancona]] (both of the reign of [[Trajan]], 98–117 AD), the [[Column of Phocas]] (re-erected in [[Late Antiquity]] but 2nd century in origin), and the [[Temple of Bacchus]] at [[Baalbek]] ({{circa|150 AD}}).<ref>Jones 1989.</ref>

Proportion is a defining characteristic of the Corinthian order: the "coherent integration of dimensions and ratios in accordance with the principles of ''symmetria''" are noted by Mark Wilson Jones, who finds that the ratio of total column height to column-shaft height is in a 6:5 ratio, so that, secondarily, the full height of column with capital is often a multiple of 6 [[Roman foot|Roman feet]] while the column height itself is a multiple of 5. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to the [[Ionic order|Ionic column]], though it is more slender, and stands apart by its distinctive carved capital.<ref name="D'EpiroPinkowish2010"/>

The [[abacus (architecture)|abacus]] upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman [[Colosseum]], holding up the least weight, and also having the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Their height to width ratio is about 10:1.<ref name="D'EpiroPinkowish2010">{{cite book|author1=Peter D'Epiro|author2=Mary Desmond Pinkowish|title=What are the Seven Wonders of the World?: And 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kLvDnZtJNJkC&pg=PA132|date=22 December 2010|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-49107-7|page=133}}</ref>

One variant is the Tivoli order, found at the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli. The Tivoli order's Corinthian capital has two rows of acanthus leaves and its abacus is decorated with oversize [[Fleuron (architecture)|fleurons]] in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops. The frieze exhibits fruit [[festoon]]s suspended between [[bucrania]]. Above each festoon has a [[Rosette (design)|rosette]] over its center. The cornice does not have [[modillions]].

===Gandharan capitals===
{{Main|Indo-Corinthian capital}}
[[File:Buddha Acanthus Capitol.jpg|thumb|Figure of the Buddha, within a Corinthian capital from [[Gandhara]], [[Musee Guimet]], Paris, unknown architect, 3rd–4th century]]

[[Indo-Corinthian capital]]s are capitals crowning [[column]]s or [[pilaster]]s, which can be found in the northwestern [[Indian subcontinent]], and usually combine [[Hellenistic]] and [[India]]n elements. These capitals are typically dated to the 1st centuries of our era, and constitute important elements of [[Greco-Buddhist art]] of [[Gandhara]].

The classical design was often adapted, usually taking a more elongated form, and sometimes being combined with scrolls, generally within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples. Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] or [[Bodhisattva]]s, usually as central figures surrounded, and often in the shade, of the luxurious foliage of Corinthian designs.

===Byzantine Empire and medieval Europe===
Though the term "Corinthian" is reserved for columns and capitals that adhere fairly closely to one of the classical versions, vegetal decoration to capitals continued to be extremely common in [[Byzantine architecture]] and the various styles of the European [[Middle Ages]], from [[Carolingian architecture]] to [[Romanesque architecture]] and [[Gothic architecture]].  There was considerable freedom in the details and the relationship between column (generally not fluted) and capital. Many types of plant were represented, sometimes realistically, as in the capitals in the [[chapter house]] at [[Southwell Minster]] in England.

===Renaissance Corinthian order===
[[File:Scamozzi portrait by Veronese.jpg|thumb|[[Vincenzo Scamozzi]] offers his version of the Corinthian capital, in a portrait by [[Paolo Cagliari|Veronese]] ([[Denver Art Museum]])]]
During the first flush of the [[Italian Renaissance]], the Florentine architectural theorist [[Francesco di Giorgio]] expressed the human analogies that writers who followed Vitruvius often associated with the human form, in squared drawings he made of the Corinthian capital overlaid with human heads, to show the proportions common to both.<ref>Francesco di Giorgio's sheet with the drawings, from the Turin codex Saluzziano of his ''Trattati di architettura ingegneria e arte militare'', c. 1480–1500, is illustrated by [[Rudolf Wittkower]], ''Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism'' (1962) 1965, pl. ic</ref>

The Corinthian [[architrave]] is divided in two or three sections, which may be equal, or may bear interesting proportional relationships, to one with another. Above the plain, unadorned architrave lies the [[frieze]], which may be richly carved with a continuous design or left plain, as at the U.S. Capitol extension. At the Capitol the proportions of architrave to frieze are exactly 1:1. Above that, the profiles of the [[cornice (architecture)|cornice]] mouldings are like those of the Ionic order. If the cornice is very deep, it may be supported by brackets or modillions, which are ornamental brackets used in a series under a cornice.

The Corinthian column is almost always fluted, and the flutes of a Corinthian column may be enriched. They may be filleted, with rods nestled within the hollow flutes, or stop-fluted, with the rods rising a third of the way, to where the [[entasis]] begins. In French, these are called ''chandelles'' and sometimes terminate in carved wisps of flame, or with bellflowers. Alternatively, beading or chains of husks may take the place of the fillets in the fluting, Corinthian being the most flexible of the orders, with more opportunities for variation.

Elaborating upon an offhand remark when Vitruvius accounted for the origin of its acanthus capital, it became a commonplace to identify the Corinthian column with the slender figure of a young girl; in this mode the classifying French painter [[Nicolas Poussin]] wrote to his friend [[Paul Fréart de Chantelou|Fréart de Chantelou]] in 1642:

<blockquote>The beautiful girls whom you will have seen in [[Nîmes]] will not, I am sure, have delighted your spirit any less than the beautiful columns of Maison Carrée for the one is no more than an old copy of the other.<ref>Quoted by [[Kenneth Clark|Sir Kenneth Clark]], ''The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form'', 1956, p. 45.</ref></blockquote>

[[Sir William Chambers]] expressed the conventional comparison with the Doric order:

<blockquote>The proportions of the orders were by the ancients formed on those of the human body, and consequently, it could not be their intention to make a Corinthian column, which, as Vitruvius observes, is to represent the delicacy of a young girl, as thick and much taller than a Doric one, which is designed to represent the bulk and vigour<!--vigour in original--> of a muscular full grown man.<ref>Chambers, ''A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture'' (Joseph Gwilt ed, 1825:pp 159–61).</ref></blockquote>

{{anchor|Bassae}}