Editing Ionic order (section)

==History of use==
[[File:Ionic polychromy Die Baukunst der Griechen.jpg|thumb|upright|Original polychromy in Ionic temples]]
The Ionic order originated in the mid-6th century BC in [[Ionia]] (broadly equivalent to modern day [[İzmir Province]]), as well as the southwestern coastland and islands of [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] settled by [[Ionians]], where [[Ionic Greek]] was spoken. The Ionic order column was being practiced in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC. It was most popular in the [[Archaic period in Greece|Archaic Period]] (750–480 BC) in Ionia. The first of the great Ionic temples was the [[Heraion of Samos|Temple of Hera]] on [[Samos Island|Samos]], built about 570–560 BC by the architect [[Rhoikos]]. It stood for only a decade before it was leveled by an earthquake. A longer-lasting 6th century Ionic temple was the [[Temple of Artemis]] at [[Ephesus]], one of the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]. The [[Parthenon]], although it conforms mainly to the Doric order, also has some Ionic elements. A more purely Ionic mode to be seen on the [[Athenian Acropolis]] is exemplified in the [[Erechtheum]].

Following the conquests of [[Alexander the Great]] in the east, a few examples of the Ionic order can be found as far as [[Pakistan]] with the [[Jandial|Jandial temple]] near [[Taxila]]. Several examples of capitals displaying Ionic influences can be seen as far away as [[Patna]], [[India]], especially with the [[Pataliputra capital]], dated to the 3rd century BC, and seemingly derived from the design of the Ionic anta capital,<ref>"These flat, splaying members with cavetto sides, have a long history in Greek architecture as anta capitals, and the rolls at upper and lower sides are also seen" John Boardman, "The Origins of Indian Stone Architecture", p.19 : "An interesting flat capital which, though differing from the classic forms, bears a distinct resemblance to the capitals of the pilasters of the Temple of Apollo Didymaeos at Miletos" [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24049089]</ref><ref>A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture by Deborah S. Hutton, John Wiley & Sons, 2015, p.438 [https://books.google.com/books?id=7DX-CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA438]</ref> or the [[Sarnath capital]], which has been described as "Perso-Ionic",<ref>{{cite book |title=The Journal Of The Royal Asiatic Society Of Great Britain And Ireland For 1907 |date=1907 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.462586/page/n1071 997] |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.462586}}</ref> or "quasi-Ionic".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Banerjee |first1=Gauranga Nath |title=Hellenism in ancient India |date=1920 |publisher=Calcutta |page=[https://archive.org/details/hellenisminancie00banerich/page/46 46] |url=https://archive.org/details/hellenisminancie00banerich}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Allchin |first1=F. R. |last2=Erdosy |first2=George |title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States |date=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521376952 |page=258 (f) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5kI02_zW70C&pg=PA258 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Allchin |first1=F. R. |last2=Erdosy |first2=George |title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States |date=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521376952 |page=xi, label 11.30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5kI02_zW70C&pg=PA3 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Vitruvius]], a practicing architect who worked in the time of [[Augustus]], reports that the Doric column had its initial basis in the proportions of the male body, while Ionic columns took on a "slenderness" inspired by the female body.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Vitruvius|author-link1=Vitruvius|translator-last=Morgan|translator-first=Morris H.|translator-link=Morris H. Morgan|title=The Ten Books on Architecture|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge |date=1914|page=104|orig-year=ca. 30–15 BC|quote=Thus in the invention of the two different kinds of columns, they borrowed manly beauty, naked and unadorned, for the one, and for the other the delicacy, adornment, and proportions characteristic of women.|title-link=De architectura}}</ref> Though he does not name his source for such a self-conscious and "literary" approach, it must be in traditions passed on from [[Hellenistic]] architects, such as [[Hermogenes of Priene]], the architect of a famed temple of Artemis at [[Magnesia on the Meander]] in Lydia (now Türkiye).

[[Renaissance]] architectural theorists took his hints to interpret the Ionic order as matronly in comparison to the Doric order, though not as wholly feminine as the Corinthian order. The Ionic is a natural order for post-Renaissance libraries and courts of justice, learned and civilized. Because no treatises on classical architecture survive earlier than that of Vitruvius, identification of such "meaning" in architectural elements as it was understood in the 5th and 4th centuries BC remains tenuous, though during the Renaissance it became part of the conventional "speech" of classicism.<ref>Summerson 1963.</ref>

From the 17th century onwards, a much admired and copied version of Ionic was that which could be seen in the [[Temple of Fortuna Virilis]] in Rome, first clearly presented in a detailed engraving in [[Antoine Desgodetz]], ''Les edifices antiques de Rome'' (Paris 1682).