How it works
A classical column has a base, a long shaft and a capital, and it carries the entablature. The three Greek orders differ most at the capital: a plain cushion, a pair of spirals or rows of leaves.
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Tell the three orders apart
Look at the top first. A Doric capital is a round echinus under a square abacus, an Ionic capital has two volutes, and a Corinthian capital is wrapped in acanthus leaves. A Greek Doric column has no base: its shaft stands straight on the stylobate.
What the columns hold up
The entablature is three bands. The architrave spans from column to column, the frieze sits on it and the cornice juts out on top. In a Doric frieze triglyphs alternate with square metopes; an Ionic architrave is stepped into three fasciae.
- The shafts are cut short in the drawing so the capitals can be drawn large.
Questions and answers
What are the 3 parts of a column?
Base, shaft and capital. The shaft is the long body, the capital crowns it and carries the entablature, and the base sets it on the step below. A Greek Doric column has no base, so it has only two.
What is the difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns?
The capital first: a plain cushion and slab, two spiral volutes, or rows of acanthus leaves. Doric is the stoutest: Vitruvius makes it seven diameters tall with its capital, where an Ionic column is about nine.
What is the top of a column called?
The capital. On a Doric capital the flat slab on top is the abacus and the rounded cushion under it the echinus. Above the capital lies the entablature: architrave, frieze and cornice.
How many flutes does a column have?
Vitruvius gives a Doric column twenty flutes meeting at sharp edges and an Ionic column twenty-four, separated by narrow flat strips. Not every column is fluted.