Illustrated Architecture Dictionary

Ionic
eye ON ik

Ionic order: An order of classical Greek architecture characterized by fluted columns and prominent volutes on the capitals. More specifically:

Ionic column: A column of classical Greek architecture characterized by the following:

The typical number of flutes was 24.

Anthemion ornament was sometimes placed around the necking of Ionic columns.

Ionic capital: spiral volutes resting on a convex molding known as an "echinus," usually carved with egg-and-dart. Above the volutes is a shallow square slab termed an abacus.

The other two Classical Greek orders were Doric and Corinthian

See also: Greek Revival Style

Vitruvius Pollio on the Ionic Order

Just so afterwards, when they desired to construct a temple to Diana in a new style of beauty, they translated these footprints into terms characteristic of the slenderness of women, and thus first made a column the thickness of which was only one eighth of its height, so that it might have a taller look. At the foot they substituted the base in place of a shoe; in the capital they placed the volutes, hanging down at the right and left like curly ringlets, and ornamented its front with cymatia and with festoons of fruit arranged in place of hair, while they brought the flutes down the whole shaft, falling like the folds in the robes worn by matrons. --

- Vitruvius Pollio, The Ten Books on Architecture

The Orders of classical architecture were formalized by the Greeks and applied to the design and proportion of buildings used the post-and-lintel, or column and entablature construction

The Doric Order emerged in the sixth century BC, and was followed by the Ionic Order in the east Greek territories of Anatolia. ...

The moldings of the entablature of the Ionic Order - that is the architrave, frieze and cornice - include the egg-and-dart, leaf-and-dart and waterleaf, all of which
are broadly-based ... . Other decorative borders such as the bead-and-reel and astragal look convincingly as if they were originally turned in wood, for architectural decoration in wood preceded what was later carried out in stone.

The Doric Order of architecture was little used by the Romans in Italy. The Tuscan Order was a simplified version with base, unfluted shaft and simply molded capital. The Ionic Order, however, became popular and its enrichmentswere further elaborated.


The Corinthian Order (which is more properly regarded as a variation of the Ionic) was mainly used in the interiors of Greek temples in the fourth centuryBC. It became dominant in Roman architecture in response to a taste for more decorative styles and for its easier adaptation to different features, such asengaged columns and pilasters.

The Corinthian capital made use of the acanthus leaf as its major motif, like the purely Roman variation, the Composite capital, which has horizontally linked volutes of Ionic type set over a bell of acanthus leaves.

- British Museum Pattern Books: Roman Designs, by Eva Wilson, 1999



Roman Ionic: In general: Roman Ionic columns are not fluted as are the Greek columns

Examples from Buffalo architecture:


Other examples:

Photos and their arrangement © 2002 Chuck LaChiusa
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