Ionic order Facts for Kids

Closeup of Ionic Order Column. The scroll-like ornament at the top of the column is a volute

The Ionic order is one of the three main classical orders (styles) of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order and the Corinthian order (which gave rise to the Composite order). The Ionic capital is notable for its use of volutes. The Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform. The cap is usually enriched with egg-and-dart. It was a popular style in Athens. The Athenians considered themselves Ionians.

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Architects' first real look at the Greek Ionic order: Julien David LeRoy, Les ruines plus beaux des monuments de la Grèce Paris, 1758 (Plate XX)
Ionic capital at the Erechtheum (Athens), 5th century BC
Original polychromy in Ionic temples
An archaic Greek Ionic capital, in Nordisk familjebok, 1910
The Sphinx of Naxos on its Ionic column, 560 BC
Temple of Zeus in Aizanoi
The North Porch of the Erechtheum, an ancient Greek temple from the Acropolis of Athens
Base of an Ionic column of the North Porch of the Erechtheum
Ancient Ionic column among the ruins of Histria (present-day Romania), a Greek colony on the western coast of the Black Sea
Byzantine Ionic capital from National Museum of Medieval Art (Korçë, Albania)
Scamozzian Ionic capitals on Castle Coole portico
Illustration of the Ionic frieze and capital from three angles, from Regola delli cinqve ordini d'architettvra (1563), by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola
Allegory of Music, by Jean-Francois de Troy, from 1733. In the background, two Baroque columns appear
Etching by Piranesi of the Temple of Portunus; the volute at a corner (bottom left) projects at 45°
Ionic capital partially colored, inside the Propylaea (Munich, Germany)
Metal and glass door between a pair of Ionic columns, in Paris
Ionic pilasters on the façade of the Gare du Nord from Paris
Neo-Renaissance pilaster capital in Pörtschach am Wörthersee (Austria), decorated with a festoon and a lion head above
The Temple of Diana in Villa Durazzo-Pallavicini (Genoa, Italy)
The entrance of the Grand Palais (Paris), 1900, by Charles Girault

Ionic order facts for kids

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