Classical orders
The total assemblage of parts comprising the column and its appropriate entablature used in Classical architecture, including the Greek and Roman orders. The Greek orders are: Doric, Ionian, Corinthian. The Romans imitated the Greek orders and refined them to include: Tuscan, and Composite. Together these became the five accepted styles of Classical columns and entablatures. The primary divisions of the column are base, shaft and capital. The primary divisions of the entablature are architrave, frieze and cornice. A pedestal under the column is not an essential part of the order but appropriate pedestals are given by the theorists from Serlio onwards. “These orders were governed by precise mathematical ratios, a series of proportional rules that regulated aesthetic effect. The height of a Corinthian entablature, for example, is a quarter of the height of the columns on which it stands, while the height of each column is ten times its diameter, and so forth… The Colosseum had all three orders with Doric on the lowest level, Ionic on the second, and Corinthian at the top” (King, 2000). Also see architectural orders, five orders, orders, orders of architecture, Greek orders, and Roman architectural orders. Note the word “Classical” should not be used in lowercase form when combined with “order”. Photo from the Second Bank of the United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2017. (Kremer, 2023)