Description
Plaster cast of a model depicting one of the classical practices of Greek architecture. Ionic order arose around the 6th century BCE in Greece.
Publication Date
1978
Type of Artwork
Model
Time Period/Geographical Region
Ancient Greece
Height (cm/in)
91.44 cm / 36 in
Width (cm/in)
67.31 cm / 26.5 in
Depth (cm/in)
67.31 cm / 26.5 in
Disciplines
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Sculpture
Individual Image Files
This cast represents one of the orders of Greek architecture. Each order has a set of components and proportions that defines it. The three orders of architecture include the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. This cast is an example of the Ionic order, which originated in Ionia located in Greek Anatolia (modern-day Türkiye). One of the most distinctive features of this order is a capital with decorative volutes that look as if a scroll is unfurling. This was an incredibly popular architectural order and can be viewed at the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis of Athens (ca. 410 BCE), the Colosseum, Rome (69 CE), the palace of Versailles, Paris (ca. 1668-1685), and multiple buildings in Washington D.C.
To celebrate the foundation of democracy in the United States, the architects of Washington D.C. looked to the architecture of the first democracy: Ancient Greece. This was at a time when the art of ancient Greece and Rome was witnessing a resurgence in popularity, in part because of the discovery of ancient sites like Pompeii and the widespread publication of ancient architecture. This fueled the Neoclassical style, which was based on an understanding of Classical architecture as it appeared in the eighteenth century. And so, Washington D.C is filled with monuments in white marble that feature the Ionic order. For instance, the US Capitol Complex, the Jefferson Memorial, the US Treasury Department, and the North and South facades of the White House. We now know that the Ancient Greeks would have painted their buildings in bright colors, inviting us to reimagine what the government buildings of Washington D.C. would have looked like if artists from Ancient Greece were consulted during their construction.
Recommended Citation
Morehead State University. Camden-Carroll Library., "Ionic Capital and Base" (1978). Metropolitan Museum of Art Cast Collection. 42.
https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/metropolitan_art_collection/42
Files
Download Image (1.5 MB)
Comments
The Greeks developed three canonical orders of Classical architecture, of which the Ionic style was the second to emerge. The Ionic order, said to emulate the slender proportions of the female body, had columns that are the thinnest and smallest of the orders. The style is characterized by the use of volutes in the capital, scroll-like forms that crown the column. Between the volutes, you can see an egg-and-dart pattern that is also distinctive to the Ionic style. Its base separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate, or platform, of the temple. The Ionic style was primarily used in temple architecture. It originated in the mid-6th century BCE in Ionia, and was used in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Erechtheum on the Athenian Acropolis, and there are Ionic elements in the Parthenon as well. This cast was likely used by artists and architects who were studying the Greek Classical orders at schools of the fine arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.