The Roman Ionic Order

The only existing example of Ionic in Rome, in which the columns are insulated, is in the temple of Fortuna Virilis (Plate XV. Ex. 3; Plate XVI. Fig. 12), for the temple of Concord is too barbarous to deserve consideration. Its stylobate, like that of the Roman Corinthian, is lofty and not graduated, having a moulded base and cornice or surbase. In the column the base consists of a plinth, two tori, a scotia, and two fillets, the shaft has twenty fillets and flutes, and diminishes one-tenth of a diameter; the capital is two-fifths of a diameter in height; the volutes, however, dip a little lower, being themselves about that depth without the abacus; the corbelling for the volutes is formed by a bead and large ovolo, -- the latter being carved. A straight band connects the generating lines of the volutes, whose ends are bolstered and enriched with foliage; and a square abacus, moulded on the edges, covers the whole. In the entablature the architrave is unequally divided into three fasciae and a band consisting of a cyma-reversa and fillet; the lowest angle impends the upper face of the shaft of the column. The frieze is in the same vertical line, and is covered with a fillet which receives the cornice; it is also enriched with a composition of figures and foliage. The cornice consists of a bed-mould, two-fifths of its height, and a corona with crown-mouldings. The cymatium is enriched with acanthus leaves and lions' heads, and the mouldings of the bed-mould and architrave band are carved. The soffit of the corona is hollowed out in a wide groove, whose internal angles are rounded off in a cavetto, but without ornament of any kind, forming indeed a mere throating. Like the angular capitals of the Greek Ionic, the external volute of this is turned out and repeated on the flank: either that or the abuse of it in the Composite capital gave rise to distortions of this order, in which all the volutes of the capital are angular, and consequently all its four faces are alike. In other respects, however, it does not differ generally from the ordinary Roman examples of Ionic. The temple of Fortuna Virilis is pseudo-peripteral and consequently neither antae nor pilasters, nor do ancient examples exist of either.






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