Architecture / Field note
Understanding Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Columns
A visual field guide to bases, shafts, capitals and entablatures—plus the limits of identifying an entire building by one fragment.
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01
Doric
Greek Doric columns usually rise directly from the stylobate, use shallow flutes and terminate in a simple echinus-and-abacus capital. Triglyphs and metopes organise the frieze above.
02
Ionic
Ionic columns stand on bases and commonly carry volute capitals. Their entablatures often use a continuous frieze, but actual buildings vary in profile, spacing and ornament.
03
Corinthian
The Corinthian capital is distinguished by vegetal ornament, especially acanthus leaves. It appears in Greek architecture before becoming widespread in Hellenistic and Roman buildings.
A capital can identify an order, but it cannot by itself establish date, function or cultural meaning. Those claims require context.
Sources
Primary and institutional references
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Architecture in Ancient Greece
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Greek Orders of Architecture
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