Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Ionic Order

IONIC ORDER, one of the three orders of architecture, the distinguishing characteristic of which is the volute of the capital. Its main features are the same as in the Doric style; their forms, however, are different. The Ionic order has more moldings, its forms are richer and more elegant, and, as a style, it is lighter and more graceful than the Doric. As regards the proportions of the Ionic order, no such remarkable difference as in the Doric is perceptible in the monuments which have been preserved to us. The height of the column is from 8½ to 9 times the lower diameter; the distance between the columns averages about twice the diameter, while the height of the entablature is not quite one-fourth that of the column. The most perfect specimens of the Ionic order are the temples of Minerva Pallas and of Erectheus in the Acropolis at Athens, and of Fortuna Virilis and the Coliseum at Rome.