Editing Classical order (section)

{{short description|Styles of classical architecture, recognizable by the type of column}}
{{About|architecture|social order|Social order}}

[[File:ARCHITECTURE ORDERS Greeks Etruscan Roman (Doric Ionic Corinthian Tuscan Composite) by Paolo Villa ENG edition.pdf|thumb|upright=1.3|Greek, "Etruscan" and Roman orders, with [[stylobate]] and [[pediment]]]]

An '''order''' in [[architecture]] is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/anencyclopdiaar00gwilgoog|quote=An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform.|title=An Encyclopædia of Architecture: Historical, Theoretical, and Practical|last=Gwilt|first=Joseph|date=1842|publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/anencyclopdiaar00gwilgoog/page/n695 680]|language=en}}</ref>
Coming down to the present from [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] and [[Ancient Roman]] civilization, the '''architectural orders''' are the styles of [[classical architecture]], each distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most readily recognizable by the type of [[column]] employed. The three orders of architecture—the [[Doric order|Doric]], [[Ionic order|Ionic]], and [[Corinthian order|Corinthian]]—originated in Greece. To these the Romans added, in practice if not in name, the [[Tuscan order|Tuscan]], which they made simpler than Doric, and the [[Composite order|Composite]], which was more ornamental than the Corinthian. The architectural order of a classical building is akin to the [[Musical mode|mode]] or [[Key (music)|key]] of [[classical music]]; the [[grammar]] or [[rhetoric]] of a written composition. It is established by certain ''modules'' like the [[Interval (music)|intervals]] of music, and it raises certain expectations in an audience attuned to its language.<ref>Summerson, pp. 7–15</ref>

Whereas the orders were essentially structural in [[Ancient Greek architecture]], which made little use of the arch until its late period, in [[Roman architecture]] where the arch was often dominant, the orders became increasingly decorative elements except in [[portico]]s and similar uses. Columns shrank into half-columns emerging from walls or turned into [[pilaster]]s. This treatment continued after the conscious and "correct" use of the orders, initially following exclusively Roman models, returned in the [[Italian Renaissance]].<ref>Summerson, pp. 19–21</ref> [[Greek Revival architecture]], inspired by increasing knowledge of Greek originals, returned to more authentic models, including ones from relatively early periods.[[File: Classical orders from the Encyclopedie.png|thumb|right|An illustration of the Five Architectural Orders engraved for the Encyclopédie, vol. 18, showing the Tuscan and Doric orders (top row); two versions of the Ionic order (center row); Corinthian and Composite orders (bottom row)]]