All significant Iron Age civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean made some use of columns. In ancient <atlas:egyptian-architecture> as early as 2600 BC, the architect Imhotep made use of stone columns whose surface was carved to reflect the organic form of bundled reeds, like papyrus, lotus and palm. <atlas:egyptian-columns> are famously present in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak (c. 1224 BC), where 134 columns are lined up in sixteen rows, with some columns reaching heights of 24 metres. One of the most important types are the papyriform columns, which are composed of lotus (papyrus) stems drawn together into a bundle decorated with bands.
The <atlas:minoans> used whole tree-trunks, placed on a stylobate and topped by a simple round pillow-like capital. These were then painted as in the most famous <atlas:minoan-palace-of-knossos>. The Minoans employed columns to create large open-plan spaces, light-wells and as a focal point for religious rituals. These traditions were continued by the later <atlas:mycenaean-civilization>, particularly in the megaron or hall at the heart of their palaces. The importance of columns and their reference to palaces and therefore authority is evidenced in their use in heraldic motifs such as the famous <atlas:lion-gate-of-mycenae> where two lions stand each side of a column.
The Egyptians, Persians, and other civilizations used columns for the practical purpose of holding up the roof inside a building, preferring outside walls to be decorated with reliefs or painting, but the <atlas:ancient-greeks>, followed by the <atlas:romans>, used them on the outside as well. The extensive use of columns on the interior and exterior of buildings is one of the most characteristic features of <atlas:classical-architecture>, in buildings like the <atlas:parthenon>. The Greeks developed the classical orders of architecture, which are most easily distinguished by the form of the column and its various elements. Their <atlas:doric-order>, <atlas:ionic-order>, and <atlas:corinthian-order> were expanded by the Romans to include the <atlas:tuscan-order> and <atlas:composite-order>.
Some of the most elaborate columns in the ancient world were those of the <atlas:persians>, especially the massive stone columns erected in <atlas:persepolis>. They included double-bull structures in their capitals. The Hall of Hundred Columns at Persepolis, measuring 70 × 70 metres, was built by the <atlas:achaemenid-king-darius-i> (524–486 BC). Many of the ancient Persian columns are still standing, particularly at sites such as Persepolis; some were originally around 20–24 metres tall, making them among the tallest columns of the ancient world. Tall columns with bull's head capitals were used for porticoes and to support the roofs of the hypostyle hall, partly inspired by the ancient Egyptian precedent.
<atlas:indo-corinthian-capitals> are capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in the northwestern <atlas:indian-subcontinent>, and usually combine Hellenistic and Indian elements. These capitals are typically dated to the first centuries of the Common Era, and constitute an important aspect of <atlas:greco-buddhist-art>. Its importation to India followed the road of Hellenistic expansion in the East in the centuries after the conquests of <atlas:alexander-the-great>. In particular the <atlas:greco-bactrian-kingdom>, centered on Bactria (today's northern Afghanistan), upheld the type at the doorstep of India, in such places as <atlas:ai-khanoum> until the end of the 2nd century BCE.
Columns became much less significant in the architecture of the <atlas:middle-ages>. The classical forms were abandoned in both <atlas:byzantine-architecture> and <atlas:romanesque-architecture> in favour of more flexible forms, with capitals often using various types of foliage decoration, and in the West scenes with figures carved in relief. During the Romanesque period, builders continued to reuse and imitate ancient Roman columns wherever possible; where new, the emphasis was on elegance and beauty, as illustrated by twisted columns. Often they were decorated with mosaics.
In <atlas:teotihuacan's> unique grid-planned layout, elaborate palace compounds such as the <atlas:palace-of-quetzalpapalotl>, located southwest of the <atlas:pyramid-of-the-moon>, featured facades and columns decorated with low-relief carvings. This palace's open patio was surrounded by heavy stone columns incised on three sides with bas-reliefs, adorned with water symbols on cornices painted red and white. At <atlas:tula>, the <atlas:pyramid-of-the-atlanteans> was supported by huge stone columns carved as warriors bearing atlatls, sheaves of arrows, butterfly breast plates, and solar discs, while the nearby Great Vestibule featured an L-shaped platform with dozens of stubbed columns. <atlas:puuc-maya-architecture> is distinguished by round columns with entasis and square capitals placed in doorways, as seen at <atlas:sayil's-palace> with its porticoed chambers featuring round columns, and at <atlas:labna>, where freestanding, round columns with capitals appear alongside carved stone facades. At <atlas:chacmultun>, the Puuc style is expressed with colonettes (small columns) on upper facades, columned doorways, and rounded columns at Building 1.
Columns at <atlas:chichen-itza> appear in several architectural forms, most notably colonnaded halls, which are long masonry structures fronted by a series of columns that functioned as administrative buildings for the elite, and gallery-patios, which combine a long, open colonnaded gallery with a rectangular patio that uses interior columns to widen the interior space. Many columns were carved with figures in elaborate costumes of military significance, and warrior columns represent a new artistic form introduced during the Early Postclassic period. In the <atlas:group-of-the-thousand-columns> (dating to ca. 950/980–1050/1100), the <atlas:mercado> features alternating piers and columns that were painted with yellow, red, and blue registers and once supported a vaulted roof, while other columns in the structure framed a shallow impluvium.
<atlas:renaissance-architecture> was keen to revive the classical vocabulary and styles, and the informed use and variation of the classical orders remained fundamental to the training of architects throughout <atlas:baroque-architecture>, <atlas:rococo-architecture> and <atlas:neo-classical-architecture>.
Early columns were constructed of stone, some out of a single piece of stone. Monolithic columns are among the heaviest stones used in architecture. Other stone columns are created out of multiple sections of stone, mortared or dry-fit together. The design of most classical columns incorporates entasis (the inclusion of a slight outward curve in the sides) plus a reduction in diameter along the height of the column, so that the top is as little as 83% of the bottom diameter. There are flutes and fillets that run up the shaft of columns. The flute is the part of the column that is indented in with a semi circular shape. The fillet of the column is the part between each of the flutes on the Ionic order columns. The Doric style has flutes but not fillets.
Most classical columns arise from a basis, or base, that rests on the stylobate, or foundation, except for those of the Doric order, which usually rest directly on the stylobate. The basis may consist of several elements, beginning with a wide, square slab known as a plinth. At the top of the shaft is a capital, upon which the roof or other architectural elements rest. In the case of Doric columns, the capital usually consists of a round, tapering cushion, or echinus, supporting a square slab, known as an abax or abacus. Ionic capitals feature a pair of volutes, or scrolls, while Corinthian capitals are decorated with reliefs in the form of acanthus leaves. Modern columns may be constructed out of steel, poured or precast concrete, or brick, left bare or clad in an architectural covering, or veneer.
As the axial load on a perfectly straight slender column with elastic material properties is increased in magnitude, this ideal column passes through three states: stable equilibrium, neutral equilibrium, and instability. The load at which neutral equilibrium of a column is reached is called the critical or buckling load. The state of instability is reached when a slight increase of the column load causes uncontrollably growing lateral deflections leading to complete collapse. The buckling strength of a column is inversely proportional to the square of its length. Eccentricity of the load, or imperfections such as initial crookedness, decreases column strength. Column elements are considered to be massive if their smallest side dimension is equal to or more than 400 mm. Massive columns have the ability to increase in carrying strength over long time periods.
When a column is too long to be built or transported in one piece, it has to be extended or spliced at the construction site. A reinforced concrete column is extended by having the steel reinforcing bars protrude a few inches or feet above the top of the concrete, then placing the next level of reinforcing bars to overlap, and pouring the concrete of the next level. A steel column is extended by welding or bolting splice plates on the flanges and webs or walls of the columns to provide a few inches or feet of load transfer from the upper to the lower column section. A timber column is usually extended by the use of a steel tube or wrapped-around sheet-metal plate bolted onto the two connecting timber sections.
A column that carries the load down to a foundation must have means to transfer the load without overstressing the foundation material. Reinforced concrete and masonry columns are generally built directly on top of concrete foundations. When seated on a concrete foundation, a steel column must have a base plate to spread the load over a larger area, and thereby reduce the bearing pressure. The base plate is a thick, rectangular steel plate usually welded to the bottom end of the column.
The Roman author <atlas:vitruvius>, relying on the writings of Greek authors, tells us that the ancient Greeks believed that their Doric order developed from techniques for building in wood. The earlier smoothed tree-trunk was replaced by a stone cylinder.
The Doric order is the oldest and simplest of the classical orders. It is composed of a vertical cylinder that is wider at the bottom. It generally has neither a base nor a detailed capital. It is instead often topped with an inverted frustum of a shallow cone or a cylindrical band of carvings. It is often referred to as the masculine order because it is represented in the bottom level of the <atlas:colosseum> and the Parthenon, and was therefore considered to be able to hold more weight. The height-to-thickness ratio is about 8:1. The shaft of a Doric Column is almost always fluted. The Greek Doric, developed in the western Dorian region of Greece, is the heaviest and most massive of the orders. It rises from the stylobate without any base; it is from four to six times as tall as its diameter; it has twenty broad flutes; the capital consists simply of a banded necking swelling out into a smooth echinus, which carries a flat square abacus. The Greek Doric order was not used after c. 100 B.C. until its “rediscovery” in the mid-eighteenth century.
The Tuscan order, also known as Roman Doric, is also a simple design, the base and capital both being series of cylindrical disks of alternating diameter. The shaft is almost never fluted. The proportions vary, but are generally similar to Doric columns. Height to width ratio is about 7:1.
The Ionic column is considerably more complex than the Doric or Tuscan. It usually has a base and the shaft is often fluted (it has grooves carved up its length). The capital features a volute, an ornament shaped like a scroll, at the four corners. The height-to-thickness ratio is around 9:1. Due to the more refined proportions and scroll capitals, the Ionic column is sometimes associated with academic buildings. Ionic style columns were used on the second level of the Colosseum.
The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of <atlas:corinth>, to which it was connected in the period. According to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor <atlas:callimachus>, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket. The oldest known Corinthian capital was found in <atlas:bassae>, dated at 427 BC. It is sometimes called the feminine order because it is on the top level of the Colosseum and holding up the least weight, and also has the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Height to width ratio is about 10:1.
The Composite order draws its name from the capital being a composite of the Ionic and Corinthian capitals. The acanthus of the Corinthian column already has a scroll-like element, so the distinction is sometimes subtle. Generally the Composite is similar to the Corinthian in proportion and employment, often in the upper tiers of colonnades. Height to width ratio is about 11:1 or 12:1.
A <atlas:solomonic-column>, sometimes called "barley sugar", begins on a base and ends in a capital, which may be of any order, but the shaft twists in a tight spiral, producing a dramatic, serpentine effect of movement. Solomonic columns were developed in the ancient world, but remained rare there. A famous marble set, probably 2nd century, was brought to <atlas:old-st-peter's-basilica> by <atlas:constantine-i>, and placed round the saint's shrine, and was thus familiar throughout the Middle Ages, by which time they were thought to have been removed from the Temple of Jerusalem. The style was used in bronze by <atlas:bernini> for his spectacular <atlas:st-peter's-baldachin>, and thereafter became very popular with Baroque and Rococo church architects, above all in <atlas:latin-america>, where they were very often used, especially on a small scale, as they are easy to produce in wood by turning on a lathe.
A <atlas:caryatid> is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of <atlas:karyai>", an ancient town of <atlas:peloponnese>.
In architecture, an <atlas:engaged-column> is a column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall, sometimes defined as semi or three-quarter detached. Engaged columns are rarely found in classical Greek architecture, and then only in exceptional cases, but in Roman architecture they exist in abundance, most commonly embedded in the cella walls of pseudoperipteral buildings.
<atlas:pillar-tombs> are monumental graves, which typically feature a single, prominent pillar or column, often made of stone. A number of world cultures incorporated pillars into tomb structures. In the ancient Greek colony of <atlas:lycia> in <atlas:anatolia>, one of these edifices is located at the tomb of <atlas:xanthos>. In the town of <atlas:hannassa> in southern <atlas:somalia>, ruins of houses with archways and courtyards have also been found along with other pillar tombs, including a rare octagonal tomb.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
