Chap. L THE COMPOSITE ORDER.

873
than a fifth part of the column, including the base and capital. The whole height given
to the order by this author is about 27 modules and 10 parts of our measures.
2589. Serlio makes his pedestal pretty nearly as the rest. To the base of the column
he ?ssigns half a diameter for the height, when that is about level with the eye, but when
much above it he directs all the members to be increased in height accordingly, as where
one order is placed above another, he recommends the number of parts "to be dimi-
nished.
^
To the shaft of the column he gives a little more than 7 diameters, and to
the capital the same height as that given by Yitruvius, whom, nevertheless, he considers
in error, or rather that some error has crept into the text, and that the aliacus ought not to
be included in the height. The height of the architrave, frieze, and cornice he makes a
little less than a fourth part of the column, including its base and capital. The whole of
the order, according to him, is 28 modules and a little more than I part of our measures.
2590. Scamozzi gives to the pedestal of this order the height of 3 diameters and ona
third, composing it with the usual parts of base, die, and cornice
; to the base of the
column the same height and mouldings as Palladio. To the shaft of the column he
assigns the height of 8 diameters and one third, and diminishes it on each side an eighth
part of its thickness at bottom. The capital is of the same height as that by Palladio. The
architrave, frieze, and cornice he directs to be a little less than a fifth part of the height of
she column. By our measures the whole height of his order is 30 modules and 20 parts.
Sect. VII.
THE COMPOSITE ounrii.
2591. Tlie Composite order, as its name imports, is a compound of others, the Corin-
tliian and Ionic, and was received into tlie regular number of orders by the Romans.
Philander, in his notes on Vitruvius, has described its proportions and character. Its
capital consists, like the Corinthian, of two ranges of acanthus leaves distributed over the
surface of a vase, but instead of the stalks or branches, the shoots a]i])i.'ar small and as
though flowering, adhering to the vase and rounding with the cajiital towards its
'.niddle. A fillet terminates the vase upwards, and over the fillet an astragal is placed,
and above that an echinus, from which the volutes roll themselves to meet the tops
of the upper tier of leaves, on which they seem to rest. A large acanthus leaf is bent
above the volutes, for the apparent purpose of sustaining the corner of the abacus, which
is dissimilar to that of the Corinthian order, inasmuch as the flower is not supported by a
stalk seemingly fixed on the middle of each face of the abacus. The principal examples oi