SCROLL UP

This is a post that was overtaken by events in Paris, and my detour into the Gothic. It’s intended as the first in a series dealing with classical elements based on spiral geometry.

My first image is a hand sketch to illustrate the challenge of representing some of the more elaborate decorative detail found on some classical buildings. My recent work on the Corinthian capital begins to address this.

Related to the Corinthian is the Composite order. The two blur into each other at times, but essentially, if you treat the volutes as scrolls from an Ionic capital, you are getting into composite territory.

Very often there is a portion of egg and dart moulding between the scrolls, and quite possibly only one row of Acanthus leaves, so that the scrolls remain prominent.

You could argue that the volutes in Corinthian capitals are abstracted from plant forms, whereas Ionic scrolls reference the animal kingdom. Goat horns are symbols of Aries, my own birth sign, for what…

Read more