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COLUMNS

Capital

Doric Ionic Corinthian Tuscan Composite
The Romans appropriated the Greek columns - Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, and added Tuscan and Composite. In Tuscan the capitals
are like Doric, but the columns are not fluted. Composite is similar to Corinthian but the capitals have four spiral motifs.

The conventional three-part Greek
structure of scene, orchestra and cavea
is evident in Roman theatres. By the
first century BC the cavea had become
more formidable. Semi-circular in
shape, it now contained a gallery of
stone seats and adjoined the scene
building at either end. The cavea was
built upon a foundation of underground
passageways, similar to a modern
football stadium. The stone scene
buildings were elaborately decorated. A
richly embroidered curtain hung along
the front end of the stage and was
dropped into a trough at the beginning
of a play and raised at the end of it.
The arch is fundamental to Roman
architecture. Both the Etruscans and the
Greeks used it, but not as cleverly as The Pont du Gard at Nimes, France, built around 20 B.C.
the Romans. Before them, columns and
walls supported buildings. Since the slopes, as had been the standard in The focal point of the Roman
arch is capable of supporting heavier Greece. An amphitheatre is not strictly a theatre building was the high stage,
loads, its mastery by Roman engineers Roman theatre. It was a venue for with tiers of benches in front of an
meant their arches could support longer spectator sports, games and displays. elaborate stage wall (frons scaenae),
spans and greater heights. Columns, so generously employed often two storeys high. The concept of
The arch became integral to theatre in facades and scene buildings, were a the raised stage was evident in the
buildings. Tiered arches supported rows combination of Greek prototypes and phylax plays. Vase paintings of phylax
of seating, which in the case of an Roman innovation. Rome borrowed the tragedies often depict a raised stage
amphitheatre (most famously Rome's three traditional column designs; Doric, with supporting pillars from as early as
Colosseum) completely encircled the Ionic and Corinthian from Greece and the mid-fourth century BC.
performing area. This freed designers then added its own Tuscan and In Roman theatre the stage itself
from having to build seating into natural Composite columns. was understood by the audience to be a

26 2007 CINEMARECORD