ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN ARCHITECTS’ APPROACH TO CURVATURE—THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL,ENTASIS AND AMPHITHEATERS 古希腊和罗马建筑师的曲度方法——科林斯式的首都，内塔西斯和圆形剧场.pdfVIP

CHAPTER FIVE ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN ARCHITECTS’ APPROACH TO CURVATURE—THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL, ENTASIS AND AMPHITHEATERS Mark Wilson Jones T e architecture of antiquity is substantially characterised by conven- tions associated with the orders (chief y Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) and the most prevalent building types (temples, theatres, tombs and so on). In part due to the legacy of Vitruvius, Renaissance treatises, pattern books and Beaux-Arts teaching, in part due to modernist reactions to the same, it is commonly presumed that these conventions stif ed cre- ativity and reduced design to a formulaic process. In reality there was the latitude for considerable f exibility not only in the organization of ground plans and in the choice of elevational vocabulary (witness mixed and hybrid orders), but also in all aspects of the architectural project. To understand the way ancient architects manipulated the shapes and spaces they created it is necessary to grasp certain fundamental prin- ciples that can be observed at least as far back as the classical period. T ese principles revolve around geometry and proportion, but they had little to do with the kind of ‘secrets’ that were so of en championed in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the much vaunted golden sec- tion and notions such as ‘Dynamic Symmetry’. If such may be said to have existed, the secret of ancient design was its marriage of rule and variety. On the one hand it was indeed important that civic buildings and the orders with which they were dressed should belo