Colosseum principle

   In architecture, the term applies to the stacking of the classical architectural orders on the exterior of a building in emulation of the Colosseum in Rome. Usually the Doric, the heavier and more masculine of the orders, is used for the lower story to grant the structure a visually solid base. The Ionic order, more feminine and ornate than the Doric, is used for the second story, and the Corinthian, the lightest and most decorative of the three, for the third level. Leon Battista Alberti was the first to apply this principle to Renaissance architecture in the Palazzo Rucellai, Florence (beg. c. 1453). Giuliano da Sangallo applied it to the façade of the Church of Santa Maria delle Carceri (1484-1492) in Prato and Jacopo Sansovino to the Library of St. Mark, Venice (1537-1580s). When the classical vocabulary of the Italian architects spread to other parts of Europe, in France Philibert de L'Orme applied the Colosseum principle to his Château d'Anet (beg. 1550) and François Mansart to the Church of Feuillants (1623-1624), both in Paris. In England, Inigo Jones used it in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace (1619-1622).