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The fluting on Doric columns was different from that on Ionic and Corinthian columns. Doric fluting is shown on the right, below. The flute is a smooth shallow curve and adjacent flutes meet at a sharp line. Ionic and Corinthian flutes were more flat bottomed and came to a flat smooth surface between flutes. Doric fluting was more difficult because the sharp line between flutes was hard to keep perfect and straight for the length of the column.
The shape of the flutes was compled. As the column narrowed toward its top the width of the flutes decreased but the depth was kept the same.
The drawing on the left shows two types of Corinthian columns, those on the Pantheon and those from the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Both are shown at the same scale. During the empire the Romans began using exotic colored marbles and leaving the column drum smooth instead of fluted, as in the Pantheon. White marble would have been fluted, as in the Temple of Castor and Pollux.
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