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Glossary

Submitted by GFS on Thu, 2008-01-31 16:17

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

abacus

Tablet that serves as a transition between the capital of a column and the epistylium it supports. The abacus can take on various shapes.

acanthus

Perennial plant native to the Mediterranean (Acanthus mollis) with beautifully formed broad, shiny leaves and tall flower stalks. Vitruvius associates the plant with the invention of the Corinthian capital because the leaves imitate its sharp cut foliage.

acroterion

Base built above the apex or on the two lower angles of a pediment. Sculpture or palmettes could be placed on the acroterion.

adytum

Inner court of a hypaethral, or unroofed temple.

aedicula

Small enclosure used as a niche for sacred objects. Also, a small freestanding structure.

ala

One of a symmetrical pair of rooms on both sides of a residential atrium, in plan like wings; also, open alcove flanking the cella of a Tuscan temple.

ambulatory

Circuit in a building for walking.

amphiprostylos

Temple type with a projecting fron portico of columns (prostylos) and a second portico posticum at the rear. An opisthodomus, or real recess, may also be incorporated; this area served as a secured treasury.

amphitheater

Circular or oval theater.

andron

Passage in a Greek house.

annulet

One of a set of concentric rings at the base of the echinus of a Doric capital. Annulets either step out or are grooved into a conical shape.

anta

Vertical pier representing an encasement at the ends of a wall made to bear the load of an epistylium supported by an adjacent column. Antae represent the wooden boards that encased the ends of mud-brick walls in archaic building. The Greeks developed distinct capitals for Doric and Ionic antae. Roman architects developed the idea into pilasters in which the capitals became two-dimensional adaptations of the three-dimensional capitals of columns.

anthemion

Alternating palmette-and-honey-suckle motif carved on a flat plane, frieze, or sima. The anthemion is generally associated with Ionic architecture.

apophysis

"Fleeing away" or flaring out of a column shaft in a gentle curve just before the fillet termination above a base or below a capital. The upper condition is sometimes called hypophysis. The apophysis makes a visual transition from the subtle curvature f a column shaft to the base or capital. For Vitruvius, the lower condition only pertains to Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian architecture, since his Doric column has no base. It is also possible that Vitruvius intended either an astragal to designate the beginning of the neck of the Doric capital or simply a groove.

architrave

Main horizontal beam supported by columns. Vitruvius uses the Greek epistylium instead of architrave. He does refer to trabes in the discussion of the wooden beams of Tuscan architecture.

arris

Sharp vertical ridge that defines the flutes of Doric columns.

astragal

Molding profile consisting of a torus and a concave quarter-round separated by a fillet. It was originally derived from the Greek work for ankle, which the molding resembles.

atlas

Sculpted male figure used as a support for an epistylium. Atlantes are the male equivalent of caryatids.

atrium

Inner courtyard of a house. Vitruvius called this area cava aedium, or “hollow place of a building.”

attic

Pertaining to Attica, the region in Greece around Athens. The Attic base, for example, has a configuration of moldings devised in Athens.

Also, something built above the wall cornice; a low story with windows, or a parapet. The use of the term is confined to neo-classic buildings in which an additional story above the cornice is sometimes added in this way, this device being employed either to diminish the apparent height of the front, or as an afterthought. A purely ornamental construction above the entablature receives this name also, as in the Forum of Nerva (Forum Transitorium) at Rome.

axis

Component of Ionic capital volutes. Vitruvius’s use of this word is not entirely clear. It may stand for the spiral fillet that separates the channels of the volute, or it may be the fillet that runs along the outer edge of the volute as a perpendicular transition between the face of the volute and the elastic surface of the bolster.

B

balteus: Band that appears to bind the elastic form of the Ionic bolster
basal diameter: Lowest diameter of a column shaft. This dimension is used as the primary modular unit for calculating proportional dimensions, or symmetriae, in Ionic, Corinthian, and Tuscan architecture. Vitruvius uses the word scapus to refer to this diameter in his discussion of Ionic columns.
base (spira): Element upon which a column stands. Vitruvius presents Tuscan, Ionic, and Attic bases and provides symmetriae as well as terms for their distinct elements.
basilica: Hall for administrating justice, derived from the Greek word for royalty, Basilikos. Vitruvius’s Basilica at Fano served this purpose and was also a place for public meetings and commerce.
bedmould (bedmold): Generic term for transitional moldings placed between a frieze and the soffit of a cornice.
bolster: Elastic surface of the rolled sides of Ionic volutes drawn toward the center by the baltei.
bottom of the corona: Soffit of the Doric cornice that during the renaissance began to be called the plancier.
bucrane; bucranium: An ox skull, used as a symbolic decoration in Roman architecture, in which it had sacrificial significance, and was confined to altars and temples. It appears to have originated in the primative practice of affixing skulls of the oxen sacrifices to the frieze, or other parts, or the temple of the god worshipped. As a decoration, it was associated with garlands, festoons, and fillets. In Renaissance decoration in Italy it occurs as an arbitrary ornament destitute of particular significance. Its inappropriateness, however, prevented its general adoption.
capital (capitulum): Element of a column above the shaft and supporting the epistylium. In addition to canonical Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Tuscan capitals, Vitruvius alludes to less strictly defined types.
capital of the triglyph: Horizontal block above each triglyph in a Doric frieze separating the triglyph from the elements of the plancier.
capitulorum pulvinata: Ionic Capital, Vitruvius’s term refers to the cushion-shaped and bulging forms.
caryatid: Sculpted female figure used with others to support an epistylium. Vitruvius notes that caryatids are effigies of matrons, but most represent maidens. The term may derive from korai, the Greek word for “maiden,” although Vitruvius claims the word originated with the Greek defeat of the Peloponnesian state Caryae.
cathetus: Straight vertical line like the suspended string of a plumb bob. Also, imaginary line passing through the center of a cylinder, such as a column shaft. Vitruvius uses the cathetus to place the center of the eye in Ionic volutes.
cauliculus: Stalk in a Corinthian capital that springs outward from the second tier of acanthus leaves like a stem to support the horns of the abacus. It terminates with a spiral. The cauliculus sometimes has vertical flutes that imitate the structural ridges that reinforce the stalks of acanthus flowers.
cella: Interior chamber of a temple.
channel: Concave scotia-shaped groove between fillets that defines the volutes of Ionic capitals. The width and depth of the channels gradually diminish as the channel approaches the eye. Also, glyph or groove in a Doric triglyph.
clathrata: Lattice of fretted or crossed wood or metal within a window or door. It also serves as openwork for a screen or railing in stone.
coffer: Boxlike framing of a ceiling in which the beams used to support the planks of the floor above are embellished with carved moldings and rosettes, to provide visual interest.
colonade: Line of columns supporting an epistylium.
column: Vertical support of Greek and Roman systems of trabeation. Columns are circular, piers are square.
compluvium: Opening in the roof of an atrium that conveys rainwater into a pool or impluvium. From there, water flowed into a cistern below the house.
console, earpiece (parotide, ancone: Scrolled bracket on either side of the architrave and frieze of an Ionic door supporting the corona that projects above.
cornice: Upper element of an entablature, consisting of an overhanging corona and a sima. The cornice sheds water away from a building or portal.
corona: Horizontal fascia or boardlike surface above the soffit and below the sima of a cornice. Also, interior cornice within a room added for decorative or acoustical purposes.
crepidines: Base of a temple including the stairs that surround the perimeter; but no the top step, which is called the stylobate. Also, ear that projects from a lintel over a Doric portal.
cubiculum: Small room, especially a bedroom in a Roman house.
cyma: Wave or S-shaped molding profile. When the concave portion is nearest the wall, it is a cyma reversa. It is a cyma recta when the convex portion is nearest the wall. Vitruvius also uses unda to describe a wavelike form; it may be the same type of molding.
cymatium: Small linear ornamental molding. The specific profile is not defined, and Vitruvius often uses the word as a generic term. A Doric cymatium, noted by Vitruvius, may be flattened hawk’s-beak molding. Also, torus-shaped disk carved with twenty-four eggs-and-tongues in Ionic capitals. In this case, the cymatium is placed above the shaft and below the volutes; it is largely hidden by the coiled bolsters on the underside of the capital. Palmettes often emerge from the reentrant corner of the volute to mask the transition with the cymatium.
lunette: A semi-circular window generally at a high level in a facade, compositionally of less significance than a Diocletian window.
necking: In the Doric order, the short section of plain shaft beneath the capital proper, and above the astragal and fillet marking the top of the main part of the shaft.