Capital (architecture)

In architecture the capital (from the Latin caput, or 'head') or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column (or a pilaster). It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order. These form the three principal types on which all capitals in the classical tradition are based. The Composite order (illustration, right), established in the 16th century on a hint from the Arch of Titus, adds Ionic volutes to Corinthian acanthus leaves.Illustration of papyriform capitals, in The Grammar of OrnamentColumns with Hathoric capitals, at the Temple of Isis from island PhilaeEgyptian composite columns from PhilaePapyriform columns in the Luxor TempleComposite papyrus capital; 380-343 BC; painted sandstone; height: 126 cm (49​5⁄8 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)Fragment of a columns with a Hathor capital; 380-362 BC; limestone; height: 102 cm (40​3⁄16 in.); Metropolitan Museum of ArtFragments of a palm column; 2353-2323 BC; granite; diameter beneath the ropes of the neck 80.85 cm (31​13⁄16 in.); Metropolitan Museum of ArtModel of a quatrefoil palmette capital; 400-30 BC; limestone; height: 23.9 cm (9​7⁄16 in.); Metropolitan Museum of ArtSeries of Indo-Corinthian capitals from Jamal-GarhiCapital with Buddha within acanthus-leave, made in between th 3rd-4th century, in Musée Guimet (Paris)Byzantine Ionic capital from National Museum of Medieval Art (Korçë, Albania)Illustration of a Byzantine Corinthian capitalByzantine composite capital from Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy)Byzantine basket capital from Hagia Sofia (Istanbul, Turkey) In architecture the capital (from the Latin caput, or 'head') or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column (or a pilaster). It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order. These form the three principal types on which all capitals in the classical tradition are based. The Composite order (illustration, right), established in the 16th century on a hint from the Arch of Titus, adds Ionic volutes to Corinthian acanthus leaves. From the highly visible position it occupies in all colonnaded monumental buildings, the capital is often selected for ornamentation; and is often the clearest indicator of the architectural order. The treatment of its detail may be an indication of the building's date. The two earliest Egyptian capitals of importance are those based on the lotus and papyrus plants respectively, and these, with the palm tree capital, were the chief types employed by the Egyptians, until under the Ptolemies in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, various other river plants were also employed, and the conventional lotus capital went through various modifications. Many motifs of Egyptian ornamentation are symbolic, such as the scarab, or sacred beetle, the solar disk, and the vulture. Other common motifs include palm leaves, the papyrus plant, and the buds and flowers of the lotus. Some of the most popular types of capitals were the Hathor, lotus, papyrus and Egyptian composite. Most of the types are based on vegetal motifs. Capitals of some columns were painted in bright colors. Some kind of volute capital is shown in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, but no Assyrian capital has ever been found; the enriched bases exhibited in the British Museum were initially misinterpreted as capitals. In the Achaemenid Persian capital the brackets are carved with two heavily decorated back-to-back animals projecting right and left to support the architrave; on their backs they carry other brackets at right angles to support the cross timbers. The bull is the most common, but there are also lions and griffins. The capital extends below for further than in most other styles, with decoration drawn from the many cultures that the Persian Empire conquered including Egypt, Babylon, and Lydia. There are double volutes at the top and, inverted, bottom of a long plain fluted section which is square, although the shaft of the column is round, and also fluted. The earliest Aegean capital is that shown in the frescoes at Knossos in Crete (1600 BC); it was of the convex type, probably moulded in stucco. Capitals of the second, concave type, include the richly carved examples of the columns flanking the Tomb of Agamemnon in Mycenae (c. 1100 BC): they are carved with a chevron device, and with a concave apophyge on which the buds of some flowers are sculpted.