Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ................ Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary
Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ................ Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary
Volute
voh LOOT
Other name: Helix
Architecture
In classical architecture, a spiral scroll, as on Ionic, Corinthian or Composite capitals, or on ancones, etc.
Etymology: Latin: "voluta" = scrollEye - The circular, central part of a volute.
Possible origins:
- Spiral shape derived from nature
- Naturalistic forms such as the nautilus shell or fern
- Curve of a ram's horn
- Natural spiral of the ovule of a common species of clover native to Greece
- Curling Egyptian lotus leaves - SEE BOXED A Dictionary of Architecture and Building TEXT BELOW
Origin of Volutes: Curling Egyptian lotus leaves
In the archaic examples the volutes on the face of the [Ionic] capital seem to spring from the shaft like the petals of an Egyptian lotus and between them is figured a somewhat flattened palmette.
By the fifth century the palmette has disappeared, the volutes no longer rise from the shaft, but are united by waving lines.
In the Alexandrian period the lines which unite the volutes are more nearly horizontal and straight...
While the front of an Ionic capital appears as a conventionalized lotus flower, the side view has little apparent connection with the front ..." - A Dictionary of Architecture and Building
Found in Classical Greek and Roman architecture and derivatives, including Beaux Arts Classicism, Classical Revival, Federal, Georgian Revival, Greek Revival, Neoclassicism, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire
FurnitureThe scrolled termination of a spiral
Cf., the end of a violin neck
Examples from Buffalo:
- Illustration above: 135 Linwood Ave.
- Albright-Knox Art Gallery
- Williams/Butler Mansion - chandelier
- St. Anthony's RC Church
- Buffalo Catholic Institute Public Library / Church of Scientology Buffalo
- Furniture: Lyre trestle table - Ansley Wilcox Mansion / Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site
- Furniture: Queen Anne armchair - from the Georgia Forman House
Other examples:
- Erechtheion, Athens, Greece
- Warmoesstraat Central, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Illustration above: Furniture: Queen Anne side chair handhold - Winterthur Museum
- Furniture: Windsor chair rail - Fairmount Park Woodford House, Philadelphia
- Furniture: Neoclassical chair rail - Residence Museum, Munich, Germany
- Furniture: Queen Anne highboy - Winterthur Museum
