Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ...................... Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary
Illustrated Architecture
Dictionary
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Illustrated
FURNITURE Glossary
Column
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Architecture
A supporting pillar consisting of a base, a cylindrical shaft, and a capitalLatin: "columna" - a post
Column vs. post: post lacks the essential qualities of a column: base, shaft and capital
Columns are found in virtually all styles of architecture.
Many features that we associate with ancient columns are artistic interpretations of earlier plant and wooden structural elements. See Frank E. Wallis, Greek Architecture and American Buildings,1910 book excerpt
In cemeteries, a broken column represents life cut off.
Shapes:
Materials:
- wood
- granite
- limestone
- marble
- brick covered with stucco or or plaster
- cast iron
- sheet metal
- pressed tin capitals
- fiberglass
- cast aluminum
Shafts: The shaft, which rests upon the base, is a long, narrow, vertical cylinder that in some orders is articulated with fluting (vertical grooves). IN GENERAL, GREEK COLUMNS HAVE FLUTED SHAFTS; ROMAN COLUMNS HAVE SMOOTH SHAFTS.
- fluted (Greek)
- round (Roman),
- reeded (e.g., Art Deco)
- square (often paneled)
- banded (Roman)
- twisted (Baroque)
World's first columns, Saqqara Necropolis, Egypt
Whilst some stone columns were carved in one piece, as [Greek] buildings became bigger, columns began to be constructed from separate drums. These were individually carved and fitted together using a wooden dowel or metal peg in the centre of the drum.
Columns made from individual drums are remarkably resistant to seismic activity. ... Despite this advantage though, the Romans preferred single monolithic shafts for their columns. - Ancient Hisotry Encyclopedia: Column (online March 2020)
See also: Drum
Styles of Classical columns:
- Doric (although Doric columns have no base)
- Ionic
- Corinthian
- Composite
- Tuscan
Queen Anne column: sometimes used instead of a Classical column on Queen Anne style porticos. Example
Colonnade: A series of columns in a straight line carrying an entablature
Arcade: A series of arches supported by pillars, piers or columns; a roofed passageway or lane, especially one with shops on either side
Classical two-story columns are found in Beaux Arts Classical, Greek Revival, Neoclassical styles
Classical one-story columns are found in Italianate, Beaux Arts Classical, Greek Revival, Neoclassical Colonial Revival, Queen Anne, Italian Renaissance Revival styles
Tetrastyle - four columns
Hexastyle - six columns
Octostyle - eight columns
Decastyle - ten columns
Palladio's Drawings of the Five Classical Orders
Click on drawing for larger size
Source: Dover Books
See also: Vitruvius Pollio on Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Orders (The Greeks were first to declare that architecture was based on the proportions and form of the human body.)
See also: Banded column ....Caryatid ....... Clustered column ...........Colonnade........ Engaged column ........ Egyptian columns ........ Hypostyle ...... Loggia ...... Peristyle..... ... Pilaster ....... Portico .......Twisted column
FurnitureAn upright member which is taller than it is thick, and serves as a support for something resting on its top.
Examples from Buffalo:
- Illustration above - Doric column: Birge Memorial
- Illustration above - Furniture: Empire Pier table (Console table) - Athenaeum, Philadelphia
- Banded column: Ellicott Square Building
- Ionic column: Albert F. Laub Mausoleum
- Corinthian column: Edward H. Butler Mausoleum
- Tuscan column: Knox House
- Eastlake cast iron: The Granite Works, 844 Main Street
- Romanesque column: St. Francis Xavier RC Church
- Romanesque twisted column: St. John the Evangelist RC Church
- Gothic column: St. Ann's RC Church
- Queen Anne column: Stanton House
- Queen Anne column: Little House
- Cast iron Corinthian columns: Glenny/Dennis/Stanton Building
- Shaft examples - Corinth Greece
- Fluted shaft on a Doric column - Parthenon, Athens, Greece
- Furniture: Empire mantel clock - Amherst Museum
Other examples:
- Nasrid Arab columns: Comares Palace, Alhambra, Granada, Spain
