The Moulding’s Profile
From towering columns to tiny sculptured acanthus leaves, the Classic Greek and Roman architects named each of their creations and all their individual components, established their proportions and ratios, and even categorized them into the five Orders of Architecture -- see articles I, II, and III.
Yet, above the predictable columns and capitals, were those horizontal bands -- entablatures -- ruled solely by chaos?
Table of architecture, Cyclopaedia, 1728
Stonehenge post and lintel construction
Post and Lintel (Trabeated) Construction at Lincoln Memorial
Posts and Props
Before the first columns came very simple posts or props. Posts were originally designed only to support lintels in the Trabeated system, just as columns held entablatures aloft in Classical architecture.
Whereas a lintel was generally a single slab of material, like stone or timber, entablatures were segmented into three definitive parts: the architrave sat atop a column’s capital, followed by the frieze, and then, above them all, the cornice.
Shapes
And here, at first glance, is where all the careful planning and taxonomy appears to end. A profusion of shapes, lines, and patterns crawl about the entablatures, perhaps at the whims of the old world architects as they imbibed a little too much wine?
Yes and no.
Yes, ancient wines were super heady and should be watered down before consuming. But no, entablatures were not the crazed carvings a novice might take them for.
Each form could, one might say, be profiled.
Taking a slice of the entablature and looking at an ornament’s profile would reveal that each came from a simpler “moulding profile”.
Profiles and carvings
A slice through an entablature revealing the moulding profile.
Ovolo
One of the most recognizable and commonly used designs is known as the “egg-and-dart”. It’s a lovely bas relief pattern composed of bulbous ovals alternating with pointed arrows (or darts or tongues or anchors). Though the egg and its dart can vary radically in shape and size, one thing is constant: the underlying profile is always an “ovolo”.
An ovolo’s profile is simply a quarter of a circle. In today’s terminology, it’s known as a “quarter round”. Though machine manufactured and of low quality, egg-and-dart ornamental moulding can be purchased at today’s lumber shops and building material stores.
Though they share the name, all ovolo’s are not exactly alike. Classical ovolos are noticeably different, with the Greek having more of an overbite when compared to the Roman.
Greek and Roman ovolo profiles
Egg and dart in the Grecian ovolo or echinus profile.
Egg and dart in the Roman ovolo profile
Greek and Roman moulding elements
Simple Mouldings
Other profiles were also devised from simple shapes and their opposites.The protruding ovolo had its contrary in the recessive “cavetto”. The “torus” and the “scotia” evolved from concave and convex semi-circles. The raised and sunken “fillets” were projecting and depressed rectangular bands.
When new shapes became difficult to dream up, inventive craftspeople began to combine older ones, much like the Romans did when they created the Composite Order of Architecture. The ovolo was placed beneath the cavetto to create the slanted “S” profile, known as the “cyma recta”. And then, almost immediately, the combo was inverted -- with the ovolo on top -- producing the “cyma reversa”.
Ornamentation
And as the ovolo was transformed into the egg-and-dart, these new profiles were also modified into ornaments. The elongated bulge of the torus was carved to look like leaves bundled in criss-crossing ribbons. The cyma recta’s weft and curve lent itself to the form of growing acanthus leaves.
Cyma Recta profile shaped Acanthus leaves by Palladio Mouldings
Bundled bayleaf moulding in the Torus profile by Palladio Mouldings.
The Parthenon’s doric frieze
Ancient Narrative
Generally, the moulding profiles dominated the cornices and the architraves -- the upper and lower sections -- of the entablature. Sandwiched in between, the frieze was the hardened canvas where the artistic side of the architect and craftspeople held sway. Though often patterned -- as the triglyph and metopes seen on Doric friezes demonstrates -- the area could also be used to tell stories in sculpted relief. The Parthenon’s frieze measures 524 feet and though its exact narrative is still debated, its 378 figures and 245 animals represent the Greek gods watching over the people of Athens during the Panathenaic celebration.
The Parthenon frieze at the Acropolis Museum
Interior Architecture
Originally, entablatures were outdoor features. The cornices tapered out the roof ferrying rainwater away from the architecture and people sheltering beneath. However, entablatures became common interior elements as well. Architraves were modified to surround windows and doors. Friezes appeared above picture rails. Today, cornices are more commonly referred to as “crown mouldings”.
Be it a foreign language or an untried goulash or an arcane mathematical formula, it’s easy to let unfamiliarity convince us to not even attempt to understand what we’re seeing. When confronted with obscure shapes and patterns of mouldings high overhead, we can parse out familiar segments and simple profiles.
When the unfamiliar becomes known, they become allies that we can depend on seeing again and again in spaces we’ve never been before.
Interior entablature for private residence by Palladio Mouldings
Entablature used at an interior passage by Palladio Mouldings.