capital

capital. Chapiter, head, or topmost member of a colonnette, column, pilaster, pier, etc., defined by distinct architectural treatment, and often ornamented. Types of capital include:Aeolic: primitive type of Ionic (see aeolic);basket: Byzantine bell-type (a), ornamented with carving resembling wicker-work or basket-weave;bell: inverted bell-like form, found in Ancient Egyptian architecture (e) and First Pointed Gothic (b) and providing the essential shape of the basket-capital and core of the Corinthian capital;block: see cushion;bud: Ancient Egyptian type (f ) in the form of a lotus-bud;Composite: see composite order;Corinthian: see corinthian order;crocket: Gothic capital (c) with stylized rolled leaves resembling small volutes;cube: see cushion;cushion, also block or cube capital: Byzantine and Romanesque (d) form, essentially a cube with its lower corners shaved off and rounded in order to accommodate the transition from square abacus to circular shaft, its four faces are reduced to semicircular lunettes;Doric: see doric order;Hathor-headed: Ancient Egyptian (e) type carved on each face with an image of the goddess Hathor and having a large block-like abacus, also carved with a variety of images;Ionic: see ionic order;lotus: Ancient Egyptian type in the form of a lotus-bud (f ) or decorated with lotus-flowers; moulded: any capital shaped with horizontal mouldings, e.g. in the Perp. style of Gothic (i); palm: Ancient Egyptian type (g) like the top of a palm-tree (palmiform), surrounded by closely arranged vertical palm-fronds and leaves, the column-shaft frequently having vertical bands or large convex reed-like forms. A variant is the Greek Corinthian capital from the Tower of the Winds, Athens (c.50 bc), with one row of acanthus-leaves and an upper row of palm-leaves under a square abacus (h);protomai: with the upper part of figures, mostly animals, projecting from the angles, usually in Romanesque work;scallop: Romanesque type (j), like the cushion, with the curved lower part further shaped with conical forms resembling trumpets (k);stiff-leaf: late-C12 and early C13 Gothic or Transitional type with stylized leaves, usually with large projections (l );Tuscan: see tuscan order; volute: usually associated with the Ionic Order, variants can also be found in Egyptian (m) and medieval work; water-leaf: late-C12 Transitional or early Gothic type with a big, wide, unribbed leaf growing outwards above the convex moulding on top of the shaft, turning upwards and inwards at the corners to the abacus(n).