dentil

views updated May 17 2018

dentil. Small block forming one of a long horizontal series, closely set, under the cornices, associated with the bed-mouldings of the Composite, Corinthian, Ionic, and (sometimes) Roman Doric Orders. An entablature with dentils is said to be dentilated or denticulated. Early Greek dentils include those of the caryatid porch of the Erechtheion (C5 bc) and the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (C4 bc), both in Athens. In better work dentils should stop at the angle of a building, forming a re-entrant, and there should not be a dentil at the angle itself. They should also be arranged so that the dentil above a column should be on the centre-line.