COLUMN (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. columna)  , in architecture, a vertical support consisting of capital, shaft and base, used to carry a horizontal beam or an arch . The earliest example in wood (2684 B.C.) was that found at Kahun in Egypt by Professor Flinders Petrie, which was fluted and stood on a raised base, and in stone the octagonal shafts of the early temple at Deir-el-Bahri (c . 285o) . In the tombs at Beni Hasan (2723 B.C.) are columns of two kinds, the octagonal or polygonal shaft, and the reed or lotus column, the horizontal section of which is a quatrefoil . This became later the favourite type, but it was made circular on plan . In all these examples the column rests on a stone base . (See also CAPITAL and ORDER.) The column was employed in Assyria in small structures only, such as pavilions or porticoes . In Persia the column, employed to carry timber superstructures only, was very lofty, being sometimes 12 diameters high; the shaft was fluted, the number of flutes varying from 30 to 52 . The earliest example of the Greek column is that represented in the temple fresco at Cnossus (c . 1600 B.C.), of which portions have been found . The columns were in cypress wood raised on a stone base and tapered downwards.' The same, though to a less degree, is found in the stone semi-detached columns which flank the doorway of the Tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae; the shafts of these columns were carved with the chevron design . The earliest Greek columns in stone as isolated features are those of the Temple of Apollo at Syracuse (early 7th century B.C.), the shafts of which were monoliths, but as a rule the Greek columns were all built of drums, sometimes as many as ten or twelve .

There was no base to the Doric column, but the shafts were fluted, 20 flutes being the usual number . In the Archaic Temple of

Diana at Ephesus there were 52 flutes . In the later examples of the Ionic order the shaft had 24 flutes . In the Roman temples the shafts were very often monoliths . Columns were occasionally used as supports for figures or other features . The Naxian column at Delphi of the Ionic order carried a sphinx . The Romans employed columns in various ways: the Trajan and the Antonine columns carried figures of the two emperors; the columna rostrata (26o B.C.) in the Forum was decorated with the beaks of ships and was a votive column, the miliaria column marked the centre of Rome from which all distances were measured . In the same way the column in the Place Vendome in Paris carries a statue of Napoleon I.; the monument of the Fire of London, a finial with flames sculptured on it; the duke of York's column (London), a statue of the duke of York . With the exception of the Cretan and Mycenaean, all the shafts of the classic orders tapered from the bottom upwards, and about one-third up the column had an increment,, known as the entasis, to correct an optical illusion which makes tapering shafts look concave; the proportions of diameter to height varied with the order employed . Thus, broadly speaking, a Roman Doric column will be eight, a Roman Ionic nine, a Corinthian ' The tree-trunk used as a column was inverted to retain the sap; hence the shape . • ten diameters in height . Except in rare cases, the columns of the Romanesque and Gothic styles were of equal diameter at top and bottom, and had no definite dimensions as regards diameter and height .

They were also grouped together

round piers which are known as clustered piers . When of exceptional size, as in Gloucester and Durham cathedrals, Waltham Abbey and Tewkesbury, they are generally called " pillars," which was apparently the medieval term for column . The word columna, employed by Vitruvius, was introduced into England by the Italian writers of the Revival . In the Renaissance period columns were frequently banded, the bands being concentric with the column as in France, and occasionally richly carved as in Philibert De L'Orme's work at the Tuileries . In England Inigo Jones introduced similar features, but with square blocks sometimes rusticated, a custcm lately revived in England, but of which there are few examples either in Italy or Spain . The word " column " is used, by analogy with architecture, for any upright body or mass, in chemistry, anatomy, typography, &c . (R . P .