Category Archives: LETTER F

Long and Horizontal Panel of Frieze in Art and Architecture

French: fise; Spanish: frizo; from frizar ‘furrow’.

A long, sequential, horizontal and usually narrow panel or band used for decorative purposes, delimiting or dividing flat planes of colour. It consists of repeating or various geometric motifs or figural scenes, stretching along the horizontal band.

The frieze has widely been used in architecture, usually as a horizontal panel in the top, and sometimes in the bottom part of the wall, including, among others, painted, bas-relief, ceramic, mosaic and tiling techniques. Frieze has been also applied in other fine arts such as painting, arts and crafts. and graphics.

The walls at Mitla (Mexico) are covered with spectacular geometric mosaics, composing a frieze, which is unique in Mexico. Copyright©Archaeotravel.

The decoration of the friezes has varied throughout centuries, depending on the style of a given epoch. For example, in Romanism, geometric motifs were predominant, including an arcaded and dental frieze, in Gothic, floral and figural motifs were common, and in the Renaissance there were often antique motifs used. Friezes were used to divide and decorate both the exterior facades and interior walls of buildings, as well as to decorate individual architectural elements, painting and graphic compositions, as well as appliances, furniture and dishes.

Sequential frieze. The Fermor Palace in Kwidzyń, Poland. Photo by Pko, own work (2006). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo and caption source: “Fryz” (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.

Featured image: The so-called “Frieze of Griffins”; the motif represents a winged lion with ram’s head and griffin’s hind legs; it composes an enameled tile frieze from the west courtyard of the palace of Darius I at Susa, Apadana, in Iran; circa 510 BC. Now exhibited in the Louvre Museum, Paris. (2015). By Yann. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Following Hadrian (2013). CC-by-sa-2.0. Colours intensified. In: Wikimedia Commons.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

“Fryz” (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3eTag9J>. [Accessed on 4th May, 2021].

Koch W. (2009) Style w architekturze. Arcydzieła budownictwa europejskiego od antyku po czasy współczesne. [Baustilkunde], p. 440. Baraniewski W., Kunkel R., Omilanowska M., Sito J., Zięba A., Żak K. trans. Warszawa: Świat Książki.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2021). “Frieze. Architecture” (2021). In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Available at <https://bit.ly/2RpBEnA>. [Accessed on 4th May, 2021].

Photo: “Frieze of Griffins” (2015). Uploading files from Flickr per request by Yann. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Following Hadrian (2013). CC-by-sa-2.0. In: Wikimedia Commons. Available at <https://bit.ly/3eUQD1a>. [Accessed on 4th May, 2021].

PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 125. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Frontispiece and its Forms in Architecture

From Italian: frontone.

The term frontispiece or fronton describes a commonly triangular gable surmounting the facade of an ancient temple in classical architecture (Greece, Rome, Renaissance, Classicism), or in one that uses classical forms. As such it can also be referred to as a pediment. Yet a frontispiece can also take the shape of the middle avant-corps (projection) of a building’s facade. Its inner field, both smooth or carved, is called a tympanum. In antiquity, the tympanum was usually filled with sculptural decorations.

Segmental pediment of the Library of Celsus (Ephesus, Turkey). Photo by rob Stoeltje from loenen, netherlands – DSC00815 (2011). CC BY 2.0. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Pediment” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.

The triangular (pointed) frontispiece (or pediment) was developed in Greek architecture as the upper part of the ancient temple facade and constituted an important element of its portico. It was limited by the side edges of the gable roof and entablature; additionally, it was framed by a profiled cornice. The triangular frontispiece was commonly used in the architecture of ancient Rome; the Romans used a combination of a building’s façade with a frontispiece together with a flat roof in larger buildings. Later, a frontispiece appeared in Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism, as the top of the facades of secular and mainly sacred architecture.

Door with a broken and open pediment, with a cartouche in it. Passage Landrieu (n°7) – Paris VII. Photo by Mbzt (2013). CC BY-SA 3.0. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Pediment” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.

In baroque architecture, next to the triangular frontispiece, there are also a curved (semi-oval) segmental type and a frontispiece broken in the upper part. Whereas the segmental variant takes the form of an arc of a circle, the broken type is usually interrupted by a sculptural composition or a cartouche in its center, with the side parts of its profiled cornice remaining. “Another variant of the broken type is the swan’s neck pediment […] with two ‘S’-shaped profiles, resembling a swan’s neck” (“Pediment” 2021). A following feature of the Baroque style is the bending of the pediment, mainly in the part of the entablature by making its individual parts protrude in steps in front of the elevation. In turn, the so-called open frontispiece (pediment) is broken along the base and mainly adopted in Mannerist architecture.

Small frontispieces (pediments) based on columns, pilasters or corbels, crowning entrances and window openings, recesses and niches, are characteristic of modern architecture. Pediments with entablature based on columns are also found in altars and tombstones. Although “a frontispiece is the combination of elements that frame and decorate the main, or front, door to a building” (“Frontispiece (architecture)” 2021), defining the facade of the building with the term frontispiece or pediment is incorrect.

The Madeleine Church in Paris. The sculpture from the pediment (1830-1837) by Pierre-Jean David depict St Geneviève. The original uploader was Shahee at English Wikipedia. – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons (2006). CC BY-SA 2.5. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Pediment” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.

Featured image: Illustrations with the sculptures of the two pediments of the Parthenon. James Stuart & Nicholas Revett. The Antiquities of Athens measured and delineated by James Stuart F.R.S. and F.S.A. and Nicholas Revett, Painters and Αrchitects, London, John Nichols, 1794. Public domain. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Pediment” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

“Frontispiece (architecture)” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3awE8Yt>. [Accessed 18th February, 2021].

“Pediment” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3bgG2eT>. [Accessed 17th February, 2021].

Davidson Cragoe C. (2012). Jak czytać architekturę. Najważniejsze informacje o stylach i detalach [How to Read Architecture], Romkowska E. trans., pp. 105, 161. Warszawa: Arkady.

Koch W. (2009) Style w architekturze. Arcydzieła budownictwa europejskiego od antyku po czasy współczesne. [Baustilkunde], pp. 440, 496. Baraniewski W., Kunkel R., Omilanowska M., Sito J., Zięba A., Żak K. trans. Warszawa: Świat Książki.

PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 125. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Factory – a ‘Craft Workshop’ in the Process of Building

From Latin: fabrica ‘craft workshop’.

In medieval and modern documents, and sometimes in professional literature, the term specifying the process of construction, reconstruction or renovation, together with all the equipment needed for it, such as material stocks, staff of employees (architects, craftsmen, helpers, administration), along with the organizational and financial side of the whole project.

There are different types of this type of the process, depending on the type of building being erected. There are thus fabrica ecclesiae (the process of building a church), fabricca palatii (the process of building a palace).

Featured image: La Sagrada Familia in the process of its construction, c. 1915. Photo uploaded by Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia (2013). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo source: “Sagrada Família” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

“Sagrada Família” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3aiTpuK>. [Accessed 11th July, 2018].

PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 108. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.