gutta

1. Architecture. One of a series of small ornaments in the shape of truncated cones used on a Doric entablature.
2. (Abbr. gt.) Pharmacology. A drop, as of liquid medicine.

[Middle English, from Latin, drop.]

Pendent ornament resembling a truncated cone under the soffits of the mutules and regulae of the Greek Doric Order. In Renaissance and later versions of Doric, guttae are often cylindrical, or like truncated pyramids. There are usually 18 under each mutule, set in three rows, and 6 under the regula, but the number may vary. In the Athenian Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus (319 bc) a continuous series of guttae was set above the architrave under the taenia, with no regulae at all: this was often revived in C19 during the Greek Revival, notably by Schinkel at Charlottenhof, Potsdam (1826), and the Neue Wache (New Guard House), Unter den Linden, Berlin (1816–18). Guttae are also called campanulae, drops, lachrymae, nails, or trunnels.

A drop, as of liquid medicine.

Pl. guttae [L.] a drop.

For the tropical tree from which a type of natural latex is made, see gutta-percha.

For the medical term, see guttae (medical).

For the Ace Hood album, see Gutta (album).

Labelled image of the Doric order entablature

A gutta (Latin pl. guttae, "drops") is a small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used in the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture. At the top of the architrave blocks, a row of six guttae below the narrow projection of the taenia (fillet) and cymatium formed an element called a regula. A regula was aligned under each triglyph of the Doric frieze. In addition, the underside of the projecting geison above the frieze had rectangular protrusions termed mutules that each had three rows of six guttae. These mutules were aligned above each triglyph and each metope. It is thought that the guttae were meant to represent the pegs used in the construction of the wooden structures that preceded the familiar Greek architecture in stone. Water drips over the edges, away from the edge of the building.

Theater of Marcellus: cone-shaped guttae pictured below the triglyph in the Doric order

See also

• Entablature

References

• Robertson, D. S. (1929) Handbook of Greek and Roman Architecture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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