pilaster
American Heritage Dictionary:
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pi·las·ter
(pĭ-lăs'tər) 
n.
A rectangular column with a capital and base, projecting only slightly from a wall as an ornamental motif.
n.
A rectangular column with a capital and base, projecting only slightly from a wall as an ornamental motif.
[French pilastre, from Old French, from Old Italian pilastro, from Medieval Latin pīlaster : Latin pīla, pillar + Latin -aster, n. suff., or blend of Latin pīla, pillar, and Late Latin parastatēs, pilaster (from Greek, stay, supporter : para-, beside; see para-1 + -statēs, -stat).]
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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pilaster
In Classical architecture, a shallow rectangular column built into a wall and projecting slightly beyond it. It has a capital and base and conforms to one of the orders. In Roman architecture the pilaster gradually became more decorative than structural, and it served to break up otherwise empty expanses of wall.
For more information on pilaster, visit Britannica.com.
1. An engaged pier or pillar, often with capital and base.
2. Decorative features that imitate engaged piers but are not supporting structures, as a rectangular or semicircular member used as a simulated pillar in entrances and other door openings and fireplace mantels; often contains a base, shaft, and capital; may be constructed as a projection of the wall itself.
Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology:
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pilaster
[Co]
1. Column or pillar incorporated into a wall.
2. In pottery kilns, integral short piers, buttresses, or column-like projections of varying shape, protruding from the kiln wall on the inside of the combustion chamber, and usually intended to support the raised oven floor of the kiln.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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pilaster
pilaster (pĭlăs'tər), in architecture, upright supporting member, attached to and projecting slightly from the face of a wall and equipped with a base and capital like a column; also, a similar form used decoratively. The pilaster in general follows the rules and proportions of the classic orders; it may be fluted or not, but usually has no entasis or taper. It was used by the Romans. The Greek antae (projections of the wall at the corners only), although similar in function, differ in base and capital from the columns that stand between them. In the Renaissance, the pilaster, used as a purely decorative device, was often paneled and ornamented.
Word Tutor:
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pilaster
IN BRIEF: A decorative, rectangular column that helps to support a wall from which it sticks out slightly.
Did the house have a simple pilaster or an ornate pilaster in the entry way?
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categories related to 'pilaster'
- Building and Machine Parts - pilaster: rectangular support or pier projecting from wall
- Ornamental and Structural Parts - pilaster: upright, rectangular pier projecting less than half its width from wall
- Classical Elements and Design - pilaster: flat, columnar form against wall
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Pilaster
For the racehorse, see Pilaster (horse).
A pilaster is a slightly projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile. Rounded examples are more often called engaged columns.
In discussing Leon Battista Alberti's use of pilasters, which Alberti reintroduced into wall-architecture, Rudolf Wittkower wrote, "The pilaster is the logical transformation of the column for the decoration of a wall. It may be defined as a flattened column which has lost its three-dimensional and tactile value."[1]
A pilaster appears with a capital[2] and entablature, also in "low-relief" or flattened against the wall.
The pilaster is an architectural element in classical architecture used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. In contrast, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above.
Pilasters often appear on the sides of a door frame or window opening on the facade of a building, and are sometimes paired with columns or pillars set directly in front of them at some distance away from the wall, which support a roof structure above, such as a portico. These vertical elements can also be used to support a recessed archivolt around a doorway. The pilaster can be replaced by ornamental brackets supporting the entablature or a balcony over a doorway.
When a pilaster appears at the corner intersection of two walls it is known as a canton.[3]
As with a column, a pilaster can have a plain or fluted surface to its profile and can be represented in the mode of any architectural style. During the Renaissance and Baroque architects a range of pilaster forms. [4] In the giant order pilasters appear as two-storeys tall, linking floors in a single unit.
The fashion of using this element from Ancient Greek and Roman architecture was adopted in the Italian Renaissance, gained wide popularity with Greek Revival architecture, and continues to be seen in some modern architecture.
See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pilasters |
- Archivolt
- Buttress
- Post and lintel
- Engaged column
- Classical architecture
- List of classical architecture terms
Notes
- ^ Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1962) 1965:36.
- ^ A useful phrase to identify a section of pilaster without a capital, with only its fluting to identify its relation to a column, is "pilaster strip".
- ^ Ching, Francis D. K. (1995). A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. ISBN 0-442-02462-2, p. 266.
- ^ Mark Jarzombek, "Pilaster Play", Thresholds 28 (Winter 2005): 34–41, http://web.mit.edu/mmj4/www/downloads/thresholds28.pdf
- Lewis, Philippa and Gillian Darley, Dictionary of Ornament (1986) NY: Pantheon
Gallery
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Brick pilasters in English domestic architecture c1650. Princes Risborough Manor House
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Translations:
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Pilaster
Dansk (Danish)
n. - flad vægpille med kapitæl
Français (French)
n. - pilastre
Deutsch (German)
n. - Pilaster
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (αρχιτ.) παραστάδα, πίλαστρο
Português (Portuguese)
n. - pilastra (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - pilastra
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pilaster, väggpelare
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
半露方柱
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 半露方柱
한국어 (Korean)
n. - (벽면 밖으로 나오게 한) 벽기둥
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) عمود جداري, ركيزة للحائط, عضادة
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - עמוד (בעיקר תומך בקיר)
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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