11/21/2019 Fluting (architecture) - Wikipedia

Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture consists of shallow grooves running
along a surface.

The term typically refers to the grooves running vertically on a

column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted
to those two applications. If the hollowing out of material meets
in a point, the point is called an arris.

Contents
Purpose
Applications Spiral fluted columns in the Great Colonnade at
Cabled Fluting Apamea in Syria
Examples
Classical Architecture
Persian Architecture
Egyptian Architecture
Renaissance Architecture
Neoclassical Architecture
See also
References
External links

Purpose
Fluting promotes a play of light on a column which helps the column appear
more perfectly round than a smooth column. As a strong vertical element it
also has the visual effect of minimizing any horizontal joints.[1]

Greek architects viewed rhythm as an important design element. As such,

fluting was often used on buildings and temples to increase the sense of
Vertical fluting on Doric order
rhythm. It may also be incorporated in columns to make them look thinner,
columns
lighter, and more elegant.[2]

There is debate as to whether fluting was originally used in imitation of ancient

woodworking practices, mimicking adze marks on wooden columns made from tree trunks, or whether it was designed to
imitate plant forms.[3] Either way, it was not invented by the Greeks who popularized it, but rather learned from the
Mycenaeans or the Egyptians.[4]

Applications

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Fluted columns styled under the Doric order of architecture have 20 flutes. Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite columns
traditionally have 24. Fluting is never used on Tuscan order columns.[5]

Fluting is always applied exclusively to the shaft of the column, and may run either the entire shaft length from the base to
the capital, or only on the upper two thirds of the column shaft. The latter application is used to compliment the entasis of
the column, which begins one third of the way up from the bottom of the shaft.[6]

Fluting might be applied to freestanding, structural columns, as well as engaged columns and decorative pilasters.

Cabled Fluting
If the lower third of the hollowed-out grooves appear to have been re-filled with a cylindrical element, it may be referred to
as "cabled fluting".[7] This decorative element is not used in Doric order columns.[8] Cabled fluting may have been used to
prevent wear and damage to the sharp edges of the flutes along the bottom part of the column. [9]

Examples

Classical Architecture
While Greek temples employed columns for load-bearing purposes, Roman architects used columns more often as
decorative elements.[10] Fluting was used in both Greek and Roman architecture.

Parthenon, Acropolis at Fluted columns and The Maison Carrée

Athens, Greece pilasters inside (Roman), Nîmes, France
Hadrian's Pantheon,
Rome, Italy

Persian Architecture
Persian style columns do not follow the Classical orders, but were developed during the Achaemenid Empire in ancient
Persia. These columns are usually characterized as fluted columns with long capitals featuring two highly decorated
animals. Examples can be most clearly seen in the ruins of Persepolis, Iran.

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Persian columns at Spiral fluting on columns

Persepolis, Iran in the Nasir-ol-molk
Mosque in Iran

Egyptian Architecture
One of the earliest remaining examples of fluting in columns can be seen at Djoser's necropolis in Saqqara, built by
Imhotep in the 27th century BC. These columns are made of limestone and used fluting with the intention of looking like
bundles of plant stems.

Fluted engaged columns

at Djoser's funerary
complex in Saqqara,
Egypt

Renaissance Architecture
Renaissance Architecture, built between the 14th and 17th centuries in Europe, centered on a revival of classical
architectural elements, including Classical order columns.

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Altarpiece of the Fluted pilasters inside

Raimondi Chapel at San the Sagrestia Veccia,
Pietro, Montorio, Rome Basilica of San Lorenzo,
Florence

Neoclassical Architecture
The Neoclassical is a Classical revival beginning in the 18th century and continuing today. This style is exemplified
throughout many government buildings and monuments in the United States, as it was popular during the American
Revolution.

Lincoln Memorial, Supreme Court building, War Memorial,

Washington, D.C., USA Washington, D.C., USA Washington D.C., USA

See also
Fluting (geology)
Column
Pilaster
Classical order
Gadrooning
Molding (decorative)

References
1. Jones, Mark Wilson. Origins of Classical Architecture: Temples, Orders and Gifts to the Gods in Ancient Greece. Yale
University Press, 2014.
2. Carr, K.E. What is a fluted column?. Quatr.us Study Guides, July 1, 2017. Web. November 21, 2018.
3. Jones, Mark Wilson. Origins of Classical Architecture: Temples, Orders and Gifts to the Gods in Ancient Greece. Yale
University Press, 2014.
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4. Jones, Mark Wilson. Origins of Classical Architecture: Temples, Orders and Gifts to the Gods in Ancient Greece. Yale
University Press, 2014.
5. “Fluting and Reeding.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2018,
www.britannica.com/technology/fluting-and-reeding.
6. Jutras, Joseph. “Using the Orders.” Institute of Traditional Architecture, 2 Jan. 2015, www.institute-of-traditional-
architecture.org/using-the-orders/.
7. "Fluting." Dictionary of Architecture & Landscape Architecture. John Fleming, Hugh Honour, and Nikolaus Pevsner.
5th ed. (London: Penguin, 1999).
8. “Fluting and Reeding.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2018,
www.britannica.com/technology/fluting-and-reeding.
9. Winter, Frederick E. Studies in Hellenistic Architecture. University of Toronto Press, 2006.
10. “Architectural Styles and Language.” Roman Architecture: An Expert Visual Guide to the Glorious Classical Heritage
of Ancient Rome, by Nigel Rodgers, Southwater, 2006, pp. 38–39.

External links
University of Pittsburgh (http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/fluting.htm) - "fluting" from the Medieval Art and
Architecture glossary

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