at
Djoser's funerary complex in Saqqara, Egypt. Before 2600 BC.
Egyptian architecture Ancient Egyptian architecture used fluting in many buildings; most often the flutes are convex rather than concave, so the effect is the inverse of Greek fluting. Fluting is generally with the intention of making the column look like a bundle of plant stems, and the "papyriform column" is one of several types, which did not become standardized into "orders" in the Greek way. Often vertical fluting is interrupted by horizontal bands, suggesting binding holding a group of stems together. One of the earliest remaining examples of fluting in limestone columns can be seen at
Djoser's necropolis in
Saqqara, built by
Imhotep in the 27th century BC. The
Temple of Luxor, mostly about 1400 BC, has different types in different areas. In some types only part of the shaft is fluted; some columns at Luxor have five different zones of vertical fluting or horizontal banding. Some of the smaller columns at the
Temple of Hatshepsut,
Deir el-Bahari, Egypt, 1470 BC bear a considerable resemblance to the Greek Doric column, although the capitals are plain square blocks. The columns taper slightly and have broad flutes that disappear into the floor. It has been suggested that columns of this type influenced the Greeks.
Persian architecture Persian columns do not follow the Classical orders, but were developed during the
Achaemenid Empire in ancient Persia, over roughly the same period that Doric temples developed in Greece. The ruins of
Persepolis, Iran, where examples can be most clearly be seen, are probably mostly from the 6th century BC. In grand settings the columns are usually fluted, with tall capitals featuring two highly decorated animals, and column bases of various types. The flutes are shallow, with arrises, like the Greek Doric, but they are more numerous, and therefore narrower. The large columns at Persepolis have as many as 40 or 48 flutes, with smaller columns elsewhere 32; the width of a flute is kept fairly constant, so the number of flutes increases with the girth of the column, in contrast to the Greek practice of keeping the number of flutes on a column constant and varying the width of the flute. The early Doric temples seem to have had a similar principle, before 20 flutes became the convention. Fluting is also found in other parts of the classical Persian column. The bases are often fluted, and the "bell" part of the capital has stylized plant ornament that comes close to fluting. Above this there is usually a tall section with four flat fluted
volutes. File:The double row of columns with papyrus bundle capitals - The Court of Amonhotep III - Luxor Temple (14075179947).jpg|Papyriform columns of the
Luxor Temple, Egypt File:Templo de Luxor, Luxor, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 32.jpg|Convex flutes at the Luxor Temple, c. 1400 BC File:Hatshepsut temple12.JPG|Possible inspiration for the Doric order:
Egyptian columns of the shrine of
Anubis at the
Temple of Hatshepsut, 1470 BC There has been considerable modern exploration of the mathematical techniques used to create models of templates for fluting. The practical problems for the masons were increased by the variable girth of the shafts, which both tapered overall and had the
entasis swelling in the middle. Greek masons had also to allow for the various refinements, or subtle departures from the apparent geometry of the design, that Greek architects introduced. These include
entasis, swelling in the middle part of the shaft, tapering at the top of the shaft, and a slight slant to the whole column. In the
Parthenon the depth of the flutes increases towards the top of the shafts. In the earliest Doric examples the columns are rather slim, and often only have 16 flutes. By the mid-6th century BC shafts were thicker, and 20 became settled as the number of flutes, thereafter very rarely deviated from when using the Doric order. In some buildings, especially secular
stoas and the like, the bottom of the shaft might be left smooth up to about the height of a man. Greek Doric columns had no base, and this prevented the flutes, which ended in a sharp arris, being worn down by people brushing past. and at the top usually pass through three very narrow bands cut into the stone before reaching the base of the capital, where the shaft swells slightly. The flutes were carved by making an initial narrow cut to the appropriate depth in the centre of each flute, then shaping the curved sides. By the time of the second
Heraion of Samos, perhaps around 550 BC,
lathes were being used. Despite Ionic columns of a given height being slimmer than Doric ones, they have more flutes, with 24 being settled on as the standard, after early experiments. These took the number as high as 48 in some columns in the second building of the
Temple of Artemis at
Ephesus in Turkey, one of the earliest "really large Greek temples", of about 550 BC. Ionic and Corinthian flutes are also deeper, some approaching a semi-circle, and are usually terminated at the top and bottom by a semi-circular scoop, followed by a small distance where the column has its full circular profile, or indeed swells. These orders always have a base to the columns, often an elaborate one. File:20211116 athenes049.jpg|Doric
Temple of Hephaestus, Athens File:Acropolis in February 2005 36.jpg|Ionic top and shafts on the
Acropolis of Athens File:In the late afternoon shadows steal over the surfaces of ancient columns of the Acropolis softening their worn and ragged edges. Parthenon.jpg|Base of a Doric column,
Parthenon, embraced by
Frank G. Carpenter File:Greece-0114 (2215866868).jpg|Top of Ionic shaft, North Porch of the
Erechtheum, Athens
Roman architecture ,
Nîmes, France While Greek temples employed columns for load-bearing purposes, Roman architects often used columns more as decorative elements. They tend to use fluting less often than the Greeks in the Ionic and Corinthian orders, and to mix fluted and unfluted columns in the same building more often. The external columns on the
Colosseum, which use the three
classical orders on different levels, are not fluted, nor are the large monolithic
granite Corinthian columns of the
portico of the
Pantheon, Rome, a very grand temple, though many columns in the interior are. However, it is possible that in some buildings fluting in stucco, "so much used and so rarely preserved" according to
J. B. Ward-Perkins, was applied to stone columns. Roman Doric columns "nearly always" have a base, although
Vitruvius does not insist on one. Fluted Corinthian columns perhaps became associated with imperial grandeur. Even rather small provincial caesariums, or temples of the
Imperial cult have them on their porches, as do imperial
triumphal arches. Examples of temples include the
Maison carrée, the
Roman Temple of Évora, and
Temple of Augustus, Barcelona in provincial centres, as well as the much larger temples in Rome, such as the
Temple of Vespasian and Titus. However the
Temple of Augustus, Pula has plain Corinthian columns. Triumphal arches with fluting include the
Arch of Augustus in
Rimini, and the
one in Susa,
Arch of Trajan in
Ancona, and all the imperial arches in Rome. Large temples with unfluted columns include the
Temple of Saturn (Ionic, and a late rebuilding), the
Temple of Venus and Rome, and others in the
Roman Forum.
Indian architecture , and fluting in the capitals, 5th century Sections of column shafts with relatively shallow vertical concave fluting were used in India, especially in early
rock-cut architecture, as at the Buddhist
Ajanta Caves. They were typically mixed with horizontal bands of more complex ornament, such as garlands or floral scrolls. These were useful for covering what might be awkward transitions between different zones. Spiral fluting is sometimes found in the same way, as inside Cave 26 at Ajanta, from the late 5th or early 6th century. Similar visual effects are more often achieved by giving column shafts several flat faces. The
Heliodorus pillar of about 113 BC has three different zones with 8, 16 and 32 flat faces (lowest first), with a round zone above that. Fluting was also used in capitals, in contrast to the Greco-Roman tradition. The "bell" capitals of the
Ashoka columns are fluted, as are the flatter capitals in Cave 26 of the
Ajanta Caves. In the Ashoka columns the flutes are stylized leaves, clinging to the bell, with round bottoms.
Chinese architecture Fluted columns, some with
entasis, were one of the options available to Chinese architects and cave-carvers (survivals are mostly in Buddhist rock-carved shrines) in the 3rd to 6th centuries AD. Some
engaged columns were also topped by quasi-capital with volutes, but usually curling up, rather than down as in the Ionic; in some cases these were also at the bottom of the shaft. The possibility of influence, perhaps indirect, from the Greco-Roman world has been discussed by scholars. However, vertical fluting cannot be called a common form of decoration.
Byzantine and medieval European architecture , nave. Alternating convex and concave flutes on the two nearest piers. In
Byzantine architecture columns were mostly relatively small and functional rather than decorative. They were used to support galleries,
ciboriums over altars and the like. Byzantine taste appreciated rare and expensive types of stone, and like to see these in round and polished form. Even ancient columns re-used as
spolia were probably smoothed down if fluted, as they are so rarely seen in Byzantine buildings. Columns continued to be important in
Romanesque and
Gothic architecture, often
engaged or clustered together in bunches. But the shafts are almost always plain. An exception is two of the large columns ("piers") in the
nave of
Durham Cathedral (c. 1120s). These have a distinctive format of alternating convex and concave flutes. These were carved on the stones before the pier was erected. The entrance of the
Castel del Monte, Apulia, Italy, an imperial castle from the 1240s, has very thin fluted pilasters under a
pediment, in an early and rather shaky attempt to revive classical forms.
Renaissance architecture ,
Filippo Brunelleschi (1429); plain columns but cable-fluted
pilasters on the wall behind. The revival of classical architectural elements, including
Classical order columns, was central to
Renaissance architecture, built between the 15th and 17th centuries in Europe. But columns were used sparingly in the
Early Renaissance, except for courtyard arcades, and fluting is slow to appear. The
Pazzi Chapel in Florence by
Filippo Brunelleschi (1429) has plain columns (outside) but cable-fluted
pilasters inside and out. A similar mixture is seen in
St Peter's Basilica in Rome, where the
giant order columns on the facade are plain, but the main pilasters in the interior are cable-fluted, and smaller columns, for example framing the doors, are fluted. Plain columns and fluted pilasters became a common mixture, not least because at least the internal pilasters are often
stucco over brick, making fluting much easier and cheaper than carving in stone. Although, like other Renaissance manuals, ''
I quattro libri dell'architettura'' by
Andrea Palladio (1570) recommended and illustrated the conventional Vitruvian styles of fluting, in his own buildings Palladio very rarely used fluting; in the Doric and Corinthian orders, his shafts are "almost never fluted", and in the Ionic he "never used fluted shafts". File:Castel del monte-entrance.jpg|Entrance of the
Castel del Monte, Apulia, Italy, 1240s, an early attempt to revive classical forms File:016San-Pietro-in-Montorio-Rome.jpg|
Bernini, altarpiece of the
Raimondi Chapel at
San Pietro, Montorio, Rome File:Sagrestia Vecchia, Basilica of San Lorenzo (Florence).jpg|Fluted
pilasters inside the
Sagrestia Veccia,
Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence
Neoclassical architecture in
Berlin, 1791; Doric order, but Ionic-style fluting. in Berlin, 1818 Fluting dramatically returned to European architecture in the late 18th century with
Neoclassical architecture, especially
Greek Revival architecture. By this time publications which measured and illustrated authentic Greek Doric buildings were available, and a stark Doric look became fashionable in Germany (where it was partly a gesture against over-elegant French styles), Britain and the United States. Fluting became more common, even usual for grand buildings, even in the Ionic and Corinthian orders. A gentler version of the style is exemplified throughout many government buildings and monuments in the
United States, though some buildings like the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (1922), continued to use Greek Doric with no bases to the columns. In the 20th century
New Classical architecture made considerable use of fluting. File:Pantheon wider centered.jpg|Fluted columns and
pilasters inside
The Panthéon, Paris File:Tourists at the Lincoln Memorial (48850710191).jpg|
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1922 File:US Supreme Court.JPG|
Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C. File:Grand Foyer, Severance Hall, University Circle, Cleveland, OH - 52992143169.jpg|
Art Deco classicism, Grand Foyer,
Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio File:Entrance of Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace (cropped).jpg|
Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, entrance, 2002
Decorative arts Fluting, very often convex, is also found in various media in the
decorative arts, including metalware, wooden furniture, glass and pottery. It was common in English
cut glass of the Georgian period. In metal
plate armour, fluting was very practical, strengthening the plate against heavy blows. It was especially common in the early 16th-century style called
Maximilian armour, after
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. File:Bol à décor cannelé (Louvre CP 9184).jpg|
Ancient Greek fluted bowl, 150–100 BC, glass,
Louvre File:Fluted bottle with ring-handled lid MET vs38.2.18ab.jpg|
Ancient Egyptian bottle, 100 BC-100 AD, silver,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York File:Roman sarcophagus with lions, 3rd century AD, marble, Antikensammlung SL 3.2-2, in the Neues Museum, Berlin (01).jpg|
Roman sarcophagus with lions, 3rd century AD, marble,
Neues Museum,
Berlin File:Ewer MET sf08-138-1a.jpg|
Islamic ewer, probably Iranian, late 12th–13th century, brass, fluted, engraved and repoussé, originally inlaid with silver, Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Zbroja 1514.JPG|
Maximilian armour, Germany, 1510s File:Stop-fluting, chair leg, 1780–90 (cropped).jpg|Cabled (stopped, ribbed) flutes on a French chair leg File:Tea Urn And Base (England), 1770–71 (CH 18391607).jpg|Silver tea urn and base, England, 1770–71 File:Teapot (England), 1798–99 (CH 18391687).jpg|Teapot, England, 1798–99 File:Wine Rinser (England), 18th century (CH 18464757-2) (cropped).jpg|Wine rinser with
cut glass fluting and
engraving above, England, late 18th-century File:Bowl (Austria), 1917 (CH 18444031).jpg|Austrian silver fruit bowl, 1917 == See also ==