architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, a waterleaf is a distinctive

sculptural Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

motif used on the

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s and

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s in European buildings during the late twelfth century. It is a highly simplified plant motif, characteristic of the "late

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

" style of

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this lat ...

. A waterleaf capital is formed of broad, smooth leaf-shapes (typically four in number), unribbed except for a central fold, which curve upward and outward before curling over at the tips where they meet the

abacus The abacus (''plural'' abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the Hin ...

(the flat slab at the top of the column, normally square but sometimes

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al). The curled tip of the waterleaf may be small and neat or large and bulbous; it usually curves inward towards the abacus, but may occasionally turn outwards (both forms can sometimes be seen in adjacent capitals of the same period, as for example at

Geddington Geddington is a village and civil parish on the A4300, previously A43, in North Northamptonshire between Kettering and Corby. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,503, virtually unchanged from 1,504 at the 2001 census. ...

, Northamptonshire, UK.''The Corpus of'' ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE ''in Britain and Ireland'' (CRSBI) website:
Geddington).

Gallery

File:Waterleaf capital - geograph.org.uk - 1179146.jpg, English Romanesque waterleaf capital File:Waterleaf capital (geograph 2220255).jpg, English Romanesque waterleaf capital File:Waterleaf capital - geograph.org.uk - 903008.jpg, Early English waterleaf capital in St.John the Evangelist's church File:Waterleaf capital - geograph.org.uk - 903013.jpg, A variation on waterleaf on a 13th century respond capital in St.John the Evangelist's church File:Early English capital - geograph.org.uk - 903007.jpg, Crocketed waterleaf capital in St.John the Evangelist's church File:Waterleaf respond - geograph.org.uk - 1179152.jpg, English Romanesque waterleaf capital

References

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (19 ...

''et al.'', ''The Buildings of England'' (glossary), Yale University Press {{classical orders Ornaments (architecture) Columns and entablature

Gallery

See also

References