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 construction, constructi ...

, an impost or impost block is a projecting block resting on top of a column or embedded in a wall, serving as the base for the

springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

or lowest voussoir of an

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

Ornamental training

The imposts are left smooth or profiled, and "then express a certain separation between abutment and arch." The Byzantine fighters are high blocks, which are sometimes referred to as pulvino. The Romanesque designed the impost ornamentally or figuratively, similar to the capitals. In the Gothic period, the fighter almost completely disappeared from the calyx bud capital. The architecture of the Renaissance returns to the formation of the imposts of the ancient column orders. Sometimes, the complete

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

of a smaller order is employed, as in the case of the Venetian or Palladian window, where the central opening has an arch resting on the entablature of the

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s which flank the smaller window on each side. In Romanesque and Gothic work, the capitals with their abaci take the place of the impost mouldings.

References

{{Authority control Architectural elements

Ornamental training

See also

References