Echinus (architecture)
The Echinus (from Greek ἐχῖνος "sea urchin", Latinized in Vitruvius de architectura 4.3.4) is the usually bulbous, swollen member of Doric capitals in Greek architecture . It mediates between the column shaft and the abacus , the protruding square plate that forms the capitals and supports the entablature .
The echinus, which is circular in horizontal section, widens towards the abacus. In archaic times, the projection was strongly bulged and more or less concisely indented below the abacus. During the 5th century BC The curve of the Echinus becomes more and more stretched and linear, around from the 3rd century BC. Often to form a simple line.
The lower end merges into the mostly worked column neck, the hypotrachelion , and is separated from this by ring-shaped notches, the anuli .
literature
- Helmut Berve , Gottfried Gruben : Greek temples and sanctuaries. Hirmer, Munich 1961.
- Walter Hatto Groß : Echinos 2). In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 194.
- Klaus Herrmann : On the decor of Doric capitals. In: Architectura. Journal of the History of Architecture , Volume 13 (1983). Pp. 1-12, ISSN 0044-863X .
- Wilhelm Rave: Echinos , in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte , Vol. 4, 1956, Sp. 700–703