Shaft (architecture)

differently designed column shafts in Ajanta

The shaft is the supporting and necessary component of a column ; it can have a round or polygonal cross section and be designed in various ways.

Examples

In ancient Greek architecture , the shaft is usually provided with a slight swelling, the entasis , which never exceeds its greatest size.
Classical column shafts are smooth or a fluting decorated.

More elaborate decorations can be found on Egyptian, Romanesque or Gothic columns.

The "knot column" is a Romanesque column with a shaft shaped like a knot. There are also knot columns or "intertwined columns" in the form of a bundle of columns in which the columns appear to be intertwined. These pillars were said to have an apotropaic effect .
"Twisted pillars" have a spirally twisted shaft. This form is popular in the Romanesque. In the Baroque era , Gianlorenzo Bernini made the twisted columns with the canopy of the main altar in St. Peter's Basilica popular again.
If fighting animals are depicted on the shaft, one speaks of a beast column .
In the case of an "embossed" or "rusticated" column, the shaft consists of stud work , which in a more or less stylized form imitates roughly hewn, layered natural stones.