Horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture
This article is about the architectural feature. For the overhanging snow form, see
Snow cornice
.
Illustrations of cornices in different styles
Illustrations of various examples of ancient Egyptian cornices, all of them having
cavettos
In
architecture
, a
cornice
(from the Italian
cornice
meaning "ledge"
[1]
) is generally any horizontal decorative
moulding
that crowns a building or furniture element?for example, the
cornice
over a door or window, around the top edge of a pedestal, or along the top of an interior wall.
[2]
A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown, as in
crown moulding
atop an interior wall or above kitchen cabinets or a bookcase.
A projecting cornice on a building has the function of throwing rainwater free of its walls. In residential building practice, this function is handled by projecting
gable
ends, roof
eaves
and
gutters
. However, house eaves may also be called "cornices" if they are finished with decorative moulding. In this sense, while most cornices are also eaves (overhanging the sides of the building), not all eaves are usually considered cornices. Eaves are primarily functional and not necessarily decorative, while cornices have a decorative aspect.
A building's projecting cornice may appear to be heavy and hence in danger of falling, particularly on commercial buildings, but often may actually be very light, made of pressed metal. Our fiberglass cornices are light weight and simple to install.
[3]
In classical architecture
[
edit
]
Cornice of
Maison Carree
(
Nimes
, France), a
Roman temple
in the
Corinthian order
, with
dentils
nearest the wall.
In
Ancient Greek architecture
and its successors using the
classical orders
in the tradition of
classical architecture
, the cornice is the topmost element of the
entablature
, which consists (from top to bottom) of the cornice, the
frieze
, and the
architrave
.
[4]
Where a triangular
pediment
is above the entablature, the cornice continues all around the triangle, the two sides being "raking cornices". The vertical space below the cornice is typically decorated by
dentils
(little teeth), or the larger
modillons
. The
soffit
, or horizontal space under a projecting cornice, may be elaborately carved with vegetal designs.
In modern residential architecture
[
edit
]
Rake
[
edit
]
A
rake
is an architectural term for an eave or cornice which runs along the
gable
of the roof of a modern residential structure. It may also be called a
sloping cornice
, a
raking cornice
. The trim and rafters at this edge are called
rakes
,
rake board
,
rake fascia
,
verge-boards
,
barge-boards
or
verge-
or
barge-rafters
.
[5]
It is a sloped timber on the outside facing edge of a
roof
running between the
ridge
and the
eave
.
[6]
On a typical house, any gable will have two rakes, one on each sloped side. The rakes are often supported by a series of
lookouts
(sometimes also called
strong arms
) and may be trimmed with a
rake fascia
board (which is not a true
fascia
) on the outside facing edge and a
rake
soffit
along the bottom.
Types
[
edit
]
The cornices of a modern residential building will usually be one of three types: a
box
cornice, a
close
or
closed
cornice, or an
open
cornice.
[7]
: p.63
Box cornice
[
edit
]
A wide box cornice with lookouts
Box cornices enclose the cornice of the building with what is essentially a long narrow box. A box cornice may further be divided into either the
narrow
box cornice or the
wide
box cornice type. A narrow box cornice is one in which "the projection of the rafter serves as a nailing surface for the soffit board as well as the fascia trim."
[7]
: p.63
This is possible if the slope of the roof is fairly steep and the width of the eave relatively narrow. A wide box cornice, which is common practice on houses with gentle roof slopes and wide eaves, requires the use of lookouts to give it support and to provide a surface to which to securely attach the soffits. Box cornices often have ventilation screens laid over openings cut in the soffits in order to allow air to circulate within the cornice.
Close cornice
[
edit
]
A close cornice
A close, closed, or snub cornice is one in which there is no projection of the rafters beyond the walls of the building, and therefore no soffit and no fascia. This type of cornice is easy to construct, but provides little aid in dispersing water away from the building and is sometimes considered to lack aesthetic value.
[7]
: p.65
Open cornice
[
edit
]
An open cornice
In an open cornice, the shape of the cornice is similar to that of a wide box cornice except that both the lookouts and the soffit are absent. It is a lower-cost treatment that requires fewer materials, and may even have no fascia board, but lacks the finished appearance of a box cornice.
Cavetto cornice
[
edit
]
Ancient Egyptian
architectural tradition made special use of large
cavetto
mouldings as a cornice, with only a short fillet (plain vertical face) above, and a
torus
moulding (convex semi-circle) below. This cavetto cornice is sometimes also known as an "Egyptian cornice", "hollow and roll" or "gorge cornice", and has been suggested to be a reminiscence in stone architecture of the primitive use of bound bunches of reeds as supports for buildings, the weight of the roof bending their tops out.
[8]
The cavetto cornice, often forming less than a quarter-circle, influenced Egypt's neighbours and as well as appearing in early
Ancient Greek architecture
, it is seen in Syria and
ancient Iran
, for example at the
Tachara
palace of
Darius I
at
Persepolis
, completed in 486 BC. Inspired by this precedent, it was then revived by
Ardashir I
(r. 224?41 AD), the founder of the
Sasanian dynasty
.
[9]
The cavetto took the place of the cymatium in many
Etruscan
temples, often painted with vertical "tongue" patterns, and combined with the distinctive "Etruscan round moulding", often painted with scales.
[10]
A typical example may be seen at the
reconstructed Etruscan temple
at
Villa Giulia
.
Additional more-obscure varieties of cornice include the
architrave
cornice,
bracketed
cornice, and
modillion
cornice.
[11]
Cornice return
[
edit
]
A gable roof with two cornice returns on the Harnosands radhus
A
cornice return
is an architectural detail that occurs where the horizontal cornice of a roof connects to the rake of a gable.
[7]
: p.67
It is a short horizontal extension of the cornice that occurs on each side of the gable end of the building (see picture of Harnosands radhus with two of these). The two most common types of cornice return are the
Greek return
and the
soffit return
(also called a
boxed
or
box
soffit return). The former includes a sloped hip-shape on the inside of the cornice under the eaves which is sheathed or shingled like the rest of the roof above it and is considered very attractive; the latter is a simple return without these features.
[12]
As window treatment
[
edit
]
The term cornice may also be used to describe a form of hard
window treatment
along the top edge of a window. When used in this context, a cornice represents a board (usually wood) placed above the window to conceal the mechanism for opening and closing drapes. If covered in a layer of cloth and given padding, it is sometimes called a soft cornice rather than a hard cornice.
Gallery
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
Look up
cornice
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
References
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Cornices
.
- ^
Compare
Harper, Douglas.
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Online Etymology Dictionary
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- ^
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13 June
2024
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- ^
"Affordable Fiberglass Cornice | 500 Standard Designs"
.
Melton Classics Incorporated | Hand Crafted, Classically Inspired Architectural Columns, Balustrades & Details
. 8 March 2020
. Retrieved
12 June
2024
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- ^
Leffler, Lue.
"What Is Architrave?"
.
MDF Skirting World
. Retrieved
23 November
2022
.
- ^
Christy, Wyvill James (1879). "Bargeboard" in
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London: Griffith and Farren.
- ^
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Fundamentals of Residential Construction
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ISBN
978-0-470-90512-8
.
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Wood-frame house construction
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ISBN
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- ^
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Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians
, p. 200, 2008, Greenwood Publishing Group,
ISBN
0-313-35306-9
, 9780313353062,
google books
- ^
Dominique Collon, et al. "Iran, ancient, II, 3." Grove Art Online,
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, Oxford University Press, accessed 5 January 2017,
subscription required
- ^
Winter, Nancy A. (2012).
"Monumentalization of the Etruscan Round Moulding in Sixth Century BCE Central Italy"
. In Thomas, Michael; Meyers, Gretchen E. (eds.).
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. University of Texas Press. pp. 61?67.
ISBN
978-0-292-74982-5
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- ^
Harris, Cyril M.
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ISBN
978-0-393-73103-3
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- ^
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ISBN
978-0-8069-9845-9
.