CAPITELLO. – It is the architectural element that serves to connect a support, whether a column or pier, with the architrave or the springing planes of an arch. The form of capitals varies according to architectural styles and periods. In Greek and Roman architecture, the capital assumed forms and proportions determined in relation to the other elements of the architecture (v. ORDINI ARCHITETTONICI). The builders of early Christian buildings, both basilican and baptisterial, used capitals entirely similar to those of contemporary pagan buildings. From the fourth century onward, symbols of the Christian faith were also incorporated into the decoration of capitals.
In the first half of the fifth century, the type of capital that Strzygowski called Theodosian was particularly fashionable, having first appeared and then been widely used under the reign of Theodosius II (408–50). It is a composite capital adorned with a double row of eight leaves of thick, spiny acanthus, whose tips, considerably narrower than their bases, curve strongly. The leaves of the lower row are arranged in the intervals between those of the upper row, and on four of the latter rest the volutes of the capital. Instead of a series of ovolos, the capital is surrounded at the top by many small, generally five-lobed leaves, some of which occasionally bear a small carved cross, as may be seen, for example, in certain capitals of the church of S. Demetrio in Thessaloniki. First created in the workshops of Constantinople, this type of capital soon spread throughout Greece and the other regions of the East, and also reached Italy: it is found in the churches of Poreč, Venice, and Ravenna. Two examples are also found in Rome, in the capitals reused in the tomb of Cardinal Venerio in S. Clemente.
In the Byzantine capital, which reached its greatest development in the sixth century during the Justinianic age, the work of the chisel was almost entirely replaced by that of the drill. The capitals, which assume the geometric form of a truncated pyramid or cone, have their faces covered with a minute network of interlacing patterns, producing a chiaroscuro effect that makes the capital appear to have been worked in openwork. The interlacing, more or less dense, often resembles that of a wicker basket or an outspread arrangement of leaves and tendrils, which not infrequently emerge, as may be seen in S. Vitale at Ravenna, from a central vase placed at the base of each face of the capital. Vine and acanthus leaves receive the most varied treatment in these capitals, and it is not uncommon for them to be arranged so as to emphasize, at the center of the face, a circle, square, or rectangle containing a cross or, as is often found in the churches of Ravenna, some monogram.
In the Byzantine period, the pulvinus above was carved from the same block, so that it formed a single piece with the capital: this new form was given the name capital–impost. The pulvinus, too, is often covered with interlacing patterns that spread across its faces like embroidery, or is adorned with various symbolic or decorative motifs.
Teratomorphic or figurative decoration appears in capitals of the Romanesque period.
Paris–Brussels 1930, pp. 96–110. On the capital from the fourth to the seventh century: R. Kautzsch, Kapitellstudien. Beiträge zu einer Geschichte des spätantiken Kapitells im Osten vom vierten bis ins siebente Jahrhundert, Berlin–Leipzig 1936. Giuseppe Bovini