FRIEZE. - The central zone of the entablature, between the architrave and the cornice, of a character that varies according to the architectural orders (v.). In Early Christian buildings it follows the latest classical forms: with an inscription (Tempietto del Clitunno); convex (door of the Lateran Baptistery); with relief of vine scrolls (door of S. Salvatore in Spoleto); with triglyphs (but above Corinthian columns, in the presbytery of the same church).
The practice of decorating the frieze with mosaics (S. Maria Maggiore) would become more widespread in the Romanesque age, with floral motifs and more often with Cosmatesque ornaments. The Gothic constructive conception excludes the entablature and therefore the frieze. Its use returns with the architraved architecture of the Renaissance, sometimes smooth, sometimes ornamented; in Tuscany with roundels (Brunelleschi), with reliefs of glazed terracotta (the figurative one of the Ospedale del Ceppo in Pistoia is typical), with classical motifs. These are then fancifully transformed in Lombardy according to the local taste, to which Bramante himself indulged (sacristy of S. Satiro), whereas in his Roman works he would instead adopt the smooth frieze with triglyphs. Greater respect for the classical canons is found in the 16th century: the triglyph, the dominant motif in the church of S. Biagio at Montepulciano (1518, A. Sangallo the Elder), is then widely adopted, especially in central Italy. Classicizing festoons are used by Michelangelo (Palazzo Farnese, dome of St. Peter's) and, with greater sumptuousness, by Sansovino in the Libreria Marciana, an almost isolated example in the Veneto, where the dominant Palladian current would eliminate all decorative superimposition. The Baroque does not pay much attention to the decoration of the frieze on the exteriors of churches, but in the interior it matches it in richness to the sumptuous colorism of the walls; a note of originality is brought here too by Borromini, in the heraldic and floral motifs treated with new imagination (Propaganda Fide; S. Giovanni in Oleo). The Neoclassical returns with erudite coldness to the ancient canons.
Mario Zocca