MENSOLA. — In architecture, a supporting element consisting of a block of stone or wood (from the Latin mensula = tablet) that projects partly from the wall into which it is embedded, and is therefore suitable for supporting other architectural parts (architraves, balconies, roof trusses, etc.) or decorative elements (statues or pinnacles). When it serves to support galleries or projections, it is generally unadorned and is called a corbel; it is called a modillion when its projection from the wall is less than its height, and in this form it is commonly used to support cornices.
In Romanesque architecture, the m. supporting cornices is for the most part smooth or adorned with simple leaves (series of cornices with small corbels marking the storeys characterize the medieval Romanesque bell towers); whereas when it supports a series of small arches, it is generally carved with curling leaves and human and animal heads. This fanciful decoration with figurative elements is extremely frequent in Gothic architecture, which also makes extensive use of the m. with a conical section, called a lamp-bottom corbel, as a support for statues or pinnacles. The Renaissance, too, in the decoration of the m., drew its inspiration from classical art, with acanthus scrolls elegantly curled into an “S” shape, or with palmettes, leaves, and interlacings, in the more elaborate types, such as the great modillions of Palazzo Fava in Bologna. When the projection must be very pronounced, in order to avoid an effect of excessive heaviness, the gattello corbel is used, consisting of two or more superimposed m.; exceptionally elegant examples are those carved by B. da Maiano for the pulpit of S. Croce in Florence (1474) and those of the choir gallery in Modena Cathedral. The lamp-bottom m., used to support pulpits, take the form of a richly ornamented basket or half-capital; they assume a flatter shape and more complex decoration, with cornucopias, putti, and festoons, when they support tabernacles. Finally, the Baroque complicates the m. to the extreme with the most bizarre decorative forms, ultimately removing from this element even every appearance of a constructive function.
In furnishings, too, the m. have the same supporting function, but instead of being embedded in the wall, they are hung from it with nails. Arranged in series, they serve to support shelves; when isolated, statues or vases; in this case they take the lamp-bottom form. The name m. is also given to wall tables with inward-projecting legs set close to the wall, called consoles in France; they enjoyed great popularity and highly sumptuous decoration, especially in the eighteenth century, and their use continued in Neoclassical furnishings. — Vedi tav. XLII.