PULVINO. — The name itself (cushion) indicates its function; it is a marble element generally placed above the capital to support the weight of the architraves or superimposed arches.
It appears in the Baths of Constantine at Ostia and in Rome in S. Costanza, in the ancient basilicas—for example, in S. Pancrazio, on the four columns beside the high altar; in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, above the columns of the upper order of the Eastern or Pelagian Basilica, where a Byzantine cross is engraved on the outer face; in S. Stefano, both al Celio and on the Via Latina; in Naples, in S. Giorgio Maggiore; it flourished and developed above all in Byzantine art, at Constantinople in S. Sofia; at Thessalonica in S. Demetrio; and at Ravenna in S. Vitale, where the p. are carved like embroidery, as also in S. Apollinare Nuovo, S. Apoll. in Classe, and S. Giovanni Evangelista; in the cathedral of Poreč and that of Aquileia.
The p. of the Christian Basilica of Tigzirt contain, for example, a carved representation of Daniel in a tunic between the two lions (P. Gavault, Etude sur les ruines romaines de Tigzirt, Paris 1897, p. 37 and fig. 7, no. 10).
In Italy the use of the p. ended with Byzantine architecture; Romanesque architecture adopted, for the same purpose, a broad stone superimposed on the capital (the baptistery of Pisa), sometimes decorating it with leaves and other stylized motifs (S. Flaviano at Montefiascone). In the countries beyond the Alps, by contrast, the p. is still found in the 11th century, especially in Great Britain (the church of Wing, the bell tower of Barton-on-Huber) and in Germany (S. Giustino at Höchst a. M.). It generally has smooth faces, but sometimes it was decorated with foliage (S. Sofia of Constantinople).
Enrico Josi-Mario Zocca