frieze

1 an architectural ornament consisting of a horizontal sculptured band between the architrave and the cornice

2 a heavy woolen fabric with a long nap

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːz

Noun

1. That part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice. It is a flat member or face, either uniform or broken by triglyphs, and often enriched with figures and other ornaments of sculpture.
2. Any sculptured or richly ornamented band in a building or, by extension, in rich pieces of furniture. See Illust. of Column.
3. A kind of coarse woolen cloth or stuff with a shaggy or tufted (friezed) nap on one side.

Verb

to frieze

1. To make a nap on (cloth); to friz. See Friz, v. t., 2.

In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain or— in the Ionic or Corinthian order — decorated with bas-reliefs. In an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave ('main beam') and is capped by the moldings of the cornice.

In interiors, the frieze of a room is the section of wall above the picture rail and under the crown moldings or cornice. By extension, a frieze is a long and of painted, sculpted or even calligraphic decoration in such a position, above eye-level. Frieze decorations may depict scenes in a sequence of discrete panels. The material of which the frieze is made of may beplasterwork, carved wood or other decorative medium. In an example of an architectural frieze on the facade of a building, the octagonal Tower of the Winds in the Roman agora at Athens bears relief sculptures of the eight winds on its frieze.

A pulvinated frieze (or pulvino) is convex in section. Such friezes were featues of 17th-century Northern Mannerism, especially in subsidiary friezes, and much employed in interior architecte and in furniture.

The concept of a frieze has been generalized in the mathematical construction of Frieze patterns.

abacus, acanthus, annulet, apophyge, architrave, astragal, beading, beak, bell, billet, boss, capstone, cartouche, cavetto, cima, cinquefoil, conge, console, coping, corbel, cornice, crown, cusp, cyma, dentil, drip, drop, fascia, fillet, finial, foil, fret, frontispiece, head, header, headpiece, keystone, lintel, listel, molding, ovolo, patera, pendant, quatrefoil, reed, sconce, splay, taenia, terminal, torus, treenail, trefoil, tympanum, volute