From en.wikipedia.org:
[Series of sunken panels in a ceiling or vault] [the architectural ceiling
element]
A COFFER (or COFFERING) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the
shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.<ref
name=ching> {{cite book | last =Ching | first =Francis D.K. | title =A Visual
Dictionary of Architecture | publisher =John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | year =1995
| location =New York | isbn = 0-471-28451-3 | page =30 }} A series of these
sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also
called _caissons_ ("boxes"), or _lacunaria_ ("spaces, openings"),[1] so that a
coffered ceiling can be called a _lacunar_ ceiling: the strength of the
structure is in the framework of the coffers.
** History
The stone coffers of the ancient Greeks[2] and Romans[3] are the earliest
surviving examples, but a seventh-century BC Etruscan chamber tomb in the
necropolis of San Giuliano, which is cut in soft tufa-like stone reproduces a
ceiling with beams and cross-beams lying on them, with flat panels filling the
_lacunae_.[4] For centuries, it was thought that wooden coffers were first
made by crossing the wooden beams of a ceiling in the Loire Valley châteaux of
the early Renaissance.[5] In 2012, however, archaeologists working under the
Packard Humanities Institute at the House of the Telephus in Herculaneum
discovered that wooden coffered ceilings were constructed in Roman times.[6]
Experimentation with the possible shapes in coffering, which solve problems of
mathematical tiling, or tessellation, were a feature of Islamic as well as
Renaissance architecture. The more complicated problems of diminishing the
scale of the individual coffers were presented by the requirements of curved
surfaces of vaults and domes.
A prominent example of Roman coffering, employed to lighten the weight of the
dome, can be found in the ceiling of the rotunda dome in the Pantheon, Rome.
Coffered ceilings were used in cathedrals starting with St Mark's Basilica and
Santa Maria Maggiore. They spread following the reforms of the Council of
Trent, as the improved acoustics and opportunity to include statues, apostolic
heraldry[7] and other religious elements in compositions with versatile shapes
was thought to enhance the doctrinal purpose of a cathedral.[8]
** Asian architecture
In ancient Chinese wooden architecture, coffering is known as _zaojing_
([c=藻井]).<ref name=ching2>{{cite book | first=Francis D.K. | last= Ching |
year= 2007 | title= A Global History of Architecture |
url=https://archive.org/details/globalhistoryofa0000chin |
url-access=registration | publisher=John Wiley and Sons | location=New York |
isbn= 978-0-471-26892-5 | page= 787 (see
https://archive.org/details/globalhistoryofa0000chin/page/787)
|display-authors=etal}}
** Gallery
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140"> File:7530vik Wawel. Foto Barbara
Maliszewska.jpg|Coffered plafond at Wawel Castle, Kraków, Poland File:Palazzo
Vecchio - Sala dell'Udienza - ceilings.jpg|Coffered ceiling of the Sala
dell'Udienza, in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence File:Chapelle Expiatoire 1,
Paris 2010.jpg|Chapelle Expiatoire, Paris File:Ceiling SM
Maggiore.jpg|Giuliano da Sangallo's flat caisson ceiling from Basilica di
Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome File:Coffered ceilings of Mir Castle.jpg|Coffered
ceilings of Mir Castle, Belarus File:Chancel ceiling, Church of the Good
Shepherd.jpg|Chancel ceiling, Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont,
Pennsylvania) File:Viktor Kovačić - Palača burze u Zagrebu - predvorje
(vestibul) - kasetirani svod.jpg|Coffered ceiling, Stock Exchange Pallace,
Zagreb File:L'Enfant Plaza station from north mezzanine, March
2019.jpg|Coffered ceiling typical of stations on the Washington Metro
(Washington, DC) </gallery>
** See also
[Coffered ceilings]
- Dome
- Dropped ceiling
- Cove ceiling
- Beam ceiling
- Muqarnas
** Footnotes
[Reflist]
** External links
[wiktionary]
- U.S. National Capitol (see https://books.google.com/books?id=S6_wENs5rWkC&dq=caisson+cupola&pg=PA45)
[Authority control]
Category:Ceilings Category:Architectural elements