Entasis

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Entasis

In architecture

Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, entasis is the application of a convex curve to a surface for aesthetic purposes. Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical

Classical architecture

Classical architecture is the set of building styles and techniques of Classical Greece, as used in ancient Greece, the Hellenistic period, and the Roman empire....
column

Column

File:National Capitol Columns - Washington, D.C..jpgA column in structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through physical compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below....
s that bulge slightly in the middle.

ably the first use of entasis was in the construction of the Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ian pyramid

Egyptian pyramids

File:All Gizah Pyramids.jpgFile:EgyptianPyramidsandSphinx2006.jpgThe Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid shaped masonry structures located in Egypt....
s, but it can also be observed in Classical period Greek

Architecture of Ancient Greece

Architecture was extinct in Greece from the end of the Helladic period period to the 7th century BC, when plebian life and prosperity recovered to a point where public building could be undertaken....
column designs, for example in the Doric-order

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the Classical order of Architecture of Ancient Greece or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic order and the Corinthian order....
temples in Segesta

Segesta

Segesta was the political center of the Elymian people. It is placed in the northwestern part of Sicily, in the province of Trapani and in the comune of Calatafimi-Segesta....
, Selinus, Agrigento

Agrigento

Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragras , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden age of Ancient Greece....
and Paestum

Paestum

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Examples

Probably the first use of entasis was in the construction of the Egypt

Egypt

Egyptian pyramids

Architecture of Ancient Greece

Doric order

Segesta

Agrigento

Paestum

Paestum is the classical Roman name of a major Graeco-Roman city in the Campania region of Italy. It is located in the north of Cilento, near the coast about 85 km SE of Naples in the province of Salerno, and belongs to the commune of Capaccio....
. It was only very rarely used in Hellenistic

Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period describes the era which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia....
and Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
period architecture. The temples built during these periods were higher than those of the Greeks, with longer and thinner columns. Noted architects such as the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
master Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio , was a Republic of Venice architect, widely considered the most influential architect in the Architectural history. He was influenced by Roman and Greek architecture....
also used it in their buildings.

More recently, Rolls-Royce cars all made use of it in their radiator grills to give an illusion of greater solidity.

Purpose

The early Classical builders did not leave an explanation of their reasons for using entasis, and there are several differing opinions as to its purpose. Some descriptions of entasis

state simply that the technique was an enhancement applied to the more primitive conical columns to make them appear more substantial. Trevelyan believed that the effect represented strength by imitating the swelling of a strained muscle. This accords well with the etymology of the word, from the Greek meaning 'to strain'.

Another popular view is that entasis was intended to correct an optical illusion

Optical illusion

An optical illusion is characterized by visual perception images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a percept that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source....
that makes cylindrical columns appear pinched and flat surfaces appear convex. This explanation was given by Hero of Alexandria

Hero of Alexandria

Hero of Alexandria . was an ancient Greek mathematics who was a resident of a Roman province ; he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria....
, for example.

However, it does not explain the case of one well-known example, Paestum

Paestum

Parthenon

The Parthenon is a Greek temple of the Greek gods Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Acropolis of Athens. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order....
, the entasis is so subtle that it has almost no effect on the apparent shape of the columns, so is insufficient to correct any supposed illusion of curvature.

An earlier and also lesser-known architectural practice was the application of a concave curve to the interior surface, symmetric to Entasis, and known as 'Ekstasis'. Dating to at least Mycenean time but perhaps before, an 'ekstatic' curve was believed to have a virtually magnetic power, quickly drawing those nearby into close proximity. Travellers have reported being subjected to Ekstatic effects in Hephaestus' temple in Aegina, in ancient Mystra north of Sparta, in the old temples atop Monemvasia, in the holy site now known as the church of St. Stephen near the tomb of Ptolemy II on Santorini (Thira) and in what is now known as Agamemnon's Tomb close by the ancient city of Mycenae.

It has also been argued that a 'stunted cycloid' column that bulges in the middle is stronger than a column with straight sides.

Literature

Thomä, Walter: Die Schwellung der Säule (Entasis) bei den Architekturtheoretikern bis in das XVIII. Jahrhundert. Dresden 1915.