Palmette

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Palmette

Palmette, also called anthemion (from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
a???µ???, a flower), is an artistic motif resembling the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It was a common decorative motif employed in the Greek

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
/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....
era to decorate:

the fronts of ante-fixae
Ante-fixae

Ante-fixae or Antefixes are the vertical blocks which terminate the covering tiles of the roof of a Roman, Etruscan, or Greek temple, or other building; as spaced they take the place of the cymatium and form a cresting along the sides of the temple....
,
the upper portion of the stele or vertical tombstones,
the necking of the Ionic columns of the Erechtheum
Erechtheum

The Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis, Athens of Athens in Greece....
and its continuation as a decorative frieze on the walls of the same, and
the cymatium
Cymatium

Cymatium, a molding on the cornice of some classical architecture buildings. Sometimes decorated with an anthemion. It is characteristic of Ionic columns and can appear as part of the entablature, the epistylium, and the capital....
of a cornice
Cornice

The term cornice comes from Italian cornice, meaning ?ledge.?Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding which crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal....
.

It is also frequently known as the honeysuckle ornament, from its resemblance to that flower .

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Encyclopedia

Palmette, also called anthemion (from the Greek

Greek language

Ancient Greece

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....
era to decorate:

the fronts of ante-fixae
Ante-fixae

Ante-fixae or Antefixes are the vertical blocks which terminate the covering tiles of the roof of a Roman, Etruscan, or Greek temple, or other building; as spaced they take the place of the cymatium and form a cresting along the sides of the temple....
,
the upper portion of the stele or vertical tombstones,
the necking of the Ionic columns of the Erechtheum
Erechtheum

The Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis, Athens of Athens in Greece....
and its continuation as a decorative frieze on the walls of the same, and
the cymatium
Cymatium

Cymatium, a molding on the cornice of some classical architecture buildings. Sometimes decorated with an anthemion. It is characteristic of Ionic columns and can appear as part of the entablature, the epistylium, and the capital....
of a cornice
Cornice

The term cornice comes from Italian cornice, meaning ?ledge.?Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding which crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal....
.

It is also frequently known as the honeysuckle ornament, from its resemblance to that flower . However, the origin of the motif may actually be the flower of the acanthus plant.

Description

As an ornamental motif found in architecture, sculpture, textile design and a wide range of other media, the palmette and anthemion take many and varied forms . Typically, the upper part of the motif consists of five or more leaves or petals fanning rhythmically upwards from a single triangular or lozenge-shaped source at the base. In some instances fruits resembling palm fruits hang down on either side above the base and below the lowest leaves. The lower part consists of a symmetrical pair of elegant 'S' scrolls or volute

Volute

A volute is a spiral scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the Capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite order column capitals....
s curling out sideways and downwards from the base of the leaves. The upper part recalls the thrusting growth of leaves and flowers, while the volutes of the lower part seem to suggest both contributing fertile energies and resulting fruits. It is often present on the necking of the capital of ionic order

Ionic order

The Ionic order column forms one of the Classical order of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric order and the Corinthian order....
columns; however in column capitals of the Corinthian order

Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is one of the Classical orders of Greece and Rome architecture, characterized by a slender Fluting column and an ornate capital decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls....
it takes the shape of a 'fleuron' or flower resting against the abacus

Abacus (architecture)

In architecture, an abacus is a flat slab forming the uppermost member or division of the Capital of a column, above the bell. Its chief function is to provide a large supporting surface to receive the weight of the arch or the architrave above....
(top-most slab) of the capital and springing out from a pair of volutes which, in some versions, give rise to the elaborate volutes

Volute

Acanthus (ornament)

The acanthus is one of the most common ornaments used to depict foliage. Architectural ornaments are carved in stone or wood in the appearance of leaves from the Mediterranean Acanthus plant, with some resemblance to thistle, poppy and parsley leaves....
ornament

Ornament (architecture)

In architecture, ornament is a decorative detail used to embellish parts of a building or interior furnishing. Ornament can be carved from stone, wood or precious metals, formed with plaster or clay, or impressed onto a surface as applied ornament....
of the capital. In the repeated border design commonly referred to as anthemion the palm fronds more closely resemble petals of the honeysuckle flower, as if designed to attract fertilizing insects. Some compare the shape to an open 'hamsa'hand - explaining the commonality and derivation of the 'palm' of the hand. In some forms of the motif the volutes or scrolls resemble a pair of eyes, like those on the harmika of the Tibetan or Nepalese stupa

Stupa

A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, once thought to be places of Buddhist worship, typically the remains of a Buddha or saint....
and the eyes and sun-disk at the crown of Egyptian stelae. In some variants the features of a more fully-developed face become discernible in the palmette itself, while in certain architectural uses, usually at the head of pilasters or herms, the fan of palm-fronds transforms into a male or female face and the volutes sometimes appear as breasts. Common to all these forms is the pair of volutes at the base of the fan - constituting the defining characteristics of the palmette.

Evolution

It is thought that the palmette originated in ancient Egypt, and was originally based on features of various flowers, including the papyrus

Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland Cyperaceae that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
and the lotus

Nelumbo nucifera

Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian lotus, sacred lotus, bean of India, or simply lotus. Botanically, Nelumbo nucifera may also be referred to by its Synonym , Nelumbium speciosum or Nymphaea nelumbo. This plant is an aquatic perennial....
or lily representing lower and upper Egypt and their fertile union, before it became associated with the palm tree. From earliest times there was a strong association with the sun and it is probably an early form of the halo

Halo (religious iconography)

A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They are often used in religious works to depict holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes....
.

Among the oldest forms of the palmette in ancient Egypt was a 'rosette' or daisy-like lotus flower emerging from a 'V' of foliage or petals resembling the 'akhet' hieroglyph depicting the setting or rising sun at the point where it touches the two mountains of the horizon - 'dying', being 'reborn' and giving life to the earth. A second form, apparently evolved from this, is a more fully-developed palmette similar to the forms found in Ancient Greece.

Third is a version consisting of a clump of lotus or papyrus blooms on tall stems, with a drooping bud or flower on either side, arising from a (primal) swamp. The lotus and papyrus clump occur in association with Hapy

Hapy

Hapy was a deification of the annual flooding of the Nile River, in Egyptian mythology, which deposited rich silt on its banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops....
, the god of the crucial life-giving annual Nile inundation, who binds their stems together around an offering table in the sema-tawi motif - itself echoing the shapes of the 'akhet' of the horizon. This unification scene appeared on the base of the throne of several kings, who were thought of as preserving the union of the two lands of (upper and lower, but also physical and spiritual) Egypt and thereby mastering the forces of renewal. These 'binding' scenes, and the heliotropic swamp plants appearing in them, evoked the necessity of discerning and revealing the underlying harmony, the origin of all manifest forms, that re-connects the dispersed and separate-seeming fragments of everyday experience. The further implication is that it is from this apparently occult and magical, undivided source that fertility and new life spring. Another variant of this motif is a single lotus bloom between two upright buds, a favourite fragrant offering. The god of fragrance, Nefertem , is represented by such a lotus, or is shown bearing a lotus as his crown

Crown (headgear)

A crown is the traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally represents Political power, legitimacy, Crown of Immortality, righteousness, victory, Roman triumph, resurrection, honour and glory of life after death....
. The lotus in Nefertem's head dress typically incorporates twin 'menats' or necklace counterpoises (commonly said to represent fertility) hanging down from the base of the flower on either side of the stem, recalling the symmetrically drooping pair of stems in the lotus and papyrus clumps mentioned above. Curiously, when depicted on Egyptian tomb walls and in formalized garden scenes ,, date palms are invariably shown in a similar stylistic convention with a cluster of dates hanging down on either side below the crown in this same position. The link between these hanging clusters and the volutes of the palmette is visually clear, but remains inexplicit. Rising and setting sun and opening and closing lotus are linked by the Osiris

Osiris

Osiris was an Egyptian mythology, usually called the god of the Afterlife.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations of his name is on the Palermo Stone of around 2500 BC....
legend to day and night, life and death and the nightly ordeal of the setting sun to be swallowed by night-sky goddess Nut, to pass through the 'duat' or underworld and be born anew each morning . The plants depicted with this solar fan of fronds or petals and 'supported' by pairs of pendant blooms, buds or fruit clusters all seem especially to emulate and share in the sun's sacrificial cycle of death and re-birth and to point to the lessons it holds for mankind. It seems likely that the underlying model for all these fertile shapes, echoed by the curling cows-horn wig and sistrum-volutes of maternity-goddess Hathor

Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
, was the womb, with the twin egg-clusters of its ovaries

Ovary

The ovary is an ovum-producing reproductive organ, often found in pairs as part of the vertebrate female reproductive system. Ovaries in females are homology to testicle in males, in that they are both gonads and endocrine glands....
. When the sun is re-born in the morning it is said to be born from the womb of Nut. The stylized palmette-forms of the lotus and papyrus showing the solar rosette or daisy-wheel emerging from the volutes of the calyx are similar magical enactments of the 'akhet' - this sacred moment of enhanced creation, the act of transcending or surpassing one's mortal form and 'going forth by day' as an 'akh' or higher, winged, shining, all-encompassing and all-seeing form of life.

Most early Egyptian forms of the motif appear later in Crete, Mesopotamia, Assyria and Ancient Persia, including the daisy-wheel-style lotus and bud border . In the form of the palmette that appears most frequently on Greek pottery , often interspersed with scenes of heroic deeds, the same motif is bound within a leaf-shaped or lotus-bud shaped outer line. The outer line can be seen to have evolved from an alternating frieze of stylized lotus and palmette . This anticipates the form it often took - from renaissance sculpture through to baroque fountains - of the inside of a half scallop shell

Scallop

A scallop is a Marine bivalve mollusk of the Family Pectinidae. Scallops are a wiktionary:cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans....
, in which the palm fronds have become the fan of the shell and the scrolls remain at the convergence of the fan. Here the shape was associated with Venus or Neptune and was typically flanked by a pair of dolphins or became a vehicle drawn by sea-horses. Later, this circular or oval outer line became a motif in itself, forming an open C-shape with the two in-growing scrolls at its tips. Much baroque

Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
and rococo

Rococo

Rococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings....
furniture, stucco ornament or wrought-iron work of gates and balconies is made up of ever-varying combinations these C-scrolls, either on their own, back to back, or in support of full palmettes.

Variants and related motifs

The palmette is related to a range of motifs in differing cultures and periods. In ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
palmette motifs existed both as a form of flower and as a stylized tree, often referred to as a Tree of Life

Tree of life

The concept of a many-branched tree illustrating the idea that all life on earth is related has been used in tree of life , religion, philosophy, mythology and other areas....
. Other examples from ancient Egypt are the alternating lotus flower and bud border designs, the winged disk with its pair of uraeus

Uraeus

The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian spitting Egyptian cobra , used as a symbol of sovereignty, Royal family, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt....
serpents, the Eye of Horus

Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus or is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Hathor, and on other deities associated with her....
and curve-topped commemorative stele. In later Assyrian versions of the Tree of Life, the feathered falcon wings of the Egyptian winged disk have become associated with the frond

Frond

A frond is a large leaf with many divisions to it, and the term is typically used for the leaves of Arecaceaes, ferns or cycads. A frond is the leaf- like structure of a fern or alga....
s of the palm tree. Similar lotus flower and bud borders, closely associated with palmettes and rosettes, also appeared in Mesopotamia. There appears to be an equivalence between the horns of horned creatures, the wings of winged beings including angels, griffins and sphinx

Sphinx

A sphinx is a zoomorphic mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head. It has its origins in sculpted figures of Old Kingdom Ancient Egypt, to which the ancient Greeks applied their own name for a female monster, the "strangler", an archaic figure of Greek mythology....
es and both the fan and the volutes of the palmette; there is also an underlying 'V' shape in each of these forms that parallels the association of the palm itself with victory, energy and optimism.

An image of Nike, winged goddess of victory, from an attic vase of the 6th century BC, shows how the sacrificial offering alluded to by the voluted altar and flame, the wings of the goddess and the victory being celebrated, all resonate with the same multiple underlying associations carried within the component forms of the palmette motif. Similar forms are found in the hovering winged disc and sacred trees of Mesopotamia, the caduceus

Caduceus

The caduceus is typically depicted as a short herald's Staff entwined by two Serpent in the form of a double helix, and sometimes is surmounted by wings....
wand of Hermes, the ubiquitous scrolled scallop shells in the canopy of the renaissance sculptural niche

Niche (architecture)

The niche is ouner place in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse....
, originating in Greek and Roman sarcophagi, echoed above theatrical proscenium

Proscenium

A Proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large archway at or near the front of the Stage , through which the audience views the Play ....
arches and on the doors, windows, wrought iron gates and balconies of palaces and grand houses; the shell-like fanlight

Fanlight

A fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Fan , It is placed over another window or a doorway....
over the door in Georgian and similar urban architecture, the 'gul' and 'boteh' motifs of Central Asian carpets

Persian rug

The Persian carpet is an essential part of Iran art and culture. Carpet-weaving is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished manifestations of Persian culture and art, and dates back to Persian Empire....
and textiles, the trident of Neptune/Poseidon

Trident

A trident , also called a leister or gig, is a three-tine spear. It is used for spear fishing and was formerly also a military weapon....
, both the trident and lingam

Lingam

The Lingam is a symbol for the worship of the Hinduism deity Shiva. The use of this symbol for worship is an ancient tradition in India extending back at least to the early Indus Valley civilization....
of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva: is a major Hinduism god, and one aspect of Trimurti. In the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism, Shiva is seen as the supreme God. In the Smarta tradition, he is one of panchadeva....
, the 'bai sema' lotus-petal-shaped boundary marker

Boundary marker

A boundary marker, boundary stone or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land Border or the change in a boundary, especially a change in a direction of a boundary....
s of the Thai inner-temple, Vishnu's mount, Garuda , the vajra thunderbolt

Thunderbolt

A thunderbolt is a traditional expression for a discharge of lightning or a symbolic representation thereof. In its original usage the word may also have been a description of meteors, although this is not currently the case....
, diamond mace or enlightenment

Bodhi

Bodhi is both the Pali and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English language as "enlightenment." The word "Buddhahood" means "one who has achieved bodhi." Bodhi is also frequently translated as "awakening."...
jewel-in-the-lotus

Nelumbo nucifera

Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian lotus, sacred lotus, bean of India, or simply lotus. Botanically, Nelumbo nucifera may also be referred to by its Synonym , Nelumbium speciosum or Nymphaea nelumbo. This plant is an aquatic perennial....
of Tibet and South-East Asia, the symmetrically scrolled cloud and bat motifs and the similarly scrolled ruyi or ju-i scepter and lingzhi or fungus of longevity of the Chinese tradition. Both as a form of the lotus rising from the swamps to touch the sun and as a (palm) tree reaching from earth to heaven, the palmette carries the characteristics of the axis mundi

Axis mundi

The axis mundi is a ubiquitous symbol that crosses human cultures. The image expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet....
or world tree.

The fleur de lis, which became a potent and enigmatic emblem of the divine right of kings

Divine Right of Kings

The Divine Right of Kings is a politics and religion doctrine of royal absolutism. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God....
, said to have been bestowed on early French kings by an angel, evolved in Egypt and Mesopotamia as a variant of the palmette, while it is believed that the Irminsul

Irminsul

An Irminsul was a kind of pillar which is attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxon people. The oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air....
, the sacred pillar of the Saxons and equivalent of the Norse Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil

File:The Ash Yggdrasil by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine.jpgIn Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the world tree. Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson....
, another version of the world tree, took on its palmette form under gallo-Roman influence.

Even everyday garden gates throughout Western suburbia are topped with almost identical pairs of scrolls seemingly derived from the motifs associated with the 'akhet' and the palmette, including the related winged sun-disk and sun disk flanked with a pair of eyes. Churchyard gates, tombs and gravestones bear the motif over and again in different forms.

The anthemion is also the mint mark of the Mint of Greece, and it shows in all Greek euro coins

Greek euro coins

Greek euro coins feature a unique design for each of the eight coins. They were all designed by Georgios Stamatopoulos with the minor coins depicting Greek ships, the middle ones portraying famous Greeks and the two large denominations showing images of Greek history and mythology....
destinated for circulation, as well as in all Greek collectors' coins

Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Greece)

Euro gold and silver commemorative coins are special euro coins Mint and issued by member states of the Eurozone, mainly in gold and silver, although other precious metals are also used in rare occasions....
.

Palmette

Description

Evolution

Variants and related motifs

Additional references

See also

External links