{{Short description|Series of sunken panels in a ceiling or vault}} {{About|the architectural ceiling element}} [[File:Pantheon, Rome (15235769992).jpg|thumb|right|Coffering on the ceiling of the Pantheon (Rome)]] [[File:Residence Ceiling Heads, Wawel Castle, Krakow.jpg|thumb|right|Coffered ceiling with carved human heads at Wawel Castle (Kraków)]]
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.{{Sfn | Ching | 1995 | p =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"),{{Efn | An alternative, in a description of Domitian's audience hall by Statius, noted by Ulrich 2007:156, is ''laquearia'', not a copyist's error, as it appears in Manilius' ''Astronomica'' (1.533{{Refn | Ulrich | 2007}}).}} 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{{Efn | An example is the main ''hieron'' at Samothrace, where stone ceiling beams of the pronaos carried a coffered ceiling of marble slabs across a span of about 6.15 m.{{Sfn | Coulton | 1982 | p = 147}}}} and Romans{{Sfn | Ulrich | 2007}} 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''.{{Sfn | Ulrich | 2007 | at = fig. 8.27}} Coffering is known as ''zaojing'' ({{zh |c=藻井|p= zǎojǐng}}) in ancient Chinese wooden architecture.{{Sfn | Ching | 2007 | p = [https://archive.org/details/globalhistoryofa0000chin/page/787 787]}}
It was thought for centuries that wooden coffers were first made by crossing the wooden beams of a ceiling in the Loire Valley châteaux of the early Renaissance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9024646/coffer |title=coffer | work =Encyclopædia Britannica Online |access-date=2007-10-17}}</ref> However, archaeologists working at the House of the Telephus in Herculaneum in 2012 discovered that wooden coffered ceilings were constructed in Roman times.{{Sfn | Hooper | 2012 | ps =: ‘Buried by Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, archaeologists at Herculaneum have excavated and carried out the first-ever full reconstruction of the timber roof of a Roman villa’}} 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.{{cn|date=October 2025}}
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.{{cn|date= October 2025}} 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{{Sfn | Freiberg | 2019 | pp = 39–60}} and other religious elements in compositions with versatile shapes was thought to enhance the doctrinal purpose of a cathedral.{{Sfn | Tosini | 2022 |p = 110}}
==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== {{Commons category|Coffered ceilings}} * Dome * Dropped ceiling * Cove ceiling * Beam ceiling * Muqarnas
==References== ===Footnotes=== {{Notelist}}
===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== * {{Citation | type = book | last =Ching | first =Francis D.K. | title = A Visual Dictionary of Architecture | publisher = John Wiley & Sons | year =1995 | location =New York | isbn = 0-471-28451-3}}. * {{Citation | type = book | first=Francis D.K. | last= Ching | year= 2007 | title= A Global History of Architecture | url = https://archive.org/details/globalhistoryofa0000chin/ | url-access=registration | url-status = dead | publisher= John Wiley & Sons | location= New York | isbn= 978-0-471-26892-5 | display-authors= etal | via = Internet Archive}}. * {{Citation | type = book | first = J.J. | last = Coulton | year = 1982 | title = Ancient Greek Architects at Work: Problems of Structure and Design | publisher = Cornell University Press | page = 147 | ISBN = 978-0-80149234-1}}. * {{Citation | type = book | last= Freiberg |first= Jack |title=Di Sotto in Su: Soffiti nel Rinascimento a Roma |date= January 2019 | place =Rome | publisher = Palombi |chapter=The Heraldic Ceilings of the Lateran Basilica}}. * {{Citation | type = news |last=Hooper |first=John |url= https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/23/house-telephus-relief-roman |title=House of the Telephus Relief: raising the roof on Roman real estate |work= The Guardian |date= 2012-07-23 |access-date=2015-01-16}}. * {{Citation | type = journal |last= Tosini |first= Arianna |date= 2022 |title= Coffered ceilings in the churches of Rome, from the 15th to the 20th century |url= https://rivistatema.com/sito/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/d-2-085-TEMA-Vol8-SI-TOSINI.pdf |journal=Technologies Engineering Materials Architecture |volume=8 |issue=1 |doi= 10.30682/tema08SIi}}. * {{Citation | type = book | first = Roger Bradley | last = Ulrich | title = Roman Woodworking | chapter = Roofing and ceilings | publisher = Yale University Press | year = 2007}}.
==External links== {{wiktionary}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6_wENs5rWkC&dq=caisson+cupola&pg=PA45 U.S. National Capitol]
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Category:Ceilings Category:Architectural elements