{{Short description|Wide central section part of an entablature}} {{Other uses}} {{More citations needed|date=May 2017}}
[[File:20100410 athina108.JPG|thumb|Doric frieze at the Temple of Hephaestus, Athens (449–415 BCE).]] [[File:Decorative emblems The Circus Bath.jpg|thumb|right|The Circus (Bath), UK. Architectural detail of the frieze showing the alternating triglyphs and metope. (John Wood, the Elder, architect)]] [[File:Ornate molding frieze at Hoysaleshwara temple, Halebidu.jpg|right|thumb|Frieze of animals, mythological episodes at the base of Hoysaleswara temple, India]] [[File:Yankee-stadium-frieze.jpg|right|thumb|What is described as "frieze" on the roof of Yankee Stadium]]
In classical architecture, the '''frieze''' {{IPAc-en|f|r|iː|z}} is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave ("main beam") and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous, and perhaps the most elaborate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Senseney |first=John R. |date=2021-03-01 |title=The Architectural Origins of the Parthenon Frieze |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/jsah/article/80/1/12/116120/The-Architectural-Origins-of-the-Parthenon-Frieze |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |language=en |volume=80 |issue=1 |pages=12–29 |doi=10.1525/jsah.2021.80.1.12 |issn=0037-9808|doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cotterill |first=Henry Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mtRAQAAIAAJ |title=Ancient Greece: A Sketch of Its Art, Literature & Philosophy Viewed in Connexion with Its External History from Earliest Times to the Age of Alexander the Great |date=1913 |publisher=George G. Harrap & Company |language=en}}</ref>
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 stretch of painted, sculpted or even calligraphic decoration in such a position, normally above eye-level. Frieze decorations may depict scenes in a sequence of discrete panels. The material of which the frieze is made may be plasterwork, carved wood or other decorative medium.<ref name="Columbia University">{{cite web |title=Parthenon Frieze |url=http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/parthenon/flash/main.htm |access-date=May 7, 2017 |website=www.mcah.columbia.edu}}</ref>
More loosely, "frieze" is sometimes used for any continuous horizontal strip of decoration on a wall, containing figurative or ornamental motifs. In an example of an architectural frieze on the façade 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 typical of 17th-century Northern Mannerism, especially in subsidiary friezes, and much employed in interior architecture and in furniture.
The concept of a ''frieze'' has been generalized in the mathematical construction of frieze patterns.
== Ancient examples == <gallery caption="Achaemenid friezes"> File:Achaemenid Lotus and Palmette scroll.jpg|Achaemenid Lotus and Palmette scroll File:Persian frieze designs at Persepolis.jpg|Achaemenid frieze designs at Persepolis. </gallery><gallery caption="Greek friezes"> File:Erechtheum frieze Glyptothek Munich 242.jpg|Ionic frieze of the Erechtheum (Athens), 421–406 BCE File:Greek frieze designs.jpg|Top: Kyanos frieze from Tiryns. Bottom: Frieze of the Erechtheion in (Athens), 4th BCE File:Frieze from Delphi lotus with multiple calyx.jpg|Frieze from Delphi incorporating lotuses with multiple calyxes </gallery><gallery caption="Indian friezes"> File:Frieze of capital of Lat at Allahabad.jpg|Frieze of the lost capital of the Allahabad pillar, with two lotuses framing a "flame palmette" surrounded by small rosette flowers, 3rd BCE File:Rampurva bull capital detail.jpg|Rampurva bull capital, detail of the abacus, with two "flame palmettes" framing a lotus surrounded by small rosette flowers, 3rd BCE File:Sankissa elephant abacus detail.jpg|Frieze of the Sankissa elephant, 3rd century BCE </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Friezes}} * {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Frieze |short=x}}
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Category:Friezes Category:Columns and entablature