Impost Capital,
a uniquely Byz. capital created possibly in Constantinople by merging the function of the impost block with the mid-5th-C. forms of the Corinthian capital. The merger was facilitated by the development of the Corinthian capital into cup- and kettle-shaped forms, covered with abstract floral ornament incised and drilled, rather than carved, into the block; in both shape and decoration this late Corinthian capital approached the form of the more geometrically conceived impost block. Some impost capitals show a much diminished impost block on top; some exhibit small volutes at the base or at the top, faint reminders of the Ionic capital. The stages in this development from the mid-5th C. to its climax in Justinian I's Hagia Sophia have been traced by ... ...
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