Close: the precinct of an English cathedral; survival of the “Garth” or grassy enclosure of a monastery.
Coffer: one of the sunken panels of geometrical design, used in the ornamentation of a ceiling, vault or dome.
Colonnade: a system or range of columns, surmounted by an entablature. When it entirely surrounds a temple or court it is called a Peristyle. When it is attached to the front of a building it is known as a Portico (which see).
Column: a vertical member, consisting of a Shaft, surmounted by a Capital and resting, usually, on a Base. Its function is to support, in Classic architecture, an entablature, and in Gothic, an arch.
Composite: a Roman Order in which the capital is composed of the upper part of an Ionian Capital and the lower part of a Corinthian.
Concave: curving, like the segment of a circle, inward, forming a hollow to the eye of the spectator.
Concentric: having a common centre.
Console: a supporting block, projecting from a wall, generally decorated; specifically the supports of the cornice over a door or window. See Modillion.
Conventionalisation: the representing of something in a formal way, generally prescribed by custom. For example, it was neither ignorance nor lack of skill, but a custom, prescribed by the priesthood, that caused Egyptian artists to represent the human figure with head and legs in profile and trunk full front. In decorative design, based on natural objects, the best usage avoids naturalistic representation, and translates the form into a convention, which, however, reproduces and even emphasises the salient features of structure and of growth or movement. Thus, the Greek acanthus ornament actually suggests more energy of growth and more expressiveness of form than the natural plant.
Convex: curving, like a segment of a circle, outward or toward the spectator.