Fig. 548. Podium running round a sepulchral chamber.
Podium, Arch. (πόδιον, lit. a small foot). A low wall or basement, generally with a plinth and cornice, running round a room or in front of a building, forming a sort of shelf or seat. Fig. [548] shows the podium of a sepulchral chamber. In an amphitheatre, podium was the name for a raised basement which ran like a high enclosure round the whole circumference of the arena. Lastly, the term is sometimes used as a synonym for a socle, and a console or bracket.
Poële, Fr. (lit. a frying-pan). A square shield with a raised edge and a grating on it, which resembled the German baking-dish. In a tournament, the joust “à la poële” was the most dangerous of all, as the champions fought bare-headed and without armour. Their horses were blindfolded, and a coffin was brought into the course before the combat commenced. (Meyrick.)
Fig. 549. Point Lace à bride picotée.
Point Lace à bride picotée ground. This lace is made with the needle (see Needle Point), some parts of the pattern only slightly raised in relief being united by stitches called bride picotée. (Fig. [549].)
Point of Sight. The principal vanishing point, in perspective, to which the horizontal lines converge.
Pointed or Christian Architecture is generally called Gothic; and is a general term, descriptive of all the styles that have prevailed subsequent to the introduction of the pointed arch, commencing with the 11th century.
Pointel. The mediæval stylus or graphium (q.v.).