In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an extent of wall. As an ornament it consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements. In contrast to a Classical pilaster, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above.
Two decorative Corinthian pilasters in the Church of Saint-Sulpice (Paris)
Two fragments of French pilasters, made of oak, in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York City)
Illustrations of Ionic pilasters with festoons on their capitals, from Germany, in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Illustrations of Corinthian pilasters, from Germany, in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
In architecture the capital or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column. It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order. These form the three principal types on which all capitals in the classical tradition are based. The Composite order established in the 16th century on a hint from the Arch of Titus, adds Ionic volutes to Corinthian acanthus leaves.
Illustration of papyriform capitals, in The Grammar of Ornament, 1856
Nine types of capitals, from The Grammar of Ornament
Columns with Hathoric capitals, at the Temple of Isis from island Philae
Egyptian composite columns from Philae