MOULDINGS (in Architecture), any assemblage of narrow surfaces projecting from the face of a wall or other surface and also advancing one beyond the other. They are bounded by straight lines, either horizontal or vertical, according to their situation, but the surfaces themselves are plane or curved, and if the latter, concave or convex, or else compounded of both forms. Sometimes indeed, instead of pro jecting, mouldings are sunk, as is the case when they form a border within a sunk panel, for though they project with respect to the surface of the latter, they recede within the general face of the wall. The mouldings within the panels of doors are of this description. Mouldings are employed as borders to doors, windows, and other aper tures, as arches, in which latter case they are termed archivolt mould ings; while those forming the imposts from which the arch springs are called impost mouldings. The bases of columns likewise consist of mouldings. They are also employed to mark the horizontal divisions of a wall, both internally and externally, and every member to which they are applied is said to be moulded. As their edges are straight lines, their contour can be shown in drawings only by their shadowing, and by the outline which they produce at their extremities, as in the case of a cornice. But as this is insufficient, except to afford a general idea, ha working drawings and those of detail mouldings are shown on a larger scale, and by means of a section through them, by which their profile is accurately defined ; and upon a good profile, that is, one where the mouldings are well proportioned to each other, and so combined as mutually to relieve each other, and to produce both an agreeable variety of surfaces and of light and shade, much of the beauty and finish of a building depends.
Mouldings are distinguished by different names, according to their profiles, their sizes, or their situations. Thus the fillet, tcenia, band, are all plane or flat mouldings, the only difference being that the first mentioned is narrower than the others, and frequently is not so properly a distinct moulding as a space left between other surfaces, else a rim to a larger moulding, as to a cymatium terminating a cornice, &c.;
while tcenia is the name given to the broad fillet separating the archi trave from the frieze in the Grecian Doric entablature, and band is applied to any still broader plane surface—thus if instead of dentils, in an Ionic or Corinthian cornice, a projecting plane surface be left where they would occur, it is called an uncut dentil band. The corona (one of the principal members in every cornice) is also a mere plain band, except that it is occasionally enriched in Roman architecture. Again, lesser convex mouldings are termed beads, but the longer mouldings of the same kind in the bases of columns are termed tori or torusses. The cyma recta, or cymatium, is a compound moulding, concave above and convex below ; while the cyma reversa, or, as it is technically termed by workmen, the ogive or ogee moulding, is convex below and concave above. The eavetto is a mere hollow or sweep, intervening between and serving to connect two mouldings, one of which projects beyond the other. The scotia, or hollow between the upper and lower torus of the base of a column, is a moulding of this kind upon a large scale, and has therefore a distinct name assigned to it, which also points out its situation. The ovolo is a simple convex moulding, so called because it is generally carved into ova, or ornaments in the shape of eggs, within hollows. The ovolo of the Doric capital (which is always uncut) is distinguished by the name of echinus. All the other mould ings may be carved or enriched, except the cavetto and fillet ; the pattern being accommodated to the surface of the moulding. The cyma recta, or talon, as it is sometimes called, is cut with a peculiar kind of tongued or arrow-headed ornament.