CLUSTERED PIER, or Com;xfpr, or. COM POUND PIER. A form of architectural support characteristic of the Middle Ages. though not absolutely unknown to the ancient East, as is shown by the Babylonian cluster of four columns found at Telloh. It was not used in the Classic, Early Christian, or Byzantine style, nor until the development of the vaulted Romanesque in the eleventh century. It probably- originated in the attempt to vary the plain square pier which was then being used in place of the classic col umn, and to connect it with moldings of the arcades and the ribs of the vaulting. These Ro manesque piers had a square or rectangular core, to each face of which a semi-column or engaged shaft was attached: this simplest form was varied by the addition of minor shafts and re entrant angles. Very rich effects were thus obtained, especially in central France and Eng land during the twelfth century. The developed Gothic style of the thirteenth century adopted the clustered pier as its regular support in in terior architecture. The Gothic pier differed in
being usually far slenderer, more varied in plan, and in a majority of cases based on a circular or polygonal instead of a square core. The larger shafts we're sometimes—especially in Eng land—separated from the core, to which they were fastened only at the base and at the capital and by intermediary molded bands. But this form was found unsatisfactory and was aban doned except in England for the solid pier. which was a better support. Its simplest form with circular core is shown in the nave of Amiens Cathedral, but its variations are infinite, being determined largely by the number, form, the grouping of the vaulting ribs and moldings above, by connecting with which the effective sweep of architectural lines is continued from floor to vaulting ridge. The neo-elassieism of the Renaissance put an end to the clustered pier almost entirely except in its simplest rectangu lar forms.