FINIAL ( from Lat. finis, end). An orna ment executed in the round, generally carved to resemble foliage, and forming the upper ter mination of peaks, pinnacles, gables, spires, and other pointed structures. Finials arc found in twiny different styles; in Greek architecture, in he exquisite choragie monument of Lysierates and other works of similar form; in Roman on the summit of the Pantheon and the temple at Tivoli ; in Chinese architecture, over pagodas and pavilions; in Mohammedan architecture, over Moues and minarets, and in similar positions in Christian monuments; but it was not until the twelfth century that the finial proper was developed. During the latter part of that century and the whole of the thirteenth century, finials of the most perfect form and of infinite variety were used as the crowning orna meats of every salient point in the buildings of the period. and as one of the special features of the Gothic decorative system throughout Eu rope. The architects of the fourteenth century in finials, as in other ornaments, imitated more closely the forms of natural foliage; but their finials had neither the variety of design nor the vigor of outline of those of the preceding cen tury. In the late Gothic of the fifteenth and six teenth centuries, the finials became more and more meagre in form, and are frequently only four crochets set upon a hare pyramidal terminal.
Some variety of effect is often obtained during this period by surmounting the finial with a gilded vane. Finials were carved both in stone and in wood, and in the latter material with great delicacy and minuteness. in connection with metal-work, finials of metal were used, and whatever the material adopted, its natural capa bilities were made a source of special beauty.
The finial had no place in the system of Renaissance architecture, and was used only when a mixed style prevailed, as in Germany and England. We thus find in Elizabethan archi tecture a variety of finials; they are, however, almost entirely of a geometric form and without foliage', and are frequently, especially when ter minating wooden gables, combinations of finial and vane, partly wood and partly iron. In the strict classic, the only traces of the finial are in the balls, obelisks, etc., used as terminations, and also in the shields and supporters (them selves a remnant of feudalism) which form the crowning ornament of gate-piers, pedestals, etc., and which really correspond more closely to the ancient anthemion terminations.