222 The Candelabrum Capital.

The Balauster.
The Candelabrum Capital. (Plate 137.)
The Capital of a Candelabrum has a plate or cup -like form,
according as it is destined to receive a lamp, or a candle. The tops
af the Antique bronze Candelabra, as a rule, are profiled like the
so-called Krater (figs.
1

5).
The profiles, and ornamentation already given, may be re-
garded as standards. The insertion of real capitals, or of figures, as
bearers (fig.
6)
is rarer. The marble Candelabra of the Antique
usually terminate in a plate or table (fig.
7);
and this is also the
case with the Renascence Candelabra intended to receive candles.
These were not placed in a cylindrical socket but stuck on a co-
nical pricket.
On the decoration of Candelabra the reader may compare the
plates dealing with this subject in Division III, (Group of Utensils).
Plate 137. The Candelabrum Capital.
1
6. Antique, Museum, Naples.
7. Roman.
8. Renascence, drawing in the Uffizi, Florence.
The Balauster. (Plate 138.)
Balausters are small squat columns of circular or square plan-
Sometimes they are only symmetrical around their axis, sometimes
however they are also symmetrical in an upward and downward direc-
tion. In most cases their construction is that of the candelabrum.
They may be divided into base, shaft, and capital.
Ranged side-by- side in a row, balausters are employed by the
Renascence and modern art in Parapets, Balconies, Attics, and Stair-
cases. When the Balausters are placed on a Stair-case: the bases
and capitals are either slanting, or the horizontals of the Balausters
follow the slanting lines of the stair-case. The latter method was
adopted in the Decadence of the Renascence, but is unjustifiable; and
can, in any case, only be adopted with Balausters of a square or
oblong plan. A rich variety may be obtained by the use of square
and cylindrical forms in the same Balauster (fig.
5).
The Balauster
is occasionally used as a support for Stalls, and on Furniture. Ra-
guenet's "Documents et Materiaux" contains a large number of Ba-
lausters; from which we have selected some examples.