Architectural Terms — The specialized vocabulary used to describe the structural, ornamental, and proportional elements of architecture. For the sculptor, knowledge of architectural terminology is essential, as sculpture has historically existed in close relationship with architecture through monuments, temples, façades, cathedrals, pediments, niches, capitals, friezes, and ornamental systems. Understanding architectural terms allows the sculptor to communicate clearly with architects, fabricators, patrons, and historians while also deepening one’s comprehension of proportion, structure, rhythm, spatial hierarchy, and the integration of sculpture within the built environment.

The disciplined study of architectural language also trains the eye to recognize relationships between form and function, ornament and structure, mass and void, and the proportional systems underlying classical and sacred design traditions.