From Ancient Greece to the Romanesque, how have the changing design of capitals indicated larger stylistic changes?
From Ancient Greece to the Romanesque period, many forms and variations of capitals have emerged to accompany the style of architecture being constructed at that specific period of time. In the era of Ancient Greece and Rome, designs of capitals were more orderly and specific with only 3 existent in the Ancient Greek period to 5 in the Roman period, all of which were used on similar looking temples or other structures. A specific type of column was also used accordingly to signify a structure’s purpose. In the later periods of Byzantium, Carolingian, and the Romanesque, less emphasis was put on associating specific styles of columns with every church built. In these periods, there was more variation in column capitals between the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholics and along with the change in capitals came a change in the fundamental layout of a structure, namely from a temple to a church. Also, there was less emphasis put on column capitals because unlike a classical temple, columns were not as much of a standout feature on the façade of a building.