What is a pendant?
A pendant is a decorative element that hangs freely down from a vault, ceiling or roof structure. In a second, wider sense, a pendant is the counterpart of something: the element that mirrors it in a symmetrical composition.
The hanging kind
In the late Gothic — above all in England, but also in the Low Countries — vaults often received a lowered boss that projects below the vault surface like a drop or cone. Structurally it is the end of a stone wedged deep into the vault; the thrust of the ribs holds it in place. See also the pendant vault.
Timber roofs show the same motif: the lower end of a king post or hanging post is carved as a knob or pear. In a timber-framed facade with a jettied upper floor, the carved ends of the corner posts are called pendants too — the drop finials.
A pendant is therefore usually decorative termination of a structural element, not a separately hung ornament. That distinction matters in restoration: sawing off a rotted pendant can expose the timber or vault behind it.
The symmetrical kind
In a classical facade or interior, almost everything is given a pendant: a blind door opposite a real one, a second chimney breast with no flue, a second wing with no function. The point is purely the symmetry of the composition. In art history, two paintings made as a pair are also called pendants.
In practice
When assessing a historic building it pays to check whether a “pendant” really is redundant. Blind doors and dummy windows are often there only for symmetry and can be opened up in a conversion without difficulty — provided the facade is not listed. The reverse also holds: removing a hanging pendant from a vault is never a cosmetic operation.
Related terms
- Pendant vault
- Boss
- King post
- Ornament
- Pendentive
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