A patera is a disc-shaped ornament, usually made up of concentric rings or a round, leaf-like motif. The plural is *paterae*. The name comes from the Latin word for a shallow offering or drinking dish; the ornament is a stylised representation of one.
Form and variants
- Concentric rings — the simplest form: a flat disc with a number of rings and a boss at the centre.
- Leaf rosette — a circle filled with a wreath of stylised leaves, often acanthus or laurel, radiating from the middle.
- Oval patera — in late eighteenth-century neoclassical work the disc is often drawn out into an oval.
A patera resembles a rosette, and the two words are often used interchangeably. In specialist writing, patera generally means the flat, dish-like type and rosette the flower-like type.
Applications
The patera appears as a repeating or accenting ornament on:
- Friezes and architraves — as a rhythmic break between triglyphs, swags or bands
- Cornices — as small discs set beneath the moulding
- Door and window surrounds — often as a corner block where jamb and head meet
- Chimneypieces and panelling — in the interiors of classical and Regency or Empire buildings
- Furniture and joinery
Materials range from stone and carved timber to plaster, terracotta and cast iron, and today polyurethane for restoration replacements.
A note on restoration
Paterae usually sit on the most weather-exposed part of a cornice. Where one has decayed, the usual practice is to take a mould from a sound example elsewhere on the same building so the run stays consistent in size and profile. Choose a repair material with moisture behaviour similar to the original; a hard cementitious repair on soft limestone or plaster will almost always fail at the joint.
Related terms
- Rosette
- Ornament
- Frieze
- Cornice
- Acanthus
- Neoclassicism
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